Franz Andrini will never forget the first book he read at the age of eight. “It had a lot of pictures and told the story of a boy who travelled all over the world. I wanted to be that boy,” he says.
Many moons have gone by since then – Andrini is now 45 – but he is living that dream. The Slovenian-born yogi travels all over the world to teach his own eponymous brand of yoga, Yoga Andrini. “In every village, in every town, I want people to do yoga,” says Andrini, who says that he now has multiple homes all over the world.
In a Skype interview from Bengaluru (he is staying with his ‘rakhi’ sister there), he says that India, however, is still his favourite one. “I am very familiar with South Karnataka, especially. This is where I first began practising yoga in a structured fashion,” says Andrini, who was in India between March 13 and April 8.
His interest in yoga came earlier, however. “I had a spiritual breakdown of sorts at 17,” he confesses. Then he discovered an Upanishad text in the school library. “My orientation switched from the West to the East and that brought me to yoga,” he says.
He first joined an ashram back home, and in 1994 came to India on a pilgrimage. Two years later, he was back. This time to stay. “I wanted to learn learn yoga properly, so I decided to go to Mysuru. That is where I met BNS Iyengar, my teacher, who laid the foundation for me.”
Iyengar, one of the senior-most practitioners and teachers of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, introduced him to this intense, athletic practice that synchronises breath and movement to produce internal heat and purify the body. The essence of this practice is captured in Yoga Andrini too, he says. “The core of yoga – any form of yoga – is to manipulate prana (breath) and clean your mind and body,” says Andrini, who spent a decade in India.
A peek into his website gives glimpses of what Yoga Andrini can offer. There is a detox programme, another that promises to get you slimmer in 60 days, and yet another that offers you a course in Tantrik meditation. “In Istanbul, I taught a lot of ladies who were obese because of thyroid issues. Through asana, I help them light the digestive fire and reshape the inner body,” he says, adding that he has helped people lose 20-25 kilos using the practice.
“My course just isn’t about teaching yoga – it is about gaining an education,” he says. And with a range of both online and offline courses on offer, the courses are accessible to just about anyone. And while he agrees that virtual reality is no substitute for a proper class, he also believes that it is a good way to draw more people into the practice. “A lot of people don’t want to go to a yoga studio to learn, because they are more conscious of their bodies and feel odd. This is a good way to get them to start moving,” says Andrini, pointing out that the internet has democratised fitness in a big way. For instance, “There are more people practising yoga then ever before,” he believes.
There is a flip side to this. Certifiability becomes an issue, for instance, as, “Everyone can become a fitness star nowadays, even ordinary people,” says Andrini, who is all set to release a yoga app this month. There is also the danger of injury, as the teacher is not there to check your pose and make adjustments. Andrini says that he makes sure that he chooses simple poses that will not injure you, “You don’t have to force people to do shoulder and head stands. The aim is simply to light the fire – simple poses can be effective too,” he says.
Franz Andrini will return to India later this year to take workshops here. To know more about Andrini Yoga, log into http://www.yogaandrini.com
