EXHALE: Students in position during a Bhakti Yoga session on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Tendai Dube
As you approach the elevated building, DJ Du Plessis, you overlook a scenic garden of trees and a mini-waterfall that flows through rocks into the little pond Witsies know to be on West Campus – a more secluded part of Wits which goes perfectly with the serenity that is needed to do yoga.
Through the doors, you’re welcomed by multicoloured yoga mats and on them are bodies bent and stretched over in unconventional positions.
This is what you can expect from one of the Bhakti yoga lessons. Their classes run four days a week, from Monday to Thursday depending on the level of yoga you chose to partake in.
You can also learn about the philosophy of yoga during lunch on Thursdays. According to Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, coordinator of the Bhakti Yoga Society, “A person’s life is like a whole package, first the body, is like our immediate home so anyone who likes their home, wants to keep it clean. Yoga then is allowing our bodies to be clean and to be fit.”
Nhlabatsi is mostly known by his community as ‘Savyasaci Das’, his Sanskrit name. He is a monk who has followed this spiritual path for about 13 years.
The society has signed almost 300 members this year and has won best Civil Society Organisation.
“Since I joined yoga, I’ve been sleeping better, feeling fresh in the morning, I have enough energy to get through the day without feeling worn out and my body is more flexible than it was before I joined,” said Rebotile Masera, 2nd year BAccSci.
Savyasaci said some of the benefits the students gain from yoga are that they feel their muscles working and that “some people are just happy that they can finally sit and touch their toes.”
