yoga at 6am this morning... finally

Boy do things change. I went to my teacher's class this morning. Only three years ago i would not have missed one of his classes if I was anywhere within a 20 mile radius. Now, he has been in Rishikesh for a full month and today was the first time I got up at 5 to make it to his 6am class. Boy times change.
He didn't disappoint. Me and 50 other eager beavers sat and soaked up his kundalini class today, with a chakra focus. He doesn't always teach kundalini, but sometimes yes he does. So it was a LOT of chanting and breathing. Which was great. Think I loosened up some stuff.
The older the get, the more my feeling is that yoga is healthy science. All the mythology and mumbo jumbo associated perhaps serves a purpose for some. But when it comes down to it, it was a bunch of guys with lots of time on their hands and a LOT of curiousity about how the body systems work, energy, physical and otherwise. So really, all those trippy exercises you do: closing your right nostril and inhaling through your left, engaging mula bhanda and pulling energy up from the base of the body to the crown, tucking your chin to your check to create an energy lock and THEN folding forward into janushirsasana (i apologize deeply to you non-yogis out there to whom this mumbo jumbo for sure, please then just ignore) .... is merely just play, merely to create the desired affect of fine tuning up the body. Yes, i can feel it, i can feel it in places you would never DREAM of feeling that. Not in my hamstrings, not in my low back, not even in my lungs (although i CAN feel it in ALL those areas) what i notice, peculiarily is that this exercises is directly affecting this tweak i've had in my thoracic back. It is opening it up and nourishing it with fresh oxygenated blood and getting the flow back in the of energy and removing the blockages. I can FEEL this happening, this wonderful opening. So really it is just a science.
I am not sure if yogic techniques will bring "enlightenment" per se. They will bring altered states, for sure, increased sensitivity and sense of lightness, definately. But that unshakable state of constant pure joy of living? hmm, i'm not totally convinced. But it is sure a great way to take care of yourself.
Have a great day everyone!