Date: 22nd
Sept 2016, SLI
Laksmi Ranganathan has been a student of Sri. TKV Desikachar and was one of the first teachers in Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram where she worked till 1986. She has been a yoga teacher for more than 40 years and has conducted multiple workshops on Pranayama and Meditation. She is adept at the therapeutic use of yoga as a treatment and has led several seminars on Yoga for Women, Breath & Yoga Therapy and Philosophy. She also trains teachers on the use of yoga as a means for therapy and practice. She is the co-founder of Sanjeevani Ayurveda and Yoga Centre in Chennai. She is also an honorary Yoga instructor at “The School” run by the Krishnamurthi Foundation of India (Breath & Ayurveda in Yoga Therapy with Lakshmi Ranganathan and Dr. Padmini Ranganathan, 2013).
1.
How
would you explain the essence of yoga to an amateur like me?
It is a very simple yet the hardest question one can
ask. To be honest in the beginning like you, even I did not know anything about
Yoga. It took a long time for me to understand it. My teacher did not explain
it to me but just made me practice for a purpose - for treatment: as I was injured
from an accident. In the beginning I did not even understood the philosophy of
Yoga but as I practiced I knew that something was happening to my body. It was
not like any other exercise; the pain I had reduced with simple movement
accompanied by breathing- Pranayama. I realised that something was happening
inside- that was my first insight on Yoga. And I would say what the definition
says from Yogasutra- “Yogash chitta vrutti nirodhah- it means the ability to
concentrate on object you require, contemplation and sustain this concentration
for a length of time without any disturbances. But to really explain what this
is will take more time. To put it simply, I would say Yoga is to be positive inside; yoga helps you
to have quietness within.
2. How old were you when you came in contact
with Yoga?
I started Yoga in 1969, in my early 20s. I had a very
long hair and it got caught in the vehicle because of which I met with an
accident, because of the accident I was in a lot of pain (neck) and was under
severe medication and then I met my teacher -he said we will try and throw away
your collar and I did it with faith. One thing about Yoga is that you need
faith. I was in pain for few months and then it disappeared then I continued
with my practice along with my other work and in one point I left my work and
learnt Yoga and then became a Yoga teacher and started teaching by 1975.
3. According to you what is
the importance of yoga in this contemporary society, especially with regards to
women’s wellness?
I have been working in
this area for a long time, we have even conducted many workshops with this regard,
but unfortunately Yoga has travelled outside India and has been sold back to
us. We are realising the value now after losing lot of our own background, but
there are lot of references- my teacher Shri. T. Krishnamacharya, he had talked
a lot about women and yoga.
Now- a-days women work
both within and outside home, they have lot of stress and lot of anger: all
these things slowly have a very negative impact on their body and their mind is
full of fear. For example today in the session a caterpillar fell on a young
woman and she screamed as if something very terrible had happened, so what I
mean is fear complex has increased, and fear, anger all these aversions have
negative impacts on the women of the present generation and Yoga is something
which can help in this area specifically on menstrual complaints, difficulties
in pregnancy, post-natal and menopause etc but the most important thing for
women is not just to get treatment but the maintenance of their health which
can be attained through Yoga.
Yoga is not just a
physical exercise, Asanas lead you to a higher level of Pranayama, Gyana;
something to understand and reflect on yourself. The yogis did this a long time
ago to define and understand what it is and to understand themselves
(aatmadharshana), they did it with great devotion but now everything is done
with some expectation, expectation itself is kind of a negative component.
The most important quotation in Yoga is “Do your activity to your best and the
result will come by itself”.
4. Do you think that the present lifestyle of women provides her the space and time to practice yoga daily? How
can this be facilitated, particularly with rural women?
Of course, everyone
can commit their time to do what they want to do. If you can find time to go to
the beauty parlour, you can find time to talk on the mobile phones for hours,
you can also keep aside just half an hour for Yoga. If you want something, even
if it is not easy, you make effort to get it with faith-abhiyasam. Abhiyasam is
long-term practice with devotion; it is a continuous process without break and
with positive attitude. If you continue Abhiyasam then whatever you practice
becomes part of you. But the time one takes to attain it depends on person to
person. Some people are very intense and some are not so much, I have seen many
young people who are not very motivated in the beginning but come out of requirement/desperation
but later they become the best example as once they realise that they are
getting something positive out of it, they really get attached to this. Once
you start doing Yoga regularly, you won’t stop it. And I believe that if you
really want to do something, help comes to you in some way or the other.
5. In the urban area
there are many centres where people can learn Yoga which is not present in
rural areas. According to you what are the sources where the rural population can learn Yoga?
Actually if you ask
me, now-a-days whatever is available in the cities slowly trickles down to
villages. But one thing that rural women
have is-connection with the nature, they work along with them. Infact if you
look at them they have a certain body co-ordination, body language and they are
relaxed in their mind. The ability to be with the object is Yoga and they have
that ability. Yoga is not just Asanas but to be with the object; concentration
without stress which they have or at least had.
To be truthful the
teachers generally don’t want to go to the rural areas and teach Yoga anymore,
unfortunately such commercials aspects have crept in Yoga, the temptations is
very high for teachers. But rural women so far are fine as they are comfortable
with their surrounding, and they are content (have quietness in the mind). We
are not comfortable with our surroundings.
6. Is there a difference
in teaching Yoga to the urban and the rural people?
For me where they come
from is not important but the person matters. The way I was taught was very
different, very traditional- only one student, as it is
not just teaching but also observation- what is good and bad for the student and little bit of
counselling. Traditionally it was not a group method, group is actually a
western idea. Yoga was not grouped learning but an individual learning, teacher
to student, a guru-sishya parampara. But unfortunately now we have to package
it differently and sadly in India there is no follow up of anything, things
come and go. For example whatever I spoke today, the women might not have
registered; I mean they will go back to their home tomorrow and follow their
usual schedule. But maybe if I leave a drop and make them think about it then
maybe they will learn Yoga someday.
Now Yoga has become
more like a gimmick, it went outside and came back in beautiful package; the
material does not seem to be important but the packaging seems to be more
important and people are attracted to these packages. We think what we know are
all that exist, but still there are many sincere teachers who practice Yoga and
teach but they are not known as unfortunately people are more attracted towards
the commercial aspect of Yoga.
7. You have been involved
with Ayurveda and a practitioner of yoga for a long time, how would you explain
the connection between Ayurveda and Yoga?
The way we talk about
the state of mind in Yoga and state of body (Vata, Pitha, Kapha) is similar.
Ayurveda explains diet for different climate, diet for normal health, diet for
diseases etc and through Yoga I use my own interpretation of Asanas and
practice, I find the combination of both these comfortable and effective.
We tell the people
do’s and don’ts for their diet because people have started consuming unhealthy food
–these are the unknown causes of many illness as we don’t know what is in our food, these food can
reflect or change the nature of your body and mind. So looking into it, we explain
the diet and slowly try to convert their diet into healthy diet. In the
beginning it is difficult as you can’t change the diet of the people easily but
once they practice and get use to it, the body starts rejecting things that are
unhealthy. We also suggest them other small things like eat when you are hungry
and don’t force yourself when you are not hungry.
8. SLI is involved in
promoting sustainable livelihoods to rural women. Do you think they have lost
contact with the traditional knowledge of yoga? How can SLI help revive to these?
Rural women earlier
were very much in sync with nature but now they seem to have lost their
contact. Unlike the olden days, now if they have some pain they go to the
hospital and get shot, their lifestyle has changed, they are not aware of it
but slowly it’s changing.
For a livelihood
program I think Yoga needs to be an integral part as the women needs to be free
from stress to be healthy. For that the institute could conduct Yoga
program and select few women who are really interested and good in it and train and certify them so that they can go back and teach Yoga in their home town.
Interview
By: Tendel Zangmu Thongon
