Mysore Classes in Mysore

Videos by Govinda Kai, one of the 2nd generation certified teachers.









More here.

Watching these videos made me miss my time in Mysore. I'm supposed to be somewhere in April and May 2010... if that doesn't happen, then I just might go to Mysore.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the challenge of teaching UP students. Aside from my theory & practice classes, I'm teaching PE2 Power Yoga this semester. It's a service physical education course so the focus is more on learning the physical practices of yoga (asanas, kriyas, pranayama, concentration and meditation techniques) to improve physical fitness and overall well-being.

We meet every Monday from 9-11am. You can check what's happening in the class at www.yoga4isko.blogspot.com. It's a huge class with 33 students, including 5 exchange students from South Korea.

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Yoga 4 Isko - yoga para sa mga Iskolar ng Bayan. Teaching the yogic lifestyle and discipline to the future leaders of this country.

Tibetan Settlement in Bylakuppe, Mysore

Jonathan times 2. We were roommates at Yoga Thailand.

Jon B. and Jon C.

Om Mane Padme Hum

Did a day trip to Bylakuppe with 3 friends today. Will post the photos soon. For the meantime, allow me to share with you this video. (Can't believe I'm already leaving Mysore on Friday.)

Standing Cafe and Chakra House in Sepia

The art of making chai.

The cashier at the standing cafe.

A friend waiting for her order.

The menu.
Breakfast for 20 rupees.
15 rupees masala dosa plus 5 rupees coffee or chai
and you're done for the morning.

Customers waiting for their orders.

The Chakra House cat.

Waiting for breakfast.

Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama, Mysore

Visit their website here.

One side of the temple.

The bookstore. You can buy really amazingly cheap books here on yoga philosophy.

Ashram schedule

Basic Curry Gravy

Saute garlic ginger paste in some oil. Add onion paste and saute until the onion is almost brown. Add tomato puree. Add some garam masala and it's done. Mix with your favorite steamed veggies, veg kofta or boiled eggs for a genuine North Indian curry experience.

I met someone who was originally from Rajasthan and she taught me this. Just thought of posting it before I forget it.

Practice was good today. Supposed to give massage later after the Sanskrit class but I called it off because I feel I need the break. Did a massage yesterday... almost a full body one... and I slept like a log. Thought practice will suffer but luckily it didn't. I guess when the body is tired, your awareness increases and you tend to listen to your body more during practice... you get to be more in tune with yourself.

My massage teacher said I was vata-pitta. The questionnaires said I am kapha-pitta. Tiwariji said I was kapha-pitta (at least that was written in my pranayama prescription sheet). I say, I'm kapha with equal vata and pitta. Yeah, whatever. I guess one simply has to intuitively listen to one's self and let no one's opinion bother oneself. There's no need to look for flaws when one believes that one's life is already in balance, otherwise the balance becomes unbalanced.

Life is good.

Practice, eat, serve, love and meditate.

Namaste.

P.S. I just received an article saying that Indian spice in turmeric reduces size of hemorrhagic stroke. Read it here.

Guruji

Sharath opened last Sunday's conference with a topic on doubt. Doubt is one of the obstacles in the path of yoga as stated in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (1:29-30). I was doubting whether it was worth extending for another week as it was already the end of my 2nd month at the shala. I still have almost 2 weeks in Mysore to finish the massage course with Kumar so I could either practice at home or go to another teacher.

A few minutes after Sharath started his discourse, Guruji came out of the office and sat on stage. He simply listened, eyes glowing... almost piercing into each and everyone's heart as if asking, "why do you doubt so much?". His presence was enough to make me decide to stay and everything felt right. There was a feeling of complete surrender and a feeling that I've completed my time at the shala.

The time at the Sivananda ashram will be totally different and will surely be an interesting experience.

Tomorrow, Arjuna will unlease the powerful Gandiva to finally end the battle within.

Sinigang!!!

Boil 1L of water. Add ginger paste, a handful of sliced onions, tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes until the veggies are soft. Add squash and cook until soft. Add eggplants, string beans. Cook until soft. Add a bunch of sliced cabbage. Add tamarind paste, coriander and squeeze in juice of 1 lemon. Salt, black pepper and chili powder to taste. Cook with lots of patience and love. Photo to follow.

This was the Chinese buffet that I prepared yesterday for friends here in Mysore. Yangchow fried rice, mixed vegetable stir fry, chili garlic paneer, spinach and cashew stir fry. Daisy (from Singapore) also prepared vegetable noodles for Chie (from Japan).

I now have Sanskrit font in my laptop. If you can read this, I'll cook dinner for you. ;-)

Great Day but humid afternoon

Here are Anu's now trying to think of something relevant to post but nothing really comes out of my mind. Nice to catch M online though so we're chatting as of the moment. The photos are not related to this post. Just wanted to share some of the ones I've taken during the last 4 weeks.

Practice was great this morning... from pranayama to asanas. The breath was smooth and the mind was calm. Had a nice 10 minute walk towards the shala with Jack Harrison's Wind across the Sea on my ipod. The energy at the shala is calmer now that a lot of people had left. I didn't have to wait when I arrived to get a spot and Sharath even told me to come 15 minutes earlier tomorrow.

I was at the 8am class when I arrived and didn't start practice until about 8:40 because there were so many people. Two weeks later, Sharath moved me to 7:30. When I re-registered last week, he told me to come at 6:30. And a week later, 6:15. I just hope I don't come earlier than 6 because that means I need to get up at 3am and do my pranayama before practice. A friend said to just do it after asanas as it is actually the recommendation written in the old hatha texts, but I feel more ready to do asanas after pranayama. Will see how it goes when I get there.

It's humid and I feel like taking a shower but it's another 8 minute walk to my place and I promised one of my Sanskrit classmates that I'd help him with the last lesson because he missed it.

Got to leave now as sweat is starting to drip off my face. I feel sticky ... feels like I'm in the middle of EDSA. Ciao.

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Yoga Rahasya I:19-20

In ashtanga yoga, yama and niyama comes first. Having practiced this, one must regularly practice the prescribed asanas.

Then one must do pranayama, followed by pratyahara. Then dharana, dhyanam, samyama and Samadhi must be continuously practiced.

In case one gives up this sequence, and practices as he wishes, he will not obtain the benefits of ashtanga yoga.

The flute player at the Haleebidu Temple

Cooking Class with Anu

Palak Paneer

Blanch spinach for about 5 minutes.

For seasoning:

Oil, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, 2 green chilies broken, garlic, onions. Add the turmeric towards the end. (Turmeric is added to keep the color of the spinach. Hing and turmeric powder are also added towards the end of every cooking. Fresh ginger as well).

How to make paneer:

Boil 1 L of 3% (fat) milk, add about 1-2 tbsp lemon slowly until the milk breaks into solids and whey. When the milk has broken completely, remove from the heat and allow to cool a little before draining it in cheesecloth.

Fry the paneer in a little oil. Add turmeric. Add the pureed spinach and seasoning.

Add salt to taste.

Pumpkin Delight

For seasoning:

Oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, red dry chilies, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, add to kinds of dhal (chana dhal and urad dhal), ajwain, white and black sesame seeds, hing towards the end. You can fry the chana dhal and urad dhal separately.

Add the sweet pumpkin into the seasoning. Mix well and add turmeric. Add water if necessary. At the end, add freshly grated ginger. Fresh grated coconuts and coriander to garnish. Salt to taste.

Kosambari Salad

600 grams grated carrots. 1 cup of mung dhal soaked in water for 1 hour. Freshly grated coconuts. Coriander. Pomegranate.

Seasoning:

Oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves, red dried chilies, 2 kinds of dhal, hing. Lemon and salt to taste.

Mix everything well and serve.

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Delicious. I learned a lot from Anu yesterday. I'm also going to get my own masala box so Chona won't have to worry about which spices to get, right Chons? hehehe.

(Clockwise from bottom right: urad dhal, chana dhal, black mustard seeds,
cumin seeds, fennel seeds, coriander seeds. Turmeric powder in the center.)

She'll be coming up with a cookbook soon so watch out for it. Read about Anu's Bamboo Hut and Internet Cafe here.

Happy Independence Day, India!

Life in Mysore

Wake up at 5am

Do kriyas until 5:30.

Pranayama until 6:45.

Walk to the shala at 7.

Practice at 7:30-9.

Have 1-2 coconuts after practice.

Walk home at 9:30.

Coffee and breakfast at home until 12ish.

Take a nap in the afternoon.

Go to Sanskrit and chanting class at 5pm, M-W-F. On the alternate days, maybe go to town, hang out somewhere, have chai, get lost in cyberspace.

Have dinner at 6:30ish or just smoothie at Anu's if lunch was huge.

Go to bed at 9:30ish.

Really fun, aye? Liberation should come in 60 days or so. :-p

Brunch with Tesa and Breakfast @ Tina's

"Farewell" brunch for Tesa... Spanish-style scrambled eggs, curd rice, cucumber with ginger-lemon dressing...

fresh fruit salad, and congee with hard-boiled eggs and roasted cashew nuts.

And as promised (to Tesa), we had breakfast at Tina's last Wednesday morning. It was still a bit disorganized because they just opened (in that new spot). Wasn't very satisfied with the food though. I like their lunch and dinner better.

The place is definitely cool but still quite a walk from the shala... and I live at the other side of Gokulam.

It's led-class tomorrow so will be finishing early. I've started Sanskrit and Chanting classes at the shala so at least I get to do something in the afternoons 3x a week. Other than that, I basically just sleep, read and eat.

Hungry, anyone?

We went to visit the temples at Belur, Halebeedu and Sravanabelagola last Thursday and Friday. I will create another entry for that next time as I'm still organizing my thoughts about the experience. For now, let me just share with you what I had for the last two days.

Carrot soup which came with the North Indian thali that I ordered for lunch at the Sri Krishna Hotel in Hassan.

North Indian thali which I think is better than South Indian ones simply because it has more flavor in it. It's spicier as well. Channa curry, sambar, dhal, and the usual, rice and chapatti.

Dinner was at Ashok Hotel, I ordered rice and mixed vegetable schezuan which I didn't take a photo of. This is the carrot halva which I had for dessert. It wasn't as good as the one I had in Riyadh though but it was ok.

Breakfast at the Southern Star Hotel and I had idli rava with sambar and coconut chutney. I was planning of taking cooking classes while I'm here in Mysore but since I've been eating all these thalis and basically know how the dishes taste like, I think I can just get the recipes online and make them myself.
The Spice Rack at the Southern Star Hotel in Hassan.

Indian meal at the Raghu Restaurant in Sravanabelagola. This one tasted different. Light but tasty... and felt very sattvic. A friend said food will be different here because it's a Jain's area. I still need to do my homework and read more about the way Jain people prepare their food.

Veg Park and Barista Coffee

Netta and I are supposed to Join Tesa and the gals at Vivian's for a Chinese lunch but I overslept and when we arrived at the Sashira Café (that's the official name of Vivian's place, # 383, just across the yoga shala) the food was gone! Tesa said it was Taiwanese vegetarian… light and a nice change from the usual Indian meals that we've been having.

I needed some money changed so we waited for Shiva and after hearing about this Veg Park Restaurant which serves Indian and Chinese food, Netta and I decided to try their noodles. It was just a couple of steps away from Barista Coffee so it wasn't really very difficult to find.

Netta ordered the Singaporean Noodles while I asked for the spicy Szechuan. The waiter had to warn me that it was spicy but I said I can take it. It was good and just a little bit too spicy for me so I ordered plain rice and ate it like a true blooded Filipino (I think it's a Pinoy thing, eating pancit/noodles with rice… I can even remember those days when I'd eat instant noodles with rice… basta Pinoy… anything with rice… spaghetti with rice anyone?). We're definitely going back there to try the kofta. They also have set meals… North Indian meal… North Indian Special meal… South Indian meal…. South Indian special meal… I wonder what were the differences? I'll surely let you know once I've tried them.

After that carbohydrate-filled lunch, we decided to have more carbs and ordered dessert. We shared the Black Cupid sundae. It was ok… it's chocolate ice cream so I don't really think you'll ever go wrong with that. Topped with nuts, bits of interesting sweets, caramel and chocolate syrup, and beet syrup (?) which tasted like cough syrup, I couldn't ask for more.

We spoiled ourselves even more when we decided to have coffee at Barista.

I had cafe latte and was surprised to receive little packets of demerara sugar when I asked for a brown one.

I'm definitely a spoiled lazy Ashtangi doing nothing in Mysore but do pranayama and asanas in the morning then basically do nothing the entire day except sleep and eat. At least my flatmate is taking pranayama lessons elsewhere. I'd probably do some Sanskrit and chanting lessons starting next week so I can have something worthwhile in the afternoon. I cooked for Tesa and friends for 3 days in a row though so I guess I'm not really that lazy… :-p.

In the Mecca of Celebrity Yoga

A TIME article by Madhur Singh

Natascha, a French yoga teacher, is a type that could be found in any organic-vegetarian restaurant in any of the cosmopolitan cultural capitals of Europe and the Americas. She has studied with the glitterati of yoga masters, and is in town for a refresher course. "It's a dream life," she says, while munching an organic vegetable hotpot at a café catering exclusively to yoga enthusiasts. "You can practice yoga with the masters, eat organic food, and rent a bicycle to take you around this beautiful city!"

Read the full article here.