30 pages a day

Since the beginning of this year, have been reading 30 pages a day before bedtime or first thing after waking up while making and drinking morning tea. It has become a good habit.

On days this is not possible, just going with the flow. Most of the days manage more than 30 pages. Then there are long flights and airport waits. Always have the book handy to just read when possible. 

Usually there is a topic or a recommendation from a friend. If the topic interests me, then one book leads to another, a series of books sometimes. Have become a "chain booker", for lack of a better term. One book finishes and the next one gets picked up. The latest topic is books on mental aspects of yoga, concentration, and Tantra. A lot of my friends have branded me "nuts" for even trying to read up on a topic that is considered "taboo" or "humbug" or a range of other words. 

One thing was certain as I am going through this topic. It is misunderstood. A lot of patience and persistence is required to try and even scratch the surface of this subject. A lot of basic terminology has to be learned in a step by step fashion. Picking up books in the wrong sequence can significantly slow you down with constant references to other books. 

The first books I read are the ones by Robert Svoboda. The first book made me want to throw up at the halfway point. Kept ploughing through it 10 pages a day at times and managed to finish it. Then there was a lot of youtube video watching, research articles etc. while reading the second and third books. 

My first thought while going through these books was a sense of deja vu while reading select paragraphs which reminded me of recent books by Sadhguru that I read during the pandemic. Good thing is I still have those books. Sadhguru (or his ghost writers) literally dumbed down Svobodas books 30 years later. That is my perception. Sadhguru did do a great job of summarizing the 1980's books in nicer easily readable fonts, in simpler language with smaller sidebar stories and analogies. My thought was "the audience for books has probably reduced in IQ over 30 years that he is dumbing down so much".  

While reading through Svoboda's books, there were references to another set of books 60 years older! This was fascinating. Sir John Woodroffe aka Arthur Avalon stumbles upon Tantra and becomes an expert in the early 1900's. If you have not read about him, please do. He had access to Sanskrit texts which most fokls did not have and translated them to the best of his ability word by word. While reading two of his three books, felt that Indian's have had a lot of greatness lost over the years. My Sanskrit is not that great so I am being patient and read the transliterated texts. The third book is in a ridiculous font. Thinking of returning it to Amazon and asking for a reprint in a larger font! 

Reading Arthur Avalon's books gave me yet another sense of deja vu from the previous month. A lot of the Svoboda books are literally 1980's dumb down versions of the 1919 books! 

To think that the 1919 books are a translated, interpreted versions of original Sanskrit texts from ~600 AD is interesting in itself. Those texts are said to be the first written down versions (writing them was supposed to be blashpemous and given the nature of some of what I read, it makes sense that this was taught by oral tradition from teacher to student with the teacher overseeing the student closely as they did the practical exams!). 

While posting snippets of these books on FB with friends, a classmate recommended I read Shri M's autobiography. It was an easy and intersting read and it was easy because of all the other books that had been read recently. Terminology and vocubulary was already there. No need to keep going to other references or googling! Then another friend recommended a series of books by another later day "mystic" called Om Swami. Read his bio book in a day. The other two books are intersting and slow. Alternating between them. The 2014 books seem to be over simplifications of all earlier books. 

At this rate in 5 years I can write "Tantra for dummies" and chances are it will be a best seller. Still there are points being crystallized to bullets that are reinforcing certain ideas from more complex reads and that is "refreshing" quite literally.

A few thoughts after reading these books..

1. We know so little of our own bodies, our minds and what we can do with this equipment we have been given.

2. There are ways to fast track certain performance aspects of the body and mind

3. there are things beyond the body and the mind that have been consistantly observed by multiple folks and they try to explain it to people like me who simply cannot comprehend it. Why they have to try and explain these things to the general populace instead of fokls who are willing to put in the time and effort seriously, baffles me. Glad though that there are some markers these folks are leaving for aspirants. At least you know you are not nuts.

4. Our body is electro mechannical. Doing yoga over the years has taught me that things within the body are connected in ways that I did not know. It is a question of time before western scientists figure out exactly how to stretch a body, hold it still and put electrodes in the right places and turn on the voltage just right to make your physical and mental facutlies increase exponentially.  

5. Given we are also full of materials and materials are just molecules and atoms and those are vibrations with mass, it should not be a surprise that external vibrations have an impact on us. Be it light of different colors or waves of radiation across the spectrum. It is possible to recite certain sounds and press certain nerve endings to help the body do things using sound engineering. Somehow folks had figured this out a long time ago. How much experimentation went into it, is difficult to comprehend. This is also transferred word of mouth and taught teacher to student. This can be tricky as the side effects of doing this wrong are pretty bad. It is like jumping across the rooftops of two close sky scrapers. Know how to train and do it right, you land. Fall and you are dead. 

6. It is important to have a good teacher. If anything, reading books is fine. Do not try to replicate things mentioned in these books.. results vary! Reading them and moving on for now. No practical tests. 

There are a few other books that are still incomplete. One of them is to read sheet music in 30 says. It is stuck in Day 19 (when I went to India). Have to get back to it next month. 

Have not been feeling well since evening. Feeling randomly hot and cold. Dozed off in the evening and wide awake now. Disappointed and surprised my music teacher as I was off tune today. Will figure it out tomorrow morning. Have this weird uneasiness that I haven't felt in recent times. 

Books are amazing. You get to learn something new every day. The news and most of TV watching on the other hand, seems to be a waste of time. 

Wrote this post so people can start from 1920's and come to the 2017 books instead of going back and forth. All these books are good in their own way. They are targeting different audiences over different times. 

On a side note, if you are a newly minted self proclaimed "mystic" and would like a ghost writer for your biography, look no further. Can LCM and GCF all these biographies and write one for you. 

At this point ChatGPT should be able to write a generic mystic's memoir! 

There are somethings that I really want to learn. The Sri Yantra and tantra have definitely piqued my interest. If I am destined to find a teacher in this lifetime, would definitely pursue it. 

Good night! 

The best way to begin a new year!

Wishing everyone a wonderful 2024!!

Started the year with an allergy attack 30 minutes before midnight and cheered in the new year with a stuffy nose and watery eyes.. my friends made up for this small inconvenience!

It was lights out after coming home. 

The only cure I have for most illenesses these days in hot yoga! So it was good to start the year with Yoga and this has become a routine.

This is before class..

and after class..

You always leave the room wiped out, but happy.. "feeling like a million bucks!".. or after 13 years, adjusted for inflation "feeling like 2.3 million bucks!" 

Before walking into class we all get to pick an Angel card for the year. The idea is to internalize that and see if you can change your behavior.. this years card was "Light" (my wife got Love).. so we are now love and light!.. Hopefully we don't go light on love! See, even an angel card teaches you to put your wife first! 

2023 was not great, but it done. My goal for Yoga attendance is to do at least 200 classes a year which is about 4 times a week given all my travel schedules. 2023 was 218 classes. 

Going to stay more positive in 2024! Blogging defiintely helps me be more positive! 

Wishing you all a healthy 2024!

The 60 day Winter challenge in on at BYSJ! So if you want to challenge yourself this year, please go ahead! Will cheer for you all the way!

A tough 60 day days of Yoga

This summer was going to be busy. Family and friends knew that all too well. There was going to be a graduation trip to Indiana, a hiking trip my wife was part of and a lot of other weekend social commitments, not to mention a severe work load from August 1st. 

There is the usual BYSJ summer 60 day challenge that one can start between 1st to 14th of July and do 60 classes in 60 days. No one forced me to sign up.  I was going to yoga almost every day since 3rd of July and one day I simply could not make it to the usual class because of being held up at work. San went at the usual time and I went by myself 2 hours later. The folks at the front desk said "you look tired and pissed off.. maybe you should put up a few stars on the challenge board and you will feel better?!". That was interesting. I was doing the challenge without advertising it and it has already been 9 days of not missing a day. So put my name on the board and put 9 stars at one go. 

The next day my wife was shocked to see my name on the board with all the stars. She smiled and didn't say anything. When this was announced to the kids at home, they just rolled their eyes. Good yoga for the eyes is what I was thinking. If I can make them do that everyday, maybe their eyesight will be good for a long time! Who knows?

Knowing there was travel, did do 5 doubles (mostly back to back doubles). For some stats, this is the 16th time signing up for a 60 day challenge in 13 years and the 14th successful attempt. Both times I could not make 60/60 were summer challenges. Going to class or showing up is not a challenge. Adjusting logistics also is not an issue, thanks to a very supportive family, friends and co-workers.

The biggest challenge are doubles and trying to drink water in the 30 minutes between two back to back classes. It has been years since I took a water bottle to class. My water is left in the car and I drink water 30 minutes before class and 15 minutes after class. However, doing back to back doubles means that between the two classes I need to drink water with a packet of vitamins and that just sits in my stomach at the beginning of the second class. That was the hardest thing in this challenge.

Have taken 2829 Bikram Yoga classes so far, according to the excel spreadsheet that is still being maintained. 10,000 hours of practice on any skill is required to become a subcounsious expert or so say some books on skill building and expertise. This is still only 4200 hours. If I need the equivalent of a pilots license for my own body and mind, lets just say I am not even halfway there. Maybe before the end of this lifetime will realize something deeper within. Yoga is a slow and steady process. Accepting that there are no shortcuts has already been a worthy experience. 

Over the last few challenges, have realized that after day 30, when you come repeatedly, the mind is not fighting the teachers words anymore. I call it zombie mode.. but not in an auto pilot kind of way.. more in a "I am so beat that I am just going to submit myself to the instruction and do what is being asked". At that moment in class you cannot think much about it. It just happens. After class you realize that you did things that are surprising! Fixed postures with corrections, have light bulb moments and then you get to try it out the very next day and the day after that till it can become a new habit. 

Most of us have the capacity to remember 3 or 5 things tops after a lecture or any lesson. I am part of that majority group. So to learn those 3 things and make them a regular habit is possible only because of pushing myself to do a challenge. You come every alternate day, you just go back to old ways quickly. You have to remember the correction before the posture starts. Once you are in it, it is already too late. You might correct yourself in the second set.. but that doesn't help you make it the default!

Thoroughly enjoyed this challenge for the learning, the chats outside the room before class with my fellow regular yogis, the chance to encourage other folks to have a regular practice and my teachers encouraging me to "let it go!" everytime I walked into class after being on the phone till 2 minutes before class. 

On a side note, BYSJ finally brought back T-shirts as a souvenir for folks who finish! My wardrobe which is 80% BYSJ 60 day challenge T-shirts badly needed a replacement. This years T-shirt is just beautiful. Now I just need to collect a few more over the coming years? (this blog post alone is going to give my family more yoga for their eyes after they roll it non stop!) 

The best thing that ever happened to me in hindsight was that damn accident. If it wasn't for being broken with physiotherapy being able to get me back only to a certain point, would have never found Bikram yoga! What a blessing in disguise that accident turned out to be? There is always fate, destiny, the butterfly effect, whatever you want to call it.. but forever grateful to all powers and unknown probabilities that made me walk through those doors all those years ago!

For all my friends and family, I hope that my doing yoga inspires you to try it, even if for a few days and my sincere wish is for you to find yourself by doing yoga! It is a slow process which might even involve getting lost many times while trying to find yourself..but if you stay the course, magic happens!

Missed getting a close up photo with the ageless Michelle Vennard. There are so many pictures over the years that I made a collage of some of the pics. She is a true inspiration when it comes to walking the walk after talking the talk! .. or in Yogi speak.. she can be as still as she can be silent, during a yoga class! (just realized, that it is literally the opposite of walking and talking!)

One more challenge done. Hopefully many more to come!

A very different 60 day challenge

Most of you who know me, have seen this once a year post around the end of March about the 60 day yoga challenge. 

BYSJ organizes two of these challenges a year. The winter challenge where you sign up on any day between Jan 1st to 14th and do 60 classes in 60 days (ideally without missing a day, and if you do miss because of unavoidable reasons, do two classes on another day to make up for it). A similar challenge in Summer with same rules. 

This is my 13th year of doing Yoga and this was my 13th 60 day challenge. My family doesn't try to stop me from doing this challenge anymore. They know I somehow manage to finish it and I am usually happy doing the challenge.

Given my MIL has been a big part of my yoga journey, it was always sad to hear her say "want to try and finish this challenge at least once in this lifetime!". She is usually here only after Pongal which is Jan 14th and leaves for Seattle after two three weeks. I don't sign up in summer because of travel and other commitments.

This year, she came early just for the challenge. Had promised her that someone (me, San or the little one who is not so little anymore) will drive her to class for those 60 days if both me and San decide to skip yoga. Given that assurance, she signed up.

For the most part all three of us would go to class. The folks at the studio were very happy to see a car load of folks come to class. Then we went to Alaska on a whim to take care of my wife's bucket list item. One bucket was larger than the other bucket.. or whatever.. fortunately MIL managed to do a couple of Livestream classes when we were gone. Funny thing is that when we got back and I had to do three doubles over the weekends to make up, she joined me! It was not easy for her, but she did. 

While she makes claims that it is not the same thing doing something at 50 vs 70, my take is that age has nothing to do with it. You do what you can and I think she actually gets more out of the yoga than I do and probably does a better job in most classes given the cards she has been dealt. 

Usually it is just a logistics challenge for me but as fate would have it, banged my knee twice on the same day. The last 10 days of the challenge were really tough with the injured knee. Still went ahead and did everything I posisbly could in the hot room every day.

Finished the challenge on March 1st and my MIL also finished it last week!  San did 54 classes in the 60 days but she refused to do any doubles on a matter of principle. She has done one challenge before and apparently that is enough for her. She was happy to cheer the two of us to finish. How she can let it go is where we see that she is a better yogi than me. 

The knee is not swelling anymore but I cannot do tree pose standing on my left leg and have difficulty doing suptavajrasana and the third part of awkward pose. These involve bending the knee inwards towards the other knee or folding it and rotating it out. Given it is better, my teachers still recomended I get an x-ray or get it checked out. So have an Ortho appointment this week. For almost all things that ail me mentally or physically, have used the yoga to recover over the last 12+ years.  Going to see what the diagonsis is. Just because you do yoga, doesn't mean you should bang your knee against car license plate holders and expect to come out okay!

We did celebrate after the challenge with a dinner at Chaat house! Got to share a few words at the Challenge party in hopes that if we can do it, others who are thinking of giving this a try, will actually go for it.

The one thing folks tell me all the time is this.. "Sundar, you do the same yoga everyday.. day after day, year after year.. you do this 60 day challenge every year.. and say you learn something new.. you must be really inattentive or dumb to learn something new in what you do all the time!" 

While it is true that the class is the same day after day, my body and mind are not. As different parts of my body get stronger or weaker, more or less rigid or flexible over time, and my mind gets better at listening to the instruction and internalizing it instead of being in zombie mode, there is new learning! All the time!

Going regularly back to back for long periods of time gives you a heightened sense of awareness of changes happening in your body and we get a chance to remember how we did what we did differently(better)!

My friend Arash summarized it beautifully. He said in the language of Buddists.. which we all learn as kids. Ther is Buddha, Dharma and Sanga. 

Buddham charanam gachchaami, sangam charanam gachchaami! 

Teachers are our gods here! The Dharma is the fact that they stay true to a hard 90 minute yoga practice and the community that is there at BYSJ is truly what makes us keep coming back.

We heard a lot of folks share their amazing journey and stories at the challenge party. You can check those out on the BYSJ website and other social media. A video of what we shared with folks..

As long as there are not major setbacks, will try to keep going to yoga, try 60 day challenge every year and try to keep this body and mind as optimized as possible to deal with everything the outside world throws at me.

Sangeetha says I am still a work in progress and even today she was trying to "knock some sense into me" with little success. For all that, there is progress. Slow but sure progress.

Strongly recommend you try yoga if you are on the fence. They say "do this for 30 days, it will change your body, do it 60 days in a row and it will change your mind". Can attest to it!

Here's to BYSJ for continuing to improve and transform people's lives, year after year, one challenge after another!

A big congrats to all who signed up and gave it their everything (finishing is a different story, signing up is the hard part!) and a special congrats to my MIL for being a great example and role model for yogis out there.

Very proud of her for finishing the challenge and showing up to class on day 61 !!!

A very different Yoga challenge

If you know me or read this blog, one fixture every year is the 60 day Yoga challenge that runs between Jan to March. Every year I have been doing the 60 Yoga classes in 60 days at Bikram Yoga San Jose.

This year it was as challenging as it was in the hot room. We had to do it mostly on Zoom and sometimes go for a parking lot class on weekends. Started on Jan 1st but as usual there were some challenges. Had a double bone graft gum surgery which took me out for 5 days. Had to do doubles on five other days to catch up. 

Even when I came back to doing Yoga, it was not easy to rest my cheeks on the floor for a few days. It is all well and healed now. Think this Zoom yoga class is here to stay. With new variants showing up, it might be some time before the studio opens to capacity. 

My daughter took this picture of me with the new T-shirt (which is our trophy of sorts from BYSJ when finishing the challenge). This time there was a cat as part of the design. I see so many of my yoga buddies try to do yoga at home with me and no matter where they try to hide their pets always find them and come disturb them in the most interesting ways while they are trying to do the poses! It is hilarious to watch. 

Yesterday we were hiking in Mount Tamalpais and after having attended the 60 day challenge party on Zoom the previous night, Yoga was still very much on my mind.. so when we went down to the falls, my wife gave me the idea to do yoga poses in front of the falls. 

at first I tried to do this on the log behind the rock and promptly fell in the water. Luckily only one leg was in the water. walked with a wet leg and shoes for a good 5 miles. So learned my lesson.. check the stability of logs for one leg instead of two before trying such poses.

There was no one around when we started taking pictures and we thought we had the place to our group. Just as I start to try and grab my leg with my hand, a dog comes out of nowhere and starts jumping on me and playing with me! Eventually the owners caught up to the dog and were laughing at how the dog was trying to distract me from doing yoga! The pets are getting really good at it, everywhere!

This was my 10th challenge. I am still a beginner. When talking about Yoga, one has to talk in Yoda timescales.. I am still a beginner with only 10 years of Yoga experience. Long ways to go! Learning new things every day. 

No graphs and charts this year.. doing yoga alone at home has been a humbling experience in its own way and I got to examine some of the asanas with a completely different mindset. 

if you have not yet tried hot yoga, try it at least once in your life. It might be the game changer! Thanks to BYSJ for all the push and a great T-shirt!