Geeta talks about props by Geeta S Iyengar

[extracts]

Years back it was difficult for people to accept the very idea that we could use props while doing asanas or pranayama. The idea was that everything should be done independently and if you used a support it was not the traditional way. It is hard to believe that years back even I could not express this when writing articles because people were against it. Yet we were using props when teaching classes or handling different patients and their problems. Then gradually, when people started feeling they were improving, the psychology changed. The minds of people started changing, and now we have reached such a stage that people ask for further demonstrations with props. We did it not only here but in Pune, Bombay, Rishikesh and different areas. Not only has the interest been ignited but also now doctors even think in a different way. They think that if we can use these props for patients in the hospital it may bring a great change.

… Even for Guruji it was not easy to create props but definitely there was something in his mind. I would say he was always in yoga in that sense. Even now he thinks in a different way to others. There was not an authoritative book regarding props but certainly the clues were available. Guruji began to think about these props. His practice gave shape to the props.

In Hatha Yoga Pradipika in the very first chapter in the initial stanzas, we come across the list of practitioners, the yogis, and among them one called Chaurangi is specifically mentioned. He was disabled. When Guruji read this he started thinking about this person who was disabled. He could not walk or stand but was a practitioner and was considered to be a great yogi and was even cited in the list of great names. In the same chapter you find the stanza saying, ‘The young, the old the extremely aged, even the sick and the infirm obtain perfection by constant practice’ (Hatha Yoga Pradipika 1:64). That definitely gives the clue that some other ways existed in those days. People who had diseases or those who were disabled could take up the practice of yoga.

In the second chapter you find that there are certain methods given to cleanse the body, called shat-kriya. You may have read about the six methods of cleansing the body. For example, the yogis were using water to cleanse their nose, also thread to cleanse their nose. That means some kind of prop was used to bring cleanliness.

The third thing is, though the book is not available, Guruji has seen a handwritten book with his own Guruji Shri Krishnamacharya, in Mysore, a book called Yoga Kurunta. Kuranti in Sanskrit means a puppet. You are familiar with the puppet show where threads are tied to the puppet. The puppet moves or dances according to the movement of the thread. Guruji saw his Guruji perform certain movements and actions with the ropes: a yoga puppet show. Yoga Kurunta means yoga puppet show. The textbook says that in the olden days when the yogis were living in the forests they would put ropes on the branches of the trees and perform different sorts of movements or positions. All the details are not available as to what they were doing, but still this clue was enough. We can perform certain things with the ropes.

Ramanujacharya who has written a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita mentioned in the sixth chapter how important it is for the practitioner of yoga to know the way of living as given by Lord Krishna: How a yogi has to live life and what meditation means. In writing the commentary on that chapter Ramanujacharya says that one can have a slight support when doing meditation. The Sanskrit word used is sopas — that means to have a support. Lord Krishna says you have to keep your back erect, you have to keep your head straight. The neck should be straight and the eyes should remain closed and you should look within, towards the tip of the nose… Ramanujacharya explains in the commentary that while sitting straight one is likely to drop the spine, so have a little support to the back so that you can sit straight. This is proof that in those days they thought of using props…

Now the props have a certain design, a certain shape. It is interesting to know how Guruji could think of these props. It was not just that people could not do, which made him think of these props. But when practising, while putting all the efforts into doing, he began to think about props. While practising an inner feeling speaks to you. One has a conversation within oneself, ‘This is not coming and I am supposed to get it. My neck doesn’t go back, doesn't curve back. If I have to curve my neck, in which way is my neck to curl in order to get better movement?’ In this manner Guruji could think while doing. ‘I am not getting it and I am supposed to get it. If somebody lifts me up, somebody pushes me up, pulls me, extends or grips me, I can do better.’ These ideas made him think of props.

\As I said, the ropes already existed. He saw from his Guru that certain movements could be done with the ropes. For example for a beginner there is less muscular grip and less firmness of the joints in standing poses. It is a very common experience for everyone that the foot becomes slippery especially if the floor is slippery. So Guruji could think, at that time, if the foot is slippery and one cannot grip properly then not only the foot, but also the rest of the stretches, go wrong. All the time we are dependent on the bottom of the foot. If it is slipping, obviously you cannot stretch your body, the rest of the spine or trunk in the proper way. How can the props be used so the foot will not slip?

The first thing he could think of was to put the foot that was slipping against something so automatically a support was given. He used the wall and could see that the wall was a great help. Sometime back, while teaching in England, he said ‘Wall, my Guru’. ‘The wall is my Guru.’ He said this for the simple reason that the wall taught him to a great extent, for example the alignment of the body. We don't know in Trikonasana or simple Tadasana whether we are leaning forward or going backward or if we are straight. These things we cannot easily judge. Guruji had to find out in his own way. That is how he began to make use of the wall to help those people who were unable to do unsupported. They were losing their balance, losing their grip, or sometimes complaining of some sort of dizzy feeling. These things gave him the idea of how to make use of the wall. That is how the first support started.

Similarly, Guruji could feel when practising backbends like Viparita Dandasana, Kapotasana or even Vrschikasana, which are advanced poses. He could feel from within that such asanas were a great help to him to open his chest or open his lungs inside. They were bringing freedom in the breathing. This started him thinking about people with asthma, colds or a cough who were weak and not strong enough to do advanced postures. Everyone cannot perform these difficult postures and yet they are very effective. How to introduce those difficult postures? How to bring that specifically required effect he experienced in those asanas. What could help a particular disease? Someone may have a lung problem; someone may have an abdominal problem, an intestinal problem.

The question remained how to make everyone able to do these difficult postures. People were afraid. People did not believe Guruji: ‘These are so difficult and why are you making us do these difficult asanas.’ What he started to do was to help with his own hands and legs — using his own body as a support. If someone’s chest had to be opened he would grip their back ribs with his hands and fingers, supporting with the palms, lifting the chest so it could relieve them and take off their fear. It is true some people would be afraid when someone else was touching their body. Afraid that their bones would break or a joint would slip off or anything could happen. But Guruji was confident about it because of his own practice. He knew exactly where and what had to happen; in which way it should be done. That is why he started using his own hands, arms and legs for support. People could do asanas comfortably and get the effect that was expected. That is how props came into the picture.

I am telling you this because sometimes people may question why we use supports. The supports are not meant just to rest and relax or to do in a lazy way. They are meant to obtain the feeling of the correct asana from inside so we can improve ourselves. Whenever we have that nervousness, the fear complex, our movements are restricted We may not know that the movements are restricted unless somebody guides us. In this way, the props are of a great use because they open new avenues for every practitioner.

Patanjali did not forget these kinds of props but he refers to them in a different way in his Yoga Sutras. For example in the first chapter Patanjali speaks of the consciousness or the chitta which comprises the mind, the intellect and the very ‘I’ expression. The capital ‘I’ expression - this consciousness cannot be quietened straight away. People often ask us — they come and say, ‘I want to do yoga, my mind fluctuates very much. Can you stop the fluctuating of the mind?’ They think the teacher is supposed to stop the fluctuations of the mind! But Patanjali says the fluctuations of the mind will not stop straight away. You need to polish your consciousness, you need to embrace your consciousness and you have to see that the consciousness, which we have within, becomes more graceful in its expression.

For that he gave several methods. He says that you have to change your mental attitude by using the support of different kinds of emotions or attitudes that we have within. We all have attitudes of friendliness and animosity. When looking at the world if any kind of animosity is created within you, be kindly and allow the attitude of friendliness to surface. Is this not an emotional support that we are using? He says to have compassion for those who are suffering, for those who are in pain, for those who are in a sorrowful state. We all have certain degrees of compassion, if not total compassion. If you bring the attitude of compassion to the surface perhaps that compassion will bring solace to the heart which is suffering, which is having pain.

Patanjali says have your own breath as a support. If the mind is all the time fluctuating you can stop it by a long exhalation. Have a long exhalation and a long inhalation and keep the exhalation in a suspended state. Be able to suspend the breath so you become quiet; your nerves quieten. So even Patanjali uses a kind of support for the consciousness so it can be purified. We have to purify our own body – improve the circulation, improve digestion, improve our muscles, which are lazy and not working. We have to use the props to improve.

For human beings there are three movements which are very essential. We should be able to stand, to sit and obviously we should be able to go on our back to sleep. But this can be a problem for some people to stand, to sit or sleep. When a person wants to come to class but cannot stand obviously we have to give the person some support.

For example, an interesting case: a 25-year-old lady came to the Institute. Ten years ago a snake had bitten her and though the poison was removed from the body her nervous system was affected. The nerves had become so sensitive that touching her shoulder caused her whole body to shake. The nerves had been poisoned from inside. The nerves did not remain stable. I took her as a student. She held on to a support with her legs spread apart. I pushed her nearer the wall I pushed the base of her spine, her lower sacrum, along with the tailbone inside, and made her stand for five minutes calmly. This was the first time she had stability of the body.

People with Parkinson’s disease or poliomyelitis can't stand without support. They can stand with this method using support either with the back facing or front facing the stand. One has to find out whether one requires anterior support or posterior support and that way the pose is given. The common terminology we use when standing with the back touching the stand is ‘posterior support’ and when the front body is touching the stand, facing the stand it is ‘anterior support'.

There are people who say they can't sit without a chair. So we have them face the trestler and hold it firmly. Fully supporting their back we tell them, ‘I am holding, don't worry’, and they begin to bend, to sit down. This means they are learning to sit; learning how to go down. Holding the trestler gives support and then the inner support of courage comes, giving them confidence. This builds up confidence in them and shows it is possible to go down.

When some people go to lie down on their back the fear complex is so much they can't breathe. So we make the person rest half sitting, half lying down; this gives them courage.

So these are simple ways using support for standing, sitting, sleeping and in different styles when a person is disabled.

[This address and demonstration has been transcribed from video by Kay Parry].

[Yoga Vaani, December 1998]

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