It is Tuesday morning and I just returned from a 7 am class with Prashant Iyengar, Mr. Iyengar’s son. Prashant is more the philosopher and talks the
entire class about the culture of yoga and living and what yoga practice really is as we do poses. The class was packed so he broke us into different groups and while one group did seated twists, one group did rope work, another group standing poses, another hanging with ropes from the grill work around the windows. Prescient would get us to change groups so each student did all the poses. Today’s topic was how we identify with our nationality, sex, role as mother, son, our work title, income, etc. and yet if you try to go to sleep and can’t none of these identities make a difference! And that our practice is the unconditioning of these roles we identify ourselves as.

I’m writing this blog and the cook is here cooking our lunch and it smells wonderful. After our morning class we went by the vegetable and fruit cart outside the institute and bought green beans, broccoli, potatoes, ginger, carrots, tomatoes and fresh coriander (cilantro). Total cost 150 rupees or $2.23. The steam cooker keeps blowing off steam as the rice cooks. We bought her flour for the chapatis and she whips those up and rolls them our quickly and places them on a hot chapati skillet. Once done after turning she places them in a round stainless tin so they are ready for our lunch. She comes M-F and costs us 1500 rupees for the month which is $22.27. It is mind boggling the cost of food and labor!

As a student who is registered for classes for the month, a daily practice time is set up for 3 hours in the main hall with all the props and ropes. It is packed with people and I have yet to make it to a practice and opted to practice in my apt. That has been great and with all our individual props we each brought, chairs around the apt., pillows and blankets on the furniture we have done quite well. It beats the crowded hall!

At 4 today Abijata, Mr. Iyengar’s granddaughter, is continuing her Q&A and told us last night after her asana class to eat lightly and wear yoga clothes so it will be interesting in what she will cover. This is new and I went last Thursday where the discussion was about fear. Fear of getting the poses right, fear of criticism, fear of correction and how we interpret fear. I’ll keep you posted on todays meeting.

The morning has flown by and its near lunch time. I need a few things from the little store down the road. I have written so often about this small store The Maharashtra Store, and how it is so packed with items. I can get anything there from fresh eggs, different rices, dal, baked goods, ice-cream, ghee, to western things like olive oil, Indian desserts, toilet paper, and some fresh veggies already prepared for cooking. The space is only big enough for one or two people at a time and often the father son team hand things to people who are lined up to get what they want. I’ll sign off for now since lunch time!