Uday Bhosale wants to share the joy of Iyengar Yoga

Uday Bhosale has a Level 3 certificate and works full-time as a yoga teacher in the UK. He holds a master in Computer Science and used to work both as yoga teacher at the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute and heading a department at the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth University (TMV).

During the 50th Iyengar yoga intensive workshop in Pune in January 2025 Uday Bhosale seemed to be everywhere; assisting participants and teachers, fixing the lights and perform asanas on stage. But he still found the time to answer some questions about his upcoming workshop in Gothenburg March 14-16th at the annual meeting by the Swedish Iyengar Yoga Association, IYFSE.

Who are you, what is your story? (as Brené Brown says 😊):

I have been in Pune for the greater part of my growing years. In 2011 I spent a year and a half in the UK and since 2015, thanks to my wife, I am living there permanently. My wife Sonali had to travel the UK for work. She liked it there and wanted me to try it out, that is how it happened. 

I started my yoga journey when I was around 13-14 years old and joined a martial arts class where my martial arts teacher was a senior student of Gurudji. My teacher taught us a blend of martial arts and yoga. Back then we did not know much about yoga, as a teenager you were more interested in jumping and kicking, and I was quite exited about martial arts. Then my teacher told me “If you really want to learn, this is the place you need to go”, and that was R.I.M.I.Y. And there, as I started, I met these friends. They are more than family in a way now.

Are you the same age as Abhijata Iyengar and Raya Uma Datta, you seem to be in the same bunch?

Yes, we are about the same age.

First you were a student and then you became a teacher, how did it develop?

I was happy being a student, helping around volunteering for events, it was a happy place like that. Then one fine day, I think I was 22-23 years, Gurudji just told me to teach a class, a beginner class. That was a chocker in a way, I was happy being a student, running errands. Initially I just passed on the message to the secretary and hoped that nothing would happen, and it didn’t actually, I never got a class. Next year, about the same time, Gurudji was sitting outside and he called me, “Hey, you didn’t listen to me. I told you that you have to teach a class, and you are not doing it!” I was quite shocked, it was a year later and he still remembered and was serious about it. Then I thought, there is no escaping this. 

What do you like to communicate to the participants in Sweden?

I haven’t had enough interaction with Swedish community. But with past experiences, even though it is newer places, there is still an underlying connection thanks to the Institute and to Guridji’s methods, so I am always happy to come to a new place and make connections and friends.

I am looking forward to to share my experience, sharing whatever I can, in my own capacity. Basically, I will work around how to enjoy the practice and the learning process. I look forward to have that joy shared.

Workshops when everyone is in the same room, compared to online, these are two totally different experiences don’t you agree?

I keep saying. Online and in person, they both have their unique plus points and benefits. And you should not choose sides. It would be smart to take benefit of both.

Now you are coming to Sweden, have you been to the Nordic countries before? 

I have only been to Copenhagen for a convention, I was amazed with the food and the place in itself. The weather was nice too.

You are coming to Gothenburg in March, it might well be cold and rainy, like London.

In some ways, I will feel at home then. 

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What Uday didn’t tell me,but other teachers in Pune shared, is that Uday is also a champion in charity work. Among other things, he developed online yoga classes as a way to supporting mental health of Yoga Practitioners during the Covid Pandemic. They also ran a charity class for NHS where they collected over 40,000 pounds. That is one of the reasons why he was awarded British Empire Medal in 2021 together. Read more about it here. 

Link til Uday Bhosales website Yoga with Uday

David Meloni: Every asana can teach you something

David Meloni, Advanced Senior level II Iyengar yoga teacher, is travelling around the world to share the teachings of BKS Iyengar.  For him, the key to connect with a new group of students is to build trust, and then he can start sharing.

It's October 2018, and David Meloni is having his fist workshop in Sweden, at the Iyengar yoga studio of Ingrid Engström in Björkekärr, on the east side of Gothenburg. The participants are curious to get to know the teacher who has the highest level of teaching certificate in the Iyengar yoga community.

After the workshop we took him for a walk to the nearby lake Härlanda Tjärn and got a chance to ask him about his life as a yoga teacher. It turns out that even though it is his first visit to Sweden he is quite familiar with the Nordic nature and mode, since his wife is Finnish and he has a history of several workshops in Helsinki. 

Born in Sardinia, Italy, David Meloni became dedicated to yoga as a teenager when he was practicing karate. He turned to yoga as a compliment to the martial arts but soon yoga became a core interest and David dedicated more and more time to yoga, following BKS Iyengar instructions in Light on Yoga. He did his teachers training in Florence and in 2003, he  started to regularly go to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune, often for three months at a time.   

Since BKS Iyengar passed away in 2014, he finds it even more important to continue in the spirit of BKS Iyengar. He has great hope in Abhijata Iyengar, the granddaughter of BKS Iyengar, who now is responsible for the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune. “She studied for Guruji during 16 years and you can take from her what she absorbed from her grandfather, she brings freshness and is our hope”.

David Meloni on a autumn day at Härlanda tjärn.

David Meloni is concerned about the commercialisation of yoga in general and the tendency to create new styles, mixing it with other “strange movements” and using props in weird ways. “You have the creativity within the system of Iyengar yoga”, he declares.  Throughout the years he has learned to appreciate every asana and continue to explore them thoroughly. “Every asana can teach you something. If you keep your curiosity, there are thousand ways of getting to know for example Trikonasa, the Triangle Pose.”

As a teacher, David Meloni thinks that trust is a key component to reach the students so that they can start to listen to their own bodies. “You build trust through empathy and sensibility.  As a teacher, you also need to have strong didactics where you simplify and are effective in your instructions, not using so many words. First, you should know the matter of what you are teaching, then, you should be able to demonstrate. Once you are saying something and the body is doing it, is a very strong effect. Then the students are starting to trust you.”

This perspective comes straight from David Meloni visits to Pune where he noticed how BKS Iyengar always communicated through the experience of his own practice and he changed the way he explained, depending on the students in front of him.  “Everything came from his own experience, not so much from his teachers. That kind of teaching takes many years of practice. To try to understand the asana, feel the right actions and then translate it to effective words. ” That is also why David Meloni thinks you can’t copy the words of another teacher and shoot it out to students, you need to absorb the deeper understanding of the asanas and then find the different ways to explain it. “You should also be able to show with your body the mistakes that the students are doing, and show the correct one.

Favorite sutras

1.14 Sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asivitah drdhabhumih

Long, uninterrupted, alert practice is the firm foundation for restraining the fluctuations

1.20 Sraddha virya smrti samadhiprajna purvakha itasaresam

Practice must be pursued with trust, confidence, vigour, keen memory and power of absorption to break the spiritual complacency.

(Qutes and translations from Light on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by BKS Iyengar (1993) 

Favorite BKS Iyengar quote: “To  a yogi his body is a laboratory, a field for perpetual experiment and research.”

David Meloni is based in Florence, Italy. Read more about David Meloni on his website.

David Meloni was back in Sweden in november 2019 and he plans to come back in December 2020 to Iyengar yoga center in Björkekärr, Gothenburg

 

Text: Maria Edström

Photos:  Mari Lagerquist

The Stability and Mobility Playground with Carrie Owerko

Carrie Owerko ready to start her workshop  in Gothenburg. Photo: Mari Lagerquist

One day Carrie Owerko is on the cover of Yoga Journal. The next day she is the birch forests of Björkekärr, Sweden.
In June 2018 the studio Yoga Nu in Gothenburg hosted  a workshop with Carrie Owerko, a senior Iyengar teacher with the theme of stability and mobility. 
Her passion is to share the  the idea of playful yoga. Guided by the legacy of BKS Iyengar, poetry, art and love she inspires yoga lovers all over the world.