October 17th - Patanjali's B'day & Diwali

Patanjali, seen by some as the 'father' of yoga, compiled the yoga sutras, over 5,000 years ago, which outline the philosophy, intent and practice of yoga. In traditional Iyengar yoga, we start the class / practice with an invocation to Patanjali and each year, Swati and Rajiv host a party in celebration of his birthday – and this year it also marked the last day of this first course.

Preparations began 2 days before – and involved two key tasks for us – 3 large sand paintings (e.g. 2 about 4 ft by 4 ft) on the bricks outside the hall and decorating the inside with many, many garlands of flowers. We started with the drawings – first the pattern was laid in chalk and then we filled it in with incredibly vibrant colored sand - it was like coloring ... and just as hard to stay in the lines as a 3 year old with crayons! Then on the day of the event came the flower stringing – at the start it was hard to conceive how this huge bag of orange marigolds would be strung ... but they were, interspersed with shiny green leaves, and by the end of the day they were hanging down and across the windows and along the walls of the studio with extra flowers stuffed into the rope hooks on the wall and strewn on the window sills – it looked beautiful. Somehow I'd been given the task of making flower garlands for the two deities in the room – one to Ganesha (god of wisdom and overcoming obstacles) and one to Hanuman (god of breath) – it felt like real responsibility - thankfully I had help! We had permission to raid Swati's garden for other flowers in addition to the marigolds - my favorite were the purple thistles. Then it was decorating the gods and 'flower stuffing' after the discovery that all the space on and around the gods needed to be filled – so more garden shopping ... By accident, we used these beautiful big tree blossoms – which were initially white when we picked them – but by the time of the event, they'd changed into a mauve purple – it was quite stunning. It was a fun couple of days – the nicest part was just hanging out with the other students and Rajiv and Swati in a very relaxed and informal atmosphere – a treat.

There were about 100 people at the celebration which started late afternoon - first, our invocation and an extended chant to Patanjali. This was followed by a real treat – a world renown musician who plays one of the traditional Indian instruments (unfortunately, the name escapes me ...) performed. The best way to describe it is a very long thin and guitar like instrument supported by two very large orange gourds (like pumpkins) so there is height and he can sit with his feet underneath it. He plays it by strumming the strings and moving a glass ball over them that creates sound vibrations – it was like nothing I've ever seen or heard – just beautiful. This was followed by dinner in the garden and then the good byes started as people were leaving to catch trains. Between this and the group dinner in Dehradun the night before, there was a lovely completion and closure to the course.

Two days later it was Diwali – one of the most important Indian holiday of the year ... the Festival of Lights where the triumph of good over evil or the inner light of an individual is celebrated. One of the traditions of the holidays is cleaning the buildings so that lights can be lit in every room – so for the week before the holiday, all kinds of tidying, sprucing up and painting was evident in houses and stores alike followed by the hanging of lights – it made me think of Christmas. People were also out buying new clothes to wear and the sale of sweets and fireworks was booming! Richard and I made our early morning trek to Missourie on the morning of Diwali and the mood on the street was one of fun and good wishes. Then at practice that afternoon, Rajiv invited those that could make it up to Swati's mother's hotel in Missourie for the celebration. With no concrete dinner plans, I said I'd go – even if on my own (good for me and surprisingly easy) – though it was nice when another couple were also able to join :-) It was a great evening – a traditional prayer service followed by a big bonfire and fireworks in the garden, and concluded with an excellent meal – and it felt very special to be able to participate in a family celebration. On the drive back we could see all the fireworks going off across Dehradun – not one or two big shows but hundreds / thousands as the fireworks go off family by family, house by house. We stopped the car a couple of times, turned off the lights and engine and just watched – it was a magical show.

PS I'm still having trouble loading pictures to the blog but I've uploaded a bunch from both celebrations to Facebook.