Interview: Abhijata on the Iyengar Women, Ancient Yoginis, and Pain

From the upcoming documentary Sadhaka: The Yoga of BKS Iyengar. Photo: Jake Clennell

ABHIJATA ON THE IYENGAR WOMEN, ANCIENT YOGINIS, AND PAIN

Following in the footsteps of her grandfather, B.K.S. Iyengar, her aunt, Geeta S. Iyengar, and her uncle, Prashant

Iyengar, Abhijata Sridhar is now a senior teacher at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute (RIMYI) in Pune. She began her studies as a young woman of 16 and is now a mother and one of the world’s leaders in continuing Guruji’s legacy.

For this issue, we asked Abhi a few questions about women and Iyengar Yoga, and here’s what she had to say.

Yoga Samachar: What influence would you say that the Iyengar women have had on the development of Guruji’s method? First, Ramamani, then Geetaji and now, of course, you.

Abhijata Sridhar: My grandmother Ramamani, of course, played a very important role in Guruji’s sadhana, and this Guruji has said. He would ask her to help him in a certain manner during his early days of practice. Her involvement was vital in the early development of Guruji.

Geetaji, of course, deciphered and interpreted Guruji so beautifully. Her influence is invaluable in making people understand the principles of our system. Sometimes, Guruji’s teaching may seem aphoristic for us, and it is because of her that we understand the depth of Guruji’s teachings. And about me, I am too raw now to stake a claim on influencing our system.

YS: You have a unique perspective as Guruji’s granddaughter, Prashantji and Geetaji’s niece, a wife, a daughter, a mother, etc.—how do all these facets of your life as a woman influence your own practice and teaching?

AS: Each of these roles may be influencing me in a manner that I still can’t comprehend because I don’t have a bird’s-eye view of it. I was extremely lucky because I had the three masters shaping me simultaneously. I can understand now very well how different it would have been if even one of those was missing. It is human nature to be swayed by what is palatable to us. So, I am grateful that I was positioned by God such that I could receive from all of them simultaneously.

Each one’s life is his or her own, and the journey is personal. So too, yoga for each one is a personal journey.

As a woman evolves in her body and mind with age, so too her practice evolves. I started yoga as a young girl, and now I am a mother of a girl. In the beginning, my attitude and aims were very different from now. In that sense, there surely is an evolution. Each one’s life is his or her own, and the journey is personal. So too, yoga for each one is a personal journey. It is difficult to say how it evolved. But if you mean to ask the various routes it has taken, it has indeed been a journey from the body toward my inner being.

YS: In the past, yoga was passed down from male guru to male pupils. In the West, although it is slowly changing, yoga classes are mainly filled with women. What do you think opened up this channel for women to embrace the practice? Is the same true in India?

AS: Well, Lord Shiva taught yoga first to a female, his wife, Parvati. Saubhagya Lakshmi Upanishad has the teachings of Lord Vishnu to Lakshmi. There have been many yoginis (female yogis) in our ancient history. We also know of wives of sages as being practitioners of yoga. Maitreyi, the wife of Sage Yajnavalkya, for example.

In the medieval period, things changed, especially because of the foreign invasions that happened in India. So the women had to be protected and hidden from the aggressive invaders.

Now, women are coming up in all fields. These days, a woman’s multifaceted role brings so much stress that she benefits a lot with the practice of asanas and pranayama. So many women take to yoga these days.

YS: Our lives as women go through so many dramatic changes from puberty to menopause, and yet there is a tendency to want to practice the same way. Can you speak to this and give us some practical advice for the most beneficial aspects of practicing through the ups and downs of womanhood from youth to ill health and old age?

AS: It is wrong if we want to practice the same way throughout our journey of womanhood. Nature has designed us such that our body and mind both undergo changes with time. We have to respect that. Guruji said, “Body is your child, take care of it.” This has a deeper meaning. As our outlook, motives, and behaviors change from youth to old age, so too our practice has to be shaped so. Patanjali has said it already: By dedicated practice of the various aspects of yoga, impurities are destroyed: The crown of wisdom radiates in glory.

Wisdom brings a sense of discrimination. So, we should use our sense of discrimination well as students of yoga.

YS: The women’s class at RIMYI is often one of the most difficult. Can you tell us a little bit about your experience both taking and then teaching this class under Guruji’s guidance?

AS: Teaching the ladies’ class under Guruji was a phenomenal experience. There were days that I cried; there were days that I laughed. I have learned so much in those classes that I really can’t pinpoint. He taught through the asanas, but what he really taught was yoga. If you ask me as a teacher what I learned, it will be a very lopsided perspective for the readers. You must keep in mind that I was practicing under him, seeing him practice, and also just seeing him be at the same time. So, it was an all-around development.

If you are talking about it being difficult in terms of physical performance, we have to understand that our will power and courage is poor, and we think he demanded more than what we could do. He was actually showing us what we really are capable of. That is one of the biggest lessons we can have.

One day, Guruji made me do Virasana with my metatarsals on a steel rod and knees up on wooden bricks. It was painful. Much as I forced myself to sit down in Virasana, my body seemed to have a mind of its own, and it simply refused to sit completely in Virasana. Guruji said, “Sit,” and I sat. He asked me how it felt. I said, “It is very painful.” He said, “Who is asking you about the pain?” The only response I could perceive was pain, and for Guruji, that held no value. We are trained to look at pain in just one way: AVOID, ERADICATE and GET RID OF PAIN.

Yoga should teach us that pain is a very, very different concept. We look at pain from the point of view of bhoga—pleasure. Guruji taught us to look at pains that lead to apavarga— emancipation. We are habituated to not even look into that.

He once told me, “You only look to gratify the senses in your

asanas. This way, yoga is far, far away from you.” yoganganushthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh

Basically, our notion of easy and difficult is not what reality is at all! So, when we say that something is difficult, it simply means we are not used to honestly putting in that much effort.

YS: Thank you so much, Abhijata.