Removing all Obstacles...

So a bit about the Shala and guruji and astanga and all that stuff but first the nuts and bolts... got a new place, a lovely airy and big flat all to myself! Felt a bit bad running away from the other one but I really needed my space and a chance to just spread out and not have loads of yoga students coming round talking about Fight Club, cos there's really no need... :) Anyway, for the princely sum of £120 ish I get two beds, bathroom x 2, kitchen and puja (prayer) room! Land lord is called Ganapathy - which is kind of like Ganapatti, who is a Hindu Deity "Gana" is the servant of Lord Shiva and Ganapatti is in charge of everything, apparently. Which makes sense as Mr G (as I like to call him!) used to be a Government official, which here is a big deal... Oh and he has an elephant head (not Mr G, the Deity!) I have the usual Ganesha picture outside the door, Ganesha being the remover of all obstacles. I wish Ganesha had been more present in my practice this morning.

Star Date 3, Captain's Log... Oh god was I stiff, and sore and locked up in the lower back and I KNOW you aren't meant to look but honestly, when there is a guy doing 5th Series (which for the unitiated is kind of like the most bizarre contortions of the body you will ever see!) it's hard not to... He is obviously genetically made of rubber but its kind of weird to see people turning themselves inside out so casually... (Andrea I can't believe you are more addicted to my blog than BB and I demand to know what is going on there so do update me)!

Missing everyone but kind of getting used to a solitary time. I get up at the crack of stupid o'clock, wash and walk ten mins to the Shala and after practice grab a coconut and then go for breakfast... The food here is wicked and I'm probably going to come back looking at least 10 pounds heavier...! I can't resist the home cooked stuff that I've mainly been eating. Its' a lot safer to do this, go to a lady's house and eat her food, which is prepared with love and with yoga students in mind. I have been told about a couple of restaurants that do good food and that are clean, will be checking out..

Anyway... Back to Fight Club even though I said I wouldn t talk about it I presume avid readers (who have nothing better to do!) will want to know. When you are in Mysore its very strict. You must do what they say and sign a waiver to say you wont' practice with another teacher and you will stop at the place in the series that they tell you... So I did a full primary yesterday and today but today was really hard. I couldn't do Supta Kurmasana - sleeping tortoise, an extreme forward bend with the feet behind the head) and I even struggled with some of the marychasanas... oh well. A lesson in humility, I am grateful to be on my mat and when my driste (gaze) wonders, I am just slack-jawed with disbelief and wonder at the human rubber bands about me. I will never be like that I simply don't have the physical capacity. I am strong (in arm balances particulary) but not NATURALLy flexible, I've had to work at it and in some places in my body I just don't bend..

Now, we all know there is more to life and yoga than bending so I will leave that discussion alone and move on...

For the more scatalogically-minded among you, I am happy to report that after a day or so of being bunged up I am now happiily flowing, a bit more than I'd like but am compensating by eating about a hundred Chappathi's a day, well ok about 4...

Apparently this is a saying in Ashtanga-yoga land, eat more chappathi. As well as 'taking oil bath' At Sunday's conference Guruji was asked a few questions, one was 'should women do nauli (stomach churning) and he said 'no, because ten babies should coming!" and he went to elaborate saying that we (ladies) should all be having ten babies (11 including the husband!)

I wanted to ask him where we would find the time to practice, practice practice if were were busy poppin' em out, but I refrained... I also refrained from asking him who he fancied to win the World Cup... I have this delightful image in my head of Guruji and co after being all yogi and everything popping up to their flat upstairs to smoke a fag and watch Eastenders. Apparently he does like Indian Soaps and he is just a guy like you know?

He did talk at length about ageing and Astanga, and although its quite hard to understand him at times, there were some real pearls, he told us the secret of life too, honest!
Here it is, distilled of course

Don't waste your body or mind
Have many babies!
Think God
Do yoga
(eat chappathis, ok I made that one up but I'm sure it does help!)

So that's all my darlings, take on board the wisdom of Guruji and you will be ok
over and out
xxx