Spiritual Home

High on a hillside between San Miguel and San Mateo, the remarkable yoga teacher Anurag has taught ashtanga in the grounds of her sprawling finca for 30 years. Originally from Italy, Anurag stumbled across the ancient structure by chance and has spent nearly four decades creating a whimsical, flower-filled paradise with far-reaching views across wooded valleys to the sea.

L’OFFICIEL IBIZA: Your home is spectacular. How did you first come across it?

ANURAG: It is a very strange story. Very strange indeed. It was the beginning of my new life. I was still with my ex-husband. It was the early 1980s and we were on holiday. I had fallen in love with Ibiza, and I wanted to stay, but my husband was still working in Italy. We knew of an American astrologist near here so I thought maybe the astrologist would be able to help us decide what to do. There were no roads on this side of the island then, nothing. So, we came, and the astrologist said, ‘Okay, I will do the chart with your husband, but you have to go away because I want to talk with him in private.’ So, I went outside for a walk. Suddenly, I came across this house. It was abandoned, totally falling down. There was a stable right here, and that was also half down. It was a total disaster, but I felt something that now I understand to be vertical time. Vertical time is past, future, and present in the same moment. It is very powerful indeed. I felt something so strange and so strong I couldn’t understand it. I just thought, ‘Well, this is paradise.’ It is something I cannot describe with words, but if I close my eyes even now, I can feel it again.

LOI: How did you come to live here?

A: Seven years later, my husband and I had separated, and I came back to find the house. It had once been a school for the children of San Miguel and the building is 350 years old. No foreign people had ever lived here. Just Ibicencos. That was perfect for me, as if the house was pure. The owner agreed to let me stay and when I finally came to live here, I understood. I thought, ‘Ah, now I see. So, this was supposed to be my house.’ Of course, there was no glass in the windows. No bathroom. So, for one year I lived with no electricity, no bath, no phone. This was the eighties, and I rented the house for 13 years. Every month I went to pay the owner and I would say, ‘Please, please can I buy the house?’ ‘No. No, no, no,’ he said, every time. But one day, finally, he agreed.

LOI: You worked with legendary Canadian architect Rolph Blakstad on the renovation. Tell us more.

A: Yes, that was very lucky. Because Rolph was an academic, you know, and also a mystic in many ways. He knew so much about the architectural history of Ibiza and the links to the Phoenicians and the rural traditions of the island. So, to be with him and hear those stories was a real privilege. He asked if I wanted the house to be all on one level and I said no, because it’s an old house and it is built into the land. So, it is on many different levels with steps here and there and I like that. It creates a wonderful atmosphere, with lots of little worlds. We created this great arch, with the light flooding in above. It feels like a church somehow. And we kept the original features. This wooden window mantle was originally from the stable. The workmen had thrown it into the campo, but I fell in love with it – it has a beautiful patina – so we built it back into the wall. And I have my shrines, little shrines everywhere, to my god Ganesha.

LOI: What made you devote your practice to the ashtanga method?

A: People assume ashtanga is hard, but that’s just fear. The root of all our limitations is fear. I practiced many types of yoga before doing this. Ashtanga is special because it is not just physical. It is mind and spirit too. You need to learn to coordinate the breath with the movement. It is about energy. You don’t need strength, but you must learn to channel your energy. Of course, we know that everything is energy now. And this for me is incredible. Also, I like to have small groups. In the old days, yoga was always just the teacher and the student. Now we see classes of 40, 60 people. Not for me. When students come here, they learn much more. It’s not about how many poses you can do, it’s about your approach to your life and to your practice. I’m 83 years old, and this morning I sat with my leg behind my head. Because I like to do that. That’s not because I’m special, it’s because of my practice and the way I live and the gratitude I have. But I am still a student. We are all students until the end. I learn a little more each day. Maybe I learn more from my students than they learn from me. Who knows? It is a process. Little by little.

LOI: Which part of your home do you gravitate towards?

A: I am here all the time. I like to be out here under the porch in summer and I like to walk in the garden. My garden furniture is a little bit old, a bit homemade. I’m not interested in new things. At night I love to lie on the cushioned platform indoors and read by the log burner. I don’t watch TV, except maybe some documentaries on YouTube. My home is quite big, but my bedroom is the only one. And outside my bedroom is my private pool, which I put magnesium in instead of chlorine. It is so good for the body. In the garden there are some little casitas for people to stay, but I cannot see them. I need my own space to recharge. The way I designed my house, I live alone, but I’m never alone. In the kitchen, I like to eat what is good for me – avocados, nuts, seeds. I grow my own salad, the bitter kind that we have in Italy, because I can never find it here. I don’t go out much, but people come to visit. There is a sense of community here, just how I imagined when I first saw the house all those years ago.

LOI: Tell me about your beautiful things.

A: Things! I have too many things. But I cannot bear to throw them away. Everything tells a story. The carved door I brought from Africa, that bowl from Greece. My studio is full of instruments – a sitar and tanpura from India. My shruti box. And all my photos in my bedroom. This one is me in Vogue when I was a part of Milan high society. And here is my dear brother with a chimpanzee. He did amazing work in Africa and the Amazon. He worked alongside Al Gore, trying to save the rainforests. But it was dangerous, and he was killed for his beliefs. A tragedy. This is my dear teacher and master, and this was my father. And then I collect prayer beads – I have so many. From India, and from my mother, too. She always had prayer beads. But my most beautiful thing is not here. My daughter Beatrice, who I love so much, lives in America. She does not connect with Ibiza in the way that I do, so she is the only thing that is missing for me in this paradise.

LOI: Will you ever live anywhere else?

A: I don’t think so. You know why? I have never been afraid here. In all my years I have never been afraid. The rest of the world is full of fear, and fear is the opposite of love. Love is all that matters.