Master of Body and Mind
Expanding Paradigms - Spring 2005

A young man challenged a Zen Master to an archery contest. With his first arrow he hit the bull's-eye, and with his second, he split the first. Triumphantly, he turned to the Zen Master.

The Master said nothing, but led the young man up a mountain to a deep gorge.

Walking out on a rotten log spanning the chasm, the Master stopped in the middle.

He drew his bow, and released an arrow, which flew straight and true, embedding itself in a distant tree-trunk.
Returning to the young man’s side, the Zen Master gestured towards the log. The young man stared into the abyss, but made no move towards the rotten log. The Zen master then dismissed the young archer saying “You have much skill with the bow - but little control of the mind that wields it.“

-- Zen Story

Twelve years ago, Kumar Pallana, a yoga teacher from Dallas, drove down to Austin to offer a three day yoga workshop. I was a little embarrassed to arrive and discover that I was the only student to register. Rather than cancel, Kumar insisted on proceeding with the workshop, and seemed as happy to teach one student as ten.

At the end of the workshop, Kumar invited me to dinner. I learned that he was born in India in 1918 and for many years made a living demonstrating yoga and feats of strength and balance. This man, who earlier in the day had been doing one-armed push-ups, was in his mid 70's!

After dinner, Kumar talked about his appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show, Captain Kangaroo, and the Mickey Mouse Club. For a while, he had been Hollywood's on-call yogi for stunts, like lying on a bed of nails. He pulled out an album with photographs of him with stars like Bob Hope and John Wayne.

One black & white photo especially caught my attention. It was taken from the street, looking up at the roof of a 3-story building, where Kumar was in a hand-stand on the ledge, high above the sidewalk, with no net. When I asked him about the photograph he grinned with delight, as if sharing one of his most treasured secrets. "When I first moved to America I did not have any money. I discovered that if you do a hand-stand on the sidewalk, no one cares, but if you do a hand-stand on the edge of a tall building, people give you money!" He was obviously pleased with himself.

Whether done on the ground or on the edge of a precipice, to Kumar, a hand-stand is still just a hand-stand. Obviously, Kumar was a yoga teacher who truly was master of both body and mind.

Postscript: After writing this essay, I wondered what had happened to Kumar in the twelve-plus years since our meeting. I did a search on the internet and was delighted to find that Kumar is not only alive, but at age 86 has been rediscovered by Hollywood, where he now lives. You can catch Kumar in “Bottle Rocket,” "Rushmore," "The Royal Tenenbaums," and most recently, "Terminal," with Tom Hanks, in which he garnered critical acclaim for his role as Gupta, the janitor. Namaste'

http://www.theterminal-themovie.com