Geeta Iyengar: The Maestro

Day 3 RIMYI

Morning Ladies Class and Afternoon Medical Class

Before class, the hall was set up and the rules were given. Ladies on their periods or anyone feeling unwell were given their place.

When Geetaji teaches the class, it’s a blessing. Upon first glance, her body has weakened over the years. But as soon as she starts teaching, her power shines through. With the capacity to see the back of our bodies from the front, (I want to learn that) she commands us to see our blind spots. 

Starting with open eyes for the invocation, she instructed us to open our mouths for the chant, to keep us more alert and prepare us for learning. Perhaps to open our minds. (that we evacuated yesterday!) To make space for everyone, we put away the mats. Without any mats, she wanted us to experience what it was like in the old days without mats. They didn’t always have mats. The mats have made us lazy, because of the grip of the mat, we don’t work our feet properly, especially our back foot. The mat holds it, so we don’t turn it in properly or press it down, which gives us the incorrect action of the leg and hip. Without the mat, the foot slips if you don’t press it down on the concrete.

She spoke about so many hip problems and people needing hip replacements. But if we do proper work for our hips we don’t need any of that. If we do incorrectly, we are inviting problems. We did a few standing poses with her brilliant guidance. She corrected us when we didn’t get it, and then repeated and guided us based on what she saw. When she saw our Sirsasanas, she had us all come down and we all got a group private lesson on a proper Sirsasana. Seems there’s been some incorrect information passed down, so she clarified and showed correct and incorrect placement of the hands and fingers, shoulders and collarbones, and worked her way up. 

She also said something I’ve never heard before, which was that we all have different kinds of hands. Some have fat fingers, big hands, small hands, thin fingers, different size hands. That is all affecting how you do the pose. (I never thought about that!) But what’s important is to keep the hands in such a way that the back of the head touches the root of the fingers. There should not be a gap. We should be in the exact crown of the head, which many of us were not. She gave the example of an ice cream  scoop fitting perfectly well into a cone. That our head should be like that into our hands. If the ice cream is not properly placed, it will fall off the cone. And that is why we should fit our head perfectly into our hands so it’s like that. 

She was repeating instructions to many individuals. Abhijata corrected me, since I had a clip where my head was supposed to be (Or the ponytail!). Then moments later Raya told me to still close the gap, and to widen the elbows to get it. (Widen my elbows? I’ve always been taught to keep them shoulder width 😳!) It was the first time I ever felt my skull bones crack into place. Geeta then showed us on Raya that when the collarbones and shoulders are widened, the elbows may widen. But not to widen the elbows, that it should be the result of the proper action of the collarbones. 

Geeta was frustrated that there was a lot of confusion about Sirsasana, and sent us to look at Guruji’s pictures from Light on Yoga. The space he has and the lift of the inner arms. She talked about assessors, certification, and how we should not only be concerned with that. That if we are teachers, it is more important to have understanding and to keep pursuing it, instead of pursuing that piece of paper. The piece of paper is meaningless if we still have not understood the purpose of yoga. The certification paper is just to show others. But we must keep learning and penetrate and not just do our poses and practice for that piece of paper. 

Geeta has a way of getting us to look at ourselves without a filter. She can see right through us. She knows which parts of us are not practicing truthfulness, and which parts are not cooperating, or being violent. In the medical class in the afternoon, she was again like a hawk that can see everything. My friend Sofía suggested that maybe Guruji is there seeing everything and tells her. There is so much going on, with people with various ailments and combinations of ailments. A young girl with scoliosis, people with back problems, heart problems, a prenatal group, and a woman who came to Pune to find out what to do after her hip replacement. I stayed with her, as I watched how Geeta worked with her through the helpers. First watching what she could do, and seeing which buttock was working more, which inner thigh was falling, how her back was, she had Gulnaz (one of the teachers at RIMYI) giving her traction, putting her head of the femur into the socket, and creating space between the side ribs and the hip. The woman was in a lot of pain at the beginning, until by the end, she had no pain and was smiling. 

I got to witness the student, the teachers, and Geeta like an orchestra maestro, knowing exactly what to do. I was smiling at the end too, feeling so much gratitude for this healing space, where people come from all over the world to learn, to heal, and to be transformed. In one day, I got to see pain, joy, compassion, and so much love. Not only feeling Guruji’s presence, but also feeling the presence of God. I wonder if Guruji had anything to do with that.