FROM HABIT TO LIBERATION: ABHIJATA’S TEACHING AT THE 2016 FLORIDA CONVENTION BY TORI MILNER AND DENISE WEEKS
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n May, many in the Iyengar Yoga community gathered in beautiful Boca Raton, Florida, to usher in a new era in Iyengar Yoga. It was our first U.S. convention since Guruji passed away. Geetaji had been planning to come but was not well enough to do so, so Abhijata Sridhar, Mr. Iyengar’s granddaughter, came to guide us. The convention was tribute and celebration both, with insightful teaching, poignant memories, and a lot of laughter. This reflection on the Florida convention, using many of Abhijata’s words and stories from just one incredible session, will allow those of you who couldn’t attend the convention to get a flavor of the wonderful event— and will allow those of you who were there to recall some of her fabulous teaching. The Saturday morning session was especially memorable for me because of how skillfully Abhijata was able to both teach and tell stories at the same time. With personal photos that were projected onto the large screens around the hall, Abhijata told us what it was like to be Guruji’s pupil. At the same time, to recreate for us the experience she had with him, she asked us to do certain poses during the presentation. She gave us a small taste of what it must have been like to sit at the feet of master teacher B.K.S. Iyengar for so many years. Simulating an experience she had one day in the practice hall, she led us through a short sequence that she remembered doing: Adho Mukha Svanasana, Uttanasana, Tadasana, Paschima Namaskarasana, Tadasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana, Tadasana, Ardha Chandrasana, and Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana on other side, Tadasana, Vrksasana, Tadasana, Vrksasana, and then she told us to sit down. Abhijata said, “So I was doing something like this, and then I was practicing Marichyasana III as he had taught me the previous day. And in my mind I was going through all of the points he had given me to a ‘t.’ Guruji came into the hall and asked me, ‘When will you learn?’ I didn’t know what to answer, what the correct answer should be, so I just smiled.” At that, there was an audible chuckle in the audience, as many had either been in that same situation with Guruji or had at least witnessed it happening to someone else. “‘What are you doing?’ he asked me,” Abhijata continued. “‘I am practicing the Marichyasana III you taught me yesterday.’ ‘What you did yesterday? You are doing the same thing today?’ Again I was stumped; I didn’t know what to say. Then he said, ‘Why doesn’t yoga go into your head?’ And he was angry. Then he walked
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away, and that is a rare thing. Whenever he would teach, he would teach completely. He wouldn’t just leave you like that, so I knew it was serious. And then he retraced his steps and came back and said in a voice with so much concern and with so much intensity, ‘Habit is a disease.’ And then he walked away. I was stumped. How can habit be a disease?”
Abhijata Sridhar in the convention hall. Photo: James Greene
Abhijata then began to answer her own question with insights she gathered from a variety of sources, having us take different poses to illustrate the discoveries she made as she struggled to understand her grandfather’s words. At one point she had us roll two blankets for Virasana, one to go under the knees and one to go under the toes, and then told us to sit down on the floor between the feet. She explained that one time her grandfather had her do this with wooden bricks under her knees and metal rods under her toes. “‘Sit!’ he commanded me,” Abhijata said. “I tried, but couldn’t sit. ‘Sit!’ he said again. There was no choice; I just sat. ‘Now, how is it?’ he asked. ‘It’s painful,’ I said. ‘Who is asking you about the pain?’ he asked.” Then she told us to come out of our much softer version of Virasana. “It hit me hard. There in that fierce situation, all I could think about was the pain. And here he was asking me, ‘Who is asking you about the pain?’” Abhijata went on, “How do we look at pain? We want to avoid the pain and eradicate the pain. But for Guruji, pain was an altogether different concept. He wanted us to look beyond that.” Later she showed us a slide of herself in Padmasana over a Setu Bandha bench and asked us to sit in Dandasana on a narrow wooden brick and to go forward into Paschimottanasana. “Come to the edge so it pricks the buttock bones,” she said, and then noticed that some students had foam blocks instead of wooden ones. “Those with soft foam bricks will be missing the point! When something becomes painful, you don’t want to stay in that position.” Referring back to the slide, she said, “He was pressing my knees. It was painful! ‘Don’t resist!’ he said. I wish now that I could have done that, and even then I wished that. I was thinking, ‘I wish I could obey you.’
Yoga Samachar Fall 2016 / Winter 2017
