My guru is a bitch

There are two yoga asanas o positions called with complicated sanscrit words which mean "dog streching with the head up" and "dog streching with the head down". Next time you see a dog streching up or down, you know, just look carefully, and keep in mind that there's millions of yoga practitioners around the world trying to imitate those movements.

Some yoga teachers insist that you should study the nature so that you will understand some of the positions, like the 2 mentioned above, plus some many others called after animals.


Everyday after the tough yoga sessions I go to the Ganga river for a bath. The water is cold, it is coming from glaciers a couple of hundred km up, which makes it even better, a massage for the back and the muscles in pain. At the beginning not even after the swim I was able to relax. Until I realised that there was always a dog around, a female dog, a bitch, sleeping under the sun. Then I tried to imitate its posture, not literally lying on the floor but let's say the "soul" of its attitude and itention, and it worked, I found some peace of mind. So the bitch, which never ever seemed even to notice me, there sleeping under the sun, became my guru.


One day after dinner I went back to the guest house, it was 10 pm, very late for somebody walking up before the indian sunset. Then I saw a dog running towards me. And it was it!, it was the guru-bitch, who came to say hello shaking its tail!. I tapped its head a little bit, showing respect, and excused myself since I had to go to sleep.

Of course the day after the dog did not move when I went for the bath - it was giving its class.