a nice intervew with D Lakshmi, a senior student of Yognat

[Guest guest]

INTERVIEW WITH LAKSHMI DHANARAJ, A SENIOR STUDENT OF YOGNAT CONDUCTED BY DEREK BIERMANN, THE FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHER FOR HIS BOOK ON YOGA IN INDIA TO BE RELEASED THE END OF THIS YEAR

 

It was through a neighbor that I first learned about local yoga classes, but as a girl I was more interested in being a bharat natyam dancer. Due to my mother’s urging, I joined both the yoga and bharat natyam classes. I started when I was about 12 or 13, and at that age it seemed to me that the asanas were the main goal of

yoga. Bharat natyam is an ancient classical dance of India and in a way it is also a kind of yoga, where you have control of your emotions as well as your body. Yoga was something so new and different for me and I enjoyed trying all sorts of new things with my body and my mind. I found it interesting because you are competing with yourself. I thought that people who could do different asanas were great and I became interested in trying the difficult poses. It took me a few years to realize that one does not become great simply by exhibiting skills in the asanas.

When I was younger, if I saw another student performing a certain asana, then I would try to do the same one. Then I realized that the basic asanas have to be done perfectly first to give you the strength to do the difficult poses later. I really don’t place that much importance on the different poses any more but I still make the effort to practice the basic postures perfectly. I do every class very sincerely. I feel that many physical benefits can be achieved just by doing the basic

asanas properly with the correct breathing. Yoga has made my body physically strong enough to adapt to any conditions that I have to face in life. However tired I feel, I can still do whatever I need to do and that willpower has become instilled in me. I am grateful to my guru and to the art of yoga for all the benefits I have received emotionally. Without yoga I think that I would have found my life very empty. After doing pranayama and meditation practices, my mood feels elevated. The word pranayama literally means to control your prana, which is your breath and your life-force. Practicing pranayama not only controls the breath, but it helps you to understand the higher aspects of yoga.

In my early yoga classes the teachers used to tell us about their guru, Dr Swami Gitananda Giri Guru Maharaj, but I did not feel any deep reverence for him. As the years passed, I slowly realized the greatness of his path and his love for people through his teachings. I could feel his blessings, and I realized that Swamiji had become like a god to me and I used to talk to him in my prayers. If I had any problems or if I was in a pensive mood, I would just talk to Swamiji like he was my

guide and my guru. I have realized what a dynamic being he was through his teaching. I like the power of the words he used, such as, “You are totally responsible for what happens to you.” There was so much truth in everything he said, because everyone tries to blame everyone else for what happens to them. Having his words in my mind helped me to work harder, and at the same time to have a positive attitude in life. I now look at people in a totally different way. I don’t really get irritated anymore, and I don’t have any dependency on the relationships I have with people. I can be with people and enjoy their company but I can also be happy being alone. Whenever I am deeply happy about something, I sit alone on the terrace and thank God for everything that has happened. I think that Swamiji’s main lesson was ‘to act’ and

that is also central to the teaching in the Bhagavad- Gita. When in doubt you should act, whether you think that you are right or not. With his dynamic energy, he told us that we should never be too lazy or too tired to take action and to learn something. He taught that we should use the energy and time that God has given us. Swamiji used to say, “Health and happiness are your birth rights, so you should look after them”. It is impossible to put his many teachings into a few words.

One big quality that I admire about Swamiji is his sense of detachment. He had a family including a wife and a son and thousands of disciples around him and all over the world. He was also involved in a lot of world activities like organizing various Yoga festivals, conferences, competitions, cultural events, Pujas etc. Yet he remained like a lotus in water. Though I did not have the privilege to see or talk to him personally, this quality is something that he radiates so strongly that nobody can miss feeling it. If at all he had any attachment, it was attachment to goodness and beauty. Wherever he went, he practised goodness and beauty and motivated others to do so also. He helped people to explore and nurture their potentials and made them give their best in everything. There was always the manifestation of goodness and beauty

through yoga, bharat natyam, carnatic music, pujas, fun etc. going on in and around him. I believe that he had a passion for goodness and beauty and that he made it an essential part of his and other’s life.

 

The only asana practice I have now is in class, because I don’t do any asanas at home. My personal daily practice is to try to apply yogic principles to my everyday life. I like coming here to Yoganjali Natyalayam to take classes twice weekly and to learn more about myself and about my life. My teacher is Dr Ananda Balayogi, and at the moment he is teaching us spinal twisting asanas. He has also shown us many variations and modification to these twists. In each class, he adds a few more and explains the benefits of the postures. Dr Ananda is teaching us about the flexibility of the spine, and how the vertebral column is used to transport energy and how blood flow is stimulated naturally, producing strength and stamina. We learn how every asana stimulates the natural secretion of glands and as we contract and stretch, muscles get more elasticity and that gives us more strength. My own flexibility is not through a natural ability; I have to work hard at it in every class. I am happy to say that I have never had any injuries through my yoga practice.

Initially I joined yoga competitions just for fun and to make myself work harder. My intention was also to win a prize and I used to feel bad if I didn’t win. Now I don’t have much interest in competitions, not because I am too lazy to work for them, but because I really don’t want to win prizes doing yoga. It is not that I have an aversion to them, but it struck me that you cannot conduct any competition according to the real concept of yoga. The competitions have positive and negative sides. Some of the people who battle it out in yoga competitions are looked upon as great yogis, but this idea can cause confusion for innocent people who don’t

have a deeper understanding of yoga. That is the negative side of the competitions for me. Some of the competitors have unimaginable flexibility in their postures, but many of them have no real idea of what yoga is about. The way they do their asanas makes it clear that they are concerned with the body alone. They do asanas with such an attitude of exhibiting their skill that they seem to be totally missing the emotional and spiritual benefits of yoga. They also don’t seem to show much respect for their teachers and they don’t seem to have much discipline or control. My advice to anyone in the beginning would be to start

with the basic asanas, and then to discover the real meaning behind each and every asana they learn. They should try to feel the stability and emotional strength that it can bring. It is important to think of the meaning behind the pose, and then to feel yourself as that object of that meaning.

For me yoga is an expression of pure love, a love that is selfless and unconditional. Once you have that feeling of selfless love inside you, then all your actions will have the skills that a yogi requires: beauty, control and discipline. I think that the first quality that you have to have is love and gratitude for your guru because he is the one who sheds light on your life and makes it more meaningful. You should also learn to see the goodness inside yourself. I see many people who are strong and have so much skill, but I don’t see much goodness in them. They don’t show any love for people around them, yet they project themselves as powerful people. Unless they have that quality of goodness as a yogi, then for me they have no real power at all. Perseverance is also important to help you to keep

practicing because the goal of yoga is something to work towards throughout our whole lifetime.

Yoga is about the attitude that you have in life, and about the way that you view and interpret life. The change that yoga has brought about in the mental aspect of my life is the attitude I have now, and that to have a feeling of balance that took years to develop. I look behind everything that is going on around me; I don’t react or think too much about it if someone praises or teases me, or if they say something bad about me. I have a positive attitude about my life; I try to enjoy everything that I do and to accept people as they are. Even if someone does something bad to me, I try to see the constructive purpose behind that action. My attitude applies not only to human beings, but also to animals, and even plants. I try to see an aspect of God in every being that I encounter. When I was younger,

whenever I danced well or did a difficult asana, I used to feel so proud about my accomplishment. In recent years I have realized that when someone appreciates something that I have done, all I have really done is allow God’s energy to flow through me. It is not ‘I’ who was performing; it was God’s will. If someone praises me, I immediately thank God and send that praise to God.

The goal of yoga for me is to know myself, and to know who I am because ultimately to know your self is to know God. The goal of yoga is self-realization, to be aware of your actions, which in turn brings about an awareness of your thoughts. As your awareness increases, you are able to see the other side of your own personality. By growing, we learn about the different facets of our personalities until eventually the ultimate self is realized.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER

25,2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry-605 013

Tel: 0413 - 2622902 / 0413 -2241561

Website: www.icyer.com

www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda

 

 

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