HEAVENLY SAVASANAS



This weekend's workshop with Manju Pattabhi Jois has been wonderful, of course. Today, we did primary and part of second, through Yoganidrasana.

His vinyasa count is a bit different from what I'm used to (I'm more in tune with Pattabhi/Lino/Sharath) but it's so nice to be LED, and to hold poses longer than usual.
(His holds average 8.5 of my own breaths, vs. three when his father - aka "The Pattabhi Express" - was teaching led primary). It seems interminable during Boat Pose and the final part of Utthita Hasta Pandangustasana, but he makes up for it by avoiding Uth Pluthi altogether (instead, we chant!).

Then he says "Thank you" and tells us to "Please, take Savasana"

(NOTE: He says Savasana, not "take rest.")

While we lie down, he puts on a song by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.*

Perhaps it is the music. Perhaps it is the practice. Perhaps it is his presence. But the Savasana is heavenly.

(And, when we wake up, there's pranayama, chanting and Q&A).



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A Sufi at heart, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was once greatly moved by the poem Hari Om Tat Sat, and rendered it musically in the haunting raga, "Pahari." Years later, he explained, "God, Truth and Haq is one. I've Allah in my mind when I sing these words...Different people in the world have different names for the Supreme Being who is 'One.'"