Being a yogi for only a couple of years I consider myself very new to the yoga community. It’s only really been the past 8 months that I have taken yoga more into my life and it has started to become part of my identity.
With this said the yoga family as a whole lost someone special this week, BKS Iyengar http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28867890
Although I know little about his life I am familiar with the bones of his story, and I can’t help but be moved by someone with so much energy for life.
What touched me the most this week was how everyone from all forms of life and yoga disciplines came together to appreciate this man’s legacy and the loss. In my very first Iyengar class yesterday (pure coincidence I have not been to one before) our teacher made a special point of talking about his life, even laying a small shrine at the front of the studio and asking us to dedicate our practise to him.
Although it was a significant loss, particularly to people like my teacher I was stuck by the celebration of his life rather than the sadness of his death. Something I love about the spirituality of yoga is that at times like these you can embrace the sadness but wrap it up in a glow of appreciation and celebration. This doesn’t take away from the grief and doesn’t mean a loss is any less felt. It simply means as a yogi you can accept that death is part of life and that celebrating someone impact and their legacy is honouring them. We can be happy that they have touched our life and let them move on to the next one.
I am learning from yoga to live in the moment, embrace every experience because that is the only one you have. Yesterday has gone, tomorrow might not happen, and today is all we have to make things count. I dedicate my practise today to the gift of today, for myself and for everyone.