Incredible India (part 2)

Incredible India, chaos, but is there more?

The yoga hall is splitting at the seams, the props are all outside, the onlookers are perched on the edge of props or anything else, and then shooed away to make space for the still pouring in, late comers. Can all these people fit in and then can we really arrive and move into ourselves?

We chant following Geetaiji, sharing mats to accommodate. We go forward, as the room around us changes shape, stretching itself to fit us and then off we go.

Uttanasana, in many ways to enliven our senses, to sharpen our observations, draws us into participation. The class is entirely forward bendings and twistings. There will naturally be many straining their knees that will not bend and spines that don’t move forward, and, of course, heads that refuse to budge and will only go about everything their own way.

All of us are making our way, either somewhere or nowhere.

Guriji in his 96th year is over in his usual place, under the trestle.  How long was that padmasana (20 mins), that badda konasana (30 mins)? He is a silent member of the room, he has his invisible suit on. Not so the rest of the room, heaving and grunting, laughter as Geeta tells us there will always be pain, pain with your new house, your expensive new dress, your ageing bodies.

We are cajoled and driven into ourselves, pushed and nailed down into the pool of our being. For some, forward bendings are easier, others are sure their knees or something else will break and they hang back waiting till they can escape this pose, this class, this life.

When I leave the room I have seaman’s legs, and rubber inside me, but there is something else as well. If I can do everything I wish, what a mess. I can say no, or yes.  If I find that yes, there is external chaos but inside there is internal order.  There are choices in every moment and I make the choices I make because of the deeper desire that I am constantly aligning myself with. There comes a strength from “No, this is not right”, and, “Yes, I will try”, as I attempt to listen beyond how I usually hear from my already known self and move into something different, listening with my heart, my trust, and my hope.  This is not merely performing to be a yes person, and I will be able to bear the lack of outer control to work with myself and so work on what I can.

Incredible India, chaos that orders!