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24th January 2025 - Raya

Tamara Hockey

Updated: Jan 27


Parivrtta Eka Pada Sirsasana in the famous RIMYI Practice Hall.
Parivrtta Eka Pada Sirsasana in the famous RIMYI Practice Hall.

Prashant's 6pm Pranayama class was cancelled this evening and since I didn't get up for Raya's 5.45am and opted 8 hours sleep instead, that left me with just my own practice. Fear not, Rosana DID go and has written up the class for you all below! Since I had to pay my class fees to Kunal today, I went into the institute for the practice session for the first time in years ( see pic in Practice Hall) and did my best to immerse in practice despite all the different energies and activity in the room. And while it wasn't a particulary deep practice, it was fine though I really struggled with a couple of people wearing aftershave / perfume, as whatever body function that allows people to disarm toxins does not work in my body, so they make me feel incredibly unwell, sometimes for days. I managed to find a spot where there was a little through breeze coming from the open entrance at the back and tried not to breathe too deeply (not ideal). It's unusual to come across these toxins in a yoga space as generally there is more awareness of this now - such as this Guardian article.


Rosana took some pictures today for the Iyengar Yoga Deutschland interview about the blog, which you can read here.


In the afternoon I went to visit a local Ayurvedic Doctor named Dr, Pradnya Akkalkotkar that quite a few Iyengar students are going to see. I booked in because I have a fungal toe nail and they are incredibly difficult to get rid of (it's not unusual to take it to the grave so tricky they are to treat). Western medicine does offer some treatment but it involves taking some pretty heavy-duty internal anti-fungal medications for up to 6 months and you have to have a robust liver to cope with them. I declined. Well, I have to say I am impressed! One single application of her magic oil and its already 80% gone. I only just stopped myself from posting before and after pics here, so be grateful!


While she was perfectly happy to treat this for me, she was much more interested in what was really causing the most suffering in my life at the moment and is using a combination of Ayurvedic medications and Viddhakarma Therapy (essentially poking certain points in the body with fine sharp needles - not to be confused with acupuncture, which works on energy meridians using finer needles) to treat me.


I am covered in small lipomas, which are benign capsules of fat, a bit like a kidney bean that sits under the skin - they don't do any harm, but are irritating and unsightly and I've had surgery to remove a couple over the years. She asked if she could try an experiment to use her Viddhakarma Therapy to cut the blood supply off to one of them and I agreed. I had zero expectation because the ones I've had removed seemed to be without blood supply, however within 48 hours it has all but disappeared! I enjoy going to see her very much, she's very easy to talk to and feels like a friend.She comes highly recommended, see her info below.



Join us as we explore the ancient wisdom and expertise of Dr. Pradnya Akkalkotkar , a renowned Ayurvedic practitioner as she discusses why Viddhakarma is the best solution for people's health problems. Click in the link below to watch the full video :

https://youtu.be/QuQBL2ZwYysFollow @naturefit.in for more 𝐃𝐌 𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 ​☎️ 8976946805 ​🌐 www.naturefit.in ​🔗 Click on the link in the bio & download Naturefit app




Here is Rosana Fiore's write up of Raya's 5,45am class:


Intermediate class with Raya 24/01/25 5:45 am


Many of us had been in a previous class taught also by Raya the previous evening. That class consisted mostly in drop backs from all the inverted poses, so you could feel the tiredness in the hall.

Before the invocation, Raya started inviting us to wake the body up. Keep our eyes open, broaden the outer corners of our eyes, and invite the body to wake up, to get ready.

Then we started in Adho Mukha Svanasana, followed by Uttanasana- those who can, jump. We repeated this twice quite dynamically.

 Parsvottanasana, focusing on hands down, firmness of the thighs/knees and anchoring the back foot.

Parivrtta Trikonasana, emphasis on weigh of the back leg, and back foot. Observe the rotation of the bottom of the back foot, ankle to big toe, the arch, all while the inner thigh rotation of the back leg should not let the hip collapse down. The whole action is an orchestration. Don't focus just on one thing at a time, like running a tick list.

Notice the contact between outer forearm and outer calf and feel how grounding it is to rotate the torso from there.

Parivrtta Ardha Chandrasana, try to align the bottom hand with the foot. How much of your memory of the outer calf/outer forearm from Parivrtta Trikkonasana can you bring back now that there is no contact/no stability?

Look down, like when you do Bharadvajasana and you are asked to look over the back shoulder first, and then turn your head, to look along the front shoulder.

He mentioned alignment. Alignment should come as a consequence of the whole orchestration working together and not be your number one priority.

AMS

Move left foot a bit to the centre and lift the right leg into Urdhva Prasarita Eka Padasana

Hold, hold, hold for ever.

The hands have to press onto the floor. Move more weight to the hands, so you can lift the upper leg even higher from the pressure of the hands.

 

Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana Ill

**Here he mentioned a word in Marathi that sounded like "maal", to refer to the contents of one's tummy. When he asked the locals for a translation, they shouted,

"Goods". They all laughed because he added, "You can go to the market and get some maal"... However, we then got to know that the term also means "a girl who's ' easily" available" and so his innuendo ended up sounding really out of order. Thus the internal joke.

He also added that during his trip to Mexico he couldn't believe how locals would eat black kidney beans and come to a twist class. The horror! Whereas Krishnamacharya would have doses of Castor Oil so his "maal" was suitable for the twist practice.**

 

So we did Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana Ill bending top leg first, catching from outer foot. Lifting the chest and remembering the torso of the previous standing poses, with the same firmness in the standing "back" leg.

Then we extended the top leg catching either from the big toe, the outer edge of the foot or wrapping the entire hand from the wrist to the 5 fingers around the heel, like a clasp.

Open the sole of your foot as you catch. The two inner thighs have to be working as in Parivrtta Trikkonasana.

Ardha Sirsasana - This felt tiring. He made us align feet to the elbows, so only move them a few inches to the right/left. Then we repeated lifting legs diagonally & alternatively. For example, we took both feet slightly to the right and lifted the right leg.

Then to the left and lifted the left leg. Feel the outer calves!

We then took the legs again to the right, but this time lifted the inner leg, i.e. the left one.

Legs to the left, lift the right. This was to feel the shifts in weight, the impact on the balance and the stamina required to lift each of the legs at different times plus keep the shoulders up. 

 

We had a small break sitting up in Virasana, interlacing fingers behind the back and moving the head side to side and up, while stretching the arms back and down.

Those who had had enough could do sitting twists.

Sirsasana -Eka Pada. Let the top leg descend a little.

Parivitta Eka Pada Sirsasana. Briefly, but emphasis was on the front leg. So he made us lower the left leg forward first, turn to the right, then firm the thigh and knee of both legs, taking the right leg back.

 

Quoted Geetaii saying that we needed to work till we created pimples in the outer calves. "You people are so worried about pimples in the cheeks, you should worry about having them in the

outer calves. That's more important!"

Open Palm Sirsasana - as an intro, he showed us the photo of Guruji doing Eka Pada Koundinvasana 1 up in the hall to understand his physicality, the positioning of the arms. We started descending our left leg to the centre of the chest, then to the outer right elbow. We tried with one leg straight, then one leg bent, two legs bent to one side and the other, pretty much like a Parsva Bakasana with the head down.

Sarvangasana on the thick mats. Liiiiift the scapula. We went for Halasana after. In Halasana, again he asked us to get the two legs in alignment with the right shoulder, so only a few inches to the side, not Parsva Halasa a and repeat to the other side, lift one leg up at a time (Same leg variations as in Ardha Sirsasana above)

Paschimottanasana with buttocks on the support. Dandasana. Parsva Dandasana.

Buttocks on the support.

We finished in Savasana with the legs on the support and the head, body, buttocks on the floor. Letting the contents of the body spread. Feet off the blankets!



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Guest
Jan 31

Hello Tamara, I am Maria Arangelova, I am currently in Pune for the seminar and will stay until the end of February. I read your blog, thank you very much for the useful and systematized information about the practices and interesting stories that you share. I am writing to you regarding the information that you shared about Dr. Pradnya. I have lipomas and am seriously interested in meeting with her. I have been calling the phone number that you posted for several days, but it is constantly unavailable. I am disoriented on the sites that you shared and cannot find her. I would be very grateful if you could help me contact her🙏❤️

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