This is a story, fiction.

A few years back, I wanted to deepen my experience and ability in the physical side of yoga, and I enrolled at an ashram in California, run by a group of yoginis (women yogis). I knew that it was going to be very intense - in fact it was famous for its discipline and an element of femdom - but I thought it was right for me.

I'll describe the philosophy in another article, but it was very precise, strict, and advanced, and most of the (mixed) students were already quite experienced.

There were 2 yoga sessions each day, from 6am to 9am, and from 1pm to 3 pm. For those students that could not meet the required standard, there was a remedial class from 3 to 4pm, and this is the main point of these notes.

The posture in question was 'tittibhasana', which involves bending forwards with arms through the legs, taking hold of the wrists behind the back. The next phase is to 'walk' in the posture. It is performed properly here:

I could not straighten my legs in the posture, and could not walk! Around 10 of us were told to stay behind for an additional class, targetting the pose.

The mood of the teaching changed somewhat. We were told that we had not worked hard enough, and had let the ashram down by failing. This class was our chance to redeem ourselves, and it would be challenging and humiliating.

The main focus would be on the murga punishment position.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murga_punishment

Here are instructions for the pose, treated as a yoga position:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhQGJWwZFoU

and the walking part is at 3:00

We were told to stand in two rows, back-to-back, 1m apart. Then, we had to assume murga, with legs as straight as possible. The teacher then went to each pair of students in turn, and rocked them back on their heels, so that their buttocks touched, forming an upside-down 'V' shape. It was explained that if one of the pair tried to move, the pair would collapse. The position was to be held for 30 minutes, maintaining eye-contact with the person we were leaning against, to add to the humiliation. Worse, if anyone came out of the pose, all the class would spend an extra 30 minutes in the position.

Needless to say, we all got through the agony, but more was to come. We longed to be allowed to release, but were told that murga was not over. To release now would mean even more discomfort when we entered the pose again.

The final 30 minutes of the session were to be spent in walking murga, doing a circuit of the grounds - this was around 100m. The full circuit had to be completed by everyone, and over the next few days we all had to complete it in 15 minutes. Any resistance would result in us doing it unclothed!

At this time of day, the grounds were occupied by relaxing students, and it was very humiliating to have been picked out as a poor student, and having to parade around, bottom in the air.

Afterwards, it took at least 10 minutes to slowly unwind, and we were fit for nothing apart from shuffling to our beds, wondering how we were going to attend class next morning!