Honouring the Indian tradition of yoga, you will find here a selection of location recordings I have taken over 6 x 1 month studies in India: 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020. Sadly unable to go this year, I have been listening back to this little soundcloud site I made as a means to tune into India The focus of these trips is to study Iyengar Yoga at RIMYI, to study Indian culture, sacred texts including the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: ऩातञ्जरमोगसूत्राणि . In this year of the pandemic, I have thus been given sustenance, and energy to return back to my daily study and teaching at home in West Bridgford with our local community of students, now all online, from our Iyengar studio
In a music shop in Pune 2014 I bought a beautiful harmonium. Then on we carried it (with help from amazing porters!) from Pune to the southern western part of Kerala for a month, and a chance to study the instrument building an affinity, immersed in nature & environmental sound. Now, the warmth of the instrument helps me keep the spirit of India alive with me. As a deeply committed Iyengar Yoga teacher for 20 years and student for 30 years, I’m trying to develop my practice in the context of learning, through the classical Yoga teachings of the Iyengar family and through the ancient sacred yoga texts. India is spiritual soil and full of sound, music is always in the air, and these location recordings demonstrate that. In returning for a month each year to grow inner awareness/involution, comes the realisation that we are part of nature, part of that sound, connected to every living thing; a blade of grass. Thus the individual Atman, or soul is part of the collective consciousness.
Many of the recordings here are binaural, using 2 microphones in either ear so that I can transmit a sense of absorption sited within 360 degrees of sound. Sometimes I use stereo recording, where interaction with others is more important. But binaural recording places one in a state of receptive absorption, where the receiving of the life force ‘prana’ is vital, and as its important not to let physical strain block receptivity. This approach to recording is very much like yoga practice itself as it is at one with the body as a whole. Binaural recording can only begin when the sense of sight, touch and taste are drawn inwards, even our hearing is different – not seeking out not receiving judgmentally – this is there in the ancient texts: Pratyāhāra (प्रत्याहार, the withdrawal of the external senses, as we turn them inwards towards involution of self
I have been a professional director for over 30 years, with a strong focus on creating vocal music, body work and soundart so it feels as though I have come home in learning these chants, ragas, drones. I am getting the feel for how I might sing and compose with the instrument as a means to study Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. I’ve written a blog too, aiming to understand Prashant Iyengar’s teachings, ‘Yog’ is his term. Accompanied side by side on my journey is my husband Geoffrey, his amazing photos and observations of nature – he too is a dedicated Iyengar Yoga practitioner.
So beginning with tuning into the location, I move to the instrument and then to a process of involution through breath, and the voice where I explore aum: ॐ, the 5 koshas or layers taking us from worldly concerns, towards spiritual realisation, the guru chant, chants for peace and our own dear Patanjali chant. My India journal aids me, hand written, on the most beautiful recycled paper where even small stems, and petals are visible beneath its hand made surface.
A photograph taken on a Pune bus you’ll see a silver statue on the dashboard – Ganesh. The juxtaposition of an ancient bus that struggles to start up, the noxious fumes emitting from the rear, old upholstered seats, ill fitting doors, windows, then the sheer volume of loud traffic, moving in all directions, smog, rubbish, nothing to do but put our faith in Ganesh the remover of obstacles.
I have spent some time hoping to find silence, but I couldn’t find it. On our last month in India in January 2020 we travelled to Mahabaleshwar in the western ghats: I found that peace in a Shiva temple, on a hillside with nothing but the sound of the building resonating to our aum. On returning to Pune I felt my search for ‘external’ peace as a mental obstacle, & once the aum begins to be cultivated inner silence & peace will follow.