INTERVIEW WITH PARINITHA UMESH, A SENIOR STUDENT OF YOGNAT CONDUCTED BY DEREK BIERMANN

[Guest guest]

INTERVIEW WITH PARINITHA UMESH, A SENIOR STUDENT OF YOGNAT CONDUCTED BY DEREK BIERMANN, THE FAMOUS AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHER FOR HIS BOOK ON YOGA IN INDIA TO BE RELEASED THE END OF THIS YEAR

 

The reason that my mother first took me to yoga classes was for my health, because I was always sickly and weak as a result of my premature birth. To begin with, doing yoga was something so strange because I was living in a different world where there was no order; everything seemed to be done without purpose. When I came here to Pondicherry to study at Yoganjali Natyalayam, I began to understand more about what life and what the purpose of my life is.

My mother really wanted me to take bharat natyam lessons instead of yoga. Dr. Ananda told us that there are also many yoga postures in bharat natyam dancing, and he suggested that I should start with yoga because my body was so weak. Many of the other institutions might teach yoga in the modern way, where the asanas are mainly taught to make the student feel physically strong. Here at Yoganjali Natyalayam they teach us in a complete yogic way. Yoga has helped me mentally and physically, and I have developed a more mature way of thinking. My approach towards life has changed because I have learned to look at it in a new way.

My mother works in a bank and when she comes home she is often very tense. When she gets that way she shouts at me, so I decided that I would not talk to her at all so I would not make her angry. Through yoga I started to understand that her tension was caused not by me but by her work, so now when she comes home, I take care of her and I behave properly. I used to be selfish and short-tempered before I started yoga, and I used to get angry very easily. Now I feel I have totally controlled my anger, and I can see the changes in myself. My outlook on life is completely different and even my mother tells me how much I have changed.

I used to frequently get sick with colds, fevers and coughing. In yoga there are certain Pranayamas which help in preventing colds, and since I have been using them, my colds and coughs have stopped. My legs used to be weak and I could not stand for a long time. I always used to feel tired and needing to lie down. Now through the practice of yoga asanas, I am able to stand for a long time without any feeling of weakness. My asanas were not very good when I first came here. In my school studies I was always top of my class, so I never knew what failure was. Through yoga I have learned that life is not always about winning, and that there are many senior children who are performing yoga asanas much better than me. I still don’t do all the asanas correctly because I am a

little lazy and I don’t practice enough.

My first teacher here was Miss Lalitha, and she taught me for about three months before I started doing Dr Ananda’s class. When I started his class it was very difficult for me. In the beginning we only learned about breathing and how to do simple asanas. In the next series of classes we learnt kriyas and about the different sides of yoga, like what we are supposed to do and not to do. In Dr. Ananda’s class we are taught in a detailed and elaborate manner what the different asanas and pranayamas mean to our awareness of body, mind and emotions. If I want to know whether my hands and feet are going in the correct position; I have to be aware of my thoughts and what my reactions are towards things. We learn to recognize how aware or unaware we are when we concentrate on a

particular action, like when I am studying. I have learned to stop and ask myself whether I am concentrating or not, and whether I have full awareness or not.

At the start of yoga classes we do warm up exercises and then we are divided into groups and we start the asanas. We learn new and exciting poses every week. Dr. Ananda is a good teacher because he knows what children need. He jokes a lot in class, which keeps us attentive and helps us to concentrate. His classes are interesting too. Last weekend he was teaching us about yantra, which is somewhat like numerology. Yantra is a path, starting from the day that you are born. Even though we are not quite mature enough for it yet, he has started teaching us the basics.

When I started doing yoga, I would be completely exhausted at the end of the class and I would want to lie down. Now when I finish a class, I have so much more energy than I had before the class started. I have also learned to have more awareness about the food I eat, so I eat plenty of greens to help my digestion and that will help me to practice better. Many of my school friends also do yoga, and we talk to each other about our experiences and how we felt doing the asanas. We also talk about where we felt muscles pulling in our bodies and where they felt relaxed. When you have perfected one asana, you practice variations of it and then go further into more difficult asanas. It is process of going step by step. Each asana gives you

energy, and each asana has a different meaning.

My first yoga asana competition was at the Himalaya Yoga Olympiad. People from the Vivekananda Kendra in Bangalore came here to Pondicherry to host the competition. The asanas were too difficult for me so I didn’t get a prize. I was upset about it at first, but then I realized that without more prior effort I could not expect to win. If I had worked harder than I had and still did not win a prize, then I would have felt really bad. I don’t think that I deserved a prize in my first competition, but when I entered the 18th Pondicherry State Yogasana Championships, I won fifth place. I also entered the International Yoga Festival competition in Pondicherry that was held on the beach in front of the Gandhi Statue on Marine Drive. The competition was crowded with people from all over the world, and

there were many people who were experts at the asanas so I didn’t win any prize. My most recent competition was the Swami Gitananda Best Yoga Youth Awards. In that competition we work together in a team and my team won the third prize. I think that the competitions have taught me to have a more sportsman-like spirit, so if you lose then you should not get too upset. Amma told us one day that we should not feel bad if we lose because there is always something to learn by not winning. From then on I didn’t feel bad if I won or lost because there was nothing more important than gaining knowledge and experience. In a few months I will have completed my fourth year of yoga.

Before learning yoga I never understood who God is. I thought that God was just someone that you prayed to if you wanted something, and I had no understanding of how to get closer to Him. I have since learned that everything we do in life, we do for God. I started visiting temples and learning more about the mythology of Hinduism, because I could not tell which god was which when I was shown their statue. Through yoga I began to understand why God created us and why we are here. I am also learning what God expects from us, and about the ‘right’ way of living.

In the beginning, I couldn’t understand why Swamiji (Yogamaharishi Dr Swami Gitananda Giri) was often mentioned at Yoganjali Natyalayam, but as time passed I began to realise his greatness and understand his contribution to the world of yoga. Thousands of people all over the world have benefited from his enlightened teachings. Though I never met Swamiji, I have a mental image of him that I turn towards whenever I am in confusion or trouble. I feel that this always gives me true happiness and helps me find the truth of the situation. He was a great guru not only because of his magnificent knowledge and teachings or books but because he taught by example. He was everything he wanted his disciples to be. I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of this institution founded by Swamiji to preserve the truth, beauty and purity of

our Rishiculture Ashtanga Yoga.

 

The goal or the final step of yoga is samadhi. My present aim is to just perfect the first steps towards samadhi and even that is very difficult. I have been taught that we should try to work through all the eight steps of yoga so I can reach samadhi. The eight steps are yama, niyama, asanas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. I am still trying to find perfection in the first steps but I don’t know if I am doing too well. We only have yoga class twice a week, on Friday and Saturday. All the other days we are at regular school where we are not taught anything like what we learn here.

Yoga is a way of controlling the mind. When the mind is always wandering, it is not possible to think about a particular thing for a long time. Yoga gives us the training to control our minds so that our brains can function better. Yoga has many definitions but I believe that yoga teaches us the awareness of God.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yogacharya Dr.Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani

Chairman : Yoganjali Natyalayam and ICYER

25,2nd Cross,Iyyanar Nagar, Pondicherry-605 013

Tel: 0413 - 2622902 / 0413 -2241561

Website: www.icyer.com

www.geocities.com/yognat2001/ananda