First Contact

Well, had my first email re the blog - already had feedback from people on MIS, but it was nice to get that email. It was from someone who is headed over to India shortly, so hopefully she will give me some feedback once she has been.

So, what about all these changes? It all kicked off when I got a couple of reviews of Sivananda TT at the Neyyar Dam Ashram, one from a person who had done it (having been taught Sivananda for years and loving it) but ended up walking out of the place mid-course. Got me thinking - always thought the rules are quite oppressive, but hey it's an ashram and I reckon I could have handled that. Good for the discipline! However, after thinking about it all it just doesn't feel right for me.

So I got thinking, and found the people at SVYASA (alternate website in their incarnation as VYASA) offer a 4-week TT course at their campus at Prashanti Kutiram, near Bangalore. The cost for 4 weeks board, lodging and tuition? $350!!! At current US$ exchange rates, less than £200! I'll buy that for a dollar, thought I.

Despite the fact that it tied in so well, with the course starting 1 February 2005, I realised that I was only going there for convenience (and, truth be told, economy). What I want from India is to do things that I feel drawn towards, to experience those things that I really want to do. The Teacher Training thing has also been bugging me of late - why do I really want to do a TT course? Well, despite the fact that I feel drawn towards teaching others and that teaching is great for advancingyou personall practice, I realised that there is no great need for me to do TT right away. So I basically put the idea of doing TT in India out of my head - if it's to be, then it will come looking for me.

And that's 's when it all sort of fell together. I have been interested in the Viniyoga approach for a few months now, and am reading Gary Kraftsow's book "Yoga for Transformation". It's a great book, full of very interesting ideas - none of them truly new to yoga, but the perspective outlined is very fresh, intelligent and new to me at least. It was then that I noticed that the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai does a 4-week course on "The Yoga of T Krishnamacharya" (not TT) from 31 January to 25 February 2005. Seems ideal!

Have had a few great reviews of this course from people who have previously attended, and about the KYM in general. Added to that, the current man in charge, Kausthub Desikachar (son of TKV Desikachar) is coming to London in April for some workshops. Hopefully I will be able to make it to at least one of these workshops, just to test the experience.

A few more interesting links, for those interested in Viniyoga. The Association for Yoga Studies in Bristol seems to be the main centre for Viniyoga in the UK. It was founded by Paul Harvey and is based around the Yoganjali Teaching and Therapy Centre in Bristol.

Another link of interest, mainly for me, is the link for Viniyoga Scotland. This site gives information on Lynne Scott and Margo Rombert, Scotlands only qualified Viniyoga practitioners.

I am hoping to also go to a couple of seminars by Paul Harvey and Lynne Scott in the next couple of months, so I'll update on that in due course.

Anyway, back to India... am thinking that the next post will be a kind of checklist of all the things that I need to do before I get there, and then each post I will take one item from the checklist and provide as many useful links as I can find.

Of course as the Bard said (and a belated happy birthday to you, Rabbie!) - "The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley".