Tammy,

I think something is wrong and I’m a little embarrassed to admit this to you.

In your class, I like to hear the sanskrit words you say as we go into each pose.  I don’t know what is going on but something about the language turns me on; no, not like a fetish or anything.  This language is probably thousands of years old and you probably can’t have a conversation in it.  I guess I’m an information junkie and love to store stuff, but why this outdated language?  Does yoga do this to other people?  Once in a while I think about saying padangustasana in my real, non-yoga life.  What freakish looks I would get if I actually said this to say, my mechanic.  I don’t even know what it technically means beyond being a yoga pose.  I like to try to guess the names of the poses as we go into them. What is going on?  Why does my brain want to say trikonasana?  I have no desire to be a yoga teacher; at the rate I’m learning at, that wouldn’t happen for a few light years anyway.  Is there a doctor you can recommend that would know what is going on?  I can’t be in a business meeting and all of a sudden out of my mouth rolls the word utkatasana.  What if a client does yoga and hears this oddly placed word?  I don’t think they’d find it funny for me to command that they get off their leather seats and do the chair pose for the rest of the meeting.   How about halasana (plow pose)?  They might even think I am suggesting that they do this pose so I can tie them up in some sick way, take pictures to extort them later, or to rob them.  Someone who doesn’t know yoga may think I am tripping, having a stroke, or I am terrorizing them.  Speaking of which, what if I was at the airport in front of a TSA officer?

Is this what happens to people who take yoga or have I meditated my way into a yoga form of tourette’s syndrome?  Help!  Do I need meds?  Some camomile?  A cleansing by Deepak Chopra?

Gary Kahn