Breathe easy

Yoga capital Mysuru kept pace with Covid by shifting to online classes like the rest. This turned out to be a windfall for the city as centres got looded with old and new takers — for people the world over want to learn how to breathe right.

By Shilpa P

Mysuru, popularly known as the Yoga capital of the world, with over 500 yoga institutes and 1000 yoga instructors has gone bigger. Student enrollments have increased by at least 40 percent since yoga centres moved classes online along with continuing offline classes too, owing to Covid. Yoga is believed to help build immunity and resolve breathing issues in fighting Covid, and is a part of the Ayush Covid protocol too. Many are showing a new inclination to learn Yoga from institutes and teachers of Mysuru. Foreigners who used to come to learn yoga in Mysuru now have switched over to the online mode. It’s cheaper and more convenient for them and their numbers increased by at least 20 percent, according to practitioners.

Srihari D, President of the Federation of Yoga Institutes of Mysuru says it was Krishnamacharya (who was Yoga guru of Maharaja of Mysuru Sri Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar), and his student B K S Iyengar both from Mysuru who took Yoga to the world. Even today, around 500 Yoga institutes and 1000 teachers continue to teach. Some 70 percent of them consider teaching yoga as a service and conduct at least two batches a day. But still 30 percent depend on it for their livelihood, and they conduct at least four batches a day. Besides classes for students, at least two to five percent of the classes are to train students to become professional yoga teachers.

And Covid has enhanced the demand for online classes for Yoga. About 400 teachers switched over to both online classes too besides offline classes in the last two years. Earlier only 20 percent of the teachers and institutes took online classes. But, earlier while there used to be 40 students in a batch, now since they have to maintain social distance they have reduced the number of students in each batch to 30, says Srihari.

Before the pandemic, there used to be 500 foreigners in Mysuru at any given time who used to come and stay to take up Yoga. Now foreign students have switched to online classes. And in fact, the number of foreigners seeking yoga has increased by at least 20 percent now. Mysuru still has over 100 foreign students who are here to learn yoga, says Srihari.

“I like the ambience of Mysuru, the tradition and culture. But I am happy that I am not missing my yoga classes and learning it virtually by my teacher of Mysuru, but I miss being in Mysuru,” says a foreign yoga student who wished to remain unnamed.

Ever since 21 June has been declared as International Yoga Day, for the first five years, every year at least 50,000 people have participated in mass yoga on that day in Mysuru. Mysuru entered the Guinness book of world records for the largest number of Yoga lessons held in a single venue, with 55,506 participants in 2017. And for the past two years, owing to Covid, Yoga enthusiasts have kept up the spirit by participating in mass events virtually on Yoga Day. Yoga Dasara which used to be part of the Mysuru Dasara celebrations earlier, has also not been held in the past two years.

But yet, Yoga has become part of everyday routine for many who continue to learn Yoga.