Another charming day. At Yoga a new group arrived and it was more crowded than ever. So as I was on my mat, there was a line of people standing behind me against the wall, waiting for a space to open up. Since you are given a time when you should come, but there is never a start and stop time, people are constantly coming and going. It adds to a chaotic and entertaining atmosphere and when you get as far as shoulder stand in your practice, you move yourself and your mat to another, smaller adjoining room. And the teacher, Saraswathi, is orchestrating all this with her big voice. What a drama! A made for TV show! On top of it all, there is an all together new element going on here. I had heard that to be accepted as a student here, you needed to have done Ashtanga as a daily practice for 8 years. But no longer- Hey- now Saraswathi is teaching Beginners!
She had a group of about 8 eager beginners in a row, next to each other and she was giving them their own led class. Quite a lot of shuffling around! I could feel the wheels spinning in her head- I don’t get it- why she doesn’t find a bigger space!
The class takes place in her living room! Why can’t she find a gym space – Mysore is a pretty ritzy place- well- there is construction going on across the street- maybe it will be her new studio. I was determined to do all the jump thrus today which I did and it really took all the starch out of me. She told me to change my time (along with the beginner group) to 7:00am. No more sleeping in. And she said tomorrow I should do the drop backs- standing back bends which I stopped doing long ago- so this definitely is challenging and motivating my yoga practice.
Kumar’s story. When I had my session with him , I commented on a picture of a yogi on his wall – a large photo I recognized, of Rajneesh. I commented that hadn’t he been chased out of Oregon for tax evasion. He said the U.S. Government was not too happy when he purchased a large piece of property 120 miles wide. And they put him in jail on some trumped up charges and tried to poison him. Then he survived and moved back to India. A book was written about the whole thing, by Juliette Foreman, called Twelve Days That Shook The World. Meanwhile, he changed his name from Rajneesh to Osho- which means ocean, and he has a very luxurious meditation empire on the ocean on the West coast of India.
After yoga today I met a lovely couple from Randolph NJ who run 4 gymnastic studios. They have 6 kids who are now taking over the business and they are traveling and doing Ashtanga- together. Victor and Theresa. We had breakfast together and we started talking about Tinittus -which he has and he Also has dry mouth! He told me a long story about the benefits of vitamin B3- niacin.
And there is a paper on the subject called The True History of Niacin by
Abraham Hoover. He said it can cure Menares disease and a whole slew of problems! So I will be on the look out for that!
Well- we had a wonderful moment with Allynn and the boy selling pineapples. It was a real special joyous happening. Quite a crowd gathered.
Namaste and Love Annie
