If the government has its way, many people will set records on International Yoga Day. But one yoga record has already been made by a small Whatsapp group of around 30 people, mostly based in central Mumbai.
Called the Surya Namaskar Samurais, the group has been doing surya namaskars daily since June 2014. On January 17, they collectively notched up one lakh surya namaskars. They are now almost halfway to their second lakh.
While other yoga practitioners focus on spirituality, this group is more concerned with fitness. For them, the surya namaskar, done fast enough, can provide a complete cardio workout that leaves them stretched and flexible over the rest of the day.
Rittika Chokhany, 40, an interior designer who retired to take care of her children a few years ago, is one of the driving forces behind the group.
“We had an instructor who used to come to our building for physical training,” Chokhany said. “He did not like standard workouts, so we would climb 21 floors one day, run around the parking stilts on another, do 300 crunches or sit ups. At one point, he suggested we should do yoga.”
The surya namaskar changed their lives. As their schedules changed and they became unable to meet at the same time, the Whatsapp group became a way to organise at least one part of their lives in the privacy of their own homes.
Finding order
The one lakh number did not arrive by clockwork. Chokhany maintains a spreadsheet with everyone’s daily and monthly goals. Another member, Rupal Kamdar, 45, posts these updates on their Facebook group, along with other posts of interest to the Samurais, such as postures for the differently abled and sketches of animals doing the surya namaskar.
There were many more members of the group in the beginning, but some dropped out after seeing goals. Others, however, began to hit 108 daily. Soon, the next target for a few in the group became 200. A boy in the 8th standard in their group did 300 at once.
Their goals have slowed down now. Both Chokhany and Kamdar maintain a daily target of 24 surya namaskars. After completing their daily quotas, they like everybody else, post their counts and add it to the group total.
Chokhany and Kamdar find yoga a convenient form of exercise. “It is easy to put into your routine,” Chokhany said. “For other workouts, you have to go out, go to a gym. This is very simple. You can just put on your AC and do 20-30 surya namaskars in ten minutes.”
“Fitness was a basic criteria for all of us,” Kamdar said. “But to do it on your own was difficult. With the group now even alone we can do it. You set your own target and everyone encourages you to reach it.”
Beyond boredom
The instructor behind all this, Vivek Patil, began yoga because he was bored.
“I come from a competitive sporting background, doing athletics, gymnastics and weight lifting for around 15 years,” he said.
As he grew older, he scaled back those sports and had to find other ways to keep fit.
“The transition was from strength to the other side of the spectrum, endurance,” he said. And he found activities like running boring because they consumed so much time.
Patil had been reading a lot about the history of Indian sports in a series of publications by the Baroda Sansthan. One of those was on yoga.
“Research and reading led me to believe that the surya namaskar was the path to all individual postures and meditation,” he said. “Surya namaskar takes care of the entire strength and mobility needs of the individual. It is a chakra exercise, with continuous spinal flexing and tension happening.”
Another advantage he pointed out, echoed by others in the group is how cost effective it is.
“Once you learn it, there is no need to go to a trainer,” Patil said. “It is also space effective. It is just you, your mat and your privacy.”
His ultimate goal, he feels, would be to do 1008 surya namaskars in a day, as his role model Samarth Ramdas is said to have done. But he will take his time getting there.
“None of us have yet done 1008,” he said. “It’s an unknown quantity, we don’t know what will happen. When I was running, I did the half marathon, then the full, then the ultra. Until then, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Then I got bored. Perhaps the same thing will happen here.”
Yoga Day
International Yoga Day will be a day like any other for the group. They will continue to maintain their daily goals and post their daily counts. Kamdar is enthusiastic about it, particularly at the prospect of more people seeking to join their Whatsapp and Facebook groups.
“I think International Yoga Day is a brilliant idea for the mind, body and spirit,” she said. “If all three are in alignment, you become a beautiful human being. And if you do the surya namaskar facing the sun, with the right posture, and in the right manner, you will definitely benefit yourself to the optimum.”
Ever the instructor, Patil warned of a lack of consistency.
“Yoga can’t be a one-day event,” he said. “It has to happen every day or a lot of it would end as hype, just as what happened with Swachh Bharat. People are calling us and asking why we are not doing anything special on that day, but we do this every day. Our intention is to promote surya namaskars and yoga, not to click selfies.”
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Called the Surya Namaskar Samurais, the group has been doing surya namaskars daily since June 2014. On January 17, they collectively notched up one lakh surya namaskars. They are now almost halfway to their second lakh.
While other yoga practitioners focus on spirituality, this group is more concerned with fitness. For them, the surya namaskar, done fast enough, can provide a complete cardio workout that leaves them stretched and flexible over the rest of the day.
Rittika Chokhany, 40, an interior designer who retired to take care of her children a few years ago, is one of the driving forces behind the group.
“We had an instructor who used to come to our building for physical training,” Chokhany said. “He did not like standard workouts, so we would climb 21 floors one day, run around the parking stilts on another, do 300 crunches or sit ups. At one point, he suggested we should do yoga.”
The surya namaskar changed their lives. As their schedules changed and they became unable to meet at the same time, the Whatsapp group became a way to organise at least one part of their lives in the privacy of their own homes.
Finding order
The one lakh number did not arrive by clockwork. Chokhany maintains a spreadsheet with everyone’s daily and monthly goals. Another member, Rupal Kamdar, 45, posts these updates on their Facebook group, along with other posts of interest to the Samurais, such as postures for the differently abled and sketches of animals doing the surya namaskar.
There were many more members of the group in the beginning, but some dropped out after seeing goals. Others, however, began to hit 108 daily. Soon, the next target for a few in the group became 200. A boy in the 8th standard in their group did 300 at once.
Their goals have slowed down now. Both Chokhany and Kamdar maintain a daily target of 24 surya namaskars. After completing their daily quotas, they like everybody else, post their counts and add it to the group total.
Chokhany and Kamdar find yoga a convenient form of exercise. “It is easy to put into your routine,” Chokhany said. “For other workouts, you have to go out, go to a gym. This is very simple. You can just put on your AC and do 20-30 surya namaskars in ten minutes.”
“Fitness was a basic criteria for all of us,” Kamdar said. “But to do it on your own was difficult. With the group now even alone we can do it. You set your own target and everyone encourages you to reach it.”
Beyond boredom
Instructor Vivek Patil cuts a cake celebrating the group's one lakh surya namaskars. Photo credit: Surya Namaskar Samurais
The instructor behind all this, Vivek Patil, began yoga because he was bored.
“I come from a competitive sporting background, doing athletics, gymnastics and weight lifting for around 15 years,” he said.
As he grew older, he scaled back those sports and had to find other ways to keep fit.
“The transition was from strength to the other side of the spectrum, endurance,” he said. And he found activities like running boring because they consumed so much time.
Patil had been reading a lot about the history of Indian sports in a series of publications by the Baroda Sansthan. One of those was on yoga.
“Research and reading led me to believe that the surya namaskar was the path to all individual postures and meditation,” he said. “Surya namaskar takes care of the entire strength and mobility needs of the individual. It is a chakra exercise, with continuous spinal flexing and tension happening.”
Another advantage he pointed out, echoed by others in the group is how cost effective it is.
“Once you learn it, there is no need to go to a trainer,” Patil said. “It is also space effective. It is just you, your mat and your privacy.”
His ultimate goal, he feels, would be to do 1008 surya namaskars in a day, as his role model Samarth Ramdas is said to have done. But he will take his time getting there.
“None of us have yet done 1008,” he said. “It’s an unknown quantity, we don’t know what will happen. When I was running, I did the half marathon, then the full, then the ultra. Until then, I wasn’t sure what would happen. Then I got bored. Perhaps the same thing will happen here.”
Yoga Day
International Yoga Day will be a day like any other for the group. They will continue to maintain their daily goals and post their daily counts. Kamdar is enthusiastic about it, particularly at the prospect of more people seeking to join their Whatsapp and Facebook groups.
“I think International Yoga Day is a brilliant idea for the mind, body and spirit,” she said. “If all three are in alignment, you become a beautiful human being. And if you do the surya namaskar facing the sun, with the right posture, and in the right manner, you will definitely benefit yourself to the optimum.”
Ever the instructor, Patil warned of a lack of consistency.
“Yoga can’t be a one-day event,” he said. “It has to happen every day or a lot of it would end as hype, just as what happened with Swachh Bharat. People are calling us and asking why we are not doing anything special on that day, but we do this every day. Our intention is to promote surya namaskars and yoga, not to click selfies.”
