2.1 tapah svadhyaya Isvara pranidhanani kriyayoga

“Burning zeal in practice, self-study and study of scriptures and surrender to God are the acts of yoga.”

Most people, when first coming to a yoga class, come because they like the idea of some exercise or a bit of stretching. Even better if that exercise benefits and brings relief to aches, pains and minor ailments. Many are drawn to it because it offers something different from going to a gym (at least, my first yoga class couldn’t have been more different from a gym). Probably we can’t really put our finger on what it is that is different. Above all, we are there because we want to look after ourselves, and in the Western sense that tends to mean we want to look after our bodies, perhaps also noticing the knock-on effect on our wellbeing and mental health.

If I were to advertise my classes along the lines of Patanjali’s first yoga sutra of chapter 2 of his work - “Come and work your backside off, turn up every week (or more) without fail, don’t be late, concentrate fully during class, do your homework, practise, read the yoga texts and make sure you are also fulfilling your religious duties, whatever your religion” - would anyone come?

Yoga in the West tends to mean asanas. Yet if we read Patanjali’s sutras, it quite plainly tells us what the acts of yoga are:

Tapas - practice (this one we do OK at);

Svadhyaya - studying the scriptures and at least having a thirst to explore the yoga texts - also studying the embodiment, that is the mind, body, breath conjunction that somehow work together to make us who we are in this lifetime;

Isvara pranidhani - this is the devotional element of yoga, bhakti yoga, an acknowledgement and understanding of the divine element within us all and paying respect to whatever form of divinity helps you to acknowledge that.

Those elements all interlink and intertwine - we cannot just pick and choose and call it yoga. But the element of devotion doesn’t sit comfortably with the western notion of yoga as it is today. When BKS Iyengar first came to the UK he was asked to avoid anything religious and focus on the physical aspect of yoga and so it somehow became acceptable to let it drop by the wayside. How can that be so, though, when on top of the RIMYI yoga institute, to which western students flock in droves, Guruji placed a Hanuman temple and paid his respects there daily?

Arriving in India in late March, travelling straight down to Tiruchirapalli with just a passing nod to the airport lounges in Mumbai and Bangalore, we were plunged straight into one of Tamil Nadu’s major temple towns. Nick and I love Trichy (as it is known) - our familiarity with the town, together with our excitement at meeting our daughter Flora there, seeing old friends and visiting the temples again, not to mention eating South Indian food, made us head straight into the vibrant, thronging hordes making their way through the bazaar in the evening.

Our next day was spent climbing up to the Rock Fort temple at dawn and enjoying a wonderful view at the top, visiting Sister Starlet, the Catholic nun I have kept in touch with since my gap year, and having lunch in the convent at the main centre of the Sisters of St Anne in south India. We spent the evening visiting Srirangam, a huge temple complex on an island in the Cauvery river which flows through Trichy. Accompanied by Sister Starlet and various members of her family to make it a proper evening out.

The Sisters of St Anne are a widespread order of nuns throughout south India who engage in work for the community, running orphanages, schools for children with special needs or schools for the poor and working as nurses or social workers in poor rural villages. Both Sister Starlet and my other nun friend, Sister Regi, are completely devoted to Jesus and to the work they do in His name. This devotion, love and utter unwavering commitment empower them to undertake impressive and far reaching projects - each of them has excelled in terms of achieving great things whether it be growing a special needs school and developing staff to meet this growth and keep up with latest developments or raising money to help pull villagers out of poverty and find a way to become self sufficient, even building a school and clinic. All the sisters we met work with a quiet confidence and assurance. When they meet difficulties they turn to Jesus and there is absolutely no doubt in their mind that He will assist and support them.

So when we went to the Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple at Srirangam in search of the carvings depicting the 10 incarnations of Vishnu and in search of Hanuman, Sister Starlet and co were very happy to come along for the evening out but Sister Starlet did giggle awkwardly when I told her I was looking for Hanuman. It wasn’t easy to know what we were looking at - the signs were all in Tamil and priests were busy with the bustling evening worshippers queuing for darshan - a glimpse of the deity - at the shrines. You could go one way for ordinary darshan or another way for “speed darshan”. The latter cost twice as much - there was even an electronic sign like you find at bus stops telling you how long the wait time was. Devotees were happy to queue, for more or less time, to pay their respects and receive a blessing at the main Vishnu shrine.

Sensing that Starlet probably wasn’t on for waiting for us to proceed through the queue we moved on through the huge temple complex, peeking in every shrine to see which deity presided. This was made all the more complex by the fact that there are different Tamil names for the Hindu gods and a good number of additional local gods who are worshipped there. I don’t think our lovely Christian hosts knew or minded who the gods were so we were none the wiser. And we can’t read Tamil or understand much.

Then by chance I popped my head in a shrine in the courtyard and there was Hanuman. And there was a priest who spoke beautiful and very articulate English. He looked delighted that someone had dropped by (most people were there for the main shrine) and wasted no time in cupping the metal helmet they use for blessings on my head - we had to have a second attempt after I had taken my sunglasses off - and we had a brief but lovely conversation about Hanuman, son of Vayu, who leaped to Lanka, who has great powers and who serves Ram. And is the ultimate yogi. “Very beautiful with yoga Ma’am” he said. “Very auspicious. Very nice and auspicious to talk about Hanuman here with you. Hanuman is the most loyal devotee of Ram. You are a devotee of the best devotee - that is very auspicious.” (This photo is from the pillared hall at Sri Ranganatha Swamy temple but is not the Hanuman from the shrine.)

The auspiciousness of the occasion felt to me all down to this lovely and expressive priest. It made my day - it was actually so magical and unexpected, the transition from confusion and frustration at not being able to speak Tamil to stumbling upon not just Hanuman but a priest with whom I could speak, I am still wondering if I dreamed it but our daughter tells me I didn’t imagine it.

Feeling truly blessed we headed out to the street where Nick gave an elephant 20 rupees and the elephant blessed Nick. Lots more giggling from Sister Starlet - her laughter is infectious so by now we were all giggling. But I wonder if she realises that her own true and sincere devotion to and love of her Christian God is not so far removed from that of Hanuman to Rama. And her unquestioning determination to work to bring education and shelter to the needy is not dissimilar to Hanuman’s and Rama’s mission to free the world of demons so that the world could live in peace.

After Trichy we travelled to Thanjavur (Tanjore) where there is a large and very famous Shiva temple called Brihadeshwara. We were accosted by a temple guide who insisted we would appreciate it much more with his help and he was so right! He turned out to be a YouTube star as far as the Tanjore temple is concerned and I couldn’t recommend him more - M Selvam. He also slipped us in the side door of the temple just in time for the early morning darshan to begin and we found ourselves right by the front of the queue which stretched back far into the temple hall. I sat down with some older ladies just below the black curtains that hid the shrine and they shoved me near the front wanting me to see everything.

When the bells started ringing the whole queue started chanting to Shiva. This crescendoed as the curtains swept open to reveal the Shiva shrine with two strikingly huge and truly awe-inspiring eyes. All the devotees was praying and chanting - old, middle aged, men, women, children - and it was both intense and very moving. We slipped back out of the side door rather than queue-jumping for a blessing that for sure meant so much to those who had waited for ages. But the power of the revealing of the deity and the fervour of the devotees will be a lasting memory.

From Tanjore we travelled to Kumbakonam where there are so many temples including two temples to Rama: Sarangani and Ramaswamy. We found Hanuman, loyal servant and devotee of Rama and were allowed into the main shrine to see Vishnu reclining at Sarangani.

At Ramaswamy temple one hall had walls covered in paintings depicting the Ramayana. Families were taking a walk and enjoying the story - a complete visual depiction of the epic tale of King Dasarath, Rama, Sita and Hanuman. Here were Dasarath’s wives with their newborn sons, here was Hanuman leaping to Lanka, here he was speaking to Sita in Ravana’s garden and there he was fighting demons. One family, grandparents, parents and small boy, caught me looking at the picture of the giant Kumbakarna and we talked about the story, the little boy excitedly telling me how the demons had to work “so, so hard to wake the giant up because he sleeps for most of the year”.

These stories are still alive, handed down from grandparents to grandchildren to infuse their lives with a sense of the divine. I am not sure we still have this in our culture. If they are lucky, children are still told fairy tales, possibly myths. Do many small children these days know and get excited about religious stories like Jonah and the whale or David and Goliath?

Our next stop was Chidambaram, home of the famous temple of Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance. Patanjali is believed to have consecrated this temple and it is huge and beautiful. Again there were keen and joyful queues of pilgrims awaiting darshan, busy priests serving these devotees with devotion and families just enjoying their time in the temple.

We came across a beautiful family celebrating a baby’s Annaprasana - the eating of the first solid food. The women were elegantly and dressed with jasmine in their hair, the men wore white lunghis, priests were in attendance, flowers were hanging to decorate and there was joy. The garlanded baby was calmly enjoying mouthful after mouthful, each female member of the family taking it in turns to feed her. Such a milestone in her life acknowledged the divine and the participation of the divine in all aspects of our human existence. And the important role of food, always, in the act of devotion.

Leaving the hub of Tamil temple towns behind we headed to Pondicherry on the coast. Struck down by a bug we made the most of our lovely yellow hotel room and the pool and felt disinclined to drive out of town to the ashram at Auroville, deciding instead to surprise Nancy with some sailing in the Bay of Bengal. Our skipper was a charming middle aged Hindi and Tamil-speaking Italian who had grown up at Auroville, married to a Punjabi lady who had also grown up at Auroville, and he was called Aurofilio. We couldn’t have been further from our temple experiences (we even wore shorts!), I thought at the time.

But I have to say Aurofilio made a lasting impression on me as a truly joyful and light being who made me feel completely safe and happy doing something I have had an irrational phobia about (sailing on the open sea) and I would think his joy in life, his open kindness and ease and delight at being out on the sea with the breeze was also wrapped up in his acknowledgement and gratitude for the divine. This was a man who seemed to have grown up surrounded by love and who is able to find great joy in what life offers. I hope I am right!

In Bangalore we celebrated Easter lunch with Sister Regi whose life has been one of complete devotion to Jesus and whose work is testament to that. Even in later life she speaks up vehemently for the poor and unfairly treated and is still active in finding solutions to help them. She is “retired” at a convent connected to a big school. Because of the problems in Manipur the school has taken on 500 Christian boys from there to remove them from the violence and discrimination they are facing. These children need clothes and schoolbooks and funds to provide these and Sister Regi is on the case in her trademark, hands on, grass-roots style, feeding them with funds raised and buying bicycles for the older boys to be able to find work and support themselves.

The first part of our time in India ended with a glance ahead to the second part - we visited Bellur, birthplace of BKS Iyengar. If there is any doubt about the role of bhakti yoga in our bigger yoga picture, don’t be fooled by the reputation Iyengar yoga has for its obsession with correctly aligned asanas. BKS Iyengar ploughed money back into his village to build a school, a hospital, a yoga centre, to bring clean water - and to restore the Hanuman temple, build a temple to Patanjali and renovate the Rama temple in the village. We were shown around by the gentlest man, Govindarajulu, who called his little grandson Lekkhan along to join us because “Lekkhan loves going to the temples”. We followed Lekkhan’s lead in paying our respects to Hanuman, Rama, Sita and Patanjali. This little boy has grown up in a world of devotion and he loved showing us these special places, pointing out to Nick the ancient writing on the Ram temple “that even Google can’t read”. When I told Govindarajulu where we had visited on our south India tour he touched my feet and said “you have visited all those special temples so you are bringing us many blessings”. And it was fitting that when a mean looking buffalo charged down the road after us, little Lekkhan leaped into Nick’s arms and asked to be taken to the Ram temple for us to be kept safe there. (Luckily the buffalo lady got her scary creature under control and back on its rope and we didn’t need to.)

And then to Rajpur, Dehra Dun, for 19 days of yoga with Rajiv and Swati Chanchani. Dinner the first evening at the Himalayan restaurant across the street with a table of Buddhist monks next to us, tucking into momos and laughing heartily. Visiting Landour and walking in the Jabarket national park with prayer flags fluttering from trees. On Ram Navami (Rama’s birthday) I took a walk with a fellow student, a gentle Israeli man called Ofra, through the forest to the small temple there. We found multi-generational families dressed up and celebrating, we were given chai, made welcome and asked to stay for prasad (temple food). Devotion, hospitality and grace towards guests were all intermingled. We experienced similar hospitality this summer visiting a remote monastery on an island in the northern Sporades, inhabited only by two monks. Climbing up the hill from a little cove we were greeted with cool water, tsipouro and Turkish delight and told about monastery life and prayer by a Mount Athos monk whose zeal and love of God shone in his warm gaze. When we asked the five 15/16 year olds who were with us which place during their week’s sailing trip they enjoyed visiting the most they said it was the monastery. I didn’t expect this but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that they were touched by this encounter with someone living a life of devotion and simplicity, such a life as we are not so likely to encounter in our day to day existence these days.

Walking into Rajiv and Swati’s Yog-Ganga yoga centre for the first time is like coming upon Bharadvaj’s ashram in the Ramayana - the centre sits in a garden filled with flowering and fruiting trees. We made fresh garlands for the statues of the gods from the flowers in the garden.

Rajiv’s devotion to yoga may be single pointed but his teaching is never one-tracked. We knit, knead, weave the embodiment and classes begin and end with an acknowledgement of the divine. Teaching is often interspersed with quotes from TS Eliot, renditions of the Beatles or Led Zeppelin, snippets of Christian hymns from his school days and stories of Hanuman. The course ended with a truly moving celebration of Hanuman Jayanti. Hanuman may need another piece of writing, but watching and feeling Rajiv’s humble devotion as we all listened to the Hanuman Chalisa, the Indian students joining in the singing, brought tears not just to my eyes.

When I left our lovely house in Rajpur to go to the airport, our amazing and gentle caretaker Kiran-ji who had cooked beautifully for us for the two and half weeks (he is also a cowherd and had to go off to do that as his day job) touched his hand to his heart and said Ram Ram. And my gruff emergency (my flight was cancelled) Sikh taxi driver who spoke perhaps one word of English but spent the 5 or so hours driving to Delhi swearing (I suspect) profusely in Punjabi at other drivers, and with whom I have to say I felt slightly uneasy for the first hour or so, largely thanks to having no language in common, no phone signal and driving through a dark jungle…. when we arrived in Delhi he blessed me, saying something about Guru Nanak, wheeled my bag right to the airport entrance and gave me a fatherly hug. I had been worrying about my safety and whether I would make my flight and he had taken care of me like a member of his family. The five virtues Sikhs seek to develop are truth, compassion, contentment, humility and love. This man had, with 30 minutes notice, having just spent the day driving people in bad traffic to and from Mussoorie, packed an overnight bag (including a clean white taxi shirt compulsory for Delhi taxi drivers), dropped any other plans and driven me for over 5 hours through unpleasant traffic and roads to make sure I didn’t miss my plane. Manjeet Singh, the owner of the taxi company had earlier delivered me from my house to the centre of Dehra Dun to speed things along and waited a good while with me to hand me over personally to the next driver. Such care comes from a strong sense of dharma. Our daughter Flora told us of a similar experience when she and her friend took an overnight bus journey that arrived in the middle of the night. The bus conductor told them they should get off at the village before their destination where there were rooms in the bus stand that they could safely stay at and then make the last short part of the journey by daylight. He organised for someone else on the bus to accompany them to find a room and make sure they were safe. Can he know the gratitude this mother feels towards him, thousands of miles away, for his care to keep her daughter safe? I had a similar experience when I was 19 and travelling alone - the train conductor rearranged a whole carriage to make sure I was not sharing a sleeper compartment with unknown men. As the carriage was largely occupied by men or married women he moved me into his own rather plush single compartment and took himself next door to share with a lovely aged professor who then accompanied me through the station when we reached our destination, giving me an introduction to Jainism as we walked. Imagine a world where everyone shows this much care to those who cross their path.

*Bathing in the Ganges at Rishikesh*

There is a story about a sage sitting beside the Ganges. He notices that a scorpion has fallen into the water, reaches down and rescues it; the scorpion immediately stings him. Later on he sees that the scorpion has again fallen in and he rescues it a second time - again he is stung. A stranger asks him why he keeps rescuing the scorpion when he knows it will sting him. The sage replies “it is the dharma of a scorpion to sting but the dharma of a human to save”.

Which brings us back to Vishnu. Vishnu is the Preserver - the supreme being who creates, protects and transforms the universe. When the world is threatened with evil, chaos and destructive forces - in the Ramayana these are in the form of Ravana the demon - Vishnu descends in the form of an avatar. In the Ramayana he is Rama - to restore cosmic order and protect dharma.

So to return to Patanjali’s yoga sutra 2.1 tapah svadhyaya Isvara pranidhanani kriyayoga:

BKS Iyengar comments that according to Patanjali, of these three paths of yoga the first represents life, the second wisdom and the third, through the surrender of the ego, brings the humility that leads to the effulgent, sorrowless light of Isvara, God. From the willingness of devotees at the temples to take time to worship their gods regularly, to the careful and joyful observance of festivals such as Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti, to the consistent commitment of the nuns to work to help the poor in God’s name and the kindness of bus and taxi drivers in making sure that their passengers were completely and safely delivered - these are all acts of dharma and examples of surrendering the ego to a cause considered greater than their own; and through such acts shines the “effulgent and sorrowless light of Isvara”.

We need our asana practice to begin to understand our embodiment. Reading the scriptures and yogic texts - svadhyaya - also helps with this. And these two practices together help us to understand more about surrending the ego. We cannot just see yoga as what we do on our mats during class - inevitably it becomes a way of life to be practised and nurtured.