Saturday, May 31, 2014

Pranayama and micro-meditations: Durga Temple Yoga Group, Va, USA

This is the third time I am doing a workshop for this group in consecutive years during my visit to USA. The venue is the beautiful and serene Durga Temple at Fairfax Station, Varginia  www.durgatemple.org. The Yoga group meets over the week-end s with the objective of practicing as a group to bring in regularity, commitment and consistency in the practice with mutual support and encouragement.  Jay Kalathil is passionate about making this group practice available to all and devotes a lot of his time and energy in making the sessions happen and lead them. He also gives opportunity to others to share their practice with the group. I met Jay in 2012 and am inspired by who he is. The meeting took place, thanks to Jacob, who introduced my work to Jay and requested him to consider giving me a chance to do a workshop. I am grateful to Jay and Jacob for creating this opportunity for me.  Jacob was instrumental in making all the three events happen. Apart form coordinating with Jay, Jacob and Susan have been hosting me every year. I am fortunate to enjoy their fabulous hospitality.



I wish to share a few of my impressions about this group. The group is just fabulous – they are focused, sincere and self-motivated in their practice of Yoga and as I know more and more about the group and get to know some of the members, I am developing a deep respect for this group. It is one of the best groups I had the opportunity to meet and it would be pleasure and privilege to keep up this association as I get a lot of inspiration and motivation in being with them.
This event was particularly enjoyable for me because I had the opportunity to introduce micro-meditations to the group. Most of the group had not been introduced to the technique of micro-meditation and many people told me that they find it very interesting and simple to practice.
I have done workshops for this group thrice in the last three years. My younger daughter Madhavi and her husband (Vikram) live n NJ. So, I am likely to keep going there often. I was not clear about how I can continue my association with this group as my friends Jacob and Susan are relocating to India. In the first workshop I did in 2012, my friend Subbu (TM Subramanium, another batch mate of ours in the Navy) was visiting his daughters. He  participated in the event along with his son-in-law Prasanna and they invited us for dinner, where I had the pleasure of meeting his whole family. It was pure joy to meet Nicki and Nina, the lovely grand children.
Prasanna came to this workshop venue with his daughters. That was very wonderful as I adore his kids and there was no time to go over and meet them during this trip. Lo and behold, Prasanna very graciously and generously offered to host me next year! The ease and grace with which all his happened can only be described aptly by the word ‘synchronicity’. I am grateful to Prasanna and Jacob, who said ‘here comes your host for next year’ when we met Prasanna at the end of the event.
I am reminded of what Ekhart Tolle said.  When you are walking in a mist with a flash light, you see only a small path in front of you (which he says is the NOW). As you keep walking, the path keeps unfolding and by being present and surrendering to the NOW, you enjoy the journey.
I find this a very helpful tenet. When you focus on the NOW, you dissolve the psychological time in which regrets and worries arise. It is like playing a game. You can really play to your potential only if you are present in the moment and flow along the NOW. That’s why we enjoy games and I learned that you can take this into the game of life and enjoy every moment. Because, ‘It is never not NOW’

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