Iyengar And The Spanish Flu Pandemic

Dear Yogis,

Did you know that BKS Iyengar was born in the middle of the Spanish Flu pandemic? Iyengar's mother had the virus during pregnancy and Iyengar was born in December 1918, six months after the ship carrying troops back from the war in Europe docked in Bombay with its unwanted viral cargo. Before long the Ganga and all rivers across India were clogged up with corpses. India lost six percent of its population.

Iyengar was a sick child. He was the 11th of 13 children (10 survived) and wasn’t expected to make it to adulthood, so dreadfully compromised was his health. I wonder if that expectation of dying as a sickly child influenced his answer when, at a public talk in Bristol, he was asked why he practiced yoga. His answer was: ‘To have a good death’. I heard that quote on radio many years ago and it stays bright in my mind. He must have been so happy to be healthy, growing old, energetic to the last, teaching others to be fit and energetic, and raging against the dying of the light. ‘The longer he lived, the happier he seemed to be.’

His website carries this quote: “I always tell people, live happily and die majestically.” It resonates this year because, to our surprise, we’ve had thousands and thousands of unexpected, pandemic deaths. What are we to make of this word ‘majestic’? Iyengar said in his book ‘Light On Life’: If you live holistically at every moment, as yoga teaches, even though the ego is annihilated, I will not say, “Die before you die.” I would rather say, “Live before you die”, so that death is also a lively celebration.” 

The trick is to avoid getting so sucked into life without higher meaning and purpose. In normal times, disentangling ourselves from the daily grind feels impossible. Lock down, even if you’ve had to continue working, is such and unusual opportunity to live the examined life. Lock down is the opportunity to examine, find happiness which will lead to majesty. The strength of the genie, after all, comes from being enclosed in a bottle.

Training

My plan next week is to join Ashtanga Yoga Leeds and Joey Miles for yoga practice. Take a look at his teaching style here, teaching Baddha Konasana. Joey is an ashtangi who studied Iyengar alignment. You really know it when you practice with him. Also, check out the attachment for Alain's Wednesday class. Yogis from this week's class were hugely excited about it!

Zoom Classes

Book an evening class here: goodtimesyoga.co.uk/book-online. The Class Pass and Pay-What-You-Like are on goodtimesyoga.co.uk/livestream-yoga-price-options. Let me know if you would prefer my bank details. No problem. 

I get asked very often about equipment. Well… Decathlon have great quality stuff. If you spend £30-40 on a matt, that will be a good one. Their yoga belts are excellent - the best other than Tiger which rarely stock them. Their cork blocks and bolsters are a great price. I have this mat, Calyana by Airex, which is very durable and the best grip I've found.

Yoga in the news

This is good from Arab news: ‘Yoga can help coronavirus patients breathe easy, says Egyptian expert’. Pharmacologist Louis J. Ignarro, Nobel Prize winner in Physiology in 1998, and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology in the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote an article recently explaining how breathing properly can help to fight COVID-19…. “"Inhale through your nose and exhale through your nose. It’s not just something you do in yoga class; breathing this way actually provides a powerful medical benefit that can help the body fight viral infections”.

Telegraph.co.uk has: 'Yoga is very much whitewashed. We need to make sure we make it as diverse as possible’. ‘If you look at certain brands or fitness companies, a lot of their campaigns don’t use a lot of black faces. The yoga world is a part of the industry that is quite problematic in that regard. The fact that yoga was created in south-east Asia, it is weird that you don’t see a lot of black faces. Yoga is very much whitewashed. We need to make sure that we make it as diverse as possible, as I feel it’s doing a disservice to the industry’.

This is an interesting read. Colorado Sun has: Kindness Yoga called out: Weakened by coronavirus, 9 studios close after Instagram campaign exposes rift over race. ‘Turner, 29, resigned from Kindness after the company’s Black Lives Matter posts, criticizing Kindness for what she termed “performative activism” — meaning that Kindness touted the movement on social media but didn’t do enough in real life to expand its community beyond white culture. She also pointed out a lack of diversity on the company’s board of directors, which until this year, was all white’.

Did You Know: Gandhi suffered in the Spanish Flu pandemic. He wrote in his autobiography that while he had the flu, “All interest in living had ceased.”

Be safe and well and interested this weekend.