This is the 2nd part of our mini series on the 50th Birthday Celebration, with Zoe Hobbs’ impression of the celebrations!

Be sure to read the other impressions in the series too!

Written by Zoe Hobbs, Dorset Teacher

“Welcome back, did you have a wonderful/great/amazing/relaxing/exciting holiday in India?”

People kindly asked the above question in various ways on my return from Pune in January. I tried to answer as honestly as I could to explain it was not a holiday but an intensive two week course to celebrate the 50th year of RIMYI. I was searching for a word to describe it.

How about three words, exhausting, insightful and challenging?

This was my fourth trip to Pune, previously going for a month at a time, attending one two hour class a day, having time for personal practice, time to make notes and reflect on the class, and observation of other classes. But this intensive was a new experience for me, see the class timetable, no time to gather your thoughts, it felt at times quite relentless, and back at the hotel in the evening trying to write down what concepts I believe I had understood and what unfamiliar instructions for a familiar pose I had grasped.

And I felt I was prepared for the noise, non-stop traffic hooting and tooting, the nerve wracking challenge of crossing the road safely, walking carefully on the haphazard pavements, the multitudes of people from every social level, the litter that adorns the streets being daily swept into piles that don't seem to be collected but get redistributed by the street dogs looking for food, and the air pollution exacerbated by all the new buildings being constructed, but somehow it all felt exhausting.

But of course there were insightful moments, when I felt I had understood what was said and it made sense to me, a glimmer of understanding shone. For example, on the very first day with Prashant he gave us two formulas for yoga, one of them was “P P C” standing for Purpose, Process and Consequence.

Understandable when written like that, but the sound system was not very clear, so when he kept saying “ What's the P P C” I had no idea what that meant as I had missed the explanation (I was not alone!) But as the time went by, collectively, we worked it out, as he quoted it a lot.

On another day, Raya spent over an hour extolling the brilliance of Light on Yoga and we should all read it thoroughly and understand what Guruji was offering us, if we are “able to read between the lines” So grabbing my battered and well thumbed copy, I saw Prashant's “P P C”. The Purpose is explained under the name of the asana, the Process is under the technique and the Consequence is under effects. I felt I'd married up those two lectures, quite obvious really, but it needed pointing out so I could see it.

Then the challenge of the classes, finding a place for your mat and props amongst the other 250 participants, it was wonderful to be with students from every corner of the world, on the first day I was sandwiched between a Mexican and a Russian, all there to celebrate the 50 years of RIMYI and learn together. The event was held at a cricket ground, on the sixth floor of their very big pavilion, as the Institute building was too small for everyone. I did have two classes at the Institute, seeing the new entrance, spacious new loos and statute honouring Guruji and Ramamani together.

We were taught by four members of Guruji's family namely Prashant, Sunita (Guruji's daughter) Abhijata and Shrineet (Guruji's grandson) as well as Raya and Nawaz, each having their own way of showing us the Iyengar way.

In one of Prashant's morning classes we did a standing up Sirsasana, feet together with the heels on a brick, hands clasped behind the head, standing tall, before doing Sirsasana as least five times, up and down, each time concentrating the breath on different parts of the torso, each time we came down I thought we'd finished but no, up again “use your breath” He said too many of us are “asana-ists” and not enough”pranayama-ists”

That same afternoon with Shrineet, who taught in a structured understandable way, we did Sirsasana four times, this time concentrating on the back of the legs in sections and then finally the soles of the feet, where we had to imagine a crystal ball and keep it balanced perfectly steady, should you waver, the crystal ball would become cloudy and fall down. So many headstands in one day, nine in all, but as effortful as that was, for the final one, I felt my crystal ball was safely held aloft and I was calmly stable.

In another class with Abhi, we'd repeated Vrksasana, Ardha Chandrasana and Virahbadrasana 3 a few times, including Ardha Chandrasana with the lower hand in line with the foot and only using the very tips of the fingers, not cupped hands. And then did them all again but on a brick, certainly concentrates the mind.

We were told to approach the more complex poses because if we don't “they'll become extinct” so here are the three I have never even attempted, in the course of different classes, we were offered Vatayanasana (Plate 59 in LOY) Mandalasana (Plates 526-535 in LOY) and Kala Bhairavasana (Plate 375 in LOY) The phrase “going toward” describes my attempts, but pleasantly surprised how far I did manage to travel.

Nawaz gave us a most wonderful pranayama class, simple, clear and achievable. “let the prana spread all over you, like the sun rising in the east touches all in its path” I felt quite emotional afterwards, so needed to thank her in person for the beautiful clarity, she just smiled and said, pointing to the photographs of Guruji and Geetaji, “Don't thank me, thank them”.

On a personal interaction level, it was great to travel with Giulia and Beth and to discover that Semra and Suzie were in the same hotel, all the Bournemouth teachers together. And that Cara (she was, for a time, the membership secretary when I was the treasurer of DHIY in the early days) who used to live in Bournemouth before she returned back home to Texas to study, was also there with her mother. And it was lovely that we were able to introduce ourselves to Garth Maclean, who is coming to Bournemouth in June to do a weekend for us.

I'm glad I went to experience the intensity and as time goes by and I reflect on what I can recall and truly feel, then getting together with my travelling companions to practice and share what we did, I know it has enriched me, and as my teacher Mary says “ you're never the same after you come back from Pune” As teachers, we were told to work cautiously with the students but courageously with ourselves.

So I'll end off by using and combining some of the words, phrases and sentiments Prashant uses when he starts his classes before the invocation, and hope that my few observations will encourage you to practice courageously.

“All of you, settle down, sit straight, close your eyes, bring your palms to the centre of your chest. Look for sanctity, honesty, sagacity, purity, acuity and sensitivity. Find the connection, the integration, the collective dynamic and community of your body, breath and mind. Then silently utter OM”