Mathatitu Yoga Ashram, Varkala, India While Mathieu was doing the Permaculture Designer Course (PDC) in Aranya (read his article here), state of Telangana, I was doing a one-month Yoga Teacher Training Class (TTC) at Mathatitu Yoga Ashram in Varkala, state of Kerala. Indeed, our journey in India was the chance to learn from different areas and enrich ourselves individually to share this treasures together afterwards. Actually I also want to do a PDC myself and I already booked for the octobre session in Quailsprings, California, USA. Anyway, I rather took the chance to do a TTC in India in order to nurture my passion for Yoga by learning from Indian yogis about the philosophy and roots of Yoga. Initially I never planned to become a teacher, I just wanted to do a long retreat and the TTC are the best deals for such kind of long programs. However, I realised this would help us for our trip, to find more projects to volunteer at. We realised many permaculture projects also have interest for yoga. For instance, I might teach in Laos next month in the permaculture farm we go to, which happens to also be a Yoga centre! This article aims at sharing
As it is a very important part of the trip for myself but also for the project, I also want to explain why it fits in our project: this involves a reflection about how yoga and permaculture share important principles. Finally, I give a short reflexion on the importance of spirituality in our society. About Varkala Varkala is located in the South Indian state of Kerala, the state known as "God's own country" or also known as the coconut country because it is literally full of coconut trees. It’s on the Arabian Sea and mainly known for Varkala Beach, backed by palm-covered red cliffs. Just south, Papanasam Beach is believed to have holy waters. For the little story, it is said that people bathing in the Papanasam beach waters get cleaned from all “samskaras” (samskaras are the impression left by your past actions which are responsible for the cycle of birth, death and reincarnation). To be honest I tried but my samskaras are still there, I will not lie about that :) On a nearby hill, the ancient Janardanaswamy Temple is a Hindu pilgrimage site dedicated to Vishnu. No need to try to convince you about the appropriateness of this place to do a yoga retreat, right? Although I neglected to take much pictures (I was only focusing on mind stuffs, really!), you can find beautiful pictures of the area on internet. Warning: there is a syndrome in Varkala known as the "Varkala Vortex", it retains people there, people looking for themselves, looking for answers, looking for goals. It is easy in Varkala to feel yourself, to feel the spirituality, the energy around. Varkala is located in one of the earth's chakras, a powerful junction of booming energy. Just like India as a whole it attracts people in search for spiritual and divine and it shows them the way, give them the key. Eventually it can retain them here for months, years, lives. The real challenge is to continue carry this pearl of energy within you wherever you go, never forget it is inside yourself, sufficient to itself. The TTC Program The Teacher Training Course took place at the Mathatitu Yoga Ashram. The accommodation and classes are given at the Hilltop Hotel directly on the cliff. The Yoga studio is on the rooftop of the Hilltop Hotel with a stunning view on the holy Papanasam beach. From the rooftop, and of course from the beach as well, we could sometimes see the dolphins. I saw them from the first days during my morning meditations on the beach, and then sometimes during our morning sun salutations from the rooftop. Each time I felt blessed and thankful to my mind to have been receptive enough to see them. Most people I spoke with never saw them, probably because they were not paying attention? Beautiful things happen around us which we do not see, which we do not let penetrate our scope of attention. I wish to let my awareness grow and be a spectator of nature’s marvels. As mentioned the place is magnificent and incredibly quiet. Indeed it was the low season and I had the unique chance to join a class of only three students! This was a very intimate session whereby we could ask every single question and get very individualized teaching. The program was intense, waking up at 06:00 for an individual meditation at 06:30, first class at 7:15, asanas at 08:30, breakfast at 10:00, philosophy class at 11:30, lunch at 13:00, class at 14:30, asanas again at 16:00, last class at 18:00 and finally dinner at 19:00, with recommended self study, bedtime at 10:00. Pranayama In the morning we used to start by a Pranayama class, which is the practice of breathing exercises. Breathing is one of, if not the most important aspect of physical exercise in yoga. Our breathing is our direct link between the body and the mind. If your mind is agitated, automatically your breathing will be erratic, irregular, unquiet. Reversely, if you are focusing on calming down your breath, regulating and controlling your breathing, you will gain control over your mind and experience calmness. In order to learn how to breath, we practiced different methods, each beneficial for different aspects of the breathing system. We learnt Kapalbathi (the lung cleansing exercise), Anuloma Viloma and Surya Bheda (the alternate nostril breathings that help balance our sun and moon energies), Ujjayi (the ocean or victorious breath), Bhastrika (the energetic “breath of fire”), Sitali and Sitkari (the cooling breathing techniques) and Bhramari (the calming and sense withdrawing breathing). In a nutshell, breathing exercises are good to expand the capacity of the lungs, balance our two hemispheres of the brain, relax our nervous system, purify our respiration and energy channels (the “Nadis”), and awaken our spiritual energy. Breathing exercises are crucial to integrate into the yoga practice before, during or after the asanas. For example Kapalabathi and Bhastrika are very good to wake up the upper part of the body, expand the lungs and energise the body, making it ready for the asana practice. Ujjayi breath is excellent during the asana practice as it helps maintain the rhythm of the exercise, regulate the oxygen intake, and boost energy throughout the practice, while clearing the toxins out of the body. Sitali and Sitkari can be useful to regulate the fire during the asanas. These breathing are meant to cool down the body effectively. Finally, Anuloma Viloma and Bhramari are good exercises to calm down the body and mind and prepare for meditation. Asanas We had a minimum of two asana classes per day, one in the morning at 08:30 and one in the afternoon, at 16:00. First of all, the stomach should always be empty for yoga practice, including pranayama, asanas and meditation practices. Therefore we would always have our breakfast after the practice and the lunch early before the next asana so that we had enough time to digest. Sanathanan class The morning class was given by our excellent teacher Sanathanan, who conserves a perfect traditional Hatha / Shivananda style. His nice Indian accent and singing voice would accompany us for one hour and a half of classic poses with a lot of relaxation in between, especially a big share of shavasana. “Inhaaaale, exhaaaaale… with a smileeeeeee” was the flow rocking our bodies through the class. Morning being a hard time for the body, this gentle morning routine was a real treat for us. We would happily execute stretching, sun salutations, warm ups, headstand, shoulder stand, plow, fish, bridge, spinal twists, crow, trees, etc. That was roughly the plan of our early morning routines with Sanathana, with sometimes the blessing to glimpse at the dolphins in the sea between two sun salutations. Manoj class I also had the chance to take part to the class of Manoj, another of our teachers, who was giving morning classes before the start of the TTC. Since I arrived a few days before the TTC I joined Manoj class, a very advanced class with ever changing structure. I discovered more surprising poses that I never saw before, like the lion pose, which consists on longuely imitating the lion roaring while strongly squinting on the middle of your eyebrows. I was hesitating between bursting out laughing or running away, but I finally participated and … it is impressively energising and stimulating for self-confidence! On top of this kind of decomplexing poses, Manoj is integrating very strong stimulating chakra poses to his class. This implied for me that I experienced hyper-emotivity moments in this class. Some poses were very intense for me and I happened to end up crying, not from pain but from an emotional node that a pose would have stimulated or distressed. This is quite common and happens in challenging classes or simply on too advanced classes for the practitioner's level. Finally, Manoj would always include “mudras”, symbolic and ritual gestures, to his class. I was already familiar to hand mudras as good healers and accompaniment for meditation. Manoj teaches us many different mudras, their significations and therapeutical virtues. Rich’s class Rich is the unique western teacher we had during the TTC. Excellent teacher from the USA, Rich is specialised in anatomy and therapeutic yoga. He was teaching us asanas but also alignments, how to place your body and especially your students’ body during the asanas. His classes were very intense. He was teaching in the afternoon, which allows much more dynamic format than in the morning because the bodies are fully woken up and smoothen. Rich did not teach twice the same class and he would add a spiritual touch to his classes by telling stories, asking us to reflect, to link our body practice to our mental state and spiritual objectives. This is typically western as none of the Indian teachers I had have really talk much in their class apart from giving instructuctions and corrections. Rich would make a story out of his class and take us together on the trip. He would also challenge our bodies’ muscularity. He used to choose poses that we had to keep for a longer period of time than in other classes. On top of that we would experiment more “shoulder” and “arms” demanding exercises, like a lot of headstand and similar. Uri’s class Uri was also teaching the afternoon class (the last two weeks of the TTC). Uri is a typical Shivananda teacher, with a kind of Vinyasa flow. He would dynamize the classic poses by sustaining a very strong rhythm. I would always sweat a lot in his class because it was close to a cardio class. At the end we were left in a delicious feeling of exhaustion but pure energy. Philosophy We had our philosophy classes with Sunil in the morning and with Sanathanan in the afternoon. The class was following the official program from the “Certficiation of Yoga professional guidebook” (ministry of Ayush), which we had been provided with at the beginning of the session. The guidebook includes theory of Hatha Yoga, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the eight limbs, anatomy and diet, health and some basics of Ayurveda, stress management, teaching and communication techniques, asanas descriptions and benefits. Sunil teaches us about the history of Yoga, its origins, with a big share to Patanjali Yoga sutras. Sunil is a practitioner of Jnana yoga which is the yoga of wisdom and knowledge. He is extremely knowledgeable about the Hindu religious and philosophical texts. He was always telling us marvellous stories from the texts but also from his own life. Sunil is a gentle and passionate person, it was a real honour to meet him. You can also read his stories in a book written by one of her students, “Guruji and his pearls of wisdom” by Anji Pink (available in Varkala, in a library, better option than https://www.amazon.com/Guruji-his-Pearls-Wisdom-Profoundness/dp/1483952967), a good read, short, fun, and incredibly reflecting the life of yoga aspirants in Varkala. If you are willing to do a TTC or would like to read some good stories related to yoga, Hindu traditions or Varkala, this book is for you :) Sanathanan teaches philosophy in parallel to Sunil in the afternoon class. Sanathanan is a very fun and inspiring teacher. His smile and singing voice are medusing. He would always repeat the crucial yoga sutras chanting with a vibrating voice and its Indian accent, “Yoga chitta vritti nirodha”... How could I ever forget? His voice would repeatedly sing to my ears a few philosophical sentences that I should always remember: “nothing is permanent in this world”, “for peanuts I will not drop my smile”, and so much more. Sanathanan is fun and acute at the same time. He is someone intransigeant, who demands full students’ diligence and trust. I feel blessed to have met Sanathanan. Many of his words will remain in my “memory card” (one of his words for the mind), his voice will continue singing in my yoga asana classes, and his smile I will not forget either. On top of theses classes we had classes of body alignment given by Rich and Uri, which were designed to help us position ourselves correctly and learn how to adjust students. It was the most difficult part of the TTC for me because it is very technical. One need to dig a little bit into anatomy, one must have a feeling of her/his own body alignment, and finally one must learn to adjust others, learn how to make the body contact properly and efficiently. A last but not least class was the teaching practice where we had to take over the role of the teacher. One by one the students would turn into teacher and perform their first own class. I teached two morning sessions in Varkala and I could really feel the difference already after two classes. Teaching come with practice and it has lot to do with self confidence at the beginning. We rapidly started feeling at ease speaking up and coming closer to the students, starting to adjust the poses and to induct a flow. Once we received our first feedbacks on the class, the machine was started. I was happy to receive positive and negative feedbacks since both were helping me to make the class better. I continued teaching very soon after in Auroville with Mathieu and his friends from the guesthouse and it was a real pleasure to see people happy and enjoying the classes. Teaching is a very nice practice, it's all about giving to people, sharing something that makes you feel good with others. Anyway, this program made our weeks quite busy and we could finally rest on Sundays. The first Sunday Mathieu came to visit and we joined a boat day-trip with one of my teachers to the back waters. The second Sunday I treated myself with an Ayurvedic body massage and some shopping. The last Sunday I focused on reading for the last exam. Yogic diet The diet was "yogic", i.e. moderate but delicious and healthy. A yogic diet does not rely on calories, vitamins, etc. like other diets. The three keys of a yogic diet are moderation, specific type of food called “sattwic”, and respect to the food. Moderation in eating is very important since over-eating is responsible for many diseases. One must only eat when he or she is hungry, and only fill his or hers stomach to the half of its capacity with food, 25% with water, and the last 25% with air. This is the ratio that is recommended for allowing the stomach to function properly. This ratio is very strict and I do not think I respected it during the TTC although sometimes I had no choice because the portions served were quite small. Regarding the kind of food appropriate for yogis, the rules are relatively easy, it is strictly vegetarian, but can comprise dairy products. Basically, one can eat cereals, fresh and dry fruits, and raw or freshly cooked vegetables. Finally, one must eat food with respect and with a sense of love, connection and peace. This involves a short praying before eating, avoid speaking during eating, avoid bad company or unpleasant discussions. To be honest, the meals served at the TTC were delicious but somehow repetitive, and in small quantities. I am a very big eater so sometimes I had to leave the table hungry. In this regard I have to confess that I regularly enjoyed the peanuts and sugar bars from the little supermarket close to the hotel ;) Apart from the quantities, I had absolutely no problem to adapt to the food since I am vegetarian for two years and vegan for almost one year now. It did not really changed from my usual alimentation. The rules of Ayurveda diets based on one’s dosha are more complicated to follow but are not the object of this post :) A lasting impact Mathieu visited me for a week and also enjoyed the asana classes. It was the chance for me to realize that I must take my new yogic lifestyle with me in the real world, with the challenges that it represents: different food, different timing, time for asana and meditation. A yogic lifestyle is not easy to integrate into our modern lives, also not into a traveler’s and volunteer's life. Manoj once told us that a yogi must wake up during “Brahmamuhurta”, from 03:45 to 05:45 in the morning. Ideally, one should wake up about an hour and a half before the sunrise. At this time, the environment is pure and calm, the mind and the nature are quiet and experience an energy pick, it is the best time for meditation. Therefore I try to wake up everyday before the sunrise and start practicing to benefit from this peaceful timeframe. However this could be easier if I was controlling the time I go to bed. When traveling we never know when the day will be finished and therefore the need for sleep is sometime stronger than the call for the sunrise. Regarding food, I mentioned that yogis should eat sattwic food, which means eating healthy and moderate food, it also means avoiding some ingredients (many are very common like onions, garlic, chilli) and spicy food. As travellers we eat often outside in restaurants and it is very hard to find appropriate food. Therefore I keep to a vegan diet which is not hundred percent sattwic as this would be too complicated to arrange. Another issue is alcohol, which is strictly prohibited for yogis. I will not lie I still enjoy some cold beers in the hot afternoons with Mathieu and friends we meet. Like everything I guess it is a question of moderation, and obviously I am unlikely to become the new Buddha anyway :p Yoga in Auroville Right after receiving my certification, I took a bus to join Mathieu in Auroville. Actually Mathieu was also practicing Yoga for two weeks since we splitted! Another kind of yoga called “Karma Yoga”, the yoga of action. This yoga is appropriate for outgoing and action-oriented people, it purifies the heart by practicing selfless action. It is a selfless devotion, a sacrifice of oneself without aiming for personal gain or reward. This is also basically what we are aiming at through volunteering this year. People of Auroville are all living in this philosophy of devotion to a higher power that they work and live for, in harmony. The atmosphere of Auroville is very special, full of strong energies. We could feel real goodwill in everybody we met. People were dedicated to selfless action and some places were flooded with energy. The visit of the Matrimandir for instance, this huge monument dedicated to concentration, was for me a really moving experience. Coming to Auroville after finishing the TTC and as part of our volunteering trip was making a lot of sense, answering a lot of questions, confirming many assumptions. Some articles are dedicated to Auroville and Aurovillians’ projects on our blog, check it out if you are interested. Currently I keep on waking up early, eating as healthy as possible and practicing asanas and meditation everyday. This is a routine that I love and want to pursue in the future. It will probably be even easier when we settle back after the trip. I do not want to become a yoga teacher but I am happy to teach Mathieu, my family and friends if they like. Feel free to book a yoga session for next year :D Yoga and permaculture principles We acknowledged there are many similarities between yogic philosophy and permaculture principles. It makes sense since permaculture inspires from resilient cultures and yoga is one of the most ancient lifestyle and still practiced nowadays. Yoga philosophy and practice has sustained for over the past 5000 years! Commonly, yoga can be seen as an effort of union between the individual’s mind, body and spirit and permaculture as an effort toward sustainable and self-sufficient living. Yoga comes from the Sanskrit “Yuj” which means “union”. Yoga is the union between “Jeevatman” (the individual self) and “Paramatma” (the divine self). Yoga aims at helping us reach “Samadhi”, a state where we reconnect with the divine self, the higher self and the infinite. While yoga is more individual-centred, Permaculture is a larger scale wholistic approach to living which takes into account people's’ impact not only on their spiritual life but on the nature, the universe itself. The ethics of permaculture promote “earth care”, “people care” and “fair share”. Yoga principles which are the five “Yamas”, code of conduct rather group unto people care and fair share:
It is not surprising to see that many yoga practitioners are interested into permaculture and reversely. As we travel we meet many people open to both of these philosophies. There are even many projects who emphasise both concepts of yoga and permaculture as foundation of their activities. For me in particular I find yoga a very appropriate complement to permaculture in my life. I am willing to work on three levels of reflexion through this travel and in general in my life which are:
For me, there cannot be permaculture without yoga. One can give it the name he or she wants, it can be yoga, it can be any form of animist philosophy, or simply a good and pure mindset. People that practice or want to practice permaculture might inherently have reached a state of mind that allow them to see the world in a wholistic way, being able to feel the interconnections in this world, and want to take actions that preserve the natural flow and equilibrium. The research of harmony in the natural world, of feeling and understanding for a higher energy, and a selfless devotion to the flow of the nature is for me the inherent link between yoga (and many philosophy like Buddhism for instance) and permaculture. Reflection on spirituality Yoga is accepted to be more a philosophy than a religion but it is spiritual by essence. Permaculture might rather been seen as a science and a philosophy thanks to its ethics and therefore it also addresses many spiritual reflections. Yoga connects you with what is higher inside you and around you, to what transcends you. Yoga brings you closer to your inner nature, the nature around you and the broaden higher nature of the universe. Permaculture brings you closer to the nature, its patterns and your connection to it. Yoga and permaculture both make you realize that you belong, that you are part of the whole.
In our times of individualism, capitalism and mass consumption, we tend to forget our connection to the rest of the world, focusing only on our individual feelings and needs. The spirituality that yoga helps develop in oneself breaks this navel gazing. Yoga teaches the imperative of right action, a code of conduct that pushes to respect others and treat them as we would like to be treated. Permaculture goes further pushing us to respect nature and integrate the earth as another part of us that we need to preserve and nurture. Our modern society, especially in western countries has taught us competition and profit as the new gods, as the new ethics. They bring us against each other, and always more far away to the earth. Society provokes our ego through promotion of over-consumption, competition and profit. Our ego is responsible for our individual and social conflicts. Our ego generally drives us to put much focus on our individual interests, to perform selfish actions as opposed to selfless actions. Yoga suggests that only selfless actions can bring us the peace of mind we all aspire to, by avoiding the generation of unnecessary impressions toward our actions. Ego is thereby the root of all kind of individual mental imbalances and societal disorders: it represents a poison for human unity and sustainable societies. Because of ego, individualism, rush for consumption and profit, we betray our mother hearth, the nature, we neglect our planet as we neglect our souls. We refuse this system because it is disrespectful to the humans, to the earth and it is unsustainable. This system will collapse soon and then spirituality might surely be the one and only pillar people will be able to hang on to. We hope for the society to turn back to ethics, to spirituality and true values. If not the society as a whole then the individuals. We see on our trip so many projects from small communities, families, individuals, who believe in themselves, in nature, in something higher, in an imperative to do the right action. We recognize many groups in the world, in France as well, of permaculture networks, ecological activists, that are taking steps, doing their share. We wish to join them because it feels like the right action.
3 Comments
Jack Lee
6/13/2018 08:26:28 am
Thanks for your sharing.
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11/7/2023 07:24:15 pm
Fantastic article on yoga! It beautifully captures the transformative power of this ancient practice for mind, body, and soul.
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