Prashant’s yoga or classical yoga

Sri BKS Iyengar in PadmasanaDay 2, Dec. 18, 2017, AM session 2, Pune, India.

Prashant began the morning session with a talk about spiritual identity, Ishvara and the Sutras. I will address this material at a later time. Asking if we needed clarification, his humor came out as he tried to make it safe to ask questions. “Sometimes you may not want to show your ignorance, or what you think may be ignorance in front of your colleagues. Or there may be professional rivals, you may be self-conscious.”

Manouso Manos then asked “are you aware that there is now something called Prashant yoga?” Manouso elaborated briefly by asking if there is a difference between the yoga of “actions” that his father taught and the perspective that Prashant teaches? “What are we to do with this difference?”

Wow. Prashant was not unfazed. “For any one person what is important will be different, he explained, and there will never be two identical teachers. “What you practice and what you teach are not necessarily what Guruji taught. One day Guruji was sitting across from me and said: I make difficult things simple and Prashant makes simple things difficult”

Prashant clarified his approach and the very sincere and specific intentions behind his approach. “You remember how Guruji would correct people in class, you will never we me correcting in class. For me, if there is a fatal mistake, I will correct. But one should correct out of conscience. If I do not give you the time to develop the conscience then you can never have the deep connection. My perspective is that a person should be able to correct themselves, to develop the urge within to know what is right.”

It is interesting how rarely we take a big picture look at the whys and how things develop. Prashant explained that part of Guruji’s system came out of the immediacy of his situation. Foreign students would come for short periods of time. Guruji did not have time to cultivate a deep connection with and within the practice of each individual. “That is not what he did with us, he never told us that our Trikonasnaa was wrong. He wanted us to develop our conscience.” Prashant’s teaching has a different perspective then Guruji’s. Prashant wants to empower students. Perhaps, he said, this is his limitation, but he felt that students should develop their own conscience, to know why this is right or wrong. He further clarified that his schedule is open, his work evolves over time and cannot be encapsulated within an intensive or three weeks.

“There will be difference amongst teachers, mentors, different perspectives, but that does not make one wrong, and one right. During my formative years, Guruji did give corrections, but then he allowed me develop.” He said that we never practice what I taught you, we practice what we learned.

“Be open to your doubts about me and about my teachings. I never claim that I teach what my father taught. I have developed in my own way being insulated at the Institute. I have never read a book, you may think that I have read a lot. But no, I read the world, I read my mind, I read the mind of my students. I am here to give you my comprehension of Guruji’s teaching. I do not want to be the centric force today now that Guruji is no longer here.”

“I am not trying to fall in line with what he taught, I am trying to help you understand what he did within himself.”

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7 Responses to Prashant’s yoga or classical yoga

  1. Ayesha says:

    Appreciate your effort greatly. Thank you.

  2. Karen says:

    Wonderfully and aptly recapped what Prashantji has mentioned. I would not capture so many of his teachings without your write-up, dear Lisa.

    Much appreciated!

  3. Maria Rosa Zamana says:

    Thank you

  4. Anette Witemberg says:

    Dear Lisa, thank you for sharing Prashant’s words.
    Send you love and hugs from Mexico

  5. Jerico Zambrano says:

    Thanks a lot for sharing!

  6. Ayesha says:

    Wonderful ! I feel as if I’m there. Thank you.

  7. Bruna says:

    Very sad that someone thinks that what Prashantji teaches is different from what Guruji taught. The core teaching is the same as yoga is one but the seed of yoga manifests differently in each of us.

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