Om Shanti Shanti!

It’s almost a fashion now to join a Yoga class, what with all the Yoga trousers, Yoga tops, yoga mats and to top it all - CDS of special divine music to sooth your ears. Could it get any better?

Well, I am no exception to this and I just love going to a Yoga class. Partly for the above reasons and partly to keep my body fit and flexible without running on the treadmill endlessly. So, when they announced in the office that there will be new Yoga classes starting every week for office employees, I jumped on the opportunity and enrolled immediately. Now the only task remaining was to convince some other people to join me, so I won’t feel that I am the only one being targeted for a laugh and then do the most interesting task – shop some Yoga clothes and yoga mat.

If you are an Indian then it is almost impossible that you have never learnt Yoga. By some or the other means we are always targeted by Yoga teachers at school, or some Yogic in summer camp activities  or in the society awareness programmes or by just pure interest in all the divine babas of our nation. Whatever it might be, I too already had my basics clear.

However, this was different, I was now going to join a yoga class in the Great Briton, where the tutors have learned Yoga through a proper course and the people joining the class are either genuinely interested in the exercise or are fascinated by the aura around ‘Yoga’!

As I dashed for my first class, not expecting too much out of it, rather a bit late, I was instantly ashamed of myself as the class had already begun right on time  ( and not as per the Indian standard time) and people were already sitting with their hands folded in front of their chests. I managed a quick apology to our tutor which she accepted and showed me an empty place right in front of her to lay my mat. So this is what I get as a punishment for coming late. Now I was the student, right in front of my teacher and right in front of everyone else, so that everyone can keep a check on me or probably have a laugh or two when I would struggle under all the balancing acts.

I braced myself for the upcoming disaster and concentrated on the tutor’s words. ‘Loosen your body and let all the tensions melt away from it. Put all the day’s work behind you, put all the work that lay ahead of you away and just concentrate on this moment , this room, on your breath.’ She was saying. As my muscles followed the commands given to them, I began to feel a new wave of relaxation. A constant stretch in my right hand that I used to feel when using the mouse in my office workstation was beginning to relax. A slight sprain on my left lower back that had aggravated while lifting my 2 year old son was now making me aware of it. And the general tiredness from running around the house, office, and nursery schedules was now making my body heavier than normal. I could just sleep there forever. I suddenly realised, how much I needed this break. This break for my physical self was as equally important as my spiritual self. I began to realise, I haven’t had a chance to think about anything else in the whole day apart from office work, what to cook at home, what to feed my son, and when to go for shopping to fill up the ever decreasing quantities of Milk, onions and baby wipes! Strings of physical attachment to every single particle of my existence connecting the external world began to spring back as I shut down all the thoughts distracting me to my duties until I was merely a breath moving in and out of a warm and a tired body! This is it. This is where I want to be. My own little place of heaven. I was about to enter a new zone of my mind as I heard a voice saying, ‘Now we slowly rise up and come to a standing position’. Reluctantly I opened my eyes to the bright world of tube lights, walls and windows.

Am I still here? Wow…that was something I had never experienced before. What followed after that was a smoothly flowing transition from SuryaNamaskara(Sun salutation) to the Warrior positions and from Tree balance position to bridge balance position. Our tutor would explain the positions in every little detail and would do it herself so gracefully that I was almost in the awe of her. She might be wearing a Nike athletic west and a tight fitting capris but she was no less than a Yogic to me. Whatever the name of the position, it did not matter. There was only one thing I knew, I was in control of my body, if I was in control of my breath! Worries of my performance just melted away as I connected with my body and enjoyed every movement.

Her words would flow from her mouth softly, complementing the Trans-mix- yoga music in the background. ‘Allow your body to relax’, ‘feel that stretch in your legs’, ‘Lower your spine on the floor like a pearl of necklace lying in a straight line’ and finally  ‘Breathe in and breathe out’! That’s the mantra for yoga. As the fresh flow of oxygen enriches your body and mind, you raise higher, attempt new balances and test your body’s strength with new found skills. The moment the air leaves your lungs, the body relaxes, becomes more flexible and practically unwinds itself.

Breathe in and breathe out not just controls the body but also the brain. In order to maintain the balance of the body in a weird entangled position, the mind has to be in absolute synch with your breath, which then helps to control the twitching muscles that can give up any moment if you lose the concentration.

And this is in perfect analogy with our life. Breathe in, Breathe out- isn’t this the mantra of our life too?

 Breathe in – teaches you to be strong, to be vigilant, to attempt new challenges in life and raise yourself to new levels. Breathe out- helps you relax, be patient, be persistent and sail through the tough times with more ease. As the knowledge slowly seeped into mind, I became more aware of the air surrounding me that was continuously energizing my body and keeping me alive.

At the end, as we all gathered up on our mats with cross legged positions and hands folded in front of our chests, we again allowed ourselves to bury into meditation. As I closed my eyes, dark tunnels inside my eyelids went deeper and deeper and I pushed as much as I could to watch what lay behind it. At first, it was only the multi-coloured rings and starry spots which moved so fast that I couldn’t be sure if I was actually seeing them or imagining them. Then it all became quiet and there was only absence of view, no darkness, and no lights. I remained in the null state for a while, trying not to think about anything. It was momentary and then a big tide of thoughts just crashed on me like it was waiting for some signal.

Who am I? Am I someone who I think I am or just the thoughts that make me think this? Am I a girl or just a manifestation of living being in a human female form? Am I defined by the boundaries of my body or am I the soul which encompasses all?

As the river flows, I flew seamlessly through the dense jungle of expectations, disappointments, pleasure and mundane errands. It all seemed superficial. Life offers not just surviving but also living the blissful experiences that every single moment blesses you with. The world around you is beautiful, specially tailored for us. Every single leaf of a tree has unique story of its life.  Every single insect has its role in the lifecycle of earth. It’s mesmerizing to know the power that we hold, power of truth, power of emotions, and power of self-control that can change everything around us. We hold the key to our universe which is still locked away.

As the mountains soar high in the sky, I hope that I soar one day to the highest level of consciousness. What is beyond my love?  What is beyond my jealousy? What is beyond my anger? What is beyond my love? Is there a world of my soul that I know deep down somewhere exists? Who weaved the rules of right and wrongs in my mind’s net? What is living? What is non- living? I will find out!

But for the moment let me be just myself or may be more than that. Let me be you. Let me be everyone. Let me be the sky, the earth, the water and every little particle that encapsulates the essence of being. It’s such a peace to be alone, to be in sync with yourself, to be happy within, to start the journey of finding the truth, to realize what lays within us, to know that we all are one, we all exist in harmony.

My beautiful journey was broken when the tutor asked us to chant with her ‘Om Shanti Shanti’ in a flawless British accent, which by the way did sound a bit weird.

As I drove back home, waking up to the reality of the tasks ahead, the bewildering experience of this British Yoga class never left me. It was smooth, deep and transforming. There was a little euphoria in my heart for my new found meditation skills and knowledge of Yoga which amazingly never dawned upon me in all my past encounters. I guess there is always a first time for everything – Om Shanti Shanti!