Report from India:
The Global Yoga Community Gathers to Honor B.K.S. Iyengar on His 90th Birthday To attend the 90th birthday celebrations for B.K.S. Iyengar in Pune and the tour of South India, I let go of my long-held desire to study at RIMYI, as I reconciled that the journey was for my spirit and not about perfecting Asana. Synchronous events confirmed it was the right decision, and so with joyful wonder I opened my heart to experience each day in India fully. With gratitude, I joined the hundreds of international students gathered to witness the events and the ceremonies laboriously planned to honor our beloved Guruji.
Carmen Viola
Carmen Viola
graciously, continuing the auspicious thread that began my journey, “We are all one family.”
December 10th was the first event, Guruji’s religious ceremony, which lasted nearly four hours. Flowers, fruit, and small urns filled with water occupied a rectangular area in front of the dais where B.K.S. Iyengar, his granddaughter, sisters, son, and daughters sat. He was given garlands, shawls, and a headdress made of pure silver as part of this ceremonious event. Prashant gave a discourse on the puja. One of the sisters led us in a chant.
The yoga hall at RIMYI was full for the recitation from the Bhagavad Gita given by Geeta. The room was atwitter with various languages being spoken as students and teachers from around the world greeted one another like long-lost friends reuniting. Geeta lectured on the fourth chapter of the Gita, making reference to the fifth and second chapters frequently. She said the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth slokas of chapter 2 were very important. She discussed Arjuna’s dilemma, relating it to ourselves in the world today. Her basic message was that we must dedicate all of our actions to God and let go of the results.
Flowers, fruit, and small urns filled with water occupied a rectangular area in front of the dais where B.K.S. Iyengar, his granddaughter, sisters, son, and daughters sat. There were more than a dozen priests who chanted and flung water, sticks, and flowers into the fire they circled. The flames rose higher and higher, and so did the plumes of smoke. Guruji’s family escorted him to the grassy area to bathe him in the holy ceremonial water and came through the crowd to sprinkle holy water on us, as well.
The flute recital and the premiere of the documentary film on Guruji, Leap of Faith, took place at a small auditorium on the outskirts of Pune. The music recital was performed by a world-renowned flautist, Pt Prasad Chaurasia, with three other musicians. The flute player and the drummer dueled—the flautist played a riff and the drummer copied it until it became more intricate and faster. The audience enjoyed their wonderful banter back and forth.
After the puja was over, we waited to pay our respects as Geeta directed traffic and announced items that had been lost or found. Lunch was then served in shifts. And what a prasad it was! We sat at long plank tables arranged end to end. We were given a banana leaf and a small bottle of water. An Indian gentleman sitting next to me told me to pour water on the banana leaf to clean it and to hold up the edges of the leaf closest to me up to shake the water off the leaf away from me. This would be our plate. We were served from huge vessels—a finely chopped salad, a sweet coconut carrot salad, rice, papadum, sambar, and more. We ate using our fingers and thumb of the right hand because no utensils were provided.
The following morning was an informative lecture and demonstration of classical Indian dance, deemed yoga dance by the dance teacher Mandakini Trivedi and her
As we were leaving, a local woman who is a yoga physiotherapist invited me and a friend to share her personal rickshaw with her two granddaughters. We engaged in lively conversation until I disembarked to go a different direction. As I thanked her for the ride, she replied 17
Spring / Summer 2009 Yoga Samachar
