Skip to main content

The Real Developments in Bellur

In my previous blog, I briefly tried to explain the vision of Guruji on Bellur and the developments that are taking place to fulfill his vision. You have seen what kind of buildings have come up in Bellur to help the people of Bellur. Construction of buildings, I think is not a big deal. The real challenge for the trust is to create infrastructure for the students and people of Bellur to avail the services without levying any kind of fees.

The entire Iyengar yoga community is actively working to make Guruji's vision a reality. Most prominently the International Iyengar Yoga Community is playing a crucial role in mobilizing students and funds to aid the Trust to meet the huge expenditure involved in running the activities of BKSSNT.

Guruji found that the girl child of Bellur is not getting proper education after grade 7 as there is no high school in the village. The parents were not willing to send their girl child to the neighboring village schools. After establishing a school by Guruji many girls are now studying in high school. You can look at the pictures below, equal number of girls are studying in the high school and the college. What a relief would it be to the soul of Guruji!
 
I must talk about this lady in black coat and red saree, Chaitra. She was the first student to have enrolled in the high School and a pass out of the first batch to have completed schooling. She did her Bachelors in Education and Masters in commerce thereafter and came back to the college to teach B.com students. What a humble way to pay gratitude to Guruji for what he has done to her life. I learnt that she left the college this year as she got married and moved out of Bellur.
Another important factor is the development of confidence among the young generation of Bellur. As Rita Keller mentioned during her interview, youth of Bellur were shy and hiding in the beginning and now they are coming forward with lot of confidence. When you walk down to the village, you will find some of these young kids communicating to the visitors in a fluent English. They sometimes act as guide to them.

  
What would have been more heartening to Guruji was the fact that Bellur students are excelling in his favorite subject of Yoga; winning awards from different yoga competitions at State level. 
 
The talent of students is being identified and groomed from the early stage. You can see some real child prodigies coming out from Bellur in Yoga. You can see from the image below what these kids can do.
I have been watching this boy for the last two years and he is really excelling in his practice. He is the boy to watch out for in future.
  
The fantastic four of Bellur, Gajendra, Prashant, Sunita and sorry I don't remember the fourth. 
I first saw them when they were kids performing fantastic asanas on stage during Guruji's 94th birthday. They are now been groomed as yoga teachers who have already began teaching the school kids and people of Bellur and surrounding villages. They are now participating and learning yoga from reputed teachers of the World that come to conduct workshops in Bellur. Apart from this they are sent to Pune from time to time to upgrade their skills in learning and teaching yoga.
Not only studies and Yoga, the boys and girls are excelling in different skills. The boy seen in the picture below is Prashant, a very talented dancer and choreographer. We got an opportunity to see his talent as a dancer and composer couple of times during our visit to Bellur. If he is nurtured, he may even start his career in choreography.
The boy third from left is Venkat. He is an excellent Artist. He surprised one and all with his skill by drawing the image of Patanjali in less than a minute. If he is groomed again, he might pursue his career in Art.
I think this is the real development that would please the heart of Guruji more than any thing. I must salute to the spirit of Guruji and devotion of these students and all those who are working relentlessly to live the dream of Guruji.

That is it for today, keep watching the space for more updates.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Amazing views of Badrinath

From Joshimath we traveled to Badrinath the last destination of our trip to chota char-dham. Badrinath is at an average elevation of 3100 meters (10,170 feet) above the sea level in the Garhwal Himalayas on the banks of river Alaknanda.  Badrinath is famous for the temple of Badrinath dedicated to Lord Vishnu. 'Badri' refers to a berry that was said to grow abundantly in this area and 'Nath' means the Lord. The temple remains closed during winters and the utsav-murthy (festive idol) of Badrinath is kept at Joshimath for worship.  There are plenty of ashrams in Badrinath that provide accommodation for pilgrims.  We stationed at Chinna Jeeyar Ashram at Badrinath. This giant statue of Jeeyar welcomes you on reaching the Ashram. From our balcony we could see some of these beautiful mountains covered in snow.  The peak below is the famous Manikantha parvat in Badrinath.  It is one of the tallest peaks in the Garhwal Himalayan region with an e

A glance at Bellur, the birth place of Guruji

Bellur is a small village in Kolar district 55 kilometers from Bangalore in Karnataka, India with around 500 houses and an average population of 2000 people. It is in this village, the Legendary Yogacharya Sri. B.K.S. Iyengar was born on 14th of December 1918. Bellur was an 'Agrahara' during Guruji's time of birth. agra means front and hara means the garland. According to traditional Hindu practice of architecture and town planning, an 'agraharam' is held to be the two rows of houses (mainly of Brahmins) running North-South on either sides of the road resembling a garland, at one end of which would be a temple of 'Shiva' and at the other end would be a temple of 'Vishnu'. The two temples of Shiva at one end of the village and a temple of Rama (incarnation of Vishnu as per Hindu Mythology) are still present in the village of Bellur. Both these temples are quite old and are chosen as National heritage sites by Archaeological Survey of India. Both

Lalbagh Revisited

We had a terrific beginning of the year 2018 with Iyengar Yoga Intensive at Bellur by a very profound Iyengar Yoga Teacher Rita Keller from Germany. This was our second consecutive workshop with her in Bellur. We were deeply touched by her affection and love apart from her deep intellectual and insightful teaching of yoga. Since the workshop was for 3 long weeks, she took us on an excursion to Lalbagh in Bengaluru. After two hours of bus ride we arrived at Lalbagh. Hyderabadi boys got disappointed when they found Rita Keller is booking EMV's (Electric Motor Vehicles) to explore the park. When we expressed our willingness to walk, she said we go round the corner in EMV's and then every individual is free to walk thereafter. We then happily boarded the EMV's.  These EMV's run on battery and are environmental friendly. The driver sharing some insight about an ancient tree with the group. Sridevi, Tulsi and Viru having some fun. This is dear Marcus ca