![[Homepage of Iyengar Yoga Resources]](/images/iyrlogo_A.gif)
|
|
|
Chris: Has your training in Ayurveda influenced your teaching?
Geeta: I don't think that Ayurveda has influenced my teaching. I was teaching before I did my Ayurveda. It helps to understand the constitution of a person and why they are behaving in a particular manner. Or when a disease is there you can understand in which way vata, pitta, or kapha is moving within to cause this kind of disease. If you are a patient we teach you certain things to help your problem. If you know Ayurveda, you can then relate it to yoga by knowing why a certain asana helped a specific problem. That is later, more theoretical work. While teaching I don't think of Ayurveda but I know that the very approach helps me to understand.
Chris: So would you say that through yoga you understood more about Ayurveda but that Ayurveda didn't necessarily teach you about yoga?
Geeta: That's right. I don't think that any Ayurvedic doctor can know from his work what we are doing in yoga. His limitation will be there. Don't think that an Ayurvedic doctor will be a better yoga teacher. That's not possible. And an allopathic doctor also cannot say that he will be a better yoga teacher. A teacher should necessarily be an honest and thorough practitioner of yoga. One needs the penetration to go inside and understand. Suppose you have a headache. I can give you the reason from an Ayurvedic point of view, why Ardha Baddha Padma Paschimottanasana does not give relief but Swastikasana bending forward gives you relief. Or how Janu Sirsasana gives relief but not Marichyasana. But these are later calculations. Even if I had not known Ayurveda I would certainly not have given you Ardha Baddha Paschimottanasana for your migraine. If the heel is pressing the area below the navel, which is apana vayu, it is going to get pushed upward and that will disturb the nerves. Swastikasana and Janu Sirsasana do not disturb the nerves. In migraine the vata goes up and you need to release it downward to relieve it. Other sciences can be related later. Like what happens to your pituitary gland in head balance, that is a later calculation. But head balance has to be experienced in that manner and then you can know.
Chris: Many of us are wondering what you see for your future. Sometimes you talk about wanting more time for your own practice and work. And now that Guruji is retired you have such a load. Of course we, your students, hope you will teach forever! But how do you see the future? You are the teacher here now. What will happen if you don't teach so much?
Geeta: Some day I have to retire, that is true. But when I don't know. There are many youngsters who will come up; they will teach.
Chris: But isn't it hard to turn things over to the youngsters who don't know what you know and who may not be as devoted?
Geeta: Some day it has to happen. And when I was young, I was not a perfect teacher. Gradually perfection comes. If they are honest in their approach they will pick up the knowledge. If they are not, what can be done? This is the world. It is all up to the upcoming teachers. God takes care of his creation. When I will retire and what will happen, only He knows. I need not worry about it.
Chris: You have had so much contact with Westerners and many of us are teachers. You have seen us. What do you think we need to do to improve as teachers? What do we need to work on?
Geeta: We have just talked about it. People set their limitations, they refuse to do, they are afraid of pain. They are afraid to face the obstacles. I think you have to take a bold step there. You can tell them if they don't want to do, then don't come. And you have to be sure about it. When you are teaching you have to be sure about it. You have to have that confidence, that firmness, that perfection. Not just for the sake of forcing someone. Sometimes I tell a student okay, today you don't have to do. But tomorrow or after one month you will have to do. I will prepare the person who is afraid of doing Sirsasana physically and mentally to build up the courage. I won't inform them that I am preparing them. Gradually I will build it and then I will say, see how the courage came. That is what is needed. Otherwise there is no faith in the method.
Chris: Anything else you'd like to tell us?
Geeta: There are lots of things to be practised to be known. To become a good teacher one should be open-minded and sensitive. First of all, one has to keep the ego aside and accept the teaching of a senior and experienced teacher like Guruji. He has more to give than anyone else. His experience might not be grasped by juniors but one has to wait and see, practice and experience, and then the truth will be revealed.
Years back sometimes even I could not understand Guruji when he explained cer- tain things but now I realise how correct and how true he was. Because of our ignorance we may not adopt his knowledge and understanding straight away. If we don't grasp immediately, that does not mean he is wrong. It may not come easily. We have to open our minds and rub our intelligence to experience his experienced and realised knowledge. Then there is a chance for us to become good teachers.
If you want to print the interview, please use one of printable versions.