The Spiral Staircase

Om Namah Shivaya

Happy New Year from the Spiral Staircase! Over here, we ring in the new year with a little chanting to the yogic deity Shiva, who destroys the old to make way for the new. He is the god of yoga, austerity, and the father of Ganesha, the elephant-headed remover of obstacles and patron saint of writers.

In 2014, Shiva has promised to help me write more, party less, and not waste so much time on the Internets.

One great devotee of Shiva - and proof that "well behaved women seldom make history" - was the 12th century saint Mahadevi. Here's a brief bio from the wonderful Penguin Classics compilation Speaking of Shiva:

"At ten, she was initiated into Shiva-worship by an unknown guru. She considered that moment the moment of her real birth.

"The form of Shiva at the Udutadi temple was Mallikarjuna, translated either as 'the Lord White as Jasmine' or as 'Arjuna, Lord of goddess Mallika'. 'Cenna' mans 'lovely, beautiful'. She fell in love with Cennamalikarjuna and took his name for a 'signature' in all her poems.

Image of Mahadevi from a temple constructed at her birthplace

"She betrothed herself to Shiva and none other, but human lovers pressed their suit. The rivalry between the divine lover and all human loves was dramatized by the incidents of her own life. Kausika, the king of the land, saw her one day and fell in love with her...he persuaded her, or rather her parents, partly by show of force, and partly by his protestations of love...

"It must have been a trying marriage for both. Kausika, the worldling, full of desire for her as a mortal, was the archetype of sensual man; Mahadevi, a spirit married already to the Lord White as Jasmine, scorning all human carnal love as corrupt and illegitimate, wife to no man, exile bound to the world's wheeling lives, archetypal sister of all souls...

"Like other bhaktas, her struggle was with her condition, as body, as woman, as social being tyrannized by social roles, as a human confined to a place and time. Through these shackles she bursts, defiant in her quest for ecstasy.

"According to legend, she died into 'oneness with Shiva' when she was hardly in her twenties - a brief, bright burning."

 

157  by Mahadevi

If one could
draw the fangs of a snake
and charm the snake to play,
it's great to have snakes.

If one can single out
the body's ways
it's great to have bodies.
The body's wrong
is like mother turning vampire.

Don't say they have bodies
who have Your love
O lord
white as jasmine.

Invoking Shiva

There's still time to get a ticket to see the astonishing Nrityagram at the Joyce.  The opening night was smashing, from the serpentine rhythms of the live drumming to the jingle of the anklets to the flashing eyes of Surupa Sen.  This program featured a guest turn by two Sri Lankan women dancing in the Kandyan tradition, which provided an interesting angular counterpoint to the lush curves of Nrityagram's Odissi. 

Surupa Sen

Everyone I spoke to after the show was awestruck.  I can't remember the last time I saw something this purely enjoyable.

NYT's Alistair Macaulay kvells over his trip to the dancers' utopian compound outside of Bangalore.

From the program notes...

Attributed to Ravana, Sri Lanka's great warrior king, who was a devotee of Shiva, the god of dance and destruction.

Shiva!
From the forest
of your matted locks
descends
the celestial river Ganga.

A mighty serpent
garlands you lovingly,
the glittering gem
in his magical hood
radiates brilliance,
that annoints the faces
of the four-directions
with a delicate hue.

Adorned
only by the sky,
a new-born moon jewels your locks
and your forehead smoulders
with the fire of your third eye.

Your ceaseless drum song
pervades the universe,
as you dance
your fearsome Tandava.

Perfect consort to Himalya's daughter,
you are the ever-compassionate
destroyer of evil.

Opening your third eye
you burnt to ashes
the God of Love
The five-arrowed Kamadeva,
disrupter of your meditation.

You are the Universe.
Equanimous.
Invincible.
Eternal.

On you
I meditate.

Dance
on the funeral pyres
in my heart
and release me
from this universe.

Take This Class

Cancel your plans tomorrow night and take Steven Cheng's 7PM community yoga class at Yoga Union -- it might be the best workout value in town.  Community classes are pay-what-you-wish (a $10 donaton is suggested), and I applaud the generosity of teachers who offer them.  Sometimes at the Iyengar Center it takes the whole session of restorative yoga to cure me of my sticker shock over the $21 drop-in rate.

Trained in the Dharma Mittra style, Steven offers a vigorous flow that focuses on releasing the energy of the spine.  He began the class by telling us to tailor the practice to our own needs, and he made me feel very comfortable despite my wrist props and weirdo sweating. 

Steven is a creative teacher who is comfortable improvising.  When he heard I had wrist pain, he showed us some excellent forearm strengtheners.  The remainder of the class focused on bound variations of half moon pose.  It had a lovely build and was challenging without being aggressive. 

A sunbeam came through the window and lit me up for the first half of class, which exacerbated my sweating problem but also made me feel beatific.  As we moved deeper into bound balances and deep hamstring work, I found myself able to respect my own limits while I pushed myself.  This is hard for me, being naturally competitive, and is why I generally avoid group classes.  Steven is the rare teacher who can make you feel like you are alone in company. 

Dharma Mittra (via Yoganonymous)

I took classes with the mysterious Dharma Mittra back in the good old days, when he was still in his original studio and when I could still grab my ankles in a backbend.  His soothing voice would lull me into a psychic trance.  Back then, the mark of a Dharma Mittra class was that I would always do something I hadn't done before.  These moments are rare for me in my senescense, but I actually had one in Steven's class: I jumped into bakasana and stuck it.  Fun!

Given the quality of the instruction and the low proce, this class should be packed, but it wasn't.  Spread the word!

Prison Yoga Benefit

Desikachar Jr in NYC

On Dec 16 at 6:30 PM, Kausthub Desikachar will speak at the Astanga Yoga Shala on 430 Broome St, #2.  I wish I could go!  Kausthub is the son of TKV Desikachar and the grandson of the legendary yogi Krishnamacharya:

Dr. Desikachar will be speaking about Krishnamacharya's relationship with his various disciples.  This should be a fascinating lecture for anyone interested in the lineage of modern yoga.

Download Flier

Therapeutic Yoga In Your Apartment

I've always wanted a rope wall like you find in those well-stocked Iyengar studios.  A rope wall lets you do long, restorative downward-facing dog poses.  This is fabulous for people with RSI or carpal tunnel, where wrist pain can make long holdings of downward dog painful.

There's a great way to get this feeling without a rope wall, though.  All you need is a door that opens into your yoga space and a strap.  Belt the strap, leaving it very roomy, then slip it around your doorknobs like so. 

Step inside the strap, facing away from the door.  Separate your legs so they come on either side of the door, lean forward to place your hands on the ground, and adjust yourself so the belt is taught and the door is holding you in down dog.

This feels so great.  The door does most of the heavy lifting, but you can still work the legs intensely, taking the inner thighs back and the heels toward the floor.  The relief in the wrists also lets you work more subtle details about the arms, such as externally rotating the upper arms ("hollow the armpits") while internally rotating the forearms.  The spine lengthens and the head relaxes down toward the floor. 

 

The best thing about a rope wall, though, is hanging upside down.  When you have neck pain or cervical spine injury, sirsasana (headstand) is contraindicated, because it compresses the cervical vertebrae.  Hanging from the wall lets you get most of the benefits of the headstand, plus your neck gets delicious traction.  With the legs in baddha konasana, you get a nice inner thigh stretch, too. 

Drilling into our walls to create a rope wall has never been a option.  I tried this Gaiam prop, but I disliked it because the shoulder pressure really hurt.

Inversion tables are too big and expensive.  I just found a great alternative, though!  It's an inversion sling...

and you can purchase special door mounting hardware that lets you basically slam it into your door. 

I had to search all over until I found a place that carried this.  (Look under "Chairs and Ropes.")  Your door needs to be heavy duty, but the front doors of most NY apartments are sturdy enough.  A nice way to follow this is with chair shoulderstand, then a long relaxation. 

Gitanjali #81

On many an idle day have I grieved over lost time.  But it is never lost, my lord.  Thou hast taken every moment of my life in thine own hands.

Hidden in the heart of things thou art nourishing seeds into sprouts, buds into blossoms, and ripening flowers into fruitfulness.

I was tired and sleeping on my idle bed and imagined all work had ceased.  In the morning I woke up and found my garden full with wonders of flowers.

by Rabindranath Tagore

Namaste

Thanks to Matthew for sending me this.  Preacher Eddie D. Smith explains the yogic greeting "Namaste" to his flock.  Via the Hare Krishna weekly:

Mahabharata du jour

From my fabulous Yahoo Mahabharata group comes this quote.  (Yama is the god of death.)

k.m.ganguly - shanti-parva- 322 -

Neither mother, nor son, nor relatives, nor dear friends even when
solicited with honours, accompany the man that dies. To the regions
of Yama one has to go oneself, unaccompanied by any one. Only those
deeds, good and bad, that one did before death accompany the man
that goes to the other world.

From the Chandogya Upanishad

OM.  In the center of the castle of Brahman, our own body, there is a small shrine in the form of a lotus-flower, and within can be found a small space.  We should find who dwells there, and we should want to know him.

And if anyone asks, "Who is he who dwells in a small shrine in the form of a lotus flower in the center of the castle of Brahman?  Whom should we want to find and to know?" we can answer:

"The little space within the heart is as great as this vast universe.  The heavens and the earth are there, and the sun, and the moon, and the stars; fire and lightning and winds are there; and all that now is and all that is not: for the whole universe is in Him and He dwells within our heart."