Yoga Vacation?

I'm past the half way mark.
Mostly I'm exhausted.
We never get close to enough sleep and I'm really attached to that ;)
4 hours of really tough asana a day has left me bruised, battered and shakey.
Sivananda Yoga entails doing the exact same series of postures day in and day out. Booooooring.
Especially when you're doing it twice a day for 2 hours at a time!
On the other hand, the very informative daily lectures have helped me to understand that asana (what we in the West think of as 'yoga') are merely an aspect of Raja Yoga, that is a discipline of the Mind.
In that case, my mind is an even naughtier monkey than I thought!
Most of the time I'm pissed off because on the 10000th Sun Salutation....I mean honestly.
This is not the yoga that I love, namely, be still... be gentle... listen to your inner wisdom...
As a result my left knee and hip are buggered.
On a more positive note, I love absolutely everything else. Even getting up at 5:30am for Satsang, during which we meditate and sing sanskrit chants. I love the French Yogini Lalitambika and her informative, funny daily lectures on all things Yogic ---
For instance, Yoga is made up of 4 Paths: Bhakti (devotional eg. chanting), Raja (disciplining the mind through asana and pranayama/breathing practices), Karma (selfless service...I mop the dining hall floors every day) and Jnana (philosophy as contained in the most ancient Vedic scriptures).
We're kept very busy from 5:30am till 10:30 pm.
Yesterday was a Free Day so we hotfooted it to Kovalam Beach and had a blissful time in the warm Arabian Sea. Came back for evening Satsang sun kissed and refreshed.
I also had an ayurvedic massage a few days back which was definitely more therapeutic than relaxing, but still seemed to open the nadis/meridians and helped revive me somewhat.
Another highlight was receiving a name. Wait for it, this is cool!
~~~Chamundi~~~
Meaning 'Demon slayer.'
It's basically a nickname for the fearsome Hindu Goddess Kali, because she chopped off the heads of the Demons Chanda and Munda. This is symbolic of the removal of Rjas and Tamas, or Ego and Ignorance, Passion and Indolence.
Groovy 'ey.
So far our stay has coincided with the end of the TTC, Teacher's Training Course. When we arrived they were 3 weeks in, exhausted and mmmm, let's say grumpy.
Today they wrote their final exam and tomorrow the ashram will be ours!
That means meals (which are deeeeelicious) will finally truly be in silence. Yippee.
And we won't have to worry about having our heads bitten off for, well, anything.
Tonight there's a celebratory feast followed by the weekly talent show.
Last week's was awesome. SO much talent -- from Keralan fire dancing to really great New York standup and whimsical songs from Japan to Jamaica. This is a really diverse crowd!
Above all I'm coming face to face with myself a lot, reflected back at me in sometimes less than pleasant forms.
Today I learnt the difficult lesson -- just because I feel angry doesn't mean I am angry.
See it all as a gift.