Yesterday I had lunch with Vivian, Lori and Annie Pace. Annie is leaving for the US this Sunday so I wanted to make sure I had lunch with her before she leaves. I like hearing stories of the old shala and the old days. Annie "holds court" every lunch at the Dasaprakash in the city, close to Gandi Square. Lunch is exactly at 12:30PM and by 12:35PM she starts lunch with or without you. We ran a little late because Lori had to pick-up something in her house. When we got there by 12:40PM and she had already started eating lunch.
I asked her a lot of questions about the old school and Guruji. Annie is as old school as you can get. It breaks her heart when she sees Western yoga students dressing inappropriately. It is a reflection of Guruji and she obviously has a lot of respect for him. During lunch I asked her,"Is this riata?" She said,"Yes" Then I said, "How do you eat it?" She said, "You don't" That whole exchange threw me off so I asked her to explain. She said, "Raita has raw onions and she doesn't eat onions and garlic." She continued to say that,"Guruji and the family are Brahmins and Brahmins don't eat garlic and onions. It is disrespectful to eat that while you practice in the shala because you smell like onions and garlic and the smell is offensive. She eats Dasaprakash practically everyday because it is run by a Brahmin and the only thing that has onions is the raita which she absolutely avoids." I didn't know this but I later found out that it's in the "Yoga Mala". I really need to read the that book more and also remember the sanscrit name of the asanas.
I also asked Annie to explain some of the thing which were discuss in the conference last Sunday. Guruji does not speak a whole lot of English and you have to read between the line when he gives an answers. He uses a lot of metaphors and his answers are mostly in Sanskrit. We're lucky Sharath interprets most of the answers and Annie explained then to me. Here's a quick rundown of the last conference.
1. Somebody asked about the meaning of "yoga" since there seems to be many definitions. Guruji said something like "many definitions, same meaning. One God good, two gods trouble" There was a short exchange between Sharath and Guruji because we didn't understand what he was talking about. Sharath continued to explain in a form of a joke and it goes like this.
There were 3 people who fell on a big well. A Catholic, Muslim and a Hindi. The catholic said, "God help me" and God helped him out of the well. The Muslim said, "Allah help me" and Allah helped him out too. The Hindi said, "Ganesh, Krishna help me". Ganesh told Krishna to help him and Krishna told Ganesh to help him. They went back and forth until the Hindi drowned.
Annie continued to explained to me that Ganesh, Krishna and all of the different Hindu Gods are basically the same God but different aspects.
Guruji also talked about the bee looking for honey in the desert. The bee does not go to the desert to find honey. He goes to the forest to find flowers. I think it's has something to do with going to the right place or doing the right thing to find God. You cannot find God if your drinking, doing drugs, smoking, eating unhealthly food or partying all night every night. This is how it was explained to me and how I understand it. Don't quote me.
2. Somebody asked Guruji if he could recommend another book aside from the "Yoga Mala". Guruji said, "Do you read Sanscrit?" Everybody laughed. He continued to give a long list of books to read in Sanscrit. Sharath told us that the "Yoga Mala" references a lot of other books. Guruji said, "Read Yoga Mala, once, twice...NO!!!...ten times" That always makes everybody laugh.
3. There was another questions asked regarding how we acheive detachment through practice. Answer was "Practice, practice, practice...all is coming" He mentioned something about a candle light which is covered with 5 shells. The light cannot be seen because it's covered and as we practice, one by one the shell will break until the light will be uncovered. I think that's related to my left knee pain. It's also related to the, "Pain is the shell covering of understanding" quote.
There were more topic which were discussed but this is what I remembered.
One more thing...Annie Pace is going to have a workshop in Berkeley and North Carolina this year. She has an amazing ashtanga practice(one of the few certified women) and she is also an amazing person. I would love to practice with her one of these days. If your in the area...go for it. I think the schedule is in ashtanga.com.
Comments (2)
You know what you are a freak! Yes , a freak. Only freaky women shave their heads. *Sigh* .Now don't you talk about freedom and such crap. There is a limit to freedom. Gosh you are so pathetic and you want to do Yoga ?? Yoga is a sacred practice and freaks like you should be shunned away. If I were Sharath I would have thrown your twenty thousand rupees on your face and asked to pack your bags.The world is turning out to be a chaotic place. All these things were already predicted by ancient Hindu seers. Following is a gist of the things that were predicted in the Puranas.
1) In Kali-yuga ( present age ), wealth alone will be considered the sign of a man's good birth, proper behavior and fine qualities. And law and justice will be applied only on the basis of one's power
In Kali-yuga this deep understanding has been almost lost, and, as stated in this verse, men and women combine like animals, solely on the basis of mutual attraction to bodies made of flesh, bone, membrane, blood and so on. In other words, in our modern, godless society the weak, superficial intelligence of humanity rarely penetrates beyond the gross physical covering of the eternal soul, and thus family life has in most cases lost its highest purpose and value.
A corollary point established in this verse is that in the age of Kali a woman is considered "a good woman" if she is sexually attractive and, indeed, sexually efficient. Similarly, a sexually attractive man is "a good man." The best example of this superficiality is the incredible attention twentieth-century people give to materialistic movie stars, music stars and other prominent figures in the entertainment industry. In fact, pursuing sexual experiences with various types of bodies is similar to drinking old wine from new bottles. But few people in the Kali-yuga can understand this.
I hope you learn to be a woman
Posted by YogaCop | October 20, 2004 5:09 PM
Posted on October 20, 2004 17:09
Hmm, well, first of all the author's not a woman.
More importantly, you, Mr. or Ms. Cop, have been reading Hindu scripture but you don't seem to have any problems with making really hateful accusations. Do you see any irony there, any tension or cognitive dissonance? Anything?
Anyway, can you troll somewhere else and we'll hope nobody else responds.
Posted by g | October 21, 2004 4:09 AM
Posted on October 21, 2004 04:09