Rima Rohra is a Mumbai based yoga tutor and content creator, sharing all things yoga on her social media. She gives online and offline sessions as well.
She has been practicing for more than 10 years and shares it’s importance through social media.
Icy Tales is in conversation with Rima Rohra about importance of yoga and how it impacts one’s life.
Q) What is yoga to you? When did you start on this journey?
Rima Rohra – I actually started on this journey self practicing for more than like 10 years back and it’s been a long journey. So, I started practicing yoga at home to lose the weight. That was my main goal actually.
That’s why when people come to me and say that I want to lose weight with yoga, I understand where they are coming from. But it started there on a very naive note, on losing weight, and just trying to be fit. There was no other goal.
I used to go to the gym later after some years when the kids grew up. And then I realized that my body is getting very stiff. So, yoga was helping me with the stretching and with making me feel good.
I initially just started with the feel good factor. There was nothing, which was like I was not deeply into the subject. So, I have been practicing with many different teachers. But I have started teaching two years back so this has been my journey so far.
Even when I started doing the yoga teacher training, I did not intend to teach. Just did it for my own curiosity since I am so involved in yoga, might as well do it.
But right now yoga for me is not about the all the reasons which I started with, the weight, stretching and flexibility. Its actually none of all that. Right now, yoga for me is like taking a breath, taking life easy, taking it how it goes, trying to be more calm.
So, the practice that I do on the Mat is very helpful for me for my regular life. It actually makes me a more stable, humble and better person.
Now yoga stands that place for me like if I don’t practice for one week or don’t do an asana practice or my morning sadhana then I am just more irritated than normal in the day.
Because we all have like so much going on. Everybody’s life is so busy especially if you are in Mumbai. Half the time you are travelling. There is so much going on in our modern life that I feel like that stability of the mind or the balance becomes very unstable.
So, if you see the generation before ours, like our mothers, our grandmothers, they had so much mental strength, they had patience. And so I feel like right now yoga for me is somewhere where I am getting my stillness, my balance, my stability.
Q) Meditating is difficult. What advice would you give to someone meditating for the first time?
Rima Rohra – If you start for the first time, you don’t have to go with this mindset that I want to meditate. So first thing, what people think is that I want to meditate and there should be no thoughts.
My mind has to be blank, all of these things. But actually your mind cannot be blank. It’s literally impossible unless you’ve done sadhana for 40 years and you have reached a new level of self-realization.
So, even for yoga teachers, the mind is not blank. But what the difference is that you have to observe the thoughts which are going.
So it’s almost like cars on the road. And they’re just going and you’re just like standing on the signal. Those cars are your thoughts.
You have to be the observer. Let the thoughts come. Usually what people do is, they try to resist. If you just relax and let the thoughts pass, you’re already meditating. You have to be the observer. This is a very difficult process, to be the observer.
In theory, it’s very easy to explain that these observer because of people who’ve been practicing. So the easiest way to the path to become the observer is to have your attention on your breath.
I’m actually a Vipassana meditator. So, I practice it regularly and there is a concept in vipassana called Anapana which is a prerequisite of actual vipassana meditation.
For the first three days when you go to learn, they only teach you Anapana. But it’s not like you have to go to a vipassana center to learn it or you have to be qualified and all of that.
The only thing that is there in that, which is a very powerful practice is to have your concentration around your breath.
So, when you keep concentrating around your breath, the thoughts come, you come back to the breath, the thoughts come, you come back to breath.
Eventually you realize that the thoughts are going by and your mind is on the breath.
So, this is the process to become the observer eventually. The basic thing which you can start with is just sitting and observing your breath.
Also, you don’t have to control it. You don’t have to inhale and exhale. Just have to observe the area around your nostrils. You’re just putting your attention and your energy in that spot.
So, that is the easiest way, according to me, to even start the journey of meditation. You have to be the observer.
Q) What is the best time to practice yoga and what should one eat before doing yoga?
Rima Rohra – You have to have your stomach almost empty or at least half empty. Basically on a light stomach. And there are reasons for this also. If your stomach is heavy, you will get into the Tamas mode, which means you won’t feel like doing anything.
You will feel like sleeping. So scientifically, if you eat a heavy meal and if you go for a buffet, you’re not going to feel like working in office. You’re going to feel sleepy, which is why everybody needs the 4’0 clock coffee shot or whatever.
It’s a very normal thing in corporate culture because their meals are heavy. But if you start eating half the quantity of the meal, then your stomach will remain light and you’ll still remain active, which is still the rajas mode, the activity mode.
So, if you want to practice yoga then your stomach should be half empty because you won’t be able to practice otherwise.
And secondly if you want to meditate empty stomach is ideal. Very light stomach is even better because then your the prana in your body will start getting used in your mind, in your meditation versus digesting food okay.
And the best time is, in an ideal life situation is Brahma Murat. But that is not practically possible for almost everyone to wake up at 4:00 AM and 3:30 AM. It’s very difficult. Difficult for me also. So ideally the practice should end before 10:00 AM.
The reason being is that the sattva guna, the sattva is the guna where you are calmer. You know when you wake up from sleep you actually feel much better than versus when you go to sleep at night because that guna is much more in you. So, you are in a better zone mentally, physically.
That guna is active as per the laws of the universe till 10:00 AM. After 10:00 AM the rajas guna becomes more active. So, what happens is if you practice before 10:00 AM.
Not only is your body in a better state to practice, the whole universe is in that traffic mode as per the time zone. So, ideally you should finish your practice by 10:00 AM, but if you cant and if you have to do it, you just do it whenever.
Q) Tell me about your online business Vitamin Planet?
Rima Rohra – That’s actually very old. It’s a long story for that. I also used to do web design on the side. I am a web designer also. So, I had just designed that website. Since I knew some supplier I said let me see if the business works well.
Q) Do you think yoga is associated with a particular religion?
Rima Rohra – So this is actually a very debatable topic. If you see Hinduism by itself is a science. So, Hinduism is not going to tell you that.
If you don’t pray to me three times this will happen or that will happen. The reason people associate is because in all Yoga teacher training and all they teach you Bhagavad Gita.
And if you read the Bhagavad Gita also that entire conversation between Krishna and Arjuna is in question answer.
There is a question which is asked that okay I am scared and then Krishna says that okay do this. So, basically even the foundation of Hinduism is that, if you do this, this will happen.
If you eat food, you will be more active. You eat heavy food, you will be more this thing. So, yoga is also a science which is based on a similar concept.
So, that’s why they associate with Hinduism because Hinduism has om and they have this. But Hinduism itself is a science.
So, to some level I do agree. Hinduism, even though I don’t call it a religion, religion but Hinduism is very deeply related with Yoga because the founder of Yoga as per our text is Lord Shiva. They associate Shiva and Parvati as Shiva and Shakti.
So, Hinduism also has symbols like Shiva and Shakti have masculine feminine energy. That’s all scientific also. So that science part of Hinduism is coming to Yoga.
It can be associated with Hinduism but irrespective of whether you practice Hinduism whether you don’t, Om is the universal sound. There is a whole science behind the vibration of Om.
Everything can be explained scientifically. So, whether you are into Hinduism or not but the the benefits of Yoga will be good for you irrespective.
Q) Who is your favorite yogi?
Rima Rohra – I have many, I look up to many, but I am extremely influenced by BKS Iyengar, Guruji. Actually, I have all his books and I have read many of his books.
His whole journey of yoga has inspired me a lot. Because he was a sick child and how he overcame his illnesses and then how he actually lived over 100 years. So, I think his whole journey has influenced me a lot to come into this journey of yoga.
Q) Do you think yoga is the ultimate solution to all our stress and problems?
Rima Rohra – See, Yoga is not the solution to everything. It’s not a solution to be positive vibes and all this westernization, that burning candle. The actual goal of yoga is Self Realization or Samadhi.
So if you want to reach samadhi, if you don’t want to take birth again, want to remove your karma. That is the goal of yoga which is way too much for normal people now their mental level is so low.
They cant associate. Can you think of samadhi in this time you have to think what will I eat for dinner or where will I go?. So our mental level is so down right now.
In general, its not about you only its about everybody. So all these things which people are experiencing that oh if I feel yoga I feel good. These are just the byproducts of yoga.
So, it is not there to solve the problems. Like people come to me and say oh I have this problem and all. If I have knee problem and I come to yoga, don’t come to yoga.
For your knee problem go to a doctor you need a physician. Of course the knees will get flexible and there will be other effects but a yoga teacher cannot solve your knee problem.
You need to go to a doctor. So, it is yoga is not here to solve your problems it is for self realization on the way you become distant.
You realize that okay, I am the Atman. So, you realize that there is more to life than this physical world. And you mature. You get wisdom, which is why your life becomes easier.
Because now you see things from a new perspective. You are not seeing things from same old perspective. When will I get a new car and when will I get a salary. So, there is a difference in a perspective, but that is all the byproducts of yoga.
Q) Advice for someone starting their yoga journey?
Rima Rohra– Practice. Just practice, which is called Abhyas in Sanskrit. If you are doing your sadhana of like say 10 minutes a day, you wake up, do your mala, pray, chants, do your namaz and whichever sadhana you do, whichever thing which is bringing you closer to yourself or giving you the peace.
Whether it is your mala, whether it is your prayer. Just be on the path each and every day. Not that today I am not fine, I have to go for wedding.
Make a small routine of 10 minutes and do it religiously. Just practice. That is the only way to do it. Little by little, but do it. Just every day. Be on your mat. Do every day. Even if its 10 minutes, just do it.
Rima Rohra shares her yoga journey on instagram where she helps people start their own yoga journey, help them understand it’s benefits and how can people attain their goals.
Last Updated on by Himani Rawat
