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B.K. S. IYENGAR YOGATEACI-IERSASSOCIATIONLIGHT ON YOGAASSOCIATION (UK)Registered Charity No. 1053093President: Yogacharya B.K.S. IyengarPresident: Yogacharya B.K.S. Iyenga.www.loya.ukf.netwww.bksiyta.co.ukIYENGAR YOGA NEWS - Issue No.1 - Spring 2002EditorialI ContentsEvolution in Sadhanainterview with B. K. S. Iyengar3At the Feet of our Geetajiinterview with Dr Geeta S. Iyengar9Astadala Yogamala Fund Appeal14Guruji Honoured16The Oldest Yoginis in ORIYI17Iyengar Yoga Jubilee19Events listings22LOYANews24BKSIYTA News27LOYA 2002 convention29Interview with Corine Biria31An Iyengar Yoga Centre forSheffield33Iyengar books for sale35Website information35Common Ground - the Yoga Sutras36and the Bhagavad GitaEditorial Board:Kirsten Agar WardRos BellAlan BrownJoe BurnJudith JonesPhilippe HarariEating Fox - book review38Iyengar Yoga Jubilee AGM40Readers Questionnaire41Notices/Small ads.43This is the fi rst issue of Iyengar YogaNews, the joint magazine of the BKSIYTAand LOYA(UK). This is a part of an ongo ing project to promote co-operationbetween the two organisations which willultimately end in unification. Please readthe unification proposal attached to thismagazine and note down the dates of theBKSIYTA AGM and the LOYA EGM, atwhich this issue will be acted upon. Peoplewho are cUlTentily members of both organi sations will receive two copies of this issue;as you have paid two full subscriptions thisseems only fair. We hope you take theopportunity to give your spare copy to afriend or student who is not a member ofeither organisation. When the two organi sation unite, you will receive one copy only.We would also like to draw your atten tion to the two Iyengar conventions adver tised in this magazine. There are still somea few places left for the Iyengar YogaJubilee with Geeta at the end of May, andthe organising committee has decided toallow people to come as observers at halfthe price. There is also the LOYA 2002convention in September, with CorineBiria. Please note that LOYA has set uptwo bursaI',ies for these conventions to helppeople in financial hardship.If you would like to wr,ite an article forthe next issue of Iyengar Yoga News orplace an advert or send a letter to the edito rial board then please do so by:15th October 2002.All items should be sent preferably in elec tronic format to:Joe Burn,29 Little Hay Road, Oxford OX4 3EGjosephburn@dial.appleinter.nettel: 01865 715147Iyengar Yoga News No.12Spring 2002
EVOLUTION IN SADHANAInterview with B. K. S. Iyengar by Gabriella GiubilaroJanuary 1998 Pune1rJeople look at you and admire you atthe age of eighty, still full ofhealth,energy, vitality and spirit. This is aclear sign of what yoga has done foryou. Could you please tell us somethingabout the difference in your practice,over the years, in your thirties, forti es,fifties , sixties and seventies?rGuruji: You know, evolution in prac tice goes on as one refines the bodyinside as well as the intellect. Thisintellectual refinement developedtremendous intuitive understanding tosee and practise yoga with a differentperspective altogether. From this stageonwards the inner body and the innermind became more attentive, toned andcultured than before. At the age ofthir ty, forty and fi fty years of age I wasseeking and searching with my practiceand bringing the missing points andmissing links for the cognition of themind in the sanas, as well as in themovements of body and breath. I wasstudying the missing grips, changingvarious grips, at different times measur ing the wrong tensions and with righttensions and vice versa, in the body. Itwas like a fluctuating body in a fluctu ating mind. For years all this was there.Sometimes, I began to touch right tozero tension . This I developed so that itremains as pennanent imprints in myintelligence.The matter of studying theasanas and pranayama, to become a per fect sadhaka was not explained ortaught by anybody. I had to study thedefinition of asana with the availableexplanations, the movement of the in breath and the out-breath as well as thefluctuations and oscillations.Iyengar Yoga News No.1The body has its own mechanisms asthe mind has its own. The body has itsown intelligence. I had to bring out thishidden intelligence for the mind tofocu s on. This is called the body-mindlanguage, but I do not think it is theright terminology to use for the intelli gence of the body. The body languageis an outer expression and the languageof the mind is an inner expression.Intelligence of the body rubs with theintelligence of the mind and the intel lect. This is an unknown phenomenon .Only yoga practitioners will understandit. Hence, there is a vast differencebetween body language and body intel ligence . The body language is anexpression of a failure or a success; thiswas there in my earlier presentation .Body language is a kind of exhibition ism or showmanship. While givingpublic performances, I used this tomake each part of the body expressitself as an individual entity. This isknown as body language. You may callit the egoism of the body. Afterexpressing the ego of the body I used tofeel that there was something more thanbody cult or language, that is the mentalquality of the body. I call it a psycho logical expression. I do not know ifthere is any terminology for that, it is adifficult point to explain for me. Thecontent - mind, ego, intelligence andself - as well as the container - the body,has to work in unison so that both thecontent as well as the container expresstogether.Everybody knows that the bodyis matter. Our ancient science declaresthat mind is also matter. If the body isgross matter, the mind is subtle matteror one can call the mind as fine matter.3Spring 2002
These differences in matter took me avery long time to realise in a practicalway. It is very easy to talk about suchthings but to experience it moment tomoment in sadhana is very difficult.These differences come to the surfaceafter reached the zero state of tension insanas. Now I say that my physical,mental and intellectual maturity is on anequal level while doing asana, pranaya rna and dhyana.In the case where one may beintellectually mature but the body doesnot respond and send messages ; ofwhere one is good or bad, and right orwrong, when it comes from the intelli gence of the body, and the intelligenceof the intellect; then I say that harmonyin doing and feeling has corne, or set, inthat person. If the manual pressures,which are considered purely physical,are uneven, the internal balance of themind do goes uneven. I could notexpress these sensations of uneven pres sures between the body and the mind inmy earlier practices.The two scooter accidents I hadin 1979 limited my movements a greatdeal. Probably if I had not met withthese accidents I would have penetratedthe inner body - I use the word the innerbody - far deeper, with ease and com fort. For me, the inner body is wherethe physio-psychological body ends andthe mental body begins. This is myinner body and the inner mind. I canfeel the organic body with ease, butbeyond the organic body is an emptyspace inside the body, and to penetratethat empty space requires really a greatamount of discipline, not only that but agreat amount of attention and observa tion. While observing one has to atten tively reflect again and again on re adjustments so that in the re-adjust ments one does not disturb the otherparts which are already in an attentive"zero" state of action.Probably I could have jumped milesahead if the accidents had not occurred.Sometimes destiny plays and disturbsIyengar Yoga News No.14one's determined goal and practice,tempting one to give up making furtherefforts. Destiny almost made me giveup the practice, as the movements werevery painful. Because of my strong willpower I have not given it up . I had tobegin again as a raw beginner after theaccidents and pursue yoga persistently.I re-tooled and re-tyred myself. Myinner body was still aching but the willignited me to work to come out from theweakness in the parts of the body thatwere injured. Even at eighty-one, I cansay with confidence that I am bringingout the best. Just now, you said thatI am keeping very well. The quality ofkeeping up the well-being of my earlierdays was definitely on the physicalplane, which I was using with greatintensity.Today my well-being is notfrom the physical level but from themental and intellectual level. Naturally,first the body decays, matter decays andthe gross body decays before the finerbody decays. When the gross bodygoes on decaying, the mind gives way.In order to keep the mind in fine tune, Ihave to tone and keep the gross physicalbody expressing the dynamic vibrancylatent in the cells by attending to eachand every fibre of my body. It is a senseof well-being in the very life force ofman.Glamour is purely the externalexpression of the body. My practice ofyoga has brought glamour to my innerbody, to my cells, fibres, tendons, mus cles and organs. This glamour is noth ing else but refinement in practice andexperience. Refinement of Soul comeswith intense work with the internalbody and mind. I continue to maintainthe inner glamour without allowing thedeterioration that comes with age. Withinternal practice the natural process ofdeterioration is slowed down and arrest ed. My yoga practice is now aimed attransforming the glamour into glory.I did not pay attention to exter nal beauty as I was sick and looked uglySpring 2002
due to ill health. I paid much moreattention to inner life and ilUler livelysensation, which according to me isinner beauty. Today, I say at the age ofeighty-one, I do not think of my agewhen I practice. The very thought ofage can become your enemy in yourpractise. People remind me of my age,but while practising yoga I am beyondmy body and its age.The moment one thinks of oldage the mind takes shelter for escapeand the body fails. Whenever the bodystarts failing I start to enthuse it forwork by rejuvenating and re-coupingthe part of the body which remains dull.The moment my mind says I am eighty one, the mind naturally wants to giveway. Then I am lost for yoga. Hence, Iwork and struggle to find out where theblocks are and each day I work toremove these blocks and go ahead with out thinking of my age while practising.I keep in my heart the will to work, tomaintain this extreme refinement in mybody and sharpness in my intelligence.If in my practice, my body skin con tracts, I feel my mind is contracting. Ifpart of my body is dull, I know my mindis dull in that area. At this age these arethe things which appear, but very fewpay attention to these. I am grateful toGod for giying me the wonderful gift ofsensitivity of mind. intellect and body(note 1 - see page 8). I am working hardeven now to maintain that quality,because nature is to shrink as one ages,but I am not allowing it to shrink so thatmy mind may not become small orpetty. If the mind shrinks, the couragealso shrinks and ageing begins.I do not call it struggle, becauseI love to practise yoga, I am comparingthe duality that arrives at this age.Where the body says I cannot reach ,yoga practice helps me to reach there .Having seen ageing people the mindentices with the thought, "Why do youwant to strain yourself so much? Enjoylife, you have worked with discipline,enjoy life, forget everything." I say,Iyengar Yoga News No.1"No." In order to be honest to my con science I am practising. Even to datemy goal is to trace the ethereal body,beyond the organic body. Now, I amnot struggling but educating the chan neled mind to move consciously every where in its frontier the body. I am edu cating myself when I stretch my physi cal body. I create an internal stretch,which the spectators cannot see. I ambringing my Self, the very Soul and theinner being, close to its envelope theskin. This way I keep in contact withthe inner body, so that the body does notfeel the age and is one with the Soul.Though ageing and death is certain tothe body, for me practising yoga keepsme away from the idea of age and death.Practice brings the diminishing body incontact with the Eternal Soul. The eter nity of the Soul does not remain mereideology any more as you experience itpractically.This union is a very complicatedthing. Many people may not under stand easily. Know that I do not stretchthe body today, which I used to do inmy thirties and fifties. Now I stretch theintelligence in my body to expand sothat the intelligence stretches my body.Today I make the intelligence trace thebody everywhere. That is why I say Iwas a seeker in the beginning. Now,being no more a seeker, I stretch myintelligence and make the body tostretch on its own. If I stretch my bodyI may feel the signs of fatigue, becausethe body feels the strain, the mind feelsthe exhaustion. Now I work with theintelligence so that I support the mind inthe body. Previously, I was making mybody and my mind the major importantmeans in order to master yoga. Now Imake them secondary and I move myintelligence firmly with the Self. TheSelf as content expands in my body andthe fluidity of my inner body expandsthe solid body. In the early days I wasusing the solid body to make it fluid.Today it is not so, it is the fluid I maketo come in contact with the solid body.5ISpring 2002
the chest is full of bones. You do notfee the dryness in the sternum at yourage. When I am in touch with yoga foryears, why do I feel this dryness andOnce, I heard you say that you now shrinking? This is how I lrnow that theunderstand what happens to the body old age develops by this shrinkingwhen it becomes old, could you explain quality.You know that sometimeswhat happens?strong athletes die earlier than the com Guruji: This is also a new thing. If you mon man does. They overwork and drysee a youngster's body and if you see an out. They do not lrnow how to recuper aged person's body, the top ribs shrink ate and do not lrnow how to keep thein an ageing person to a greater extent. dlY areas wet. Even today w
Iyengar Yoga News No.1 3 Spring 2002 . These differences in matter took me a very long time to realise in a practical way. It is very easy to talk about such things but to experience it moment to moment in sadhana is very difficult. These differences come to the surface after reached the zero state oftension in . sanas. Now I say that my physical, mental and intellectual maturity is on an .
