Yoga Space: Rajvi Mehta, Joan Abrams

Yoga Space: Rajvi Mehta

Joan Abrams

Yoga Space, our regular Zoom sessions for IY(UK) members on topics of interest, invited Rajvi Mehta on 30 July this year, to answer questions on her recent book Imagine If: Stories of Ordinary People with Extraordinary Grit. It is an insightful, sympathetic and uplifting account of her personal experiences with yoga students around the world who all encountered extreme setbacks in their health or life chances but have triumphed through yoga and their individual strengths. Examples are a student with recurring cancer, one visually impaired, and a double amputee, as well as earthquake victims, and prison inmates. It is an emotional read, giving us insights into how Guruji’s wisdom was central to their yoga, as well as emphasising the role of the students’ own perceptions of their challenges.

What advice do you have on teaching yoga to people with Parkinson's? For the past 15 years in Mumbai we have been working with Parkinson’s patients, and also set up a three-month study with a control group. The yoga group improved in movement, gait, and emotional bearing. But they have to continue. When people stop then things deteriorate. If we can make a little difference to the quality of life in a progressive neurological disorder that shatters that individual as they are only expecting worse, that is worthwhile.

How can we get our yoga to a wider audience? Read the book! People have got inspired. If the people in the book are leading a happy life, then obviously our lives are much better. Many of the stories show that it is all about perception. Everything about life is how you perceive it. Yoga helps develop our perception, helps us to see things differently, and transforms the person who does it. We don’t see things in black and white and we accept things much better. And with the pandemic, we are in a better position to handle it.

How can we keep Guruji's legacy alive in the future? Well, honestly speaking – yoga has been there since time immemorial. Guruji helped bring it back and spread it about the world. It is there, it will remain there. It might fluctuate with new generations of students. Just being honest to Guruji’s teaching and transmitting the best we can. Guruji has written and recorded so much, and each Association has its rich history now. Guruji devised the language for teaching yoga – e.g. ‘open the chest’. Which book before Light on Yoga had such a detailed description? We could see him in the Pune library writing, correcting, etc, and when he was there it didn’t appear that he was doing so much, but now you see what he has given to this world. Maybe it becomes our karma to pass it on in different ways.

What was the biggest change in Guruji's teaching from 1970 to the 2000s? Guruji’s teaching did not change, but my understanding changed. I was 13 at first, so I didn’t understand anything, and the first class I ever took was with Guruji. Gradually you start realising the depths and the greatest thing was his ability to go to the level of the students and bring them up. He didn’t expect students to climb up on their own. Of course, Guruji also evolved: in the 1970s his

articulation was not the same as in the 2000s. The depth changed and it was so difficult to keep up with him – not that it was easy to keep up with him at any point! I feel very blessed to have been born at that time.

How would you encourage a yoga sceptic to try a class? That is a challenge! There may be one in the family doing it and if they have seen you doing it for a long period of time, then they might come. Then if they have a pain and you say, ‘why don’t you try yoga to change it?’ When they are better, then encourage them to keep it up so it doesn’t come back again. If it’s someone relatively new in your life, the one intro session or just a week’s programme – that might work. When they see the change in a span of eight to ten days, then they are motivated to come again.

What is the best advice Guruji gave you? If I think about it, Guruji never gave advice. He never sat down and said what or what not to do. The great thing you learned by observing him, being around him. The more you got to know Guruji you realised that there was no different side to him – wherever he was he was just the same. This was humility. Anyone could walk into the library in Pune and talk to him. Another thing I strongly remember – he was a ‘man of action’. When he gave you something, you trusted him; whatever he thought he did. If he thought about yoga being about all the dualities – the sun is shining on all of us, but there are the clouds. concept before class but cannot be fully prepared because if you don’t have a response then you are not able to teach. Prashant says we are silently speaking. As a teacher you are not being judged by what you say, but by what you say when. And if that student is getting that instruction, however simple it is, you have done your job. I guess we just need to be who we are, we don’t need to show anything to anybody.

I’m currently training to teach in my first year aged 29. How do you feel IY is encouraging the younger generation? Honestly, I don’t see much of age playing a role. If you are there, and you are inspired and have the experience you will teach. To teach what we experience. We are all practitioners. You can have a

How can we move from the inspiring stories in Imagine If to a public arena where Iyengar yoga is accepted as evidence? Very important aspect – one: the stories inspire people. If with cancer, it will give them the courage to take it. Fortunately [for any research] we have a very structured system. Guruji’s legacy is a strong structure, and we know what we are doing. The āsanas work with qualified people teaching them. We need to differentiate [from other styles] and then the efficacy of Iyengar yoga will come through. I am Rajvi Mehta teaching at the 2013 UK Convention. happy to contribute to these studies in any way. What made you think of writing the book? I was in contact with Amazon, and during various discussions I related these stories, and it was suggested I did that. I had already written the stories, but just as stories. I tried the book on friends and neighbours, and they said it was readable, and I had some feedback from not-so-close yoga students, and they were very much touched by the stories, but at first I didn’t know whether it expressed what I wanted it to. That was how it started. Now we are working on another book with Shirly, the dancer, [the first story in Imagine If] using her experience with Guruji, especially for people undergoing acute medical treatment, what practices and how to handle it. People ask if I’m a writer, but I’m a scientist. I only have hobbies. That’s the good fortune of doing yoga.