Hatha at Atmavikasa--the challenge

Here we are folks, one week and even this next adventure is getting to an end—is it an and or a beginning? These have been five intense and emotionally proving weeks.

The course is ending and, along with it, its routine of asana, pranayama, water drinking, bananas, sutras chanting, philosophy, meditation…

Every single day was quite hard and intense I might say.

Let’s start from the beginning. Why Yoga? Why did I start ATMAVIKASA?

A very short introduction

I still remember I realized to be living the yoga path when I was a children playing on my garden. I suddenly stopped from running and got a moment of deep contemplation, feeling insignificant in this body while observing nature and wondering on the meaning of life, the greatness of the cosmos and the nature of my soul. Being close to the local priest did not quench my thirst but only fomented more will to know. It was while meditating that I was finding answers not in a semantic form but rather experiential one. I passed many strange, difficult moments in life but still very conscious in each of then. Along with meditation I found the philosophies from the East very fascinating and soul warming. As I believed on the ancient said ‘mens sana in corpore sano’ it was when I discovered the Ashtanga Vinyasa Krama that I finally felt all my bodily and spiritual needs fulfilled. Buddhist and Advaita philosophies lead me in my meditations towards the understanding of the nature of the self, Isvara—as absolute and deathless. It was the academic study of western philosophy that gave me the tools to investigate the relative world we live in. I practiced at the so-called ‘main shala’ in Mysore, under the guidance of Saraswathi Jois. After two years of dedicated practice I kept on questioning about their method of teaching, which was absent and dogmatic, and never got any reasonable answer. I still thank this experience because it opened my eyes in the dogma people want to live in, jumping from religion to yoga to whatever else might be. I meet BNS Iyengar which is the last, known, living student of Krishnamacharya. What I loved about him was the full attention he gave to each student, the want to share as much as possible knowing we do not have much time to stay in India. He often emphasized in the importance of learning the system perfectly because we need to go, teach and spread it back home. His greatest teaching is “do not compare!” as he believes we are all wearing different bodies but essentially the same. Complete in his teaching, he considers asanas only as soul purification, but without the mudras and pranayama from him taught and the directions found in his philosophy classes, there is no way to Samadhi. 

Atmavikasa

During my Socratic questioning around the circles of yogis in Mysore I came to know of a teacher with the power of converting ashtangis—slow and dedicated practice with precise indications on how to perform asanas. In the cradle of ashtanga Venkatesh, Acharya at ATMAVIKASA, is teaching traditional Hatha Yoga—a real revolutionary.

It was after seeing their online-promotion of a therapist training at Atmakivasa that I decided the ripe time had come.

The course is run by Venkatesh Acharya along with Hema Acharya.

From the practices with Venkatesh I learned to slow down and bring more awareness to each simple movement, something that in the ashtanga rush one might forget. Another thing I learned is to stay and this reminded me the days I decided to brake down my ashtanga practice to dedicate each day to a bunch of asanas of the primary, staying 48 breaths as suggested by Krishnamacharya in his Yoga Makaranda. This implies deepening the practice. Getting back to a slow practice made many klesas—mental and physical impurities—arise. In the therapeutic classes I learned from the displayed video that I am still very ignorant about body ailments and anatomy.  The suggestion on asanas and lifestyle gave by Venkatesh Acharya where surely insightful and made me aware of the need to study psychology, anatomy and philosophy of mind academically if I want to became a safe and sure therapist. Experience taught me that the practice of asana, pranayama and meditation makes the mind turbulent hence if I want to be a teacher I need to solidify my knowledge. I loved when last Friday, Acharya saw me eating a banana not too ripen. He smiled and left, getting a banana for each of us and then he gave a full lecture on the importance of eating ripen banana and from here he enunciated how we need to be more interested on the inner quality of something, a banana, a work, a person, a partner, because they will never change unlike the outer beauty which will sooner or later perish.

I learned many new asanas from Acharya and polished many others, something uncommon in ashtanga as the focus is more on the breath than on the postures.

From the lists of asana for yoga therapy I realized that what BNS Iyengar taught me in his modified primary and second series of ashtanga is a complete therapeutic session with capacity of cleaning and correcting not only physical but also psychological issues.

From Hema Acharya I learned a system to use to learn the Yoga Sutras and it was quite stunning to have around twenty minutes a day of sutra-chanting every day.

Hema’s philosophy classes, like it happens quite often in philosophy classes in India, went hand in hand with the turbulence of the mind—strong emotions pulling and pushing when at the right moment here there are some of her teaching on the sutras which give you an answer. I studied by myself and with other teachers the yoga sutras but I have to say I really enjoyed Hema’s explanation, clean of complicated words and concepts and simply graspable even from laypeople. This will surely inspire my future philosophy classes—simple but yet insightful way of teaching.

We followed a vegan diet and these food limitations were good as I felt much cleaner and healed after months of terrible nutrition. I will surely bring this back to my life, allowing a day or two a week of freedom while keeping a weekly routine of more sattvic food.

I learned much from the life experiences of my class-mates, this also consolidated the group and made people slightly more confident. Despite this, I would still have given topics of choice rather than listening to many life-stories which are sometime embarrassing for both speaker and audience. This is my opinion.

The silence before and after the classes also taught me something I always gave for granted before: it is nice to open and close a class with a pray so to delimit its boundaries and set some intention. Even from silence there is a teaching. 

I loved to assist the therapy sessions given by Hema, yogasanas manifested their true form. Unlike western studios in which very thin and sporty body students are all dressed with tight ad fashionable clothing to practice asana, in the therapy class of Hema I assisted people coming to class to get better in their health, in their lives and not much worried about appearing and performing. Thumbs up.

I could diverge and keep on writing on the small things I acquired, but translating experience in word is not easy. I would conclude simply by saying that I love the complete faith from the teachers in their methods. Independently from what one does, yoga, work, education, the role of the teacher is to live, experience and share the experience had in their methods. This was surely felt in this course. 

Now I am looking forward to see how I will implement each of these teachings in my life, eager to get back to my self-practice with a more focused and conscious mind. 

http://www.atmavikasayoga.in/