Harvesting Health

by Zubin Zarthoshtimanesh

"Can we too practice like you, please," asked the local school-going children when they peeped into my one-room hut and saw me doing the asanas. This innocent query was what Brahmachari Rudra Dev had been waiting for, for the last several months. "That is how the seed of interest for these yoga classes was sown."

Welcome to a small village, Kaliggari, in the Shimoga district in the heart of Karnataka, South India (also the native state of our Guruji). The nearest town is Jade (pronounced 'Je-day') and it is also three to four kms from a historically-important temple town called Banavasi, home to one of the oldest surviving temples, Madhukeshwar (which can be traced to the 2nd century AD). From the yoga traveller's point of view, the Madhukeshwar temple is an interesting place as one can see many yogasanas like virasana, baddhakonasana, garudasana and others adorning the temple statues. It is also a pilgrimage point for devotees of Allamaprabhudeva, a 12th century yogi, said to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva.

This modest and unassuming village is now the scene of a unique experiment initiated by Rudra, a native of the place and an Iyengar yoga teacher (whose teaching commitments have taken him to Rishikesh where he runs an Iyengar Yoga Centre). Back in 1998 in his 80th birthday message, Guruji had expressed that it was his wish that yoga be taken to the villages and if reborn, he would take this cause up from where he left of.

Unknown to Guruji then, Rudra had already made a beginning for the cause in the Kaliggari village. This aim of "transforming social culture to spiritual culture through yoga", as Rudra puts it, began about five years ago. It has been the objective of Rudra's family to "serve people" and Rudra wanted to ensure that this culture was retained and what could be better than introducing them to yoga. At that time, when he first thought of helping the village people and the local farmers there, he struck upon the idea of bringing them together for prayers and discussions on physical and moral health. In summer, he suggested solutions for their water problems and generally became a part of their lives.

Training Kalligari villagers in Iyengar Yoga

Yoga was not really known to the local people. They were engrossed in their daily problems. The farmers were not very poor but by no standards were they affluent. They had their own problems and physical ailments - most common being back problems while some were afflicted by polio.

"But things really started changing the day some of the local children saw me practicing the asanas in my room," recalls Rudra. "I used to teach the kids in their play-time, and I think the other people saw me and became interested. I didn't want to force them and was prepared to wait for them to ask," he says.

Shortly after that, the villagers approached him to start some yoga classes there. A yoga camp (of four days) was decided upon and overnight, 60 men and 30 to 40 women enrolled for the yoga classes! Ever since, the yoga camp became a yearly feature and regular classes commenced thereafter. These early students were quick to understand the benefits of yoga practices. Their physical problems started diminishing and it gave them moral health. Information about these classes spread fast by the word of mouth.

The overwhelming response of the local populace prompted Rudra to build a yoga hall complete with blankets, ropes, belts, chairs, bricks and a horse (trestler). Even sage Patanjali's idol (gifted to them by Guruji) was installed there (on last year's Dattatreya Jayanti, December 22, 1999) to complete the ambiance.

Today there are 25 to 30 practicing students, most of them local farmers but (since word has spread) the group also includes forest officers, professors and teachers from the nearby college.

Brahmachari Rudra Dev in front of the Yoga Vanashram

The place has a name now - Yoga Vanashram - meaning the natural abode of yoga (van = forest or natural surroundings and ashram = abode or hermitage). For Rudra "this is a small and worthwhile experiment not only to keep these villagers physically and spiritually healthy but, through yogic principles, instill in them the ethos of eco-conservation and self sufficiency in everything."

As he explains, "Any project should serve not only human beings but all sentient beings." A board put up outside the yoga hall mirrors his thoughts, 'Prakriti Rakshato Rakshatah' - those who protect nature are protected by nature. In a world, fast exhausting its natural resources, where 60 percent of the world's forests have been destroyed, Rudra's effort is like a breath of fresh air. For now, the villagers are totally behind their teacher and guide.

Just as Rabindranath Tagore's 'Shantiniketan' spawned numerous such experiments, here's hoping that in time, this small project becomes a model for many such inspiring endeavours.

Acknowledgements

This article is reproduced from Yoga Rahasya Vol. 8, Nr. 1, 2001, with the permission of the publishers. More information on Yoga Rahasya, e.g. how to subscribe to this quarterly publication, can be found on our site, as well as on the official website of Yogacharya BKS Iyengar.