International Yoga Festival, Rishikesh 2012

People from all over the world are here to attend the Yoga festival. There is an interesting story I overheard about this festival. This is the 12^th year of the festival. IYF is not started by Parmarth Ashram. Originally, this concept came from Uttaranchal Tourism. Yes, a moribund government department thought of Yoga tourism. B K S Iyengar was the first prominent yoga teacher here. He liked the concept and announced to his disciples that if they wish to attend his special pranayam discourse in Pune then they needed to sign IYF for 2 years. That must have got it the required momentum. Even today, Iyengar school sends out their best teachers for the program.

Given this background, it is rather strange to see Head of Parmarth Ashram, Swami Chidanand Sarawati occupying center stage in every satsang, discourse, lecture, etc. He is at the center of the festival. His large photo looks at you from every brochure, poster and banner. Even at the lecture of Swami Dayanand Saraswati, Chidanandji occupied the center stage and the main speaker was made to sit on his right. It is not important that Chidanandji didn’t utter a single world from the stage.

It is strange that almost 90% participants are from outside India – a Yoga instructor in her 30s from California, a 60 years old British woman from Kullu (where she spends most of her time), a large group from Japan (Budha carried meditation also to Japan), a white flowing gown team of Naamdhari Sikhs from Canada, etc. The other significant aspect is the presence of women. About 2/3^rd of the attendees are women. It can be attributed to their superior knowledge, intellect and awareness.

I have been greatly impressed with two teachers at IYF – Gurushabad Khalsa and Manouso Manos. Class for Gurushabad khalsa used to start at 4 o’clock in the morning and the class used to be tough. Simple looking exercises but extremely difficult. Other teacher was Manouso. He was brilliant. He had a booming voice and a commanding presence. He would exhort us, chide us and demand from each one of us to put our complete awareness in every asana.

Parmarth Ashram has made decent arrangement for the festival. They have put two large tents outside a 3 story building which houses Yoga halls. Most of the festival is happening here in the lawns and the yoga center. Main ashram is nothing but a overgrown ‘dharamshala’. It is quite pedestrian in its design and facilities. It has series of statutes of Gods, of different myths and avatars. There is a large, almost 20 feet high, Shivji statue opposite ashram on the banks. All statues come from the same school, kinda Raja Ravi Verma type. There is no detailing, no subtlety and no nuance. It is pure puerile stuff. Why our religious places don’t become center for fine art, culture and architecture? Every single artist seeks divinity in her art. Such places can truly become an island of excellence and bring a renaissance. It is possible that most of the gurus of such ashrams are not exposed to aesthetics themselves. Singing out of tune bhajans may be the only exposure they have to art.

We can learn something from Europe here. Church houses biggest treasure trove there. It has inspired great art, architecture and music. We have a very high credibility when it comes to yoga or spirituality. It is like engineering comes naturally to Germans. It will be great if other tourism departments also adopt to this and make a concerted effort to establish India as a spiritual destination.

Swami Dayanand Sarawati at International Yoga Festival, Rishikesh

International Yoga Festival – Rishikesh, March 1-3

Heard Swami Dayanand Saraswati today at Parmarth Ashram, Rishikesh. He is an old man, not in best of the health, who needs dialysis on daily basis. There was a long congregation waiting for him. Swamiji arrived in style, late and in a Mercedes bearing a number plate with 6666 (even the total adds to 6). Head of Parmarth Ashram, Swami Chidanand Saraswati, made sure that everybody should know that this is his show. He was on the stage, rather in the center and the speaker oddly placed on the right of Swami Chidanand Sarawati.

Swami Dayanand Sarawati spoke well, with an authority, clear and precise. He made lot of sense. Most of Indians would find an intuitive echo in his explanation of Bhagwad Gita but his simplicity made it understandable for all foreigners too. Swamiji took a verse from Chapter 4 of Gita where Krishan asks Arjun to be objective and consider all external (relationships, objects, etc) considerations as external.

In English & Sanskrit, there is no change in the verb in relation to gender while in all other languages (mostly Indian languages) verb changes with gender. Only you can be referred as ‘I’. Everyone else can be referred as a pronoun. Each one of us is a significant reality and every other relation is in relative relation to us from our perception and our position. That’s why to be objective we need to keep external as external. Most of the times, we carry hurt, anger, frustration and jealousy inside us. We carry hurt from parents, relationships, teachers, etc inside us, long after they are gone. There is a virtual community inside us of all the people who caused hurt. This happens because we can’t keep external as external.

If I don’t want to be hurt then I can’t hurt anybody. And that’s why we need to free ourselves to free others from us. That’s the only way to be objective. Then it will not be difficult to decide what to do. Whatever needs to be done is to be done. Similarly, if we love others, it is impossible not to be loved by all.

Swamiji made a distinction between Hinduism and other religion. In Hinduism there is no mandate and there is no one person who is defining right and wrong. Doing right thing, right act is God. And Dharm is doing right. There is a grand design in this creation and the grand design is the creation itself. Each one of us is an important and a desirable creation.

In this difficult world Krishan tells Arjun that there is no freedom from relationship but there is freedom in relationship. We don’t own anybody, in any relations. We don’t even own our own body. Our parents have a right on it (being creator), our spouse has a right on it (significant other) and even our children have right on it (offspring). We have been appointed as an enlightened managing trustee of this wonderful creation. Act out your care by loving yourself first.

When we are born, in an utterly helpless and clueless stage, we need to place complete trust and faith in the caregiver. The child may not know how to survive or how to navigate but she knows how to put complete faith in the caregiver. To navigate this difficult world, one needs to place such faith in the caregiver of the world. Human beings have been blessed with the faculty of making a choice. We need to make a choice of what path we want to take.

We need to be aware of the here and now. Having a monkey mind which can never be still and is always wondering from past to future requires discipline. Yoga thru meditation provides that discipline. Yoga is having enlightened awareness, knowing all that is around us and within us.