The picture above was taken yesterday, the last of five magical days of led practice with the Mother of Ashtanga Yoga, Saraswathi Jois 🙏🏼🧘🏽♀️💓✨ I can’t express how much this whole experience meant to me because there are no words that would capture the pure magic in its entirety. I seriously was and AM STILL captivated by her essence. She is a beautiful woman inside and out. Very little to say in words, but she speaks volumes in energy; it is so powerful and resilient. She has this twinkle in her eyes, that locks you in at first sight. I just wanted to stare at her but I couldn’t because I felt like I was unworthy. I had the pleasure of speaking to her one on one at the beach party on Saturday (thanks Carol for hosting us ashtangis). It was very short and sweet, but I felt like a little girl at Christmas time sitting on Santa’s lap. I also had the pleasure of meeting her daughter Sharmila and her granddaughter Prakriti. Her granddaughter is 15 years old and asked me to go swimming with her and to teach her how to boogie board… how could I say no to this amazing opportunity to make someone’s day a super special one? While I showed her how to boogie board, two other little girls came and joined the fun! Apparently, it was their first time on a boogie board too. I felt so blessed to have been able to gift happiness to these beautiful children. They were all so ecstatic it was hard to get the little ones out of the water lol but Prakriti was smiling from ear to ear and thanked me many times for going out with her. Her mother, Shamila, told me the next morning after practice that Prakriti was planning on going out on the boogie board again to try and see if she could do it on her own. Because she was a little hesitant while we were out there together, I was happy to hear she was working towards fighting her fears 🤗
As for my week of doing Ashtanga Yoga Led Full Primary Series with Sarawsathi for five days… it was amazing. Challenging, but amazing. I noticed she only assists those who really need the assistance. Making sure we are all using the correct technique. Making sure our dristhis are correct. Making sure you bind with the right arm and fold into padmasana with the right foot first. I got very little attention, which meant I was doing things correctly. Although I wanted to be touched by Saraswathi, I knew there was a reason behind her strategy. Everyday, I wondered if I would be so lucky as to feel the hands of this magical guru on me. Day 5, came and I still hadn’t been touched by Saraswathi. I gave up on the expectation. During the transition between Garbha Pindasana and Kukkutasana, rolling on our back in a 360 degree turn… I made it all the way around and she was still counting, so I took an extra roll back and got stuck on my shoulders in lotus position with my arms in between my legs. She had to stand up and help me roll back up on to my hands and held me up for the 5 breaths. Yay!!!! I finally got touched by Mother Saraswathi!!!! I swear my spirit guides knew how bad I wanted it and held me down so I would need her help. Or maybe I subconsciously sabotaged myself in order to get her to touch me lol who knows!!! Either way, I finally got touched on the last day of the tour and I was so happy 😁 She is so soft yet powerful. I swear she used the force to hold me up. It was almost like she was barley touching me but I felt so supported. After practice, we got to eat some delicious food made by Sam at saturday_sweets/IG and then had a lecture where she talked about her father and his journey into Yoga. She also spoke of the last moment she had with him while passing in her arms. As you can imagine, that set off the water works 😭 She expressed to us how important practicing Yoga daily is. She said “one day skip, you pain”, “two days skip, even more pain.” It was all very simple and a lesson in humbleness. I will always remember this experience and can’t wait till I can go see her in the Shala in India 🇮🇳 🙏🏼
~Jessica Rovira Yogi~ 