The Teacher of Dharma Geetaji Iyengar – Naghmeh Ahi

THE TEACHER OF DHARMA: GEETAJI IYENGAR

By Naghmeh Ahi

Each time I’ve had the good fortune to study with

Geetaji Iyengar, invariably she’s highlighted our duty

to ourselves to “find out.” In her teachings in asana

classes, amid her direct guidance of our attention to some part of ourselves, she adds, “You have to find out!” In

teaching from a chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, she points out

that Lord Krishna cajoles Arjuna to find out, to move away from doubt and toward inquiry. She often shares details about her upbringing and learning yoga by watching Mr.

Iyengar’s practice, learning from observation and attention— qualities she reminds us to nurture by turning inward, to find out.

In December 2013, we were blessed to find ourselves not only present for a month of study at RIMYI and for Mr. Iyengar’s 95th birthday festivities, but also privy to a five-day pranayama course conducted by Geetaji for the Indian teachers—a celebration of the dharma of finding out, through her detailed teachings on the art of pranayama, one of the eight limbs of yoga.

The Indian teachers had asked Geetaji to teach such a course, and she finally decided to offer the course Dec. 9–13 at RIMYI. The course took place in the main hall in the mornings for two and a half hours each day, and non-Indians enrolled in classes at RIMYI for the month were granted permission to sign up and observe the pranayama classes via wide screen video in the upstairs hall. Teachers of Iyengar Yoga from all corners of India were in attendance. The hall was packed from wall to wall. Similarly, upstairs, around 50 of us gathered daily with bolsters, notebooks, iPads and iPhones, taking notes or following along with the teachings and doing—finding out.

Geetaji presented everything from Savasana, Ujayii, Viloma, Brahmari, Kapalabati, and Bhastrika to Pratiloma and Anuloma in these five days. It was a challenge to sit and watch and not be taken on the inward journey that she guided her students toward. As she shared the intricate details required for the body, the mind, and the breath, she also continually referred to the requisite state of attentiveness, watchfulness, and humbleness—as well as one’s duty to remain alert—to notice these things.

Step by step, she taught the process of going inward, explaining that pranayama is a subtle practice founded on developing sensitivity, patience, and a strong observation of the body, mind, and breath, and how adjusting and attending to each will bring about an effect on the other. For example, in Savasana, the placement of the body is such that there is a settling of the karmendriyas, explaining that “the psychology of the karmendriyas has to change to a state of quietness.” This settled state of the arms and legs then further quiets the consciousness deep inside, while the resultant exhalations assist the cellular body to become even quieter, a “learned relaxing.”

It is all in the book, she would say. And she encouraged everyone to read the book and learn from it!

She taught the art of quieting the senses of perception—closing the eyes to see inward and moving from the gross to the subtle, from the outer world to the inner world. She called this process a “learned watching” (svadhyaya). “Find out what’s happening!” She guided the brain to watch passively, while the eyes withdraw inward. “Enter deep inward,” she said, “and reach back where you see nothing. The mind wants to look out— break that habit—enter deep inward and reach back.”

She taught the art of hearing, releasing the eardrums inward to notice when the breath turns from inhalation to exhalation, for example. She coaxed the group to be careful and keen in their observations of these things. She asked that the witnessing of these qualities spread everywhere inside, not controlling but watching to find out where we can reach.

Every day there was a point in her teachings when Geetaji would refer to Light on Pranayama and note that nothing she was sharing was new. It is all in the book, she would say. And she encouraged everyone to read the book and learn from it!

As much as Geetaji laid out the landscape of pranayama, step by step and part by part, she also took us back to the requirement of vigilance in self-exploration and self-study, without judgment but with keen interest and practice that comes from watchfulness.

“Learn to watch. Learn to observe. Be keen for that moment!”

Our dharma is to adjust and readjust when we notice a disturbance that might have moved from one part of our being to another part, such as from the body to the breath, the breath to the mind, or the mind to the breath.

Geetaji taught that the surrender inward learned in Savasana is without limit, a “spaceless area within that is timeless.” She advised us to “get lost in that area.” In each session, she took the group to passive quiet exhalations to reach that depth, where the breath “will vanish in the universe of the body, dissolve in the ocean of the body, like a wave, a letting go process.”

As much as the sensitivity, surrender, and witnessing processes were required by Geetaji, an equally humble presence was advised: “Feel as if you are nobody interesting, without any aim

As much as the sensitivity, surrender, and witnessing processes were required by Geetaji, an equally humble presence was advised

or any thought.” She took the group deeper and deeper into vairagya, coaxing, “Wherever you reach, reach comfortably … whole being dissolving… nothing belongs, nothing is touching you, nothing is attached to you.”

Geetaji gave the road map for the path into the wonderful world of our breath. Our dharma is to go and find out!

Naghmeh Ahi is on the faculty of the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Greater New York and the Iyengar Yoga Institute of Brooklyn.