Discovering the Wholeness of Yoga ANCIENT WISDOM TEACHINGS FOR MODERN YOGA PRACTITIONERS Gloria Goldberg and Gitte Bechsgaard have created an inspiring course of study and practice that is grounded in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. The course offers insight on a wide range of contemporary questions such as the search for meaning, the role of yoga and spiritual practice (sadhana) in daily life, and the potential of human consciousness. Here, they talk with one of their students, Heather Haxo Phillips, about this two-year course. Heather Haxo Phillips: Gitte, could you tell us about yourself and how this unique program became into existence? Gitte Bechsgaard: I was in the last stages of writing the Gift of Consciousness and [Guruji’s book] The Core of the Yoga Sutras had just been published. I wrote B.K.S. Iyengar and asked if he would want me to teach on the Gift of Consciousness: Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras together with his teachings and writings on philosophy, and he did. [Guruji] was supportive of the course having a two-year structure and four parts that would provide philosophical teachings in the Yoga Sutras as a main focus combined with our Iyengar Yoga practice and methodology. He advised that this be taught “both to the raw beginner as well as the seasoned practitioner.” Gloria Goldberg: The asana and pranayama practices go hand in hand with the theory. The philosophy is not only integrated but is what inspired, I believe, Guruji's approach to teaching us all. HHP: We are used to chanting the invocation but not so used to chanting other things. What is so important about chanting? GB: Chanting the full Invocation to Patanjali and the yoga sutras is an integral part of what the Iyengars have emphasized. It is important to learn it slowly and steadily, and to do so together in communities. HHP: One thing that makes this course unique is that it covers meditation and using all the eight limbs as gateways toward meditation. GB: The sutras describe that if we start with concentration
Yoga Samachar Spring | Summer 2019
Gloria Goldberg and Gitte Bechsgaard. Photos: Kerry Reinking
We have to strengthen all the eight limbs of yoga to walk on this path with integrity. practice (dharana) and go progressively deeper it becomes meditation (dhyana). B.K.S. Iyengar said, “I can teach you concentration, but I bring you into meditation.” This is the approach we are taking in this course—looking at the traditional yoga sutras together with Iyengar’s approach to dhyana and the essential inner limbs of yoga. GG: That’s true in asanas and, of course, pranayama practice as well. The deeper understanding you have of the asanas and pranayama from the gross to the subtle, the more your focus leads to that meditative state. Guruji’s approach is meditation in action. HHP: The first course started in the U.S. the very same week that Guruji passed away. Now, with Geetaji’s passing, so many Iyengar Yoga teachers [and practitioners] are asking themselves, “what now” and “what next?” GB: When a guru passes, and now also with Geetaji’s passing, it becomes more important for us to stay really connected with the method of practice and uphold the teachings within our own hearts and to integrate all that was shared with us so generously. Now is the time for understanding our method better, understanding the teachings better—in practice, in life, and in theory. It’s a very important time right now and has been since Iyengar’s passing. We all have to step up and be anchored within. GG: I think the course helps people understand the foundation of Guruji’s teachings and that he designed a method that incorporated everything that was already there in yogic scripture. He did this in a way that we, especially westerners, can grasp over time through abhyasa and svadhyaya (practice and self study).
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