Just came back to Mysore, had a nice time in Gokarna, enjoyed the beach and the sun. I needed it after 4 month of intensive practice here in Mysore, my time was up in the main shala with Sharath as well, so it was time to escape the Mysore bubble for a while.
Time flied by with Sharath, and I was very happy and satisfied with the experience I had with him. I did not have much expectations, or maybe I had but I tried not to. If so my expectations were more frightening, that I would not like it because of the amount of students and hearing about what kind of chaos it is there. And some how it is a chaos, but I felt like I could handle it with calmness and it didn't stress me that much. I did not feel left out or that he didn't pay attention to be in the room, the other way around. I felt like he knew exactly where I were and what I did. His mission I would recon is to remember ever single face of his students and if you lucky he will remember your name as well, but that would be after some years coming back regularly. For sure he will remember you practice and your face and thats pretty amazing if you think about how many students he teach a day.
In the last month with Sharath I felt grounded and I felt strong. I was happy with practicing with a very beginner kind of mind set. I was new to everything in the shala and Sharath way of teaching. I was a new student and I understand that the foundations are the most important to learn proper first, if in the future, be able to handle the more complicated practice. To find stability in there flexibility its not easy and you got to have patience and mindfulness while practicing. Sharath often told me to not go so deep in my backbends, you lose you strength. Better to not do too much and be mindfull about what ur bodys is telling you. Somehow I haven't felt this strong in a long time. Not because of the asana but also general in life, better do one thing proper then to do everything and not really doing anything fully.
I liked Sharthats conferences. He had many stories to tell, from early years in Lackmirpuram and all the tours they went on around the world. Often he made everyone laught, with a great sens of humor. He reminded us many times to not take ourselves too seriously, see the humor in situations and be humble. To see that everyone is trying their best in this world with what they have and where they come from. Sharath made yoga simple to understand somehow. Its not that complicated he said, and with practice the yoga will come to you. Yoga is not something we do its something that happens. He often made metafors which I really enjoyed. " Yoga is like masala dosa, if you put the right ingredient you get masala dosa, same with yoga. " We westerners like to make thing complicated and hard and we want it all now, but yoga is life time, its the journey. You can tell Sharaths been teaching foreigners for a long time, he knows how we work. With experience from other great indian teachers I sometimes gets a bit lost in the philosophy, because it so routed in them from an early age, but with Sharath he always made it clear and easy to understand. I think and I hope I will be back in the future with him. The community is big and well spread around the word so its important that everyone somehow working on the same path with similar messages how to approach life in a peaceful and light way. I do think Sharath is doing a great job with his students. Love to go back one day.
