Last weekend we had the visit of Sribhashyam, the youngest son of the legendary T. Krishnamacharya. His message was clear and simple, don’t get stuck in the asanas (postures), but explore the deeper connections of yoga.

Now, there are so many different opinions on how yoga should be practiced, what the intricate philosophy really means, how we can understand it, and finally what was actually the methodology and teachings of the great masters that went before us? What is interesting to observe with reference to the legendary Krishnamacharya is that all of his famous students slightly differ in how they interpret yoga, how it should be taught and what is the most suitable practice for us to understand it. So in short we can conclude that the genuine master inspired many people, but ultimately what they absorbed from him and how they chose to pass it one was filtered through their own personality, skills of communication, temperament and clarity of perception. That’s a whole lot of layers to clear if one wants to do justice to the ‘truth of what is’.

Hopefully all sincere yoga teachers have a longing to be true and do justice to something that is real rather than the endless impressions and ideas swirling about in our own minds.  My point is; yoga is infinitely beautiful and touch us in various way, but to embody a deep integrated experience of it beyond the stretch – or the lofty philosophies, so easy to hide behind – is as delicate as learning embroidery with boxing gloves tied behind our back. The logical thing would of course be to remove the gloves and ties, but for this comparison, let us just say it is not possible. You have to wear them down with time and take help of everything around you to make as little mess as possible and find clarity and stability where your minimize your clumsy behavior.

When we approach yoga I believe it is crucial to first get a grasp of how limited we are in body, mind, intellect, the numerous ways we fool ourselves and how we get stuck in our very limited way of perceiving the ‘truth’. Of course truth is always relative, until we can first clear all the clutter in our own mind and hence it is crucial that we work on ourselves first and foremost to become clear before we start tutoring to others of what is what. To guide us, we can read great books and take help of more experienced teachers, but personally I believe the best solution is to practice. Practice, practice whatever you have learnt and understood yoga to be, and then embody it in your life as good as you can. When the personal practice becomes strong, it works like a strong detergent that keeps your mind a little less contaminated by all ideas and believes about yoga and you hopefully start to ‘experience’ yoga rather than conceptualizing it, The truth is, without the practical experience of yoga, no matter how limited it may be, all talk about it is only empty words free of substance. It’s easy to just waffle on, in a way like I do now, but to reach a genuine experience of yoga takes hard work, introspection and severe honesty in coming to know ourselves a little better. Reduce the patterns that dim our perception of the great light and develop patterns that make us a little more transparent to it. In a slow methodical manner until we can say: “Yes, yes, this is it! Now I understand there is something more real in me than all my thoughts, patterns, ideas and whatever I thought myself to be.” So trying to define it will always be colored by our circumstances, education, upbringing, etc. However, when it settled in us and we come to know it is real it changes our outlook on life and how we relate to other people. Because everybody are caught up in various degrees of suffering, but a genuine yoga practitioner will not create more suffering for himself or the people around him/her, but rather help to gently remove it bit by bit, layer by layer until a greater essence shines true.