Tuesday 25 April, 2006

Guru

I ordered a copy of Guru the Movie, a short documentary about Sri K. Pattabhi Jois' 90th birthday, after Julie recommended it and we watched it with the husband last week. It's only 28 minutes long but I thought it was a very nice glimpse to Mysore and Guruji's way of teaching.

Afterwards we got to talking about the cultural differences in India (and East in general) and here in the West. Firstly the guru system - the whole idea is that the guru will never declare themselves to be a guru, but students find him/her and "make" the guru. Students are then expected to be blindly obedient to the guru - Jois himself says that to him a perfect student is the one who does what he's told and never asks questions. In the West no one, or very few, would follow a teacher with these conditions - we have such a strong culture of individualism that giving up independence is undesirable and downright scary. But even in the Eastern culturess one should not take guru lightly. The student is supposed to observe and test the potential guru years, or even decades, before deciding to follow them - but once the decision has been made it's to be taken seriously. We tend to be more fickle - decisions are made in a blink of an eye and commitments are made, but then they are cancelled just as quickly.

I admire people who have the conviction to dedicate their lives to something. Yoga is a big part of my life, but I'm very much still searching for my guru - both figuratively and more literally speaking. What is it that I want to commit to life for? I would like to commit to adding years to my life with regular exercise and healthy eating. I've been even thinking lately about becoming a vegetarian, I would certainly like to learn to cook better vegetarian food and at least eat meat a little less. And I would like to become better at practicing Ahimsa (in the context of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras).

All these goals are part of yoga philosophy, but for me they are also very personal things and therefore having a concrete guru to guide me to do them seems... foreign. It's not to say I know what's best for me and won't listen to anyone - it's more like I'm in the process of observing several different gurus and likely will do so for years to come. Practice. And all is coming.

Posted by kolibri at 25 April 22:00, 2006
Comments
# 1 - Julie (on April 26, 2006 09:38 AM):

The DVD has some bonus features if you didn't get to see those that are really great too.

I don't know... I don't see the Guru, in ashtanga yoga anyway, as being someone who "controls" or "directs" your entire way of being but, when I'm on the mat, I take my direction and I do what I am told. I don't in anyway sense a feeling of giving up my individualism or independence.


# 2 - kolibri [TypeKey Profile Page] (on April 26, 2006 10:04 AM):

On the mat you do (mainly) Asana out of the eight limbs of asthanga yoga. I think that's what most of us do... I've been thinking about the other limbs, Ahimsa being closest to my heart. But I do think following them all would required a huge leap of faith, to believe unconditionally that they are the correct way of living. Let alone sacrifices you'd have to make.

Difficult to explain, I feel I've failed already :/


# 3 - Emokolibri (on April 27, 2006 11:15 PM):

I try to apply ahimsa also on the mat (as my teachers have told me). It is part of the excercise, not a easy one - non-violence for yourself.


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