marma points

in the place where man woman child meets is family, represented by the ankh in ancient egypt, and by the secret science of marmas in ayurveda.

kind of.

marmas are vital points where tissue, bone, vein, muscle meet like family. a family gathering. an ankh. it is known to ayurvedic doctors, in this current age of info through degree programs. it is also known by westerners through the internet’s  google-guru, but understood only by kalari masters.

after reviewing the 108 marma points during one of our ayurvedic classes, the lead doctor and director of the program who lead this class, when asked about how marmas were used, shrugged.

 i don't know, the doctor said. we just learn about them in school, but we don't actually use them in our treatments. we don't know how, he said when he was prodded further.

d, gurrukal, knows marma. he had to learn them as part of the secret trainings in the kalari martial art. gurrukal's 20 year old master student, who is built like an alvin ailey dancer, and moves his body like a wu tang ballerina, reviews the marmas with me. he knows about 25.

why not all? i ask, as he fake-strikes me in between my eyebrow.

i'm not at that level yet, he says.

marmas are revealed through a progression in the art of kalari. mahesh has been training rigorously for 5 or 6 years, and now almost exclusively trains the young batch and assists d in training the adult batch. on his simple phone, mahesh shows me pictures of him somersaulting, defying planetary pulls, as i practice pressing the marmas on his shaggy head.

not too hard, he says, widening his wide eyes as dramatic as the china white of his eye and the black of his skin.

right, i say, recalling d's words.

marma points should be left alone. they are extremely sensitive, dangerous, points used to kill, d tells me . we are in his kalari shala, which resembles a cave, with a bare rocky ground, and brick walls like ruins.

i stare off at the statue on the corner, a set of 7 steps that d uses as an alter. a single candle sits defiantly on the apex. we bow and pray towards it  everytime we enter the shala. according to d, the steps  represents the chakras and the levels of nadis, the ascension from lower self to higher self.

everything here means something, n not in a big deal way, not like we have to be quiet n keep our head bowed n say mantras a million times. sacred is just matter of fact here, just the way it is.

before i know it, i am nearly on the ground. d catches me off guard, flips air to wind me off my feet, grabs my arm to break my fall, twists it behind my back like nypd, and juts a single finger below the center of my scapula.

that's a marma point, he says. it will leave your left side paralyzed in 20 minutes. he says something like that. to release it, you... he shows me.

this is how d teaches me the marmas. sometimes. at other times, a patient comes with a frozen shoulder or a back as stiff as french greetings. d is pressing somewhere and sliding and pressing again. i ask him about marmas, while he's operating.

there's a marma here and here, he shows me on the lower back of the patient.

i thought you said we shouldn't use marmas.

not on a healthy person. but you can use them to release pain. that's the only time they should be used.

gurrukal shows me some common treatments with the vital points, describes when marma massage would be used in total, which is rare.

d gets behind me when his patient leaves, presses some points on my neck and shoulder, and slides down my veins, working his way down my arm.

this releases neck pain and shoulder issues, he explains, staring at me with his dark eyes, dark eyebrows gently sitting in place, his light skin starkly lightened by his blue-black hair, his face maintaining a sweetness.

go ahead, he says, turning his back to me. try it on me.

i do, to no, not like that, to yes, but, to yes and yes almost.

 good. keep practicing.