Posts made in May, 2011

When you know who you are and what you want, you can create the path to achieving your goals. It’s hard, though, to make decisions when you don’t know the outcome of it. Yoga asks you not to worry about the outcome. Instead, think about the present. When making decisions, calculate the impact of your action, speech, or thought on the world– first with yourself, those around you, then the larger community, nation, and entire globe. In my life, I try to make such conscious choices at least as they relate to me. It’s hard, though, to know the impact of your words or actions on someone else, especially when we all come from different backgrounds. That diversity is what stumps us all. We are shocked when someone doesn’t think or act in the...

Living in India can be trying, to say the least. It took me 2 weeks and a pint of blood to get a SIM card here, and then after another week, I was cut off due to lack of paper work. Only after my mother visited the show room and just sat until the work was done did my phone actually work. Same thing happens when I go to the bank and ask to make a deposit. It’s not as easy as one would think. And while I’m sitting there, filling out the deposit slip, five other people come up and ask questions of the teller/ banker. It takes 30 minutes to travel 5 kilometers here. Walking is not really an option, since roads are not perfectly paved, and sidewalks are almost non-existent. (Actually, sidewalks–and any other open area– are used as open...

I’m sitting in my spacious flat on a Sunday afternoon, drowsy from the heat of the sun’s rays coming into the large windows and doors that are west-facing. The only thing that keeps me awake is the knowledge that my yoga class is about to start. I’m waiting for students to arrive, and finally, one (the only one for the day) does. Ironically, she comes from an Islamic background, in a country where Muslims and Hindus have been at odds with one another for generations. Yet we sit together for the class. In a country where religion divides, yoga binds. Yoga’s power to create peace comes through its physical, philosophical, and truly heart-felt power to change each of us within. Helping us individually learn compassion and forgiveness, it...

In case you’ve been wondering, I moved. To India. Birthplace of Yoga. In specific, I’m in Bangalore, in a dominantly Muslim and Christian area of town. Modern-day yoga father BKS Iyengar came from this area of the country too. In many ways, yoga is different here, as compared to the United States. 1. There are small gyms and potentially also yoga classes held on the premises. Yoga studios are fairly non-existent.  People might not want someone to teach them though, since a lot of yogic philosophy is ingrained in the culture–even after the culture has undergone so much change through modernization and globalization. Patience is still a must in a place where everything takes time, numerous consultations, and internet is barely entering the 3G...