When I arrived in Goa, I was going to practice Mysore style yoga with Joanie’s teacher but because of a rule that no one who has been vaccinated against coronavirus can practice there, I was excluded. I won’t go into a discussion on the philosophy behind the decision or my negative reactions to this new age form of discrimination, but I was forced to come up with an alternate plan for my daily yoga practice.
My second day in Goa happened to be the winter solstice, so I went down to Anjuna Beach and did 108 sun salutations to mark the celestial event. While this was a good opportunity to kick off my practice in Goa, I can be lazy when it comes to self practice so I knew I had to find a real class.
Steve was practicing Iyengar style yoga with a teacher named Ian Lewis at a resort called Mojigao, which is 7 kilometers from Selwyn’s. I had never practiced Iyengar yoga, but had wanted to give it a try.
The distance is just far enough to generate a good bit of bicycle cardio and warm up my legs before class. And fortunately, it is generally uphill there and downhill on the way back; so that makes the post-class trip return to Anjuna a lot more zen.
I get up most every morning and head out by 7:30 a.m., which gives me enough time to have a small Americano with Steve and Ian and any other classmates who show up early enough to join us.
The class is anything but a typical yoga class. There is no pomp to start the class – no chanting or deep breathing or anything to signal the start of class – Ian just calls out an asana or position to start in and those students who are ready to start practicing get into that pose. There are usually still students shuffling into class and getting their mats into position a few minutes into the practice.
And Ian’s sense of humor and lack of political correctness is off the rails. If he doesn’t remember a student’s name, he usually refers to her or him by the country of origin and his longtime friend and daily practitioner Nirmal endures the brunt of his teasing. And to close class, he prompts us out of svasana and says “Well done. See you tomorrow.” No chanting. No rubbing the hands together and placing them over the eyes. And no namaste, which is not really used much at all in India.
Ian is quite unlike the stories I have heard of the notorious Iyengar teacher Usha Devi, who I plan to visit in March in Rishikesh. She is known for her intensity and biting criticism of students’ alignments but I hear she has softened up a little.
Despite the fact that he does not have a certificate naming him as a “registered” Iyengar teacher, Ian studied at least 20 years under BKS Iyengar and has been doing yoga since the early 1960s. He goes back well before the whole certification issue even became a thing.
Regardless, he both figuratively and literally knows the ropes and all the other props that are the hallmark of Iyengar practice. While I won’t get a certificate for my participation, it has been an extremely educational experience in the practice of yoga. Some of the students come from all over the globe and have practiced with Ian for years. It's quite a testament to his ability.
Because of its uniqueness, I have taken to given it a special name – Ian-gar.
