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Dressed in a loincloth, Baba Ramdev whips through a series of yoga poses as millions watch him on television. The sun has just begun to peep over the horizon but the hirsute guru is already leading his charges. “If you sweat this much in the morning, you will never get old,” he says, the left eye winking involuntarily. Ramdev says pranayama, the art of breath control, can cure an array of diseases. “Its practice leads to a surge in kundalini energy,” he intones as his belly makes waves with each sharp intake of air. Around him, the men and women start breathing in unison, eyes closed. Some faces begin to show a near-mystical glow. They are entering the ‘zone’.
Is yoga as pensive an activity as Ramdev wants it to be? Not quite. Some yoga teachers, in the true tradition of yogic postures, are turning the exercise culture on its head. They crack jokes, chant to peppy songs and hang out with disciples once the sessions are over. Garima Batra Sharma, founder of The Yoga Lounge, believes in being less solemn. “There is a perception we belong to another planet. But I don't let people take things too seriously in my class,” she says. The idea is not attainment, she explains, “flow instead.” Really? So, what about obtaining spiritual creaminess? “Very few seek that. Most come to lose weight.”
These yoga gurus don’t claim to be saints or prophets — or that they emit cosmic energy. “I am a new-age yogini. I love to dance, travel and dress excitingly,” says Deepika Mehta, who coached actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Bipasha Basu for Dhoom 2. Must the road to enlightenment be paved in sincerity? Not all all. “Fun is important. Once in a while, I crack a joke. After class, I hang out with students. We chill out, drink coconut water, get breakfast and get silly sometimes,” laughs Mehta.
Television yoga guru Suneel Singh, 52, too, has a tendency to lighten things up. “There are two simple therapies. One is laughter yoga and the other, clapping yoga,” he says. “Everyone laughs. There’s no judgement.” Singh believes ego is the enemy of both humour and yoga.
The new bunch of yoga teachers do not believe in “giving gyan”. “Not everyone is on a spiritual path. Some are in search of a social environment, too,” says Navneet Joshi, who trains corporate clients of Kairali Ayurvedic Group. Sharma remembers during the early days of her studio when she had shown the door to a man who had come in search of phone numbers rather than enlightenment. But Joshi believes there is scope for spiritual networking, and Sharma allows social networking by way of yoga selfies (self-photos). “I understand the excitement that comes when doing the headstand for the first time. I oblige them with a picture that I email to them.”
Pune-based Jaspreet Singh, a yogi, cites the tranquillity he has found after twisting his body into knots. Sometimes, he says, his third eye itches. “Who your yoga teacher is and what he represents are no small matters in modern life,” he says. “Once I fell asleep in the middle of savasana and started to snore lightly (I was told). They just left me there until the class ended. I woke up to an empty room and saw the teacher putting away the mats.” But there is no embarrassment here. Singh says, “If we refuse to feel embarrassed, liberation is ours.’
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IN TOUCH WITH INNER PUPPY Yoga poses have been inspired by animal postures. Ancient dogs influenced much of yoga development. Their body movements and postures were studied by seers and put into yogic practice. Now, 2,500 years after, it seems to have come full circle. Yoga has gone back to the dogs again. |
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Doga, yoga with dogs, is increasing in popularity in the West. To live in harmony with all beings, including dogs, seems a truly yogic principle. Florida-based doga teacher Suzi Teitelman explains sukasana in doga. “We sit with the dogs, spine to spine, connecting our chakras.” Because dogs are pack animals, they are a natural match for yoga’s emphasis on spiritual union with other beings. “Dogs will follow their leader, and when their leader is doing yoga in a place of bliss and love, the dogs will follow even more.” |
According to Teitelman, bonding is the top benefit of doga. “Otherwise the benefits are the same as yoga’s: peace, strength, flexibility, massage, all lead to happiness and samadhi.” So, can dogis calm that tail during savasana (corpse pose)? “Yes, we encourage the dog to lie directly on us in savasana. It helps with massaging the internal organs.”
Mahny Djahanguiri takes classes in London. “My style is Dogamahny TM.” The dog here is secondary. “All doga poses (more or less) have the same name as human asanas. Triangular pose is the same: Only that you lift your dog and place it on your torso if it’s less than 4 kg. It acts as a weight. Large dogs can act as a bolster.”
Djahanguiri says through doga you can cultivate ahimsa (non-violence). "We never force the dog to do anything it doesn’t want to do. The dog is the dogi and the owner the yogi. The class is about slowing the central nervous system of the owner and the dog. It has vedic chanting, pranayama and meditation. The breathing exercises, if performed by the yogi, will calm the dogi.”
Celebrity yoga teacher Payal Gidwani, who coaches star couple Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan, says there is no need to feel ashamed, even when some poses force wind out. This is the purpose of yoga — to relieve suffering, and flatulence. “Relieving wind is illusory,” philosophises Singh. “You are not the body, and therefore not the karta (doer).”
Yet the fear of being embarrassed refuses to let go. As Gidwani points out, “Thousands of years ago, yoga was practised only by men. It was designed by men, for men.” Yet today, getting the men in is not always easy. Sharma says, “There’s one man for every five women in a class. Mostly, men accompany wives. Also, most men leave after a month or two. It’s the women who are consistent.”
Paloma Gangopadhyay, director, Bikram Yoga India, says, men initially find themselves stiff and inflexible. But the 26 postures done in a studio that is toasty at 42 degrees Celsius often gets them hooked.
This challenging, possibly dangerous, hot yoga may appeal to a guy’s sense of self. Yet, points out Mehta, embarrassment is never far behind. “A guy’s worst nightmare is not being able to do a pose that needs strength and flexibility.”
Worse still are the men who wear loose-fitting shorts for comfort, prompting discomfort in others. Sharma says she urges her students to wear longer yoga pants or capris. But Joshi insists shorts are better. “This way, the teacher can keenly observe your body postures.” Singh suggests a simple way to ensure your jock credentials are not advertised during an adventurous pose. “Sit down and twist to one side; squat — did you feel a breeze back there?”
A youngster forced to take yoga for bad grades tells us about his experiences. “We are made to do yoga in a cramped room. The air is thick with sweat, everything seems in slow motion. However, it’s the close-pressed flesh of others that we admire most. This gives you the chance to smack someone.” He adds pawanmukta asan (wind-relieving pose) is his favourite.
Yoga, played by the rules, can fetch you enlightenment in this lifetime. For this, it is necessary to do it the right way, have your posture corrected by a teacher. But Singh doesn’t appreciate a teacher who lingers and breathes hot all over you. “No concept of personal space,” complains Singh.
Sharma, like other likeable teachers, says her approach is to establish a relationship with students. “This takes a few classes. I take it on myself to correct them. Mostly they get it right by seeing me. But if that doesn't happen, I physically correct them.” Some students tend not to follow the herd. But that is not a problem. Mehta says some even go solo in the chanting of Om. “I prefer to let people express themselves. If someone’s Oms are not in line, I find it sweet,” she says.
