I practice yoga as instructed by my teacher Zubin who studied under our Guruji Mr. Iyengar. I was in Mumbai recently for a few days and checked-in a room above the yoga centre where I studied for 6 years. I live in Bangalore now and with no access to Zubin and so I was determined to learn as much in the few days I spent in Mumbai. My wife Joya also encouraged me to spend time and observe the classes when taught by other teachers. So the scope of the visit was do the classes that Zubin teaches and watch the others. As a good husband must I went with half the plan and did all the classes and observed none. I told myself that I will stay at the back of the class and observe as I practice and learn. Those of us who practice yoga must break into a smile since observing and doing require 2 different faculties.
I attended 2 classes of Zubin whose focus was anterior body extension and spine elongation. I will never know if he arranged the class in this manner to respond to my recovering frozen arm but the message was directed to my arm and Shoulder. At first sight he complained that my lower back is getting weak and so the connection from the leg to the spine is compromised. He quickly put me in a couple of difficult asanas to explain what he meant. He calls them injections and boy, did it work. The asanas were ardha Chandrasana facing the window with the support of the ledge and following with purvauthanasana in the ropes.
The other 2 teachers whose classes I attended were Bhavana and Neeta, both old friends who we learnt along side while in Mumbai. To my body’s delight they did classes that were directed at my frozen shoulder. They kept helping me along during the class whispered inspiring words and thoughts.
Zubin teaches with compassion, passion, precision, and simplicity. Bhavana imbibed precision, Neeta taught with passion and they both were pouring compassion. I did not ignore my wife completely, I observed Niren conducting a class for 30 minutes and experienced simplicity. The fact worth mentioning is not that these 3 teachers learnt 3 different aspects of Zubin but the fact that they all taught with complete compassion. When this aspect occurred to me on my way back to the airport I burst into silent tears and a fulfilling sensation enveloped me. The Iyengar yoga center that I refer to is in Matunga and founded and run by Zubin and his wife Perizad, whose class I so wish I did not miss. I always felt Perizad out did Zubin in the aspect of simplicity. I cannot think of a nother place in Mumbai where compassion flows boundless.
I saved a few tears for my beloved wife Joya when I got back to bangalore who empathised and basked in my observations. I have now years worth of information to process and share with our students at the practice room.
The practice room is located in Cooke Town, Bangalore where the primary teacher is my beloved wife Joya whom I assist. We practice and teach yoga strictly as taught by Guruji Shri.Iyengar.