Bliss-Girls

In the previous post we got a glimpse of Nandini’s yoga journey. In this post lets delve further to understand how it has impacted her and also learn about her approach to teaching and learning.

Impact of yoga in my life

Through regular practice of yoga, Nandini has reaped lot of benefits including:

1. Clarity of mind
2. Improved emotional stability
3. Improved listening skill
4. Better relationship with kids and family
5. Reduced anger and anxiety
6. Increased compassion
7. Increased energy
8. Physical fitness

Before embarking on yoga journey, Nandini was not comfortable with dogs. Yoga has made her more compassionate and it is evident from the fact that she now has a pet. And he too has shown her what Dharana means – Uninterrupted attention.

Learnings from Guru

Nandini attributes a lot of her learnings to her guru, Dr SN Omkar. She has been his student since 2012. It is just not yoga, she says, but been learning lot about ancient Indian wisdom and approach to life in general. She admires his approach to teaching, his calmness, energy, immense knowledge and applying these principles in life with scientific view.

Nandini says after she started training with him and working under his guidance in Shri Shankara hospital, she has experienced a phenomenal transformation in her personality. She has become more strong mentally and more empathetic. She has seen people recover from illness. She has seen people turn back on their loved ones, she has seen people leave everything else to care for their loved ones. She continues to probe the depths of life and gain profound understanding of serious thoughts.

Her approach to teaching is also greatly influenced by her Guru’s methodologies. His students often get to hear stories from life of Shri Rama, Shri Krishna, Kanchi paramacharya, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Sir M Visvesvaraya, DVG and other great sages, saints and souls.

On learning, it is recommended to follow the 2 fold path described in ancient scriptures – Svadhyaya and Thithiksha. Svadhyaya has two components – self introspection and following scriptures and guru’s words with faith. Thithiksha is forbearance without complaint.

Kids and Parenting

Nandini is a proud mother of Achala and Aditya. Achala is a very strong girl and currently pursuing studies in US. Aditya is mommy’s boy and is studying in India.

While the kids were growing up, Nandini was often very anxious about their growth. Like most parents she was worried about every single aspect of her kids life – their handwriting, their school work, their behaviour and their thinking. Over a period of time, with constant yoga practice, Nandini realised that her kids needed their own space and time to bloom, It does not happen in the pace at which parents want. Yoga played a vital role in helping her understand her kids better, eventually changing her approach to parenting. She realized that her daughter thinks out of the box, is a big dreamer and is very ambitious. Today Nandini is proud that Achala is carving her own path to success.

Nandini also teaches a number of young kids, whom she loves a lot. Her students too are very fond of her. Since she deals with a lot of young kids, she is very much aware of their thinking. She says kids today are under too much pressure to perform and excel. They constantly have to live up to society’s expectation – which often translates to excelling in everything they do and to take up more activities, whether or not they are interested. In her yoga classes, along with teaching asana’s, through story telling she tries to nurture the kids personalities.

Approach to teaching

Nandini’s approach to teaching is based upon the 4 yogas of ancient India. They are Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti yoga and Raja yoga.

Karma Yoga: She organizes sapling planting events for her students. She says she was inspired to take up this task by Mahabharatha where Darupadi, while pandavas were planning to build Indraprastha, complains that cutting one tree equals killing 40 humans. Apart from this they also perform selfless services like terrace cleaning, donating books and toys. She also encourages kids to roll the mats they used after every class.

Jnana Yoga: In her yoga classes, once every week they chant verses from Bhagavad Gita. She also conducts vishnu sahasranama classes for her students. Jnana yoga is a 3 fold practice – Sharavana, Manana and Nidhidhyasana. Shravana means Listening , Manana means repetition – oral and mental, Nididhyasana means application of knowledge. Through participating in chanting classes, a kid does shravana and manana. Nidhidhyasana is eventually reached by kids naturally after prolonged practice and introspection.

Bhakti Yoga: Nandini explains that the goal of bhakti yoga is to take one from suppression mode to sublimation mode. She takes her students on temple visits and also to ashramas. She also invites her students for festival celebrations.

Raja Yoga: She teaches Ashtanga yoga to her students. She says the goal of doing asanas is to first get comfortable in the asana and then gradually perfecting the posture. She quotes the yoga sutra ‘sthira sukham asanam’. A practitioner must be able to stay comfortably in any yoga posture for long durations.

Meeting with Dr Rajkumar

Nandini is a huge fan of Dr Rajkumar, who was also an yoga practitioner. There is hardly anyone in Karnataka who does not know him. He is such a good role model and has lived an exemplary life. In real life and through many roles he has played, he has shown what one can achieve by working hard and leading an honest life.

Nandini along with her mother used to visit him on his birthday, 24th April for around 3-4 years. Once she had an opportunity to get a photo clicked with him. It is a very big deal any fan to get a picture with him and something I am sure she will cherish for very long. Nandini is inspired a lot by his movies, for all of his movies carries a message. Devotional movies of his are her favourite.

Dear Reader, I hope you enjoyed reading about Nandini’s Journey. In the next post Nandini will answer few questions. If you would like to ask her any questions, please write them in comments and she will answer in next post. Thanks for your time.