It was sad to say goodbye to the paradise island and surf, but it feels good to be back to Hindustan and on the yoga mat for some serious training...

Mirissa

Yoga cikitsa=yoga therapy as the primary series of ashtanga is referred to in Sanskrit.

So here I am in a small Indian village living in yogagurukula. We are a few Western students here and we live in a separate building (on top of the shala where we practice), next to the house of our teacher and his family. 'Gurukula' refers to a residential school where the students live near the teacher. According to Wikipedia: "the word gurukula is a contraction of the Sanskrit guru (teacher or master) and kula (extended family).

I'm surrounded by this kind of beauty, just in front of the shala:

In Sri Lanka I got up before 5am for surf, here I get up at the same time for yoga. It's 2 hours of sweating every morning. My body and mind are slowly getting used  to it -even my back, which first felt really stiff after all that surf... From Monday to Saturday we do asana practice in the early morning, yoga philosophy and chanting later on in the day. It feels good to be totally immersed in the yoga world again. And particularly here in incredible India.

"Yoga isn't really about asanas, but about how deeply you can go into the Self as you practice."

And putting this blog post together was about how deeply you can go into blogging without losing your nerves... Hope to have better luck and longer nerves (a more steady yogic mind maybe -or better internet connection:) the next time... Ooooommm shanti shanti shanti...