Day 5 Medical Class at RIMYI

Day 5 RIMYI

Part of the adventure of coming to study at RIMYI, is the community that has evolved from Iyengar Yoga. Being at RIMYI reminds me of when my children were in Montessori school. The older ones help the new ones, which helps the older ones really engrain what they have learned, and the younger ones look up to the older kids because of all their knowledge. 

I remember my first trip to Pune, and the people that helped me understand the rules, many of them unwritten, some of them given out on the first day. I also recall feeling overwhelmed. India is already overwhelming with all the sights, sounds, and smells. The food is always extreme. Extremely spicy, extremely sweet, or extremely salty. Even the bland food always have a surprise ingredient to spruce it up. The change in time, different sleeping arrangements, all contribute to one feeling a little vulnerable. 

I have met ladies that have looked a little lost walking around, and just saying hello and inviting them to join you can make for a new friend. This place can get lonely if you’re not sure where to go and are having a little (or a lot) culture shock. 

RIMYI can be intimidating. There are people coming and going, many foreign languages being spoken, a candy store of props. Some people move around, knowing what they’re doing, and others are like lost puppies. One thing is true, if you have a question or a problem, the Indian students will go out of their way to help you. They are so friendly, and compassionate.

When attending the classes, the teachers are helping us to stay present every moment. Every moment is a teaching moment. If we can leave our egos at the door, we can be like children soaking up all the lessons. The teachers at the Institute don’t have time to waste, and so, lovingly, they try to teach everything they can in a month. Like a mother protecting her child so she doesn’t get run over by a car, they shout out instructions, especially when we are being dull. They try to get our attention, as Geeta so eloquently told us, to keep us from drowning. (This was in the ladies class on Wednesday.) If your child is drowning, will you not shout to save him? The shouting comes from a place of caring, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Every moment being here is a test to our senses. All of them. 

I think some people become so overwhelmed that they don’t pay attention. They stand in other people’s way, they set up without looking around if someone may need the prop or wall near them while they peacefully succumb into Supta Baddhakonasana. Perhaps they shelter themselves in order to protect themselves from the seeing chaos around them. This is sometimes the reason for the shouting. To wake us up. To get us out of our chaotic minds.

Such chaos is the Medical Class, or Remedial Class as it is called. Upon first glance, there’s lots of students doing different things and assistants running around like mad. But upon better observation, the medical class is a symphony, where all the musicians are placed in their groups, and each one uses their own instruments to create music. Geeta is the Maestro, seeing all the “patients” and customizing a program for each individual, as no two people are the same. They come with multiple problems, and she effortlessly devises personalized programs after looking at each person. She can see much more than the individual or X-rays show.

As an observer, if you are just looking around, you will think you see a big mess. But if you stick to a group, back problems, neck and shoulder problems, hip problems, or others, the pattern is easier to follow. (I am still trying to figure out the pattern, as I started helping a couple with back problems the first day, and the second day I ended up helping someone with a hip problem.) As a helper, if you see something and don’t help, you may get in trouble. But if you help, you may also get in trouble. But either way, you will learn. You will learn by watching the student. You will learn by watching the helpers, and you will learn from Geeta directing. And even if you don’t understand when they break into speaking Marathi, you will learn. Just by being in that room you will be soaked. As a teacher, each time I am here I am humbled by how much I don’t know. And I am excited to know there is still so much to learn. And I come here to learn, to soak up the teachings of a great Master, who continues to live through the teachings still present in this very room. 

Today I realized that so many back and hip problems can be prevented and corrected by going back to the basics, and to really do the poses from the base up, as we have been taught. We are all looking for something new, the latest technology, but I can honestly share that in the medical classes there is an inquiry of looking at which leg is not rotating or functioning properly, and then correcting by correcting the imbalance. As if we had never heard that before. But we think we have done it, but we don’t study Guruji’s poses deeply enough, and then when we have problems, we look for a cure. The cure is right in front of our eyes. Of course it’s easier when Geeta’s eagle eyes are seeing what most of us don’t see, and she points it out to us.