The air is crisp and filled with excitement you can feel as Iyengar Yogis gather from all over the country for the first time since 2019 at the IYNAUS Convention. We swarm into the Meet and Greet and buzz around Abhijata at the Town and Country Resort in San Diego on Monday night. The room is full of lovely sounds, including soft live guitar music, squeals of delight as hugs breakout, smiles turn into laughter and chatter occurs between folks who haven’t seen each other in years. Many new faces float by as well. There are around 500 in-person attendees and 375 people online.
For those of us attending in person, there are no rectangular boxes framing the form in front of us – no zoom to touch up our appearance. “You are shorter than I remember!” someone exclaims as they walk up next to me. Also – there is no mute button! Ahh, the power of proximity, I think to myself and smile – a headline I recently read in The New York Times. Yes, being together IRL (in real life) sure has it’s...advantages.
I have been to many Iyengar Yoga Conventions, so I am accustomed to the requisite classes, meeting and rituals we have embedded into the experience. But when I look at the schedule, I am amazed. It literally seems like there is something planned for every hour of the day! A friend and I joke, “when will we sleep and eat?!”
Tomorrow, we have our first Mega Class with Abhijata, gathered in our color-coded sections together. I will head to the gold section when I enter the room in the morning.
Day 1 - Tuesday
I shoot out of the proverbial convention canon, and hit the ground running. Up early, and about to walk out the door, we receive notice via the event app that our day has been postponed by an hour. Gold – which some are calling burnt orange, orange or yellow – is in the front left. The first thing on our schedule said there would be a puja. An hour later than expected, Abhi places a few flowers at the altar with BKS and Geetaji pictured and notes, then she immediately commences class. The puja is canceled. “The puja will be on your mat,” she declares, followed by her signature laugh. She devotes the whole first session to standing poses. She brings a man with stiff hips up onto the platform to the trestle. She shows with a rope and both of her feet as she sits on the floor in front of him how to adjust someone to open the hip in Virabhadrasana II. You think of bending the knee, she says, but not where it has to come FROM – we just think of where it’s going TO. She slows us way down and has us put a tall brick behind our back in Swastikasana to open our chest. We go back to Triangle. She has us now put the brick under our sacrum and tailbone in Setu Bandha Sarvangasana and brings us back to Utthita Parsvakonasana. She has us lay prone in Supta Padangusthasana 2. We look at our neighbors and to decide who is going forward, backward to accommodate the outstretched leg. This will help us do Ardha Chandrasana. At some point during class, she reminds us that here in-person, there is no way to turn your camera off! After a small break, we undertake seated poses and twistings with the concept of ejecting the pelvis up and away from the legs. She asks us to explore the complicated seated twists to see how much our spine shrinks. She shows us what is possible as she loops a rope under the demonstrator’s armpits and pulls her up and turns her around in Marichyasana III. She has started plowing the field of our embodiment in preparation for the rest of the week.
Later that afternoon, in her keynote speech, Abhijata shared a wonderful story about a trip she wound up taking with her grandfather, B.K.S. Iyengar. On the long and difficult journey she was skeptical to take in the first place, he explained the nuance between commitment and resolve. She tied it to our convention theme of “sankalpa” or intention. As she described the trip, I felt as though we were all in the back seat of that car with the two of them, the wise elder yogi schooling his young granddaughter about the place where inner strength and tenacity intersect with willpower to create an unshakable, firm decision that nothing can interrupt. Faith and love have a big role to play. On the other hand, he pointed out, commitments can be broken. I felt she was urging us to strengthen ourselves within to lessen the chances for a casual approach to ourselves, to our yoga practice and to each other as human beings.
I spent the evening with old friends on a short but beautiful hike at sunset cliffs followed by fish tacos and an abundance of laughter.
Day 2 - Wednesday
Abhijata has certainly strengthened her resolve to make our knees straighter today! She tells us that this important leg work that Guruji shared in the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s must not be forgotten. Our knees and thighs groan, yawn and stretch, into a newly awakened state. She helps us forge new pathways between our ankles and hips all the way to our spine. We work with our neighbors and some belts to pull them back in downward facing dog pose. Partner work was never so appreciated at the convention then after a pandemic! She brings the leg work into our inversions and in the afternoon teaches us pranayama.
Before that, she has a meeting with the CIYT’s where she makes herself available for questions from the certified teachers who are present. She is down-to-earth, confident, accessible, clear and thoughtful as she answers. She meets all the questions with aplomb and skill. I think we are all quite lucky to watch her in action, and can see that she has grown into a wonderful leader and champion of our method who embodies the very best parts of Guruji, Geetaji and Prashant.
The day ends around a cozy fire pit outside, with old friends, delicious pizza and stories, so many stories and laughs. It is good for the soul. Coming to the convention isn’t just about the yoga or the teaching, but the wonderful in-between moments, when you get to sit down and catch up with someone you haven’t seen for years. It is so nourishing, fun, and unique to our method.
Day 3 – Thursday
As we settle down, Abhi announces that today will not be a convention class, but a general class which will be taught at a faster pace, including Surya Namaskar, jumpings and arm balancings – so if this is not right for you, go to the side to receive support. Level 3 teachers who teach therapeutic classes volunteered to help those in need with the props, including the trestle and the wall. She shows how to work on the horse and for those at home online, on the wall. She puts us through our paces and alternately guides those teachers and students on the side so that everyone feels part of one class. She is in command. She is clear, unwavering (resolved!) in what she wants us to do and how she wants us to approach it. She gets us moving and frees us up in body, mind and breath, until we are all flowing – whether at the wall, or in the center doing the arm balances. She engages us all.
Following class she hosts what is becoming one of her famous “chit chats.” (She started this “chit chat’ format in 2018 at Yoganusasanam with Geetaji at the Centenary Celebrations in Pune.) We are all just happy to be in her presence. She tells us that this one should be “fun and free.” Some folks have coordinated and created colorful signs they hold up to tell Abhi “Thank You” and “We Love You, Abhijata!” They added the affectionate, “ji” to the end of her name and she quickly instructed them to remove that part. I am aware in this moment that she is so many things to so many people – a Mother, a Wife, a Sister, a Niece, a Granddaughter, a Teacher, a Friend, a Neighbor, a Student and in this moment, she wants to share her humanity with us. And so, we share it right back. Anyone who asks a technical question is told to save it for another meeting!
We attended the banquet that night and enjoyed a meal together. We celebrate that the Lighting the Way award has been given to David Carpenter, who passed away from pancreatic cancer last summer. There is hardly a dry eye in the house.
I have an exciting announcement to relay and once prompted, make my way up to the stage with fellow colleagues to tell everyone that the Iyengar Yoga Association of Greater New York has agreed to host the 2026 IYNAUS Convention...in Philadelphia, PA! We are very excited.
Day 4 – Friday
I am up early, ready for the 7am class with Prashantji and more than happy to tolerate the minor technical glitches that freeze him in the frame. We are live-streaming this class directly from Pune. He asks what he should speak about, and Kathleen Quinn, the convention organizer, exclaims “Sankalpa!” into her microphone. He effortlessly launches into an intelligent and thoughtful discourse on the topic, freely sharing the depth and breadth of his knowledge and experience on the importance of having an intention, even in the context of simple, everyday duties. After a bit, he implores us to practice simple poses while he continues. We do.
The morning class with Abhijata immediately follows Prashant. It is low to the ground, including seated work and twistings that lend themselves to deepening Paschimottansana. I feel a difference between my two sides in the twists that is stronger in the last few years. She weaves between the twists and forward bends, like kneading dough and then rolling it out. We get more tightly knit and then spread back out. This much “kneaded” condition comes effortlessly after hearing Prashant. My body responds to this approach. There is hope! Always, and since the very beginning, Iyengar Yoga gives me hope...hope that even some small improvements can be made to offset the tightness, stiffness, rigidity, and dullness of both body and mind that come with everyday living. To take us further inside, she takes us through pranayama in the afternoon. As I roll out of Savasana, I realize how good it is to come home to myself in a San Diego ballroom filled with the company of others who also share a deep appreciation for the practice of Iyengar Yoga. I am so grateful to be here for this week.
Day 5 – Saturday
Today is our last class, only one in the morning, and then I will head straight to the airport. I am sure it will be backbends. This day I am scheduled to demonstrate on the platform with fellow student, Nicolo Fonte, from Portland, OR. He and I are both nervous and excited. We sit on the side while Abhijata recites the Invocation. As we walk onto the platform, she reminds us all that the energy of the last class feels very different from the first as there is a bittersweetness when we realize the time has come to say goodbye. She teaches backbends to uplift us.
She has us put a belt around our wrists while standing in Tadasana to get the chest and arm action we need. She brings me forward and turns me sideways to show how to adjust the upper arms and trapezius with clarity, directness, and intelligence. She warns us all not to let the lumbar spine puff the abdomen, and she presses mine back quite strongly. She repeats this action in all of the backbends to help us find our thoracic spines and remove the dullness there. She has us tie a belt around the hips and then two if we have them, around the legs with the buckles in the middle back thighs to increase our sensitivity and ability to lift from different parts. Being on the platform intensifies my efforts and I lose count of the Dhanurasana’s and Urdhva Dhanurasana’s I do. Sirsasana drop backs! Abhi asks me to step forward and demonstrate. Courage combines with perseverance and there I go! I feel my feet hit the floor with a hard thud. I hear the heaviness and yet I am motivated and determined to find more lightness as I return to my spot.
The class winds down with twists, inversions and a final Paschimottanasana. There is a sense of completion and contentment that we have come through the fullness of this experience...together again after all this time.
I have to leave quickly to catch my flight. I arrive at the resort’s main entrance and a friendly woman asks if I want to share a cab to the airport, bolstering the feeling that we became a closer-knit community through the convention. She runs her own little studio in California and as we talk, our cab driver asks us if yoga can help his back! Maybe he was sorry he asked, because we shared with him about Iyengar Yoga enthusiastically until he stopped the car in front of the JetBlue departure sign. I exit the car, enriched, soaking it all in -- my sights set on next time – where we will meet again in Philadelphia in 2026 as I roll toward check-in and security.
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About The Light
The Light is the magazine of the Iyengar Yoga community of the U.S. (IYNAUS). Content is published regularly on this Substack publication by the Marketing, Communications, and Media Committee. Submit article ideas or content to publications@iynaus.org. You can read more about this publication.
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