Journey towards being graceful

Last summer for 2 weeks I learnt the ancient indian martial arts called KaraTandav

Kara means hands and Tandav means dance. So when you fight the whole movement looks like a tandav.

The Karate and Judo and Taikwando descends from this ancient art form. Why i keep calling it an art form is because your movements when practiced to perfection looks like a graceful dance. Even when you are learning you can feel the movements and make it a power packed dance.

24 of us used to begin the day by clearing our throat with loud sharp breaths while practicing our punches and blocks and kicks. Our teacher Dr. Giriprasad took a vigorous warm up session after which when we were half wet already we used to start practicing our techniques. One thing I learnt was that more than strength the technique was important to defeat the opponent.

My chest ached after 2 days of practice so much so that when I laughed it ached. To this Dr. Giri just smiled and said it will change in a few days…….few days???? Few minutes were painful to go through…..because when you are in the ashram you are invariably smiling or laughing that made few days a long long way to go…..

Nonetheless in a day or two the pain reduced as my body got used to the exercise and the movements became more smooth and the dance more graceful.

We had progressed from punches and blocks to kicks and sequences and techniques. It was very interesting and practice was the only thing that made us perfect. Every move had to be precise and perfect to get the desired output. You can only go to the next level if your teacher thinks you can. There was so much of sacredness in the art. The teacher student bond and respect for the martial art was special. In those 2 weeks we put a small sequence which was performed in the summer magic. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=411544441107

Needless to say people loved it. But more than that they were introduced to this ancient art which was with our ancestors and is still practiced by some devoted souls. Our land has so much more to teach us. We should be open to it and be proud to know it and spread it. Like Guruji says- broaden your vision and deepen your roots.

Deepen your roots…. Know where you come from and what your ancestors were like and what they did. Bawa’s talk on Technology of Spirituality is fantastic to give us a glimpse of this. Watch it on youtube.

Love,

Jai Gurudev!

G