Teaching Yoga in Rabat

April 12, Rabat,  #IBMCSC  #CSCMor10 #CitizenIBM

It’s almost 10 days here and Yoga is in the air. I have two diehard yoga colleagues on this trip, Catalina from Colombia and Rina from Japan.  I have been practising yoga daily for over 5 years but I choose not to bring my yoga mat to Rabat as I find it occupying a lot of space. Am pleasantly surprised to find that both Rina and Cata have brought their yoga mats with them and are serious practitioners. The conversation goes as follows… there is a yoga centre close to our hotel in downtown Rabat but the centre is seeking an enormous sum for a yoga session and we don’t have the numbers to make it economical. They get to know of my (reasonable) association with yoga and Cata suggests why not have Shakti deliver a yoga class to our entire team. Rina supports.

So, here we are today, twelve of us besides myself. I am quite surprised with the turn out. About half the group has never had any exposure to yoga and know nothing about it. The other half have done yoga before in a limited, infrequent way leaving aside Cata and Rina. Although I have been doing yoga for over two decades, this is the first time I am taking a class. Well, I never imagined I would be teaching yoga in Morocco.

I start our session with the traditional invocation and then explain its significance. There is an AUM chant in the invocation and I inform our group that this is a mantra or an arrangement of sounds meant to enhance consciousness. I spend a few minutes busting myths about yoga. Yoga is a system of well-being; has been practised in India for over 15000 years and it was Patanjali who assimilated a treatise on yoga around 3rd or 4th century BC. Only one of his approx 200 yoga sutras, is devoted to Hatha Yoga, but 90 to 95% of the world associates yoga with Hatha Yoga unaware how much deeper the subject is. I clarify upfront that yoga is not a religion and not a belief system. It means being in union with the universe and is a tool to bring one’s body, mind and nerve energy (respiratory system) working in harmony.

We do five exercises; four asanas and a kriya. Ulrich requests we include Shavasana. We start with Pawanmuktasana, then do Bhramamudra, Tadasana, Nadi Shodhana and end with Shavasana. I tell the team to do Shavasna for three minutes but they end up doing so for 10 minutes. Not surprised! We finish our yoga session with another invocation and then few of us proceed to do Sadhguru’s guided Chitshakti meditation for Peace. We end our day on blissful note and I receive several thanks.

Welcome to the world of Love, Life and Laughter. It’s time has come…Let us make it happen !