Reflections on Our Belated First Trip – David Carpenter

but pranayama is needed to balance it.” Alignment in asana is not just for the sake of physical health, but it increases our mental sensitivity and awareness and clears energetic blocks where our prana may not be free to run. Without this, we will falter on our path to samadhi. Listening to the recording of this session will be an essential guide to any practice.

Along with her teaching of the essence of pranayama, Geeta instructed us about the invocation to Patanjali. She referred to it as a “darsana,” a direct vision, of Patanjali. As we remember him and visualize his form, we must sit with absolute alertness and use Anjali Mudra to invite Patanjali and his wisdom directly into the seat of our soul. Almost pleadingly, she requested that we not allow the invocation to become rote or ritual but to experience it fully to delve into the very heart of yoga. BY DAVID CARPENTER Although my wife and I have been regular Iyengar Yoga practitioners for 15 years, we had never studied in India. The nominal reason was that the demands of my career precluded an extended stay at the Institute, although the truth is that we were also a little intimated by the prospect of studying there. But when Geeta announced her intensive last summer, we signed up immediately. I had just retired, so the excuse of my job was gone. And because the intensive was geared to The afternoons of the intensive were full of other amazing events: Abhijata and Birjoo Mehta told moving stories of Guruji’s passing; we met representatives from the newest members of our Iyengar Yoga world; we learned of ancient yogini cults; we were uplifted by Indian classical dance and music; and we were gifted with numerous films and photos of Guruji.

Abhi left us by saying, “Where there is yoga, there is Guruji,” and it is evident that the sparks he and Geeta have lit within us will shine brightly on.

So now, the practice of yoga begins…

Jennie Williford (Intermediate Junior I) is currently transitioning out of Rockford, Illinois, where she ran Pranayama Yoga Studio. This was her

Reflections on Our Belated First Trip to Study in India

third trip to Pune, and she was ecstatic that the timing for it was just right. practitioners of less than 10 years, it seemed like we could handle it, although we still had some trepidation.

We are so thankful that we overcame our fears and made this trip. It was transformative to experience 10 consecutive days of Geeta’s remarkable and heroic teaching and to commune with 1,200 other Iyengar Yoga practitioners from around the world. And it was poignant to do so in the aftermath of Guruji’s death.

Before the event, I had heard that Geeta was not in good health. Still, I was amazed and inspired when I saw her hobble into the convention hall and struggle to climb onto the stage the first day of the convention. In her opening remarks, she said that she is “not well,” that her “energy is low,” that she had considered canceling the intensive, but that Guruji had “put the willpower in [her]” to go ahead, and that she would “try [her] level best” to do justice to Guruji’s teaching.

She certainly did that. The intensive was in a stadium the size of several football fields. But she exuded a glow that filled and commanded the entire hall, and I felt like she was speaking to me directly. She motivated me in ways I have seldom experienced and led me deeper and deeper into my body, my mind, and my fears. Before the intensive was over, she had me doing things that I had long ago convinced myself were impossible for my short muscles and calcified joints.

From the outset of the intensive, Geeta made it clear that her focus would ultimately be on pranayama. To do that, of course, required that she begin with asana, and the major theme of the first few days was opening up the armpit chest and dorsal spine. And open them up she did. After countless Urdva Hastasana and Baddhangullyasanas and fervent commands that we move our arms behind our heads, I actually did that. She then wanted our heads on the ground in Adho Mukha Svanasana, and I did that too. And before the intensive was over, my newly awakened dorsal spine was holding my chest up in seated pranayama, with the sensation that my chest was pointing at the ceiling. These were all huge breakthroughs. During the intensive, I told John Schumacher that I had never had my shoulders worked like that, and he said that no one else had either. So I was not alone. Geeta’s profound teachings were not limited to technical aspects of yoga. For example, on day eight, she surprised us (or me anyway) by taking a 90-minute session that had been scheduled for asana and devoting it to impromptu remarks on pranayama. Most of this was over my head. But I was fascinated by her explanation of why asana and pranayama are not separate. She said that, in asana, each subsidiary action and each position of each appendage generates pranic energy that flows in a particular way, and such seemingly minor matters as how weight is distributed on a particular toe can cause energy imbalances. She said that is why there are such detailed instructions in asanas and why the more one does an asana, the more parts of the body are involved. She then went on to explain that the same is true in pranayama. There are different pranas in each organ, bandha, and appendage in the body, and practitioners should know how to relate inhalations, exhalations, and retentions to all the body’s different pranas. But she said that most practitioners find pranayama boring and do not have the patience for penetrating these mysteries. She even joked that she was using the intensive to express these views because if she scheduled a lecture on this subject, nobody would show up.

Part of the thrill of the intensive was that after hearing about the Institute for the past 15 years, my wife and I went there several times during our stay. It was like walking on hallowed ground. The practice rooms and the fabled library are much smaller and more intimate that I had imagined them, but the Institute itself is far grander.

Having broken through our fears, my wife and I have now signed up to study at the Institute in October 2016.

David Carpenter has been a student of Iyengar Yoga for 15 years and now serves as the treasurer for IYNAUS.

David Carpenter and his wife, Orit, in the badminton stadium during the Yoganusasanam intensive in Pune, Dec. 1–10, 2014. Photo: Laurie Blakeney

David Carpenter and his wife, Orit, meet with Geetaji during the Yoganusasanam intensive in Pune, Dec. 1–10, 2014. Photo: Kelly Soblanski