Today I awoke at 6:30 am to the telephone ringing. It was the Broadway Plaza hotel confirming my two reservations for that evening. "Huh?" I had made one reservation for myself, but not two. I was advised to cancel it online immediately. I had set my alarm to go off at 6:45, so I was up anyway, I may as well get cracking!
I took a deep breath, went downstairs and canceled one reservations. I stared at the screen looking at the second reservation wondering if I really wanted to stay overnight in NYC by myself and take a bunch of yoga classes all over the city. I was starting to miss my dogs and my house. I had logged a lot of miles on my car and was finding some really great local teachers to NJ. I changed my mind and canceled the reservation and set about determining a new course of action for Thursday...even though this was only Wednesday.
I didn't have much time, really. I was on a pretty tight schedule. I had to be in NYC for a class with Sri Dharma Mitra at 12 noon and still had to stop by my yoga studio to check on things and grab paperwork. I wasn't sure what traffic would be like getting into the city so I wanted to give myself enough time. I think I finally got out of the house a little after 8 am and hit the yoga studio by 9:25. I left there at about 10 and set in to NYC for a class with the Master himself.
Most people already know Dharma Mitra, even if they don't know how they know him. You've seen him every time you've come into my studio when you walk past the poster of all the yoga asanas because that was him on that poster. When he created it so many years ago, there weren't computers to help copy and paste. He hand cut each picture and created the poster himself. Now most yoga studios offer it as a decoration in the studio - although I use it for most of my teacher training programs too.
Dharma Mitra has been studying yoga since 1958. When you think of what a yogi is, he is the real deal. He was a full-time yogi and bramachari (celibate religious student who lives with his teacher and devotes himself to the practice of spiritual disciplines). Dharma Mitra has a yoga studio in NYC on 23rd St near 6th Ave. appropriately called the Dharma Yoga Center. It is a large spacious yoga room adorned with many statues and boasting a large screen where he displays the asanas that he wants you to perform.
I arrived early, but a few of Dharma's students were already hanging around. It was a very chill vibe. I was surprised when Dharma sauntered in with his dog, Baxter (a white yorkie-poo looking dog very similar to my Bodhi), and began chatting with his students. Dharma Mitra is very approachable, very open and inviting. I felt like I was hanging out with friends, not walking into a yoga studio in the heart of NYC.
After purchasing a couple of items and renting a towel (yes, I'd forgotten mine again), I set myself up in the second row next to a pole (see my mat there in the picture?). I wasn't sure what to expect so I grabbed a block and sat down. Some others had started coming in at this point and I was told I could "warm up" if I wanted to. The class I was taking was titled "Master Sadhana." I wasn't intimated because I already knew I wasn't going to be able to attain all of the asanas in their full form, but I remember the yoga poster and the progression of postures - from fairly simple to extremely difficult to "really, a person can DO that?"
We began with a short round of chants while Dharma played the harmonium and then immediately began a practice. We warmed up with some sun salutations, stepping back to lunges instead of jumping in traditional Surya Namaskar. So far, so good. Then Dharma began to showcase postures and would say, "now you." As we practiced, these asanas became more and more challenging. Many of them require you to be very open and flexible, and also strong and steady. I'm still working on both of those things.
The folks in the front row (mostly men) were close students to Dharma. They would perform these yogic gymnastics and Dharma would point to them and say in a surprised manner, "wow, look!" In any other studio I would have thought it was ego showcasing, but it is evident that this is not the case at Dharma Yoga. The look in his student's eyes was nothing but love for him. I could tell that the performance of any asana was not for themselves, but for their Guru, Sri Dharma Mitra. They performed to please him, and in return, he would show them even more advanced variations - like one handed peacock (mayurasana - look it up!).
The Master Sadhana class was 2 hours long, but I think it ran a little longer than that. There were a few portions where Dharma would tell us to practice on our own a posture, or variation of (although he gave no variations, it was up to you to figure that out), then he would stop us and show another pose and let us go again. He walked the room offering assists - but the kind where your in supine padmasana and he lifts you up into fish...figure it out.
We took an extended Savasana, a long, quiet, savasana. The whole room was chill. It was great. After savasana, we sat up and Dharma read to us yoga philosophy, then talked to us about a few things that I felt were directed right to me alone. He talked about wondering why everything leaves us: people, our jobs, everything. And told us that the only way to get the answer was to be still, sit for a whole day with no food, do nothing and think on it. He talked about foods and how what we eat are what we become. He said to be a vegetarian for one reason: compassion. And then he told us of two great vegan restaurants to go eat lunch in the neighborhood. He made a few jokes, and very casually got up and started to put things away, signaling the end of class. We all got up and started making our ways out. Well, not all. As I was leaving the rest room I noticed a large gathering of folks still hanging out in the yoga room laughing and talking.
This was not my first time practicing with Dharma Mitra, but it was my first time to the Dharma Yoga studio. I will definitely go back some time, but going into NYC is not an easy trek from my home in south jersey. Someone told me he is coming to Philadelphia in August. I highly recommend taking a class with the master - especially if you are a yoga teacher. And as for Baxter, well, just like my Bodhi, he slept in the front of the room while his master taught class, and then walked around and sniffed folks, landing on one student's lap while Dharma chatted with us.
Yup, now I really wanted to see my doggies. I was glad I'd canceled that reservation.
Namaste.
Great read!
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