The Three Yogis

Last week, I was all set to start off 'Yoga Dhyaan Shibirs' for my neighbors. Yoga Dhyaan Shibirs, conceptualized organized by the Art of Living Foundation, are free health and happiness workshops which are conducted by senior volunteers and teacher trainees of the Foundation.


Not too long ago I was given an orientation course and was duly presented with a manual which had the list of yoga asanas that I could teach.

Armed with the manual and some 10 by 10 square foot of apartment real estate, I mustered up enough courage to invite people to the workshop.

I was ready to take the world. After much campaigning, the world presented itself in the form of three sprightly boys who were around 5 foot height, give or take a few inches.



Right. I decided to bow to the Will of the Universe and welcomed my students into my apartment.

On the first day, they sauntered in, bringing with them more skepticism and some enthusiasm. Perhaps they worried that the time for yoga would 'eat' into their play time.

"Aunty, we have lots of homework so we need to finish fast', their self-appointed spokesperson suggested. The others nodded vigorously. I told them not to worry and that I would be packing them off in just half an hour. On hearing that, they relaxed.

With each asana being demonstrated, they questioned each move and gave suggestions as to how the asana can be modified in accordance with what they saw, mostly on TV. They obviously excelled in theory, but none of them ventured to make a move!

"Aunty, in our school they taught us to lift the right leg and wrap the left hand around the head and then turn fully around", one of them suggested, going into merry convolutions even as he was saying it.

I patiently reassured him that there were different schools of Yoga which taught asanas with slight variations. The boy relaxed a bit and tentatively tried to follow what I was demonstrating.

The Bhastrika Pranayaam proved to be a nose, er, sorry, mind-blowing experience for them. One of them started sneezing non-stop. Perhaps he had an instant allergic response to the pranayaam, I wondered.

Some moments of dancing and prancing followed after which they lay down blissfully and prepared for Yoga Nidra (Yogic sleep). At this point, I thought I heard a gentle snore emanate from one sleeping figure. I had to instruct them more than once to wake up. The boys had had a long day of studies and play. So they must have fallen into (cosmic) sleep!

All in all, it was great fun. I can't quite decide who had more fun, me or them. I like to believe that I was a winner here. Just watching their enthusiasm, fun, smiles, giggles and a whole lot of attempts at stretching tickled the funny bone endlessly.

There's something about being with children, which makes the spirit soar. Maybe that is because they look upon life with so much joy. As Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar once put it: "...in the eyes of children, there is nothing dead in the world; animals, trees, the sun and the moon all are alive, and have emotions and feelings. But in the eyes of a stressed and ignorant person, even human beings are like robots or objects! "

By the end of the 5-day sessions, the yogis had pestered their parents to buy yoga mats for them. Now I hear that the mats are safely rolled into a corner in their rooms. Hopefully, they will air them every now and then with a bend here and a stretch there...