I love Geeta Iyengar so much. The first time I went to India to study at RIMYI (Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute) Geeta was not well and was not teaching. BKS Iyengar was not well either but would show up at the practice hall. I had waited a long time to go to India to study with the Iyengar family. It was a big deal for me. I had to take a month of work (no pay for two of those weeks) and had to find care for my daughter who was in elementary school at the time. It was this first trip to India that I realized the Iyengar family reminded me of the Beverly Hillbillies, but I would not dare say that aloud. Most of my classes for the month were with Prashant Iyengar, and after about a week and a half, I stopped going to class with him. I hated it. He talked incessantly, and when he stumbled onto a clever turn of phrase, he would repeat it endlessly with a proud smirk. He would put us in triangle pose on one side for 3 minutes and the second side for twenty seconds, if he remembered to do the second side at all. If we didn’t move to get the props fast enough, he would fly into a rage and scream at us with a contorted face. I kept thinking maybe I wasn’t smart enough or experienced enough to comprehend the complexity of what he was teaching, so I would listen harder and try more. Then I realized, whatever he was teaching, I wasn’t learning. Meanwhile, Abhijata Iyengar would petulantly march around the practice hall talking on her cell phone and ordering the Indian staff around. Occasionally she would give a disdainful look at a middle- age female practitioner which was (and still is) about 95% of the Iyengar yoga demographic. Scolding seemed to be her skill. I couldn’t shake the feeling that that I had been had. I couldn’t shake the sinking feeling of disappointment.
It was a long fucking month. I kept wondering why I spent all this energy and money on this trip to India when I had the best teacher in the world in San Francisco–Manouso Manos, but then came along the first Yoganushsanam. Yoganushasanam is a sacred cash cow for the Iyengar family. The event allows for 2000 practitioners from around the world to come to Pune India to study with the Iyengar family via jumbotron. This event welcomed all levels of practitioners and didn’t require a letter of recommendation from a mentor which is something RIMYI requires. I jumped at the opportunity, because I wanted to give the Iyengars another chance, and I had never studied with Geeta. Also, it was only 10 days so I didn’t have to find a month of care for my daughter. Geeta’s teaching was exquisite. She was demanding and profound. Her instructions were clear and concise, and she didn’t mince words. It was no surprise to me that when IYNAUS decided to open an independent investigation in response to the appeal to the ethics complaint against Manouso Manos, Geeta reacted like this, “Maybe you have taken this decision out of nervousness because of the havoc being created in the social media. Even though we don’t want to be judgmental it also seems like there
is an animosity that is driving all this. You cannot assume that an individual is guilty and go all out to prove that. Yoga teachers and Iyengar yoga Associations should act with more responsibility.” A month later she she was dead.
Disillusioned With Iyengar Yoga 