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Welcome back to On the Light. I’m your host, Susan Johnson.

In today’s episode, I’m grateful, as always, to sit down with Prashant Iyengar for another conversation that takes us deeper into the subject of Sangeet.

Prashant begins by explaining that Sangeet arises from the Natya Shastra — the ancient Indian treatise on dramaturgy and the performing arts, a text that explores music, dance, theatre, rasa, and the inner mechanics of expression itself.

From there, he leads us into a profound reflection: that life itself is a kind of drama.

We are not the roles we play.
Father, mother, friend, student — these are enactments.
Costumes. Movements within a larger unfolding.

And the Self, he reminds us, is beyond all of it.

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Welcome back to On the Light. I’m your host, Susan Johnson. Today I’m joined by Devki Desai.

Devki’s journey with Iyengar Yoga began in Mumbai in the mid-1980s, when her father first brought her to class as a teenager. What began with some resistance soon became a lifelong path, shaped by early study with senior teachers and, soon after, direct exposure to B.K.S. Iyengar himself. Over the years, Devki’s life became deeply interwoven with the Institute in Pune—through practice, teaching, family, and seva.

In this conversation, Devki shares intimate stories of being guided and trained by Guruji, Geetaji, and Prashantji —three influences she never separates, but experiences as a woven whole. She reflects on learning to teach through direct instruction, observation, and responsibility; on being “thrown into” classes as a form of training; and on the grace that carried her through those formative years.

She also speaks movingly about pranayama, motherhood, devotion, and the subtle ways yoga shapes a life over time.

This is a conversation rich with memory, lineage, and lived experience, and I’m so grateful to share it with you.

If you enjoy On the Light, please consider liking, sharing, or subscribing. And if you’re able, a small monthly donation helps support the continued production of this podcast.

Please enjoy this episode of On the Light.

Support the show

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Welcome back to On the Light. I’m your host, Susan Johnson. Today I’m honored as always to speak with Prashant Iyengar.

In this episode, Prashant offers a rich historical lens on yoga, he further discusses the origins of Sangeet, where he speaks to sound not as performance, but as a spiritual practice deeply woven into nature, ritual, and self realization.

In this episode he also shares some family history, including a very special story of the time he went to visit the Krishna temple with Guruji and his mother.

If you enjoy On the Light, please consider liking, sharing, or subscribing. And if you’re able, a small monthly donation helps support the continued production of this podcast.

Please enjoy this episode of On the Light.

Support the show