Interview with Geetaji

Pages: [ « ] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [ » ]

Chris: When did you make the decision not to get married and have a family?

Geeta: I never thought of getting married. I never had an inclination towards family life. My aunts tell me that even sometimes at the age of three I would say that I would go and join an ashram as yogis always did that. But later I never thought of joining an ashram. My interest in yoga grew as I was practising so I just never thought of getting married. I have to thank God for that. If I had had some inclination or desire it would have been like forcing myself to be the other way. Fortunately, that never happened.

Chris: And your parents never said . . .

Geeta: No, they knew how I was. Very rarely do such things happen in a family. Normally you have to push back your wishes but that never happened. When my sister Vanita was to get married, my mother asked me if I was sure about not getting married. Since she is younger, I would have got married first, but I said I was definitely not interested. That was not my goal of life at all. Fortunately, I was not negative either because negativity can also be a forced idea. I just never had any inclination. My mother was very supportive and my parents never tried to force me nor did I have to prepare myself not to get married. It was all luck. But you know, perhaps some yoga students are more sincere than I am. I have taken to yoga as a lifestyle and I have never had any doubts. It is God's blessing that it was very clear.

Chris: When you started teaching do you feel you started practising differently? Did it change your way of practising?

Geeta: I don't think it is teaching that caused any change. But as maturity comes, I think practice changes. I didn't change it but it changed as understanding started coming. I tell you, this kind of looking into the pose came to me once in Kurmasana. I was doing tortoise pose, and I don't know what made me feel something different. My body was supple and I was just practising and one day I felt some- thing, some life coming. It happened in the early days of my practice. It was then that I realized why Guruji says you have to 'go in', in doing the pose. The stretch of the arms and the stretch of the legs made me feel something inside. I realized I was looking into my pose and I felt as though I was becoming inhibited. I began to understand how to penetrate internally for the first time. And then I realised that that was the way I should do every asana. Also, my problems made me realise how I had to work.

Chris: Just the other day, I saw Guruji teaching you as a pupil. Also you wrote in your book that he taught you as a pupil and not as a daughter. That he was a stickler for discipline and really a taskmaster. Did you ever feel discouraged by that?

Geeta: No, I don't think I felt discouraged because as a teacher, I myself am like that. He is strict with me and I am also strict in that sense. If you want a result from a student you have to demand and they have to work in that manner. People often don't understand this. They think it's too strict, too disciplined, forcing. I don't believe these ideas. On both sides there has to be a willingness. As a pupil you have to have a willingness to learn and the teacher has to have a willingness to teach. So, whenever Guruji was teaching me I always felt that I could do better. I never felt that it was too hard because when he helped me, I felt a change internally, that I have never done like that. I was never discouraged by pain and pain doesn't bother me much. I am not like other people making a fuss that it pains, it pains. If I had a little bit better health than I have, my yoga would have been more expressive. For example, when a spectator looks at my performance it is not so spectacular. I have a limitation in that sense. Another person may do better, and you accept them as a performer, as a doer. Outsiders may question what I am doing and think they are doing better than me. But for me that is not the main thing because as a result they may not be getting anything. When I do, I know from inside that certain changes are occurring which an outsider cannot see. It is true that some may do better than me but at the same time I know that from inside that something is coming to me. On a performance level, I may still go backward because my body has got its limitations but I really never worry about my pains. I am never afraid of pain. I can take it. So even now if Guruji puts me in Kapotasana or Vrschikasana I am not bothered about the pains. And that willingness has always been there so I could accept it.

Pages: [ « ] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 [ » ]

Printable Version

If you want to print the interview, please use one of printable versions.