My student Claudia, getting side-crow in first attempt!

That is Claudia, doing the side crow. If there is one phrase to describe her yoga practice it would be `tres yogic'. U may wonder  why I am allocating that phrase to her and not to other students? After all, if I am a yoga teacher then all my students would be doing yogic yoga, na?  Yes, I do have a good clutch of students who align with that phrase. But there are also others who do `entertaining yoga', some do  `time-pass' yoga. Some for weight loss, some for health. Some instructors from other institutes come to me for `money yoga':) (They can earn more money if they learn what I teach, possibly more than I:) A lot start out because they think, mistakenly, I am  teaching power yoga! Heavens! Luckily that sort of student falls along the way side:)  Some do yoga because the rest of the world is doing it.  I have had even some (mercifully only in the distant past) doing behenji yoga, one full gang which would not budge from that attitude!!  So you get the drift?

With her it is a pure yoga zone. Every pose is felt that way for her, a complete experience of yoga, a Zen space. Meditation. If she is in town she will never bunk for casual reasons, which a lot of my students do... That in itself deserves a medal.  For her, yoga is  life-transformative, and hence an inevitable part of daily life.  The way I also see yoga.  So U can see why this attitude of hers is very special for me.

When I started on the headstand, in the second/third class she told me she did not want my support and would do it on her own, with me standing just so off so that I was there, behind her, but not close. Just a psychological prop, but never used:)  Then by 4th session, she was on her own, without even my presence behind, but just a few cushions about around her mat, as emotional  props:) Then sixth session, she stands up on her own:) And for long.  Well, if all my students were like that ... She also does the headstand closing her eyes:)  In the headstand, her own zone.

Her crow is steady and held for long, very long, though she is only  a few weeks into the pose. She tells me, that this pose (like the headstand) for her means a mind in a state of absolute focus. It is centering and calming. I theorise about this a lot with some of my students, but she is amongst the few who gets it in practice. Though she often may shy off from trying a new pose, when she does it, she will invariably get it right, first attempt. That comes from that focus, that yogic yoga attitude.

There is more I can say of her: her attempt to get the Sanskrit mantra/prayer right and learn it; her craving for meditation, easy flexibility of body that comes definitely from the mind.

What I learn from her: to speak more slowly. I, a south-Indian, with a super-fast tongue that runs off the rails of my mouth like an rampaging Express train.. I have had to  modify my tempo so that she can,  in her mind, translate from English to French whatever I was saying in class:)  The other thing I am learning, that comes  from her insistence, and which I believe tempers my own out-of-kilter enthusiasm, that she will not move into an advanced variation until she learns the basic pose right, and holds it for long. Tres yogic yoga, u all agree?