Prana power yoga

steph, i'm gonna fly a kite for you in more ways than you know honey. kites. supposed to be a great movie too yeah? anyone seen it?

well good morning to you all. beautiful day here in rishikesh. just firing off a quick note as i am on my way to have chai, the national pastime of india.

had been feeling a little under the weather, having ingested unwisely some roadside food. wasnt' too bad, but had me a little down for a couple days. feel great now though. was back in yoga class this morning at 6 with bells on. yay! and we had a guest teacher.

before our guest teacher was 101years old! today our guest teacher was easily over 200 pounds. his name is "yogi Raj" (hahahaaha, steph, that is funny, elephant raj and yogi raj who is over 200pounds) and he is my teacher's uncle. not sure if that is an indian uncle (any older male father figure) or if it is his actual uncle... i suspect it is the former. Anyways, I have had yogi Raj's class once before and its a hoot! by the end you feel so good you wanna scream.

Now they are calling his special style of yoga "Prana power yoga" , which is hilarious, because basically he just gets you jumping around and doing breathing exercises WHILE jumping about, and he calls this the "warm up". ya, no kidding yogi Raj, the warm up. and we do this for like an hour until you have so much breath and blood rushing through your body, and flushing out your cell and the cobwebs in your brain, fresh oxygenated blood for all...... you've never felt so alive and clean. I love this class. The first time, i remember thinking "what the heck is this guy doing?... what is going on here, is this a joke?". This bepuzzlement is enhanced by the fact that he is as big as he is, and we're not talking all muscle here. Yogi raj can do a headstand, a shoulderstand, as well and as long as anyone.

i sense that the message my teacher is trying to give us is that yoga teachers can come in all shapes and sizes (and ages) and you don't have to be skinny to do yoga, you don't have to be young, you just have to do. These teachers are all incredible in their own right, and an attestation to the power of yoga practice over a lifetime. Yogi Raj can hold his breath at least twice as long as any of the other 40 of us in the class, and even though he is of mass proportions, can do jumping jacks with breath of fire just as long as any of the rest of us half his age and half his weight. Its nothing short of miraculous.

So i was gleefully grateful, as were a few other people familiar with his style and what the "point" of his classes are (to get prana [lifeforce] into every dusty nook and cranny of your being) while a few others, especially those enrolled in the 500hr teacher training going on still, were clearly more than a little.... well, almost offended, that this man was being presented to us as a "serious" yoga teacher.

Well, do his yoga... see how you feel.:)
reminds me of that sign we saw in costa rica one time: "taste our chicken.... see what happens!". (it was good chicken by the way, nothing really special happened afterwards, but boy that was delicious chicken)

Yogi Raj's yoga leaves your body clean, your breath full (i think my left lung and a left ventricle of my heart fully opened up during that class today) your head as clear as the big blue sky and a smile on your face that you can't seem to wipe off.

Thank you yogi Raj, and thank you Vishv-ji.
much love.