Iyengar Yoga: A Time to Turn Inward

Year 2020 has been marked with closures of all kinds and on all fronts. Change, shift, transformation, however we wish to call this chapter of our personal and collective lives, has put our hearts and souls to the test in ways few of us ever fathomed possible. The Iyengar Yoga community worldwide hasn’t been spared from these turning of tides either.

Following last year’s allegations of sexual misconduct against Manouso Manos, Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute reaffirms their decision to decertify Manouso, adding that should any Iyengar Yoga teacher persist to study with him, urge that others do, or organize and promote his classes and workshops, that they too, would face decertification.

While the immediate tendency might be to get entangled in who’s right and who’s wrong, what is the truth and what is not, fair versus unfair, good or evil, and other polar perspectives and positions, this moment for any of us can also mean an opportunity for profound personal transformation.

The consideration to continue to study and work with Manouso or to gear away from him offers teachers and practitioners an opportunity to revisit their values as Yogis and Yoginis. This opportunity is where I’d like to direct our focus in the next few paragraphs. I also see it fit and timely to sprinkle the words of our Guruji B.K.S Iyengar throughout this article, for there is no person better than him to recalibrate our hearts and remind us of the essence of our Yogic path.

All may be able to do yoga but only one in a million is fit to be called a Yogi.

If you’re reading this article, you’re most likely involved in the practice of Iyengar Yoga. I would dare to say that like me, you’re probably a Type A person and you love to have things under control, but also that you’ve chosen this system of Asana and Pranayama practice because it offers highly effective therapeutic benefits. In addition, if you’ve ever been interested in teaching, you’re aware that Iyengar Yoga teachers go through a rigorous and extensive training and preparation at each stage of their certification, a process that ensures quality control in teaching techniques and a commitment to limiting injury in Iyengar yoga classes. On this front, I think the Iyengar teachers community as a whole stands tall and proud, and thankful to Guruji for emphasizing the integrity of the body.

My ending should be your beginning.

While the certification and ranking system provides these benefits, we also owe it to ourselves to consider with courage and humility where and how this system might pose limitations and create separations. We are after all on a path to freedom and unity, so to pause once in a while and check that we’re on track isn’t a bad idea. I know for myself that at some level, the rankings have caused me to compare myself to other teachers, to feel competitive, or to see myself as superior to or bellow another. Many times I’ve also doubted my intuition when it told me I should or should not help someone because my ranking’s voice resonated louder in my head that the voice in my gut. There were times when I felt like playing and experimenting but I didn’t feel that I had the right or freedom to do so. What could I have learned or discovered about myself had I given myself the permission to explore?

Those of us on a conscious evolutionary path also know from experience that every external situation is ultimately an opportunity for self-reflection and growth. And we understand that the more challenging an experience is, the greater its potential to transform us. Wouldn’t it be wise then to ask ourselves where and how each one of us can come to yet the next level of our personal transformation in the face of the situation at hand?

Yoga is a mirror, to look at ourselves from within.

I’ve been transparent and vocal about my experience as Manouso’s 15 year student (related article here). To date, I still maintain that he’s always acted in complete integrity and respect with me as my yoga teacher and has never broken any boundaries with regards to the way he’s treated me. I’ve also never witnessed him use inappropriate touch on other students in all the classes that I’ve attended over the years.

This past summer I had the opportunity to study with him once again. Since the allegations, Manouso has continued to conduct his regular classes at his home studio in San Francisco. The only change I saw was the name of his studio which no longer bares the word Iyengar. “The Abode of Iyengar Yoga” has become “The Abode of Yoga” and classes have carried on as before and are attended by still many of his long-time students. A year or so after the allegations, Manouso continues to do what he’s always done: Teach Yoga with vigor, passion, and precision. To me, watching him from the outside, I see a human being who’s chosen to counter everything that has been thrown at him by adopting the path of non-violence, non-judgement, and complete surrender. His unwavering devotion to teaching in the face of this period of challenge has moved and inspired me beyond words. It’s allowed me put two distinctions side by side: The first one representing the Outside, the Skin, the Name, the Brand, the Persona; and the second representing the Inside, the Content, the Essence, and the Spirit of this thing we do called Yoga. With or without his certification or title as a most senior level Iyengar Yoga teacher, Manouso is still teaching yoga and setting an example for what it means to be a Yogi. As such, he is continuing to facilitate awareness in students, help them manage physical discomfort and illness, and is sharing whatever wisdom he’s gained on his personal journey by not only doing, but more than ever, by also being.

One’s spiritual realization lies in none other than how one walks among and interacts with one’s fellow beings.

For those of us now in the position of having to choose between our hard and rightfully earned certifications as Iyengar Yoga teachers and our calling to continue to stand for what feels right to us, the choice at hand is one between Exterior and Essence, Label and Spirit, Name and Content. The time may have come to let go of all that isn’t essential in our lives and at the core of who we are and what we love to do.

Unless people learn to differentiate between the essentials and non-essentials, peace will always elude them.

I also want to remind us here, that students never stick around because of the certifications hanging on our walls but because of how they feel in and after class, and around us. As such, the fear of loss is futile. If we are lucky, everything that can be lost will be lost, leaving only what is real and essential in and around us. In this, we must recognize the gem.

The reason for failure in self-culture is intoxicated intelligence and inflated ego.

Regarding commercial, legal, and financial concerns which some might be facing, now is an opportunity to trust that as we follow our hearts and souls and stand in integrity with ourselves, that our needs will always be met. Here and now, is a good time to turn our gaze towards the Yamas and the Niyamas of our path and to walk with grace, knowing that there is a perfect plan and that we are all right where we need to be.

Change is not something that we should fear. Rather, it is something that we should welcome. For without change, nothing in the world would ever grow or blossom, and no one in this world would ever move forward to become the person they’re meant to be.