Why should I come to the Yoga class on time?

Many people ask me these question: “Why do you close the door and not allow any late comers to enter the class? Why should we come to the class on time?” Everyone has a reason for coming late. Every reason sounds good and valid J “I came in early but couldn’t find parking place”, “My vehicle did not start on time due to some issue”, “My house lock didn’t work properly”, Some honest reasons as well: “I woke up late”, “I snoozed my alarm more number of times than I always do” J etc., etc.,

Whatever be the reason, we do not encourage late entry to the class. Let us understand the reasoning behind it.

Why to be on time for Yoga class?

Before we go further let us think about a few questions: What is the mindset of the person going to attend an important interview or meeting? What is the mindset of the person going to meet his/her love after a long time? What is the mindset of a person attending a new job on the first day? What is the mindset of a person all excited to watch a movie first day first show? In all these cases, why do we always ensure that we are on time for our appointment?  What changes at other times? When we want to begin something new in our life, it could be a job or relationship, we are more eager to start and learn more. This mindset is called “Beginner’s mindset” in Zen philosophy. When I think of all these, I feel that time is not a physical but a mental entity.

Now let us ponder on what our mindset is when we come to the class on time as against that of the one where we come whenever we feel like it. Our mind gets into an enormous amount of preparation when we commit to be on time. The first criteria in order to learn something is commitment. Just reiterating to ourselves that we will be on time brings in commitment. This opens the mind for better learning by making it more receptive and alert. It is indeed a beginner’s mindset, just like in all the examples I gave earlier. Famous artist Pablo Picasso once said “Every child is an artist.The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up”. Beginner’s mindset is like that of a child, always eager to learn new things. Once we start learning and become more confident we become carefree, and lethargic. This is when learning ceases.

Apart from this, the first five minutes of the class is spent on preparation, that is., sitting quietly, focusing and connecting with our breath, chanting omkara and prayer. All this is helpful to get composed for the class. Whatever be the mindset before coming to the class, this preparation at the beginning is essential to get focus on the practice. Mind becomes calm and enables to have a single minded focus on the practice of the day.

Now think about what happens when you enter the class and put your mat while everyone else is trying to get composed for the practice. Not only will you not be able to get focused but will disturb everyone else’s attempt too.

Coming to class on time has to therefore become a part of our culture such that everyone can benefit from the practice. As such, the more I think of it, the more it makes sense to enforce the rule of not allowing any latecomers for practice more strictly. Don’t you agree?

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Yoga tips: Should we pull up knee cap or not?

In many Yoga classes I was asked to pull-up my knee cap (also called locking the knees), during most of the asanas particularly in standing asanas. Pulling up of knee caps involves strengthening inner quadriceps muscles so that knee caps move towards hips. This is considered to be very good to protect knees. If it is supposed to be very good when why are we questioning whether we should do it or not? I have explained how our whole body is connected in my earlier blog Misunderstanding the pain. Keep this concept in mind as we proceed further. 

Well, it may be true that it is good to pull up knee caps but whenever I tried to do it my entire awareness was in and around my knees. My whole focus was on keeping that pulled-up position intact. When Yoga is all about developing complete body awareness then how can we localize most of the awareness to one area? Is this the right area to focus on? Instead I tried to focus on stretching the toes of my feet and pushing heel down. What this does is it creates more feeling of connectedness with the ground. Due to which it aligns all the bones and in the process will automatically pull up knee caps just to the extent it is healthy for knees without hyper-extending it. By pushing the heals down we will start working from our core and this will spread the awareness without localizing at one point. Try this but you may need to sensitize your feet and toes for that. For most of us because of constant usage of shoes it becomes really difficult to control the movement of our toes. Try activating them by touching, rubbing, etc.

So stretch your toes, spread your feet in order to ground yourself more in to your heels. This process will pull up the knee caps without you putting any extra effort. But is it always required to pull the knee caps up? What if we don’t do? Well remember that there is no one rule in Yoga. I would like to recollect some parts of famous philosopher, J Krishnamurthi’s statement in this context “I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.  Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” Yoga is all about going in search of truth/nature/reality. So don’t get biased by any conditions/rules/guidelines/instructions in Yoga practice. Feel free to explore and enjoy the journey. 

If you liked the blog, please share it and help me to spread the message.

Please visit Yogavijnana website to know more about us. 

Previous related blog

Misunderstanding the pain

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