Vinyasa Krama Yoga Newslettes 2012

VINYASA KRAMA YOGA NEWSLETTERS
VOLUME 01-12 / 2012
Vinyasa Krama Yoga Newsletters 2012 from

Srivatsa Ramaswami
Disclaimer: This document was compiled from Srivatsa Ramaswamis Vinyasa Krama Yoga Newsletters and contains volume 1-12 from 2012 - http://www.vinyasakrama.com
Index
January 2012 Newsletter Yoga, Knowing the Unknown February 2012 Newsletter Mantra Pranayama March 2012 Newsletter Chanting with Sri Krishnamacharya Mid March 2012 Message from Sri Krishnamacharya's Daughter Vinyasakrama Yoga Videos April 2012 Newsletter Yoga Sutra Quartet--VK Yoga May 2012 Newsletter My Facebook Phase June 2012 Newsletter Asana and vinyasa July 2012 Newsletter - YOGAGATE VISWAMITRA August 2012 Newsletter Divine Mother (Sakthi) Chants October 2012 Use of Voluntary Breath Control in Asanas November 2012 Newsletter Chittavritti,an Illusion Mid November 2012 Newsletter An Interview December 2012 Newsletter RISHIS 2 7 12 18 20 22 26 34 41 47 51 56 61 103
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January 2012 Newsletter Yoga, Knowing the Unknown

Wish you a very happy and prosperous New year, a New Decade. Warm New Year Greetings from Chennai, India. Wish you a very Happy and Prosperous New Year 2012! On a Sunday in early December I spoke at the Vishnumohan Foundation on Vishnu Sahasranama. I have a recording of the chanting of this popular work from the Mahabharata (in which the Bhagavat Gita also is found) made in the mid 80s by a recording company, Sangeetha. I chanted a few slokas from this work and also explained the meaning of the rst 14 of the 1000 mantras. These 14 are said to give the quintessence of Vedanta. For 2012, I plan to teach at the following places: Feb 25 to Mar 4 Mexico City, Mexico Apr 14 to 16 Ridgeeld, CT Apr 20 to 22 Houston TX Apr 27 to 29 Dallas, TX May 6 to 11 Esalen, Big Sur,CA May28 to Jun 3 Vancouver, Canada Jul 6 to Aug 11 TT PROGRAM, LMU, CA Syllabus: http://vinyasakrama.com/Syllabus_Teacher_Training_200_Hr Impressions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8lhIKIfSk4 contact; amparo...@lmu.edu Sep 6 to 12 Chicago, IL Oct 5 to 14 Somerset, UK For more details please visit the Events Page of my website www.vinyasakrama.com/Events ***** YOGA, KNOWING THE UNKNOWN There is an interesting saying in Indian philosophy to indicate that there is a purpose in every activity one deliberately undertakes. Samkhyas and some schools of Buddhism also use this saying, prayojanam anuddhisya mando pi na pravartate meaning that even a dimwit will not do anything without an idea of what benet one would get out of the eort. So what is the goal of all these systems like Yoga, Vedanta, Samkhya and others? Yes one may want to know the ultimate goal and also the intermediate goals before starting such endeavors. I heard the following story from my great aunt when I was young. Even as I read more authentic versions subsequently, I am sticking to my grandma's tale. The Lord created the Universe and decided to populate the Universe. He created four young humen beings and asked them to populate the Universe. He implied that the lives in the Universe would be happy provided one would stick to Dharma. The four mind-children of the Lord (manasa putras) did not move. They could not take their wide eyes o the bewitching form of the Lord They could not tear themselves away from the immensely
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satisfying immediate presence of the Lord, the formless Brahman. Their countenance indicated that they were perfectly happy. Looking at the Lord, the ultimate reality, they were brimming with bliss. The Lord realized that neither the normal nocturnal pleasures nor the huge heavenly happiness would anymore interest these beings. They had Kaivalya or Moksha even before they could be in bondage. They came to be known as nitya suris or perennial enlightened ones. The Lord still wanted to go ahead with his pet project of creating a Universe with dierent creatures and experiences. So he created the four-headed Brahma, one of the Indian Trinity, and bade him to create beings including human beings. But the Lord created Brahma this time with Brahma's back to Him so that Brahma would not see Him and attain instant nirvana like the earlier ones. Brahma duly chanted OM', the pranava mantra, and created the universe and the creatures . All beings thereafter went about their life cycles feverishly looking for some crumbs of happiness here and there in the midst of widespread unhappiness. There was never a chance to escape this unending cycle of births and deaths. Since everyone from Brahma downwards had never experienced the ultimate reality, people were looking outward for happiness. Thus even though the Lord is said to have entered every being and resided as pure consciousness in everyone, nobody knew what was behind the back as it were. Someone had to say Look Inward. The Lord decided that there should be an escape route (nivritti marga) for some of those who were earnestly looking for liberation. He then asked one of the Nitya suris, Sanatkumara to help the deserving human beings to achieve moksha or liberation. Sanatkumara then was born to Siva, the third of the Trinity, as Kumara or Skanda. Because he had the direct experience of the Lord, the ultimate reality, he was astonished at the complete ignorance of all the beings about the ultimate reality. He even went up to Brahma, the creator aspect of the Trinity, and asked about how he started creation and if he knew the ultimate reality. Brahma said that he did it after chanting OM as mentioned in the vedas. Then Kumara promptly asked him for the meaning of OM, the pranava mantra and Brahma fumbled. No, I do not know that said Brahma sheepishly. Kumara became angry and said that Brahma was incompetent. Promptly Kumara imprisoned Brahma and took over creation himself. Soon enough all those he created were like him and quickly the original scheme of the Lord of sustainable creation was coming to naught. Siva, the third of the Trinity and father of Kumara, then went up to him and asked him to release Brahma and let him do his work. But Kumara refused and said that the person who does not know the meaning of OM, the name/ mantra of the Ultimate Reality, Brahman, is incompetent to do such an important task as creation. Siva said that he himself did not know the meaning of OM and casually asked the enlightened son for the meaning of Pranava. Kumara said that he would teach him, provided his father would study under him following strictly all the rules of a student. Siva agreed and became a disciple of his own son. Skanda taught him the meaning of OM and Siva became enlightened. Skanda then came to be known as 'tahappan swami (Tamil) or lord/preceptor/ guru of one's own father. Brahma also learnt it and was then released by Kumara to continue his work. Siva then devised a method of understanding the ultimate reality, the Brahman or Purusha. It came to be known as Yoga, a very arduous procedure which only a few were able or willing to undertake and they came to be called as Yogis. Siva then bade Patanjali to formulate the yogia system which became the source book for all those who would like to take the 'spiritual' path and realize the ultimate reality which according to the Upanishad is Brahman. But the desire for liberation (mumukshatva) does not come about easily. It needs right information and a lot of persuasion and convincing. Even the most cultured intellectual
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(vidusha) has a thick veil of avidya in so far as 'spiritual' goal is concerned, the old texts aver as in the case of even the four headed Brahma. So the old foundation texts like the Upanishads, the Bhagavat Gita, the Yoga Sutra, the Samkhya philosophy, several puranas like the Bhagavata Purana, try multiple methods to wean away the disgruntled from the mundane existence to the 'spiritual' path. One method is to lead them from the known to the unknown. We all know both happiness and unhappiness. So the upanishads start from known happiness and compare it to the bliss of 'spiritual' knowledge/experience, the unknown at the present. We all experience limited happiness. Who is the happiest human being? The upanishad talks of a perfect human being. Take the case of a young person, a noble soul -a dharmic person, an exceptional scholar, a great leader with an excellent physique, perfect and strong limbs and senses, very rich and propertied, like an emperor. Such a person would be the happiest human being. Let us mark it as one unit of human happiness, the limit of human happiness. All other human beings will have less than one unit of human happiness. Is there more than one unit or measure of happiness? Yes, says the upanishad. One hundred times happier will be the Gandharvas. So also those human beings who have known the scriptures (and the Pranava) and who have given up all desires, say the upanishads. Gandharvas are considered to be the lowest in the hierarchy of gods and are basically excellent singers. But then the leader of this divine tribe, a deva gandharva, the celestial singer is capable of one hundred times more happiness than the ordinary Manushya Gandharvas. So is the one who has mastered the scriptures (and the Pranava or OM) and is absolutely not tormented by desires. One hundred times happier than the deva Gandharvas are the pitrus (manes), so also the ones who have mastered the scriptures (and OM) and are absolutely free of all desires. One hundred times happier are the ajana devas and the ones who have mastered the scriptures (and OM) and are free from all desires. Then there are the gods like the re, wind, water, etc., who are propitiated by vedic sacrices and who are a hundred times happier than the previous lot; and those who are well versed in the scriptures and free from all desires Indra, the boss of the gods is said to be one hundred times happier than the gods, so also those who are procient in the vedas and pranava and are absolute Vairagis. Brihaspati the preceptor of the devas is said to enjoy hundred times more happiness than Indra himself, so also those who have mastered the vedas and remain absolutely desireless. Prajapati, a son of Brahma, is said to be a hundred times happier than Brihaspati along with those who have mastered the vedas and are untouched by any kind of desire. A hundred times happier is Brahma, the four faced creator aspect of the Trinity, the one who we came across earlier in the story. Those who are well versed in the scriptures and absolutely desireless with respect to the entire creation are also as happy as Brahma. Then the one who is able to see the in-dweller of all beings and the one in the sun yonder as one and the same Brahman-the ultimate reality- is happier than even four faced Brahma (catur mukha), like the Nitya suris referred to earlier. His/Her bliss, the bliss of the enlightened one like the nitya suris we came across in the beginning is unsurpassed, eternal and innite. The Upanishad from the known facts about happiness, skillfully leads to the unsurpassed bliss of the Brahman awareness. It emphatically states that the one who knows
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the Brahman, the ultimate reality, the pure consciousness unaected by space (akasa) and time (avakasa), attains the highest state (brahmavit aapnoti param). How does Patanjali handle this, leading the yogabhyasi from what is known to what is unknown and superior? He refers to ve states or ve activities of the mind or chitta, ve states we are all familiar with. All our lives we move through these ve chitta vrittis. Some times the chitta is engaged in collecting information and sifting the facts from that, which is known as pramana vritti. More often the chitta from the information received misses the facts and comes to wrong conclusions, known to yogis as viparyaya vrithis. A lot of times the chitta imagines a number of things without any solid base called vikalpa vrittis. Our dreams including day dreams will come under this category. Then a lot of time is spent in deep sleep when one forgets everything including oneself due to the dominance of Tamas. Then there are occasions when we ruminate over the past, remember facts stored in the mind called smriti vrittis. Our vrittis fall into one group or the other. But the Yogi's vritti nirodha is a state of the chitta which is none of the above. Patanjali refers to this state of the mind called nirodha state which is none of the ve vrittis we are all familiar with. The sixth state of the mind, the vritti nirodha state, according to Patanjali is one every chitta potentially has, but has never experienced. It is a state of absolute peace or irrevocable and complete satisfaction. Again here the Sutras lead the yogi from known states to a state unknown but within everyone's reach through Yoga. In that state of Kaivalya or chitta vritti Nirodha the mind is in a state of absolute objectless samadhi and the three gunas are in a state of equilibrium.. Patanjali again mentions this state as something beyond the seven motives/ stimuli that drive us to act variously. They are the desire to possess (prepsa), desire to rid (jihasa), desire to know (jignyasa), desire for action (chikirsha), fear (bhaya), depression (soka) and distraction (vikshepa). We are familiar with these states of mind, but the state of Kaivalya/nirodha is beyond these known states. But how can we trust the upanishads or philosophies like Samkhya or Yoga? Yes that is the main problem for many. These thought systems are called Agamas or traditional authentic systems indicating that they are given to human beings for the general good and the prima facie view is that they are valid. The rst information is gotten from these works and that knowledge is known as paroksha or indirect, usually highly academic. Many stop at that and excel in that intellectual indirect experience. Then one contemplates and then possibly gets convinced about the correctness when it is known as anumana or inferential knowledge. And nally by deep meditation, one pointedness (ekeagrata chitta), and Samadhi one is able to directly experience the state that was not there to start with which these works talk about. It is then known as pratyaksha or yougika pratyaksha or direct perception through Yoga. Thus the old texts lead us, slowly but surely, from the known to the superior unknown . ****** In the olden days, in India,especially in the South, women would not say the name of the husbands as it was considered disrespectful. A census inspector will have a dicult time getting the name of the spouse from the wife. One has to ask the other family members the name of one's husband. Likewise, many of the potent mantras are not directly mentioned but only through the name of the mantra. If one wants to say the OM mantra one would more likely say the pranava mantra than just OM mantra, as Patanjali says in the Yoga Sutras. The meditation or chanting of the mantra would be referred to as pranava dhyana or pranava japa. Pranava itself is a beautiful word. Scholars refer to it as a word derived from the root Nam or nam to bow (Nam prahvi bhave) as used in namah or namaste. 'Prakarshena nauti sthouti iti pranavah', meaning pranava is the highest praise or obeisance to the highest
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principle, here Iswara or Brahman. Another interesting interpretation of this word comes from deriving the word from another root 'nav' (or nava) to begin or new like 'novo'. Since Brahman is said to be pure consciousness and never changes it is always new, always 'nava' and hence pranava. There are other important mantras who have separate names. The Gayatri mantra which is of the gayatri meter refers to the mantra starting with 'tat savitur..' and even though there are many other mantras in the Gayatri meter, only this particular mantra, the brain child of Viswamitra is referred to as gayatri. Then we have another famous mantra namassivaya. This namassivaya mantra is more often referred to as 'panchakshari' or ve syllable mantra even as there are scores of other mantras which have ve syllables. 'Om namo narayanaya' my Guru's favorite mantra is known as ashtakshari as it has eight syllables. 'Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya' is a very popular Krishna mantra and is known as 'dwadasakshari' as there are 12 syllables in it. The mantras especially pranava were chanted, meditated upon and referred to with considerable devotion and respect in the olden days. Contemporary use of 'OM' on tea shirts, vests and other casual wares is sometimes dicult to put up with. But what is the meaning of the mantra OM? It is grist for another article. ****** The entire Universe Even as it is awesome Is but a grand illusion (maya kalpita) Like the space and objects in a mirror Like the space and objects in a dream Like those created by a magician Or like the creation of a (siddha) yogi* From Dakshinamurti Ashtaka of Adi Sankara *Like Sage Viswamitr a who is said to have used his yogic powers to create an illusory heaven for his disciple King Trisanku. ***** My old news letters with several articles can be accessed by visiting my website www.vinyasakrama.com and clicking on the Newsletter tab. Thank you for reading up to here And again, a happy new year!! Best Wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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February 2012 Newsletter Mantra Pranayama

After a four month stay in Chennai, India I am planning to come to USA by middle of February. Thanks to the good eorts of Roxana Letechipia who attended my last Teacher Training Program at LMU, Los Angeles, I will be teaching three programs in Mexico City during the last week of February. There will be two weekend workshops and a week long certicate program, Core Vinyasa Krama Yoga. My next newsletter may have a few Spanish words. MANTRA PRANAYAMA Considerable amount of literature is now available on Pranayama (from ancient and contemporary yogis), an important anga of Yoga, even though a smaller and smaller number of Hatha yogis do a smaller and smaller number of pranayamas. In fact according to Brahmananda who wrote an important commentary of Hathayogapradeepika, Hatha yoga is indeed Pranayama. Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras succinctly gives the parameters of pranayama along with the benets. Hathayoga pradeepika and several other hatha yohga texts talk about a variety of pranayamas with dierent ratios in considerable detail and as I said enough literature is available on pranayama. However since it is also the anga prior to the antaranga or meditation, parts of yoga pranayama has been used to prepare oneself for meditation. If in pranayama you can introduce some noble thoughts for meditation like an uplifting mantra, bhava thought or an image such pranayamas are called sagarbha pranayama or pranayama pregnant with lofty ideas. Sri Krishnamacharya in his Nathamini's Yoga Rahasya says that sagarbha pranayama is several times more benecial; more than the mechanical pranayama done generally by hatha yogis. Sagarbha pranayama done with pranayama mantra from the vedas, which also includes the potent gayatri as a part of it, has been in vogue since the vedic times. Sri Krishnamacharya in his yoga work Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya gives a number of instructions for doing pranayama towards the end of the rst chapter. He commends the use of Pranava and the pranayama mantra with gayatri while doing pranayama practice. Usually pranava (OM), the most potent mantra and the mother of all mantras, as a stand alone mantra is used by renunciates like consummate yogis and advaitins. And the gayatri impregnated vedic pranayama mantra is used by householders and others in all pranayama. In fact Manu in his famous Manusmriti says that the pranayama mantra which consists of prnava, the seven vyahritis, the gayatri and the head or siras portion should be recited while holding the breath in Kumbhaka three times to be called as pranayama. Sri Krishnamacharya also emphasizes the need to meditate on the meaning of the mantras like the suggestion of Patanjali in YS. Most people who do ritualistic pranayama in India use the pranayama mantra referred to earlier. Manusmiti says as follows sa vyahritim sa pranavaam gayatriim sirasa saha trifpateth ayataf pranah pranayamassa uchyate Here is the transla tionPranayama is that in which the seven vyahritis (bhuh bhuvaha...) each preceded by pranava (OM) then the gayatri, then the siris are (silently) recited.
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It should be chanted (silently) while holding the breath (kumbhaka). When it is done three times it is called panayama. The pranayama mantra is 64 syllables and takes about 20 seconds to chant, more or less. The verse quoted above says three times and some interpret it as chanting the mantra three times while holding the breath, but generally it is chanted once and three such pranayamas will make one bundle of pranayama. If you try to do the chant thrice in one go it would taken a minute and holding the breath for one minute could be a real challenge to most and so most people stick to the earlier option. What about the duration for inhalation and exhalation? Sri Krishnamacharya says in Yoga Rahasya that it should be vishamavritti indicating that the time duration for inhalation exhalation and breath holding would vary. So many go by the 1:4:2 ratio. One may inhale for 5 seconds then chant the mantra during internal holding for 20 seconds and then exhale for 10 seconds. The breath holding after exhalation is considered a hathayoga practice and many orthodox people who do pranayama as part of the Puja or Japa ritual dispense with bahya kumbhaka and the bandhas. The quickie pranayama is three times but it is recommended that on should do 10 times the samantra pranayama. (Contrast this with the hathayoga approach of going up to 80 times mantraless pranayama). Since children sometimes as young as 5 were initiated into vedic studies, it becomes obligatory for them to do sandhya and hence mantra pranayama and silent gayatri chant. But then because they are young they may not be taught to do calibrated pranayama. Usually in course of time they would learn to do long inhalation and exhalation say in nadishodhana. Later they will be taught the whole vishamavritti pranayama as explained earlier. So the mantra is chanted silently in pranayama. But most people just chant the mantra without the pranayama--they may merely touch the nose but not do the pranayama. So we have one set of people who do pranayama without mantras as most hatha yogis do and another group especially in India who chant the mantra faithfully but do not do the prnayama at all and thus both lose out. It even led the much revered previous Sankaracharya of Kanchi to remark that if only Indians would hold the breath (kumbhaka) rather than just touch/hold the nose they would all become great yogis and spiritual persons. My Guru also said that when doing any mantra in japa, in pranayama or meditation, one should think of the meaning or import of the mantra. That makes it lot more powerful and meaningful. What does this mantra signify, many times we get initiated into a mantra routine without knowing what it means. All yogis know that Patanjali insists on contemplating on the meaning of pranava when doing pranava japa to get the grace of Iswara. Om Bhuh, om bhuvah, om suvah, om mahah, om janah, om tapah, om satyam; then the gayatri and then the siras which runs like this, om apah jyoti rasah amrtam brahma bhurbhuvassuvarom is the pranayama mantra. This mantra appears in Mahanarayana Upanishad, the last chapter of Yajur veda. This upanishad also contains several beautif ul mantras used on a daily basis like the oering to the ve pranas (before taking food), meditating within the heart etc. I got the whole chapter (about 45 minutes of continuous chanting) recorded some 25 years back by Sangeetha and I believe it is available in some stores in Chennai, India. You may learn the pranayama mantravisit my website www.vinyasakrama.com/chants and click on the Learn Pranayama Mantra chant tab.
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So what is the meaning of this wonderful pranayama mantra? Again there are dierent interpretations. The conventional meaning for the seven vyahritis is seven dierent worlds starting with the world we live in to six other higher worlds. But the word loka is interpreted in a more esoteric sense by a few scholars. They say that the words loka and look are derived from the same root . And the seven lokas are the seven perceptions of the ultimate reality which is Brahman the pure non changing consciousness. So this approach which gels with the advaita philosophy would be as follows: According to the Upanishads, Brahman in its pristine state is alone and there was no time or space (aksha and avakasha) in contention. The Brahman once thought that it should become many (bahusyam praja yeyeti). Then in the next stage It deeply contemplated as to how it should create the universe and make many microcosmic individual consciousness. This state was known as the stage of tapas of the Brahman (sa tapo tapyata). Then after deep contemplation and planning It created the entire Universe (idam sarvam asrujata). After this creation the Brahman entered and permeated the entire Universe (tat eva anupravisat) and every being as the individual Self. The seven vyahrutis are considered as representing the seven states of the same consciousness four at the microcosmic level and three at the cosmic level. So when doing pranayama during breath holding internally, one would say 'om bhuh', contemplate on the consciousness, represented by pranava or 'om during the waking state. Then as the second vyahriti 'om bhuvah ' is recited, one would think of the same consciousness being aware of the individual dream state. 'om suvah would refer to the same consciousness witnessing the deep sleep stage. Om mahah, the fourth vyahriti is the consciousness beyond the three earlier mentioned known amongst the vedantins as the fourth state of the mind (turiya) or the yogi's kaivalya state. The same consciousness now is identied with the Brahmana that created the Universe (Om Janah). Then the next mantra, the sixth Om tapah would represent the Brahman as one deeply contemplating and nally the pristine state of consciousness Om satyam the one and only Brahaman. With this the abhyasi is able to identify and meditate up on the same one Brahaman as seen in dierent states. The theory that there is only one consciousness that exists both at the cosmic and at the microcosmic level is the bedrock of the advaita (No two conciousnesses) viewpoint. So an advaitin while doing pranayama is able to reinforce the advaitic conviction. Then the second part of the pranayama mantra is the gayatri mantra. It again refers to the ultimate reality as the inner light. Just as the sun with its lustrous orb lights the entire world, the Brahman/Self lights the entire chitta or the internal world of the meditator, so that the chitta vrittis are experienced or 'seen' in the mind's eye . The last portion known as the siras or the head, is an encomium to the ultimate Brahman. It refers to It as OM., pure consciousness, the universal light, the essence of the entire Universe, immortal (unchanging), the source of the universe, and is known to the individual as the inner Self during the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep. This meaning of the pranayama mantra is vividly brought to the mind as the pranayama mantra is recited silently during antah kumbhaka. Then it is known as samantraka or
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sagarbha pranayama. According to Manu this samantra pranayama is the greatest Tapas/ meditation. It is said that those who are well versed in the chakras are able to identify the seven vyahritis with the seven chakras in the body using the respective bijakshara or seed mantras. Some make an eort to visualize the cosmic Brahman in the seven chakras in the microcosm itself. There are other types of mantras used. For instance saivaites tend to chant the siva mantras as they hold the breath as mentioned in the Tamil Saiva classic Tirumandiram. The mantra sivasiva of four syllables is chanted 16 times during one breath hold corresponding to 64 syllables as in the pranayama mantra referred to earlier. Here is a pranayama for renunciates: While doing puraka or inhalation the thought would be that the entire universe is ultimately drawn into the Brahman. Then while in antahkumbhaka the contemplation would be that the outside Universe and I are no dierent from the Brahman. Then while exhaling the ego I' with the entire Universe is discarded as nothing but an illusion, not real, not signicant. And in bahya kumbhaka one would contemplate that pure Brahman alone is real, It alone exists. Those who believe in the reality of world and the trinity (Brahma, Vishnu and Siva), would use pranayama to reinforce their faith. Inhaling through the left nostril one should think of the four faced Brahma the creator aspect of the trinity and of blood red hue (rajas guna) while chanting Om 16 times. Then closing both the nostrils and holding the breath in kumbhaka one should think of the white colored (satva guna) Hari, the protector/sustainer chanting pranava 64 times. Then while exhaling through the right nostril one should meditate on Siva of dark color (tamo guna) chanting pranava 32 times. Then one should start inhaling through the right nostril for 16 matras chanting pranava 16 times and continue the pranayama for a predetermined number of times with both mantra and bhava. Dierent smritis and very old yoga texts refer to a variety of pranayamas with and without mantras. Almost all the puranas have a section on yoga which describe dierent asanas and pranayamas. (I think with all this evidence one may say with some conviction that Yoga is more than 100 years old). For more information on pranayama you may consider referring to my book Yoga for the Three Stages of Life pages 189 to 211. Sri Krsishnamacharya's Yoga teachings were unique and very rich. In Vinyasakrama asana practice, breath synchronization with slow movements is an essential element. One would start the movement with the beginning of inhalation or exhalation and complete the movement with the completion of that breathing phase. The time taken in actual practice may be between 5 to 10 or 12 seconds depending on one's capacity and control. If it goes below 5 seconds one would stop the practice and rest to regain the vinyasa krama acceptable breath. My Guru, Sri T Krishnamacharya would say 'breathe with hissing sound' (a la cobra, refer to ananta samapatti in YS) or 'with a mild rubbing sensation in the throat'. In this way, with long deep inhalation and exhalation, the intercostal muscles are stretched and toned up and by the time pranayama is started the accessory muscles of breathing are well exercised so that one has a well oiled breathing apparatus for a very productive pranayama practice. And while doing pranayam introduction of mantras and bhavas helps to bring the mind to a focus which will be of considerable help when one starts the meditation process. Thus Sri Krishnamacharya following the tradition of yoga described in old yoga texts like the
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yoga sutras, the puranas, smritis and other ancient texts helped to understand and achieve the best of an outstanding ancient system called Yoga. You may access the earlier Newsletter by visiting my website www,vinyasakrama.com and clicking on the Newsletter tab. Any comments or suggestions please e mail to in...@vinyasakrama.com Best wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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March 2012 Newsletter Chanting with Sri Krishnamacharya

On Feb 24t h I participated in the inauguration of the yoga studio of my friend Roxana Letechipia here in Mexico City, called tvameva yoga. It was nice function and scores of her friends were there. Roxana completed my 200 hr Teacher training program at LMU last July. On the wall of the studio was inscribed this old famous Sanskrit sloka tvameva mata cha pita tvameva tvameva bandhuscha sakha tvameva tvameva vidya dravinam tvameva tvameva sarvam mamadevadeva You are the Mother, and the Father, You are the Relative and the Friend. You are Wisdom so are You Wealth. You are indeed all, my Supreme Lord. Nice prayer from the Mahabharata. I am here in M exico City and am enjoying my stay and teaching. I taught a well attended two day workshop at Gabriela Tavera's Inspira Yoga and am now doing a 25 hour certication course in Core Vinyasakrama Yoga at Jorge Espionaz's Centro Kiai Yoga with a good turnout and lively participation. Next weekend I will be teaching at Mukta Yoga in Mexico City before returning to New Jersey. Thank you Roxana for all your kind eorts, interest and support. After a four month sojourn in Chennai, India I returned to USA middle of February. During my stay I managed to lay my hands on an old video cassette of a series of TV programs on Yoga I had done in Chennai in early 1980s. The programs were done over a period of about ten weeks. They consisted of asanas and short interviews in Tamil my mother tongue. My 10 year old son, Badri had then managed to record all the programs. The quality of the video cassette had deteriorated over time and disuse. I took the video to Konica Laboratories in Chennai and they managed to make a DVD with occasional jumpy and bumpy pictures. I was tickled seeing the programs after so many years and how I was teaching at that time. I was still studying with my Guru at that time and teaching simultaneously in Kalakshetra. I was not fully exposed to all the vinyasas that Sri Krishnamacharya would eventually teach. And considering the limitations of TV programs, the time constraints, and others parameters I thought the programs had come out well with the cooperation of excellent students from Kalakshetra. Since the program was in Tamil I thought I should have the commentary to the asana portion in English. My friends Srimathy and Ravi in Chennai arranged for the audio recording at Prasad Studios, the best lm studio in the country and I thought the audio recording came out well. They said that they would 'stitch' the audio and video and I am expecting to receive the product soon. I think I may have to add English captions to the interviews so that it can be useful. The program runs for about an hour or so.
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I have also been wanting to start working on A Complete DVD on Vinyasa krama Yoga. Thanks again to the help of my friends Srimathy and Ravi, I managed to shoot two sequences, the core vinyasas of Tadasana and Vajrasana in their new Yogashala. One of their students Sundar did the Tadasana sequence. The Vajrasana sequence was done by my friend Ranjit Babu, my former Kalakshetra student who was a model for several asanas in my Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga. I thought the asanas were good but the audio suered badly due to the environmental noise as some construction work was going on in the vicinity. I think it can be salvaged if I can redo the audio track. Now I am more condent of shooting the rest of the sequences without much fuss. During the eighties one day when I came to the class my Guru was not in his room. While waiting for him in his room I saw a couple of old small photo albums on his table. As I was leang through them my Guru came into the room and said Take it home if you want, indicating that I should be ready to start the class. I took it home and saw it contained a few of my Guru's asana pictures. I found the album in my Chennai home and brought it to USA. ****** CHANTING WITH SRI KRISHNAMACHARYA Betw een 1980 and 1995 I recorded for a recording company, Sangeetha, many chants I learnt from Sri Krishnamacharya and more. During my recent visit to Chennai I talked to H M SriKrishna, a partner of the rm, and he said that they were about to make available online about 18 of my titleshope it works out. A list of my programs is available, in the following site. www.sangeethamusic.com Open th e site and type Srivatsa Ramaswami in the search window for the complete list. You may click on individual titles for more information on each program and some have a LISTEN button to listen to a clip. The total chant time of all the program may be about 30 hrs. I hope they will be able to organize the on line downloading soon. (I just got a message saying that 18 of my programs are now available on line and are downloadable. I have not tested the sites and I hope they work. Two of the main works Sundara Kanda (10hrs) and Aswamedha (3hrs) appear missing though) One of the highlights of the time I spent studying with Sri Krishnamacharya was learning vedic chanting. I had, when I was about ten, started having private training in Vedic chanting at home (for about 3 to 4 years I guess) and so was familiar with Vedic Chanting. So when the opportunity arose to learn more chants I took it with considerable enthusiasm. Sri Krishnamacharya's chanting was very similar to the way others chanted in South India but had a superior quality. His chanting encompassed all the parameters of vedic chanting. The rst one is varna or the letters. In Sanskrit the consonants and vowels have a denite character and they can not be changed and there are no silent letters in Sanskrit words. In fact each character has a distinct place of origin in the body and many experts have dened them. The next parameter is maatra or the time duration for each letter, the short and long syllables and a few having more than 2 matras like the pranava. Bala is strength of the chanting. Sama is modulation, usually the chanting should be in the middle tone not high pitched nor low. Santana is the observance of all rules of conjunction.
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I studied chanting with Sri Krishnamacharya for several years. I think I must have spent over 1500 hrs learning and then chanting with him. It was a great experience listening to his chants and also chanting with him long passages like Suryanamaskara or Mahanarayana Upanishad or Pravargya sometimes running for an hour or more at a stretch. The otherwise drab chanting appeared to have life and buoyancy coming from him. While Sri Krishnamacharya is known for his contribution to Hatayoga especially asanas, his willingness to teach vedic chanting or svadhyaya as he would call it to those interested, even breaking the conventional restrictions of vedic chanting, is not that well known. On the strength of my learning chanting from Sri Krishnamacharya I was able to record almost all the vedic chants I had learnt from him. Suryanamaskara (Arunam) or Sun Salutation was one of his favorites and one of the most popular chants in South India. It runs for an hour and in every Teacher Training program I chant this text consisting of 32 sections and the participants do one Suryanamaskara at the end of the chanting of each section. It takes about two hours for the entire exercise. I have included Varuna Puja along with this in my cd, chanting of Suryanamaskara. This chant is said to bestow good health to all those who chant or listen. Sun is the deity for health. One may consider listening to the chant on Sundays and doing suryanamaskara at the end of each of the 32 stanzas. It may not be too strenuous as one rests for two minutes listening to the chants and does one Namaskara for let us say 1 to 2 mts. This is the rst chapter in Taittiriya Aranyaka. The second chapter is called swadhyaya chapter and is also known as Kushmanda Homa. It is contained in my program called Aditya Hridaya and Vedic chanting. Aditya hridaya is a very famous chant, a loukika chant which can be chanted by everyone without any restrictions. The orthodox view is that vedic chanting should be done only by those who are initiated by a vedic rite called upanayana but, there are other chants like in the Ramayana, Mahabharata, the puranas and other later day works. Aditya hridaym takes hardly 8 mts to chant and it is recommended that one should do it everyday before undertaking the day's work. Lord Rama in Ramayana is said to have chanted before the nal assault on Ravana. Kushmanda Homa or the swadhyaya chapter oers an encomium to the famous Gayatri mantra and its ecacy. It is said to remove the blemishes of the mind. I have also chanted the third chapter of Taittiriya Aranyaka along with a laukika work called Indrakshi and Siva Kavacha. The vedic portion is very nice to hear. Indrakshi and sivakavacha are prayers to Siva and Sakthi and is very popular in the state of Kerala. I also recorded the last four chapters of the Yajur veda, (1) the Taittiriya Upanishad (3 chapters) and also (2) Mahanarayana upanishad (the last chapter). Taitiriya upanishad is one of the masterpieces on Vedanta and several acharyas have written detailed commentaries on them. It is a good work to help understand the thought process involved in the enquiry into the ultimate reality. Both these upanishads are currently in vogue and many chant them. These two chants are very absorbing if we know the general import and follow the trend while we chant or hear them I also recorded another vedic masterpiece called Aswamedha. This is said to be the highest religious rite of the vedas and only emperors could do the actual ritual. But everyone can chant or listen to this three hour chant. It is normally chanted in the afternoon of the Ekadasi or the 11th day after New moon or Full moon days. The 11th day is said to be the day of fasting and cleansing the body and mind. So those who fast on these days chant this. Then on the following morning they have early lunch and prior to that they chant or listen to the three chapters of Taittiriya Upanishad. There are three chapters in Aswameda volume along with achidra and all of them take about three hours. Fasting on ekadasi and doing chanting for 3 hours in the afternoon could have a deep cleansing eect on the mindbody system There were a few other beautiful chants that I learnt from Krishnmacharya that I
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did not record. One was the three chapters of Taittiriya Kataka running for about two hours and another the Pravargya portion which has two chapters and take about two hours. I wanted to record them and also the Bhagavat Gita but could not get the opportunity. I had spent hundreds of hours chanting these vedic chants with my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya. For several years Sri Desikachar and myself would chant with him in chorus. This was a very satisfying time of my life. Thereafter I used to chant with my Guru. The last class I had with my Guru was one afternoon when we chanted Suryanamaskara together. Even though I learnt vedic chanting from my Guru and was able to record them there were a number of other chants, the laukika chants, which any one can chant and which are very popular in India. My recording company asked me to do a series of such chants. According to Sankara there are 6 forms of orthodox worship in India. They are Ganapati, Subramanya, Siva, Sakti, Vishnu and Surya. There are innumerable works in Sanskrit and also in regional languages. I was able to record a number of such works. On Siva, I had Vedasara Sivasahasranama or 1000 names of Lord consistent with vedic tradition. Then Indakshi Siva kavacha in which Sivakavacha is said to be a mantra to protect oneself from external dangers. I had also chanted the famous vedic chant on Siva Rudrama and chamakam which contains the famous mrityunjaya mantra and it was part of the cd (now discontinued) that we added to the Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga..However the Spanish edition of my book contains the cd Ganesa Sahasranama is the work from Ganesa Purana. I think it is a very charming work in praise of Lord Ganesa. I also did the Sahasranama in the form of namavali for Subramania, the six headed son of Siva, a very popular deity in the South. I have also recorded the Saharanamavali of Anjaneya, Hariharaputra (ayyappa) and Sage Raghavendra. There are two works which are very popular among devotees. One is Vishnu Sahasranama or the thousand names of Vishnu from the Mahabharata, the same text that contains the Bhagavat Gita. This is chanted by many every day. It takes about half an hour to chant this but it is sad that many people because of pressure of time try to do it in 15 or 20 minutes, in a great hurry, virtually mutilating the beautiful names of the Lord. The other Sahasranama which is also quite popular is Lalita Sahasranama, from a Purana. It is very beautiful to chant and hear. A few years back when I was in Los Angeles teaching at LMU, I received a mail from someone in India inquiring where he could nd a cassette of my chanting of Lalita Sahasranama. I think I had recorded it in 1981 or 1982. He said inter alia that his father used to listen to this cassette and chant along with it as part of his daily worship of Mother Sakti. He said that his father had since died and the family wanted to continue the practice of chanting the work and wanted to get a cassette because the one his father had used had become defective with overuse. I also recorded a number of other works on sakthi. One is called Devi Mahatmya which runs for about three hours and has about 700 verses. It is chanted during the Navaratri or Dasara celebrations. My grandmother used to chant a Tamil versions of this during every Navaratri. Another work on Mother is the work called Mooka Pancha Sati (The ve hundred slokas from Mooka). It is an outpouring of Bhakti by a mute dumb devotee who became a poet due to the grace of Kamakshi the presiding deity in the famous temple in Kancheepuram about 40 miles from Chennai. It is written in some dicult meters and has 100 slokas for each of the ve chapters. It takes about 3 hrs to chant the entire work. One can see the slokas inscribed in the walls of this famous Kamakshi temple. I had also recited two other works on Sakthi for another company and I nd these are available still in some musical stores in Chennai. One is Gayatri Sahasranama and the other is Durga Sahasranama, which again is a popular chant
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during Navaratri. Lalita Sahasranam mentioned earlier is often chanted on Friday evenings and also on Full moon days. When I was young my mother used to arrange for the Saharanama archana of Lalita in our house every Friday for a number of years. Other works I had recorded included Ramodantam or the story of Rama from birth to end. I named it Balaramayana or Ramayana for children because in the olden days this text used to be taught to school children to learn Sanskrit and also familiarize them with Ramayana. Another work, that perhaps sold the maximum number of cassettes, was Sandhyavandana or the prayer ritual done at dawn, dusk, and midday by thousands of people in India. I wrote an article with many pictures about this subject in Namarupa magazine a few years back. The last program I did for Sangeetha was the recitation of Sundara Kanda of the epic Valmiki Ramayana. Many households arrange for the recitation of the same in one go or over a week. Those who are aicted by the adverse eects of Saturn or Sani try to get solace from Sundara Kanda. It is said to revive a person from the jaws of death or desperate situation as Sita was. It is a ten hour program. Yoga is a subject which whatever be the entry point reveals its richness slowly (yogena yoga jnatavyah) Sri Krishnamacharya was a Guru who always had something more to give something dierent something higher uplifting always. I loved chanting with him. Chanting is helpful, it cleanses the mind. Listening to those vedic and old chants is very uplifting. The earlier newsletters with the artic les can be accessed by visiting my website www.vinyasakrama.com and opening the Newsletter tab. Any comments or suggestions please write to in...@vinyasakrama.com The Spanish Editions of my books Yoga for the Three Stages of Life ( Yoga para las tres etapas de la vida/ Yoga for the Three Stages of Life (Spanish Edition) and Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga with an audio cd( OBRA COMPLETA SOBRE EL VINYASA YOGA, LA (Libro+CD - Color) (Spanish Edition) are available from Amazon, as given below http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-etapas-Three-Stages-Spanish/dp/9707751932/ref=sr_1_12? s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330527098&sr=1-12 http://www.amazon.com/OBRA-COMPLETA-SOBRE-VINYASA-Libro/dp/ 8480199709/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330527098&sr=1-10 Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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What is the purpose of Life? The purpose of life is to realize that There is no purpose to Life. That's weird, but what after this 'realization'? One would work to avoid another birth Supposing I don't believe in rebirth? Supposing rebirth does not depend on your belief? That is even more crazy Guruji.. Have to nd another teacherComforting, not unsettling.
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Mid March 2012 Message from Sri Krishnamacharya's Daughter

Last week when I was in Me xico, I received a message on my Facebook account from Ms Srishubha, daughter of Sri Krishnamacharya, my Guru and his last child. When I rst met her she was about 5 or 6 years old and the last time I met her was more than 30 years back at my Guru's residence, she had just then got married. Since there is a general interest in Sri Krishnamacharya's life and his family I requested SriShubha for permission to circulate her letter among friends and she kindly agreed. Here is the correspondence. I did not want to delay it and club with the regular Newsletter due by April 1st and hence this out of turn letter. Thank you and with best wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami ********** On 3/11/12 , Srishubha Mohankumar <srishu...@gmail.com> wrote: Respected Ramaswami, Sorry for the del ay in responding, we had a couple of families with us over the last few days and we were extremely busy. I am delighted to see your mail and to see that everything is going well with you. If you decide to publish my letter, I sincerely request you to publish this slightly modied version below. Since, it is going to be for public consumption, I just wanted to highlight the impact that my parents teachings has had on me and my special needs child. Feel free to publish my email address as well, I am more than happy to answer any questions about by father that people may have. I would really appreciate it if you would also send me a copy of the newsletter. Also, it looks like I might not be in town when you are in Dallas. However, my son would be more than happy to briey visit you, if you have the time. Thank you once again for your response. Hopefully, we can meet on my next visit to my son. Best wishes, Srishubha ******* March 2, 2012 Respected Ramaswami,
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I am Srishubha, dau ghter of T.Krishnamacharya (Appa for me). I happened to read one of your articles and was deeply touched by it. Your article took me back to good old days in the Gopalapuram house and to the time when Appa used to take me along with him to teach a few of his students. Those were some of the very precious moments with father. We used to refer to your house as Chitra Subramaniyam Mama's house. I very fondly remember your mother, Mami, as we called her, who was always smiling like my own mother did. Every day, when I practice or teach, I imagine Appa sitting in his chair and teaching me. The way you described Appa's inhalation and exhalation technique in your article brought a smile to my face because that's the way he used to teach me. I told my son that this is the exact way Appa used to take my class; keeping an eye out for any mistakes that I might make. I am also touched by your mention of the names of my siblings in your article. It was a very nice gesture on your part. This shows the respect you have for Appa. After coming back from Indonesia, due to my husband's job we traveled a lot. I have lived in Shimla district, Kullu district, and now shuttling between Bangalore and Karnataka's Hassan district. We have a small coee plantation there. I feel a special connection with Appa when I think of how he too lived in the Himalayas and also managed a coee estate in Chikmagalur district in his youth. I feel that his blessings made all this possible for me. I am now in Dallas, Texas with my son Deepak. I will be here till 6th April and then head back to India. I came to Dallas to be with my newly born granddaughter, born on 26th of January this year. I don't know if you remember, I also have a daughter, Harsha, who needs special attention. Her physical and cognitive skills have signicantly improved over the years, thanks to teachings of my father and also my mother (her own depth of knowledge in yoga and philosophy is vastly unknown to the world). * If you happen to be in Dallas during this time we can surely meet. Me, my son and his family would like it very much. Thanks once again for taking me back to those very precious days. I never realized how great Appa was, I am also learning more and more about him from articles such as yours. I am amazed by the impact he has even after so many years of his death.* Like Appa would recite his very favourite prayerOm Namo Narayanaya Namaha Sri Gurbhyo Namaha. Kind regards to you and your family, Srishubha
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Vinyasakrama Yoga Videos

Dear Friends: I am sending separately the newsletter for April 2012. For some strange reason I could not combine the two. VINYASAKRAMA YOGA VIDEOS In my March ne wsletter I had mentioned about the DVD I had made in India. Here are the links to them. The rst ve clips pertain to Vajrasana (performed by Ranjit Babu) and the rest to Tadasana (Sunder) following the Vinyasakrama methodology. It contains sequence adaptation of main vinyasas and asanas. Th frist is my introduction to VK.The next contains the lead sequences the third one Vajrasana/ Ushtrasana/Kapotasana, the fourth one contains Virasana, as an extension of the sequence and the last one the return sequence. Then we have seven subsequences in Tadasana main sequence. In all the total viewing time is close to an hour. Pardon me for the poor quality of the audio, I hope to redo the audio and upload it later. Vajrasana Sequence Introduction to VK Yoga Srivatsa Ramaswami http://youtu.be/g7fgpuGkgCA Vajrasana Lead Seqence http://youtu.be/QZvRk16QHD8 Vajrasana/Ushtra/Kapotasana http://youtu.be/XnTYJf4nPmY Virasana http://youtu.be/7qxHQUo3L7o Vajrasana Return Sequence http://youtu.be/aw1UYXk3NFE Tadasana Sequence Hasta vinyasas http://youtu.be/JebfDyw0JV8 Parsva Bhangi http://youtu.be/ZgwThU9Z4Fs Uttanasana http://youtu.be/w0iOkAI6nBw Utkatasana/Khagasana http://youtu.be/An4JcW7Sxp4 Malasana http://youtu.be/StZHtQVn5Ys Pasasana http://youtu.be/WvyYDmUkFGs Tadasana-On the Toes http://youtu.be/e_0R__5po60
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Many are not fa miliar with Vinyasakrama and I hope this may give an opportunity for some to have a glimpse of Vinyasakrama yoga I learnt from my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya. Even though my book Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga contains most of the vinyasas and asanas, to appreciate the slow and deliberate movements, breathing etc it requires actual study in a class or some video introduction. I have been requesting those who have participated in Vinyasakrama programs to post short videos on some subroutines. I am beholden to Anthony Hall for the massive work he has done to write about videogrpah and post so many sequences of Vinyasakrama. My friend Debbie Mills has also posted a few sequences. There may be a few more. I would still request friends to post videos of Vinyasakrama. It has a very logical structure and yet immensely adaptable so that almost anyone and everyone can do yoga. I hope these videos I have posted will be helpful. I hope to be able to come out with complete vinyasakrama in DVD faithfully following the sequencing from my book. Please have a look and send your suggestions to in...@vinyasakrama.com Thank you and with best wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami P.S My old newsletters may be accessed by visiting my website www.vinyasakrama.com and clicking on the newsletter tab. Please send your comments, suggestions to in...@vinyasakrama.com.
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April 2012 Newsletter Yoga Sutra Quartet--VK Yoga

Dear Friend: During the rst w eek of March I stayed in Mexico City and completed teaching the certicate program in Vinyasa Krama Yoga at Centro Kiai Yoga. I also taught at Mukti Yoga for a weekend. It was a very satisfying experience in Mexico City. During April I will be teaching a weekend workshop at Ridgeeld CT, at Valerie Schneiderman's Yogashala. Here is the link http://www.theyogashalact.com/The_Yoga_Shala/workshops.html Later in April I will be teaching extended weekend workshop s in Houston at Heights School of Yoga of Pam Johnson Here is the link http://www.heightsschoolofyoga.com/eventsworkshops/753-2/ and then at Ricky Trans Kramayoga Center in Dallas http://www.kramayogacenter.com/3/post/2012/02/registration-is-now-open.html YOGA SUTRA QUARTET There are three important texts for Vedanta philosophy, the Bhagavat Gita, the Upanishads and the very special text, Brahma Sutra. The rst four sutras of Brahma Sutra, called catussutri, are considered very important. In fact Vachaspati Misra, a disciple of Sankaracharya, wrote an exhaustive full length work called Brahmasutra catussutri or Bhamati just for the four sutras, four out of the ve hundred odd Brahma sutras. It is held in high regard by followers of Advaita Vedanta and is considered only next in importance to Sankara's Brahmasutra commentary. English translations of both the books are available. The rst four sutras of Patanjali's work likewise are considered important and contain the quintessence of Raja Yoga. The rst sutra can be considered to be the title of the book, Atha yoga anusasanam. Atha means now, or what is in the text . Then there is the phrase yogaanusaasanam. There are two words in it, Yoga and then Sasana with prex 'anu' This is a samasa or a compound phrase. The Sutras for the sake of brevity are bereft of verbs. The word sasana indicates something that is authentic, authoritative, the nal word. In fact sasana is used to indicate something 'written in stone'. In the olden days Kings when they denoted landed property or secede territory to someone would have the gift deed or agreement written in stone and it was called sasana. In India the Constitution is called Sasana, a document that cannot be changed (amended easily that is). The preposition anu indicates that which is consistent with. Anusasana therefore means something which scrupulously follows the authoritative text, the scriptures or vedas here. So atha yoganusasanam means Yoga as per scriptures. This is the title of the book and we may make it Authentic Yoga or Orthodox Yoga or one may say Yoga written in Stone and perhaps that is why the text is still very fresh--(a)live and kicking. My Guru used to say that Yoga Sutra is the most authentic yoga
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text and if one wants to follow traditional yoga one should observe Patanjali's system wholly and should eschew any yoga practice that is inconsistent with the tenets of Patanjali's Yoga. The second sutra denes Yoga. Yoga according to Patanjali is cittavrittinirodha. This phrase is perhaps the best known in Yogasutras. It consists of three words, citta, vritti and nirodha. Citta is the mind, the mindstu -- nd the most appropriate word or term to explain it. The word itself is dened as the one that masquerades as consciousness(cit iva bhavayiti it cittam) even though it is just matter. The next word is vritti which is variously translated as movement, uctuation, etc. This word is a very common one and in olden days was used to indicate one's avocation or main activity, like it is said vritti jivane meaning vritti has the meaning as in the word jivana. Jivana means one's occupation or the means by which one makes a living. Moreover vritti here refers to a group of mental activities and these are listed by Patanjali in the sixth sutra. So vritti may be considered as the totality of mental activity at any given moment. Now let us take the whole bunch of vrittis and relate them to the next word which means stoppage. Nirodha is rodha with a prex ni. Ni (nitaram) indicates permanence. Rodha is to prevent. Nirodha would be to always prevent the chitta from getting into the vrittis. In a state of nirodha the mind will not be engaged in any conscious activity (chitta vritti) be it knowing something correctly(pramana) or wrongly (viparyaya), dreaming (day or night), deep sleep(nidra) or mulling over or remembering the past(smriti) . Is there a state of mind which will not fall into any of the above categories? None. That is why it is dicult to imagine the state of nirodha samadhi of the Yogis. But by knowing what that state is not, one will be able to have an indirect understanding of it. Many times vritti nirodha is explained as stopping the uctuations of the mind. When the uctuations of the mind are prevented the mind, we could infer, will be in a state of one pointedness or focused which of course is included in Yoga but it is not Nirodha the ultimate goal. Norodha transcends all vrittis including ekeagrata or one pointedness; a state of ekagrata is without any uctuations in the mind. By remaining in a state of nirodha for longer and longer periods of time the chitta undergoes a complete transformation known as nirodha parinama. What about the physiological functions like breathing, etc.? Here Patanjali refers to the ve chitta vrittis referred to earlier. He does not refer to the life maintaining activity of the brain or chitta. They are called samanya or samanya karana vritti by Sankhyas . Thus the Yogi in a state of Chitta vritti nirodha becomes completely oblivious to outside objects and also herself/himself, but the life functions like breathing continue, until death takes place in natural course. It can be seen that Patanjali's denition of Yoga does not suggest the usual connotation of Yoga as union. Yoga meaning union requires at least two separate principles to come together and ultimately unite, like prana and apana in Hatayoga, but in this sutra only cittavritti is dealt with and no union with another principle is suggested. Vyasa in his commentary says Yoga is samadhi, or a state of mind and not union. Sankara in his exposition of Yogasutras refers to yoga as samadhana or unalloyed peace. He says that Patanjali has used the word not in the meaning of yoga as union (yukti) but as samadhana or peace of mind. The word Yoga can be derived from two dierent roots yujir meaning yoga as in union and yuja as in samadhi meaning absolute peace of mind and the sutras use Yoga in the (second) sense, that of absolute peace. The third sutra talks about the benet of cittavrittinirodha. It is said that not even a dimwit would undertake a project without considering the benet of such an endeavor. It is especially true of the Yogi who is highly evolved. tada drashtuh svrupe avastanam is the sutra. Tada means then or consequently. It means the result of the cittvrittinirodha. What happens then? The next word is drastuh. It is possessive case, singular of the word drashtr, the seer (drashta is singular nominative case). So drashtuh will mean 'of the seer'. What is of it? The next word we have to contend with is svarupa, this word is rupa meaning form/nature
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with the prex sva, meaning own or one's own. One's own what? Ones own form or nature. Svarupe means 'one's own innate nature or form'. The next word is avasthanam, again this word is sthanam with the prex ava. Sthana could mean position or stand. Ava would mean 'in it', and hence avasthana would mean 'in oneself' or 'in one's own innate nature'. Now here again there is no verb, so we have to nd the most appropriate verb to complete the sentence. The meaning of the sutra so far would be Then the seer in its own nature... To say that the seer gets established in its own form may be ok, but it gives the impression that it had moved out or somehow altered and is now back in its own nature. But the Purusha according to yoga and samkhya is immutable, it has got only one nature or svarupa and it is pure, immutable (aparinamitva) consciousness. This is emphasized by commentators like Vyasa, Sankara, and several others. So we have to interpret the sutra slightly dierently, say, In the stage of Yoga or chittavrittinirodha, the Purusha's own form becomes known to the peaceful chittathe mind understands the real nature of purusha and thereafter having been satised about the real nature of oneself, the purusha/drashtr remains in the state of nirodha samadhi. Hence the sutra would indicate that only in the state of Yoga is the real nature of oneself, the purusha known to every being. The next sutra, the fourth of the quartet reemphasizes this conclusion by pointing out what happens to the understanding of Purusha in the non yogic state of mind, 'vritti saarupyam itaratra. Vritti we all know is chittavritti, a particular vritti in this context. Saarupya. is derived from the sarupa (rhymes with svarupa?). Sarupa is rupa with a prex sa. Rupa we have come across in the previous sutra as form or nature. The prex sa is samana or something similar to. Sarupa means another which has the similar form as the other, just a copy, but not the original. 'Saarupya' is something which is having the nature of a copy and tends to pose as the original. The main purpose of this word 'sarupa' here is not to nd out the similarity between what is presumed to be the self and the real self but to point out that the sarupa idea of the self is not the nature of the real self. Now let us bring in the other word itaratra which means at other (non yogic) times. At other times saarupya vritti or the mind's imperfect copy of the Purusha exists. Let us now supply a verb and make it At other times(itaratra) a copy of the purusha (sarupya) is projected(vritti) by chitta. When the chitta does not know the true nature of the Self or Purusha it creates a poor model known variously as asmita etc. Many times sarupya is translated as an image or a replica, but if that be the case Patanjali would have used the term 'taadrupya instead of sarupya to mean an exact replica like the mirror image. How can the chitta produce an exact copy without ever knowing the purusha? The lazy mind creates such a copy almost every night during dream. Even the dream self is a sarupa of the waking stage 'self' which it knows. So the mind is capable of creating wrong impressions (viparyaya) and here it creates a wrong impression about oneself. The lazy mind misleads not only about ordinary things in day to day life but makes a fundamental mistake about the nature of oneself and only the Yogi in that state of Yoga realizes the true nature of herself/himself. This tendency of the mind to create wrong impressions about anything is known as viparyaya vritti or avidya. Patanjali takes pains to explain viparyaya further in the 8th sutra by saying mithyajnana (an understanding which is a myth).' atadrupa prathishta (not established in the exact form)'. Avidya, mythyajnana, adadrupapratishtha, viparyaya are all words/ terms which are synonyms. In this non yogic state the chitta not only is ignorant of the true nature of the Self but posits a wrong image of it and attempts to satisfy the insatiable imposter endlessly, day after day,life after life.
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So these four sutras are important and contain the quintessence of Yoga. Some say a thorough understanding of the rst four sutras is necessary and sucient to understand Patanjali's entire Raja Yoga. Briey the sutra quartet can be summariz ed as follows 1. Here is Authentic Yoga 2. Yoga is the complete cessation of all projections of the mind 3. Then the mind realizes the true nature of the Self 4. Else the mind creates a pseudo self (and works for it slav ishly) *********** I have experienced innumerable ups and downs, many an agony and ecstasy, hope and despair, pleasure and pain, bliss and depression, courage and fear, praise and ridicule, acceptance and rejection, success and failure, warmth and cold, clarity and confusion and many more pairs of opposites (dvanda). I have incessantly been trying to get the favorable one (anukula) of the pairs and get rid of the other unfavorable (pratikula) all my life and perhaps the lives before and am really tired. As I pull myself through my present journey, Oh Lord Iswara, give me the uninterrupted and unalloyed peace (prasanta vahita) as promised in Yoga. With focused mind, whole heart and full, open throat, I chant Your name 'AUM'!! Thank Yo and with best Wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami PS I have separately sent to you one e mail letter with the details of about a dozen Vinyasakrama Yoga videos I have uploaded on YouTube. Please have a look when you have the time ******
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May 2012 Newsletter My Facebook Phase

Warm Greetings!! During April I did three extended weekend workshops, all very purposeful and satisfying. The participation in all the three places was very heart warming. I was teaching at Valerie Schneiderman's Yoga Shala in Ridgeeld Connecticut, Pam Johnson's Heights School of Yoga in Houston and the ebullient Ricky Tran's Krama Yoga Center near Dallas in Texas. Yoga for Internal Organs, Vinyasakrama Yoga Practice, Krishnamacharya's Teachings, Pranayama and Mantra Meditation Practice, Introductory talk on Upanishad, The Yoga Sutras, many privates and some chantingit was comprehensive. Many thanks to Valerie, Pam, Ricky and the host of nice yogis who attended the programs and supported the eort. I am going to Esalen Institute at Big Sur in California during May 6 to 11, 2012 to teach a 26 hour program titled Practicum on Hatayoga and Raja Yoga http://webapp.esalen.org/workshops/11111/ I am scheduled to go to One Y oga in Vancouver,, Canada about the end of the month to teach a certicate program on Core Vinyasakrama yoga, a 25 hour program http://oneyogaforthepeople.ca/events/srivatsa-ramaswami-vinyasa-krama. Of course the next involved program scheduled will be the 200 hour Teacher Training Program at LMU in July/ August and the registration has opened http://www.lmu.edu/pagefactory.aspx?PageID=34949&PageMode=View, I am also contemp lating doing the 25 hour Core Vinyasakrama Asana Certicate program in dierent places so that more yoga teachers may get exposed to Vinyasakrama asana as I learnt from my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya and incorporate the beautiful but laggard Vinyasakrama Yoga into their teaching and practice.. MY FACEBOOK PHASE Since Aug 2009 I have been us ing or rather overusing Facebook to make some observations on Yoga and related topics. (I hope to post more selectively in facebook henceforth) . I thought that I may share some of the postings already made with friends in the Google Group. And here are some. 1.Keeping the legs t ogether in Tadasana, Dhanurasna, Ushtrasana and others, jumping through and back with legs together in lead sequences and suryanamaskara (rather than crossing the legs or moving the legs one after the other), taking the legs up together in inversions like headstand instead of kicking one leg up and then the other,jumping gently to
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Trikonasana from Samastiti rather than side-stepping are all aimed at maintaining body symmetry during the transition. 2. When a Yogabhyasi 'attains' a dicult posture with ease and steadiness, then one may attempt to increase the length of stay in the posture bit by bit and also simultaneously attempt to reduce the number of breaths taken per unit time. 3. Deep thoracic puraka (inhalation) and antahkumbhaka ( breath holding) help to draw increased venous blood to the heart. Thorough (complete) exhalation aided by the deep drawing of muscles of the rectum, pelvis, abdomen and the diaphragm in tandem helps to squeeze upward venous blood to the heart. A few rounds of involved pranayama everyday helps the heart by improving the venous return of the blood through a very ecient respiratory pump eect and hence raktasanchara (blood circulation) to the whole body. Pranayama is central to the health of both the respiratory and the circulatory systems. Sri Krishnamacharya exhibited an exceptional control over the breathing apparatus. 4. The olden day Indian philosophers recognized three kinds of space or 'akasa'. Firstly is Citakasa or the space of consciousness the Vedantins (esp advaita) discuss about extensively. According to them in the one atomic consciousness everything-- including the universe and all of us-- exists but appear to be outside of it.. so much so consciousness appears to be inside us in our hearts where we may by meditation nd It, the Cit. The second space is the chittaakasa or the mind-space which the Yogis deal with extensively. According to them all our experiences take place in the chitta akasa as dierent kinds of chitta vrittis and by controlling them in the mental space or chitta akasa one can have a control over one's experiences or chittavrittis (good and mostly painful according to them) and even stop them.. Of course the third Bhuta akasa or the physical space is known to all of us and we spend our lifetime dealing with it and of which the scientists are extremely knowledgeable. 5. As per the way I learnt asanas (esp., vinyasakrama) from my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya, the default position of the head in asana practice is 'head-down'. It helps maintain good control over breathing in asana practice ( an essential ingredient of Krishnmacharya's Yoga), keep the back straighter and stretch the spine more freely for getting more inter-vertebral space and also maintain good balance (sthira). See his asana pictures in his book Yoga Makaranda http://yogash alapdx.com/teachertraining/yogamakg.pdf 6. I have experienced innumerable ups and downs, many an agony and ecstasy, hope and despair, pleasure and pain, bliss and depression, courage and fear, praise and ridicule, acceptance and rejection, success and failure, warmth and cold, clarity and confusion and many more pairs of opposites (dvanda). I have incessantly been trying to get the favorable one (anukula)of the pairs and get rid of the other unfavorable (pratikula) all my life and perhaps the lives before and am really tired. As I pull myself through the last lap of my present journey, Oh Lord Iswara, give me the uninterrupted and unalloyed peace (prasanta vahita) as promised in Yoga. With a focused mind, the whole heart and full, open throat, I chant Your name ' AUM'!!
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7. Blessed is the Yogi who is able to undertake the arduous lifelong journey in the complicated outside world and the uncharted inward journey with consummate ease and equal grace. 8. The Vinyasa system (krama) of asana I learnt from Sri Krishnamacharya has hundreds of vinyasas, scores of asanas arranged into a few major sequences. It has a solid core but highly adaptable to the requirements of dierent individuals and dierent groups. The way I teach Sarvangasana or any major sequence is similar to how I taught it in the last years TT programs but not identical. In Vinyasakrama the asanas and vinyasas are practised slowly, 'mindfully' with the breath, very conscious of one's range/limitations, usually singly in an uncompetitive environment thus reducing the unnecessary risks of voluntary/ self-inicted injuries. 9. As we get older the respiratory sytem muscles weaken like other muscles and hence one's vital capacity comes down. It is therefore necessary to maintain the tone of these muscles by practicing yogic breathing exercises like pranayama and one can not learn them and practice eectively if started late in life. All yogis should consider strengthening the respiratory system even as they practice asanas. Even simple pranayama would be helpful and there is no reason to postpone pranayama to a unplanned future date. 10.Yoga Heals the body Frees the mind 11. Sri Krishnamacharya used to mention that orthodox yoga was a Sarvanga sadhana. It implies that as a system it helps maintain the health all aspects of the human being, the skeletal system, the vital internal organs, the brain... . Exercises regimen which tend to abuse,disuse or lopsided use of various parts and thus harm the individual are called angabhanga sadhana ( injury prone procedures) according to him (pl refer to his Yoga Makaranda) . It is a bit odd that contemporary yoga has to defend itself against its health hazard whispers. Yoga is meant to heal the body and mind and not hurt. 12. Anybody and everybody--skilled,semi skilled and unskilled- at any age can nd some safe yoga procedures appropriate to them for practice from Vinyasa Krama Yoga, because it is versatile and adaptable. 13. If I am happy, making others happy, I am Satwic To make myself happy, if I make others unhappy, I am Rajasic Because others are happy, if I am unhappy, I am Tamasic 14. Sukha is a beautiful sanskrit word. Su=agreeable and kha=space sukha means agreeable (internal) space and in contrast dukkha would mean intolerable (internal) space. Yoga leads to satwa and it leads to sustainable sukha
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15.A well balanced yogic diet of asana, pranayama and dhyana (meditation) would help touch base regularly with the peace zone of one's brain. 16..On Santosha (contentm ent) a yogic trait (niyama). The happiness one gets by the fulllment of worldly desires and the joy one may get by reaching the heavenly abodes mentioned in the scriptures are not comparable to even a sixteenth part of the great internal space( sukha) one gets by the eradication of the very desires. Mahabharata, a Sanskrit epic (itihasa) 17. The wind carries the sweet fragrance of a tree full of owers and it is smelt even at a distance..likewise the positive eects of good actions (punya karma) travel far and wide..yajur veda 18. Blessed are the Yogis who have found their yoga 19. Rishis are those who speak the Truth..( rishayah satya vachasah-- amarakosha, a sanskrit thesaurus). Rishis meditate upon and speak of what is Absolutely Real. 20. Sukha is a beautiful sanskrit word. Su=agreeable and kha=space sukha means agreeable (internal) space and in contrast dukkha would mean intolerable (internal) space. Yoga leads to satwa and it leads to sustainable sukha 21. May noble thoughts from all over the world come to us (Aa no Bhadra ritavo yantu --A vedic prayer 22. Story of Patanjali in my book Yoga for the Three Stages of Life. In Google books I was able to access it (free) pages 20 to 29. It contains many sketches . I hope you can nd these pages.http://books.google.com/books?id=sUzBl2k7Z98C&printsec=frontcover&dq= %22Yoga+for+the+Three+Stages+of+Life %22&hl=en&ei=tEbLTNWBLIqr8Abyz_2zBQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resn um=1&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false 23. The to ngue (jihwa) has two tendencies/weaknesses (chapalya). One is to taste (and eat) excess stimulating food. The other is to talk in excess and without purpose. Tapas, a yogic niyama is to keep the twin functions of the tongue under a leash by moderation is speech (mita bhaashana) and moderation in diet (mita aahaara)--From my class notes on YS with Sri Krishnamacharya 24. As per the way I learnt asanas (esp., vinyasakrama) from my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya, the default position of the head in asana practice is 'head-down'. It helps maintain good control over breathing in asana practice ( an essential ingredient of Krishnmacharya's Yoga), keep the back straighter and stretch the spine more freely for getting more inter-vertebral
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space and also maintain good balance (sthira). See his asana pictures in his book yoga Makaranda http://yogash alapdx.com/teachertraining/yogamakg.pdf
25. Our day to day experience is replete with duality;subject/object, you and I, seer and the seen. Underneath this duality there is only one principle that exists and can qualify to have 'existence' (Satya). Knowing it logically and experientially is the main thrust of Vedanta Darsana, Yoga's big brother. 26. My Novemeber 2009 Newsletter contains an article on Meditation.Srivatsa Ramaswami http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasa-krama-announce/browse_thread/thread/ 2d48460831fc8d39?hl=en More articles can be found in the other newsletters in this same site 27.Aerobics and some fast paced yoga systems like the multiple suryanamaskara are an antithesis of yoga exercises (vinyasa krama), even as both confer their own unique benets. Usually aerobics is strenuous,fast paced and increases the heart rate and breath rate whereas yoga exercises (vinyasa krama) are deliberate,slow, breath centered, comprehensive and tend to reduce breath rate, heart rate and distraction rate of the mind. 28. My world is not perfect My body is not perfect My thoughts are not perfect My reasoning is not perfect I as an individual am not perfect But I, the Self, that experiences all these imperfections Is (am) perfect
29. Yoga procedures adopte d during growing years (vriddhi krama) need to be signicantly modi ed during midlife (sthiti krama) which again will have to be drastically altered during the last lap of one's life journey to avoid instantaneous and cumulative injuries. The Yoga Makaranda of Sri Krishnamacharya has two sets of asana pictures. One set of beautifully executed intricate asanas by kid/s is for growing years (vridhi krama) and the other set performed majestically by Krishnamacharya himself is more appropriate to midlife (sthti krama). 30.The Purusha (indwelling Self) is amrita (immortal)says a mantra from Suryanamaskara (Sun Salutation) in Yajur Veda. The state of Kaivlaya of Purusha or the indwelling Self and
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the concomitant cittavrittinirodha of the mind is neither a state of excitement nor passive dullness/depression. It is said to be a state of uninterrupted ow (vahita) of unadulterated peace (prashanta). 31.When Prana circulates in surya (sun) Nadi, Rajas comes to the forefront, the sympathetic nervous system is stimulated and one feels the pitta dosha's eects. Prana in Chandra(moon) Nadi makes one tamasic , Kapha increases and the parasympathetic nervous system is stimulated. When Prana is in Agni nadi, one tends to be Satwic, vata dominated and the central nervous system is in control. So it is benecial to do pranayama. 32.Yoga sutras and the Upanishads answer questions that one does not even ask, likeWho am I 33.What is the purpose of Life? The purpose of life is to realize that There is no purpose to Life. That's weird, but what after this 'realization'? One would work to avoid another birth ... Supposing I don't believe in rebirth? Supposing rebirth does not depend on your belief? That is even more crazy Guruji.. Have to nd another teacherComforting, not unsettling. 34. My norma l day to day impressions of myself( a 73 year 'old' man) are negated by my experiences during my dreams. My impressions of who I am during dreams (a 16 year old struggling student for instance) are negated by my normal day to day experiences. My sleep experiences negate both the waking and dream state impressions of myself as they negate my very existence. But I exist. Who am I? Would the Yoga's Kaivalya state of Freedom and the fourth state of consciousness or the Turiya state of Vedanta be my real state? 35.Faulty Breath, restless mind Smooth owing breath, restful mind -Based on HYP Learn and observe Yogic Breathing Procedures To Charm the Mind and calm the mind
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36. RAJA YOGA: Brahmananda refers to Patanjali's Yog a as Raja Yoga in his commentary on Hata Yoga Pradipika-so do several others. Raja is derived from the Sanskrit root 'raajr' meaning illuminating (raajr diptau). So Raja Yoga is 'Yoga of Enlightenment'. 37. VINYASAKRAMA ASANA BREATHING: In Vinyasakrama asana practice, breath synchronization with slow movements is an essential element. One would start the movement with the beginning of inhalation or exhalation and complete the movement with the completion of that breathing phase. The time taken in actual practice may be between 5 to 10 or 12 seconds depending on one's capacity and control. If it goes ...below 5 seconds one would stop the practice and rest to regain the vinyasa krama acceptable breath. My Guru, Sri T Krishnamacharya would say 'breathe with hissing sound '(a la cobra, refer to ananta samapatti in YS) or 'with a mild rubbing sensation in the throat'--. Some hints about breathing in asanas as per vinyasa krama which will be discussed in my Teacher Training program in July/Aug 2012 at LMU. http://registration.xenegrade.com/l muextension/courseDisplay.cfm?schID=1430 38.Kaivalya can take place in and instant as per Kaivalya Navaneetham like the time taken to swallow a sweet bit of butter. But the instant may take long time to come, maybe a lifetime or even more. 39.The Yogi's mind (chitta) is said to undergo three major transformations (parinama). In the rst place, the habitually distracted mind is made into one that is habitually focused (ekagrata) . Then in the next transformation the one pointed mind becomes totally absorbed in an object of contemplation even forgetting oneself (samadhi). In the nal transformation, the citta, totally satised due to the direct perception of the Self, eortlessly eschews all thoughts or vrittis including about the Self and is resolved into its pristine condition in which all the gunas are in a state of samyavasta or equilibrium (nirodha)--From YS. 40.A short while ago my website www.vinyasakrama.com received the 100,000th 'hit', and the most frequent visitor was myself. My friend Ross Smith created for me this useful website a few years ago and gave it to me as a gift. Thank you Ross for your generosity and kindness 41.Steadiness with proper anchoring (stira), practising within one's comfort zone (sukha), unhurried breathing during asana practice (saithilya) and total mindfulness (samapatti) are the ingredients of (safe) yogasana practicebased on Yogasutras 42. While teaching seated postures especially while doing pranayama my Guru Sri T Krishnamacharya would urge one to "Iduppai thookki pidiyungo" meaning Lift (thookki) and hold up(pidiyungo) your waist/ hips (iduppai) 43. Kapalabhati is voluntary sneezing; Ujjayi is voluntary wheezing,: Bhastrika is voluntary coughing--these simple yogic procedure help to overcome the underlying breathing problem
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Thank You and with best Wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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June 2012 Newsletter Asana and vinyasa

I am now in Vancouver, Canada teaching at Suzanne and Ryan's One Yoga Studio, a beautiful facility. Presently I am teaching a ve day 25 hour Certicate Program on Core Viyasakrama Asanas. We have a compact enthusiastic group--very nice, warm yogis. The weekend I will be teaching a workshop here on Asana Pranayama. Mantras and meditation for a comprehensive daily practice involving the major angas of Ashtanga Yoga. The registration for my 200 hour Vinyasakrama Yoga Program at Loyola Marymount University starting July 8th 2012 is as usual slow but steady. Here is the link. http://www.lmu.edu/pagefactory.aspx?PageID=34949&PageMode=View, Early May, I was at Esalen Institute, California and taught a practicum on Raja Yoga and Hata Yoga to a very compact group of Yoga practitioners. It was 26 hr program spread over 6 days. It had dierent asanas, then Viloma Ujjayi Pranayama and Meditation and brief discussions on the theory of Hata Yoga and Raja Yoga. I thought the program went well. ***** ASANA AND VINYASA About ve years ago when I started oering a 200 Hr Teacher Training Program, I mainly wanted to cover a broad range of subjects Sri Krishnamacharya taught me. I thought that to have an appreciation of the depth and breadth of Krishnamacharya's teachings Asanas alone will not do. But then even the asanabhyasa of Krishnamacharya was distinctly dierent from the general contemporary Yoga as his was based on traditional concepts of Yoga again based on teachings of such great works as Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and his unique interpretation of the Sutras and tradition and accepted authority. In what way was his yogabhyasa dierent and distinct? I have written about it on dierent occasions but I thought it would be good to put up the ideas clearly. There are hundreds of asanas in vogue, some standing like the famous Virabhadrasana, lying down like apanasana, prone ones like dhanurasana, inversions like Sarvangasana, which are practiced avidly by yogabhyasis by the thousands all over the world, and have been for generations. However the word asana, coming from the sanskrit root aas 'to sit', refers to a seated posture basically. Asana means to be seated or be in a seated position, as a good seated position was considered essential for yogis to meditate for long hours and be in Samadhi for a long time. It required that the Yogis had to discover seated postures that would give comfort and stability and a few classical poses came in to prominence. Padmasana,lotus pose, Virasana, the hero pose,swastikasana are some such poses that have been practiced for a very long time and reference to them can be found in itihasas and puranas. Svatmarama in Hatayogapradipika implies use of a seated yoga posture for pranayama. One should rmly sit in a posture and have moderate nourishing/easily digestible food and practice pranayama as instructed by the Guru. Brahma sutras also mandates a seated yogic posture for meditation. It may be safe to infer that the asana word mentioned in the Yoga Sutras as part of the Ashtanga Yoga system of Yoga indicates a seated pose. Asana is a position of the body in which one can be comfortable(Sukha). The other parameter which denes asana is sthira or steadiness. It also indicates a considerable duration. An asana is a seated pose in which one can remain comfortable for a long time. What to do in an asana? One would engage in the practice of other angas from then on, like Pranayama, Pratyahara, and then the three phased internal practices or antaranga sadhana of dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Ultimately the yogi is able to transcend even that state of ordinary object-based samadhi and reach a state of
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Nirodha which is termed a state beyond the internal practice or athyangaranga. Basically all are said to take place while the Yogi is in a seated position called Asana. So the purpose of learning asana anga is to be able sit for a long time in a yogic posture, initially at least to be able to do a round of uninterrupted Pranayama. What postures are good for that? Traditionally, asanas like Padmasana, Siddhasana,Swastikasana Vajrasana/ Virasana or Gomukhasana will meet the requirement. Vajrasana and Virasana are perfectly balanced poses. Padmasana and Sidhhasana are resorted to by yogis in large numbers as per tradition. How to get into the posture in the rst place and then be able to remain in it comfortably and steadily for a long time? Someone dened asana as a procedure to forget the body, not to be disturbed by bodily distractions-like an ache here, an overstretch there, some numbness somewhere, a silent injury in some other place..... According to Sri Krishnamacharya the way to attain such perfection in postures is to approach asana abhyasa following the vinyasakrama. He would aver both during his teaching and in his books, that asana practice should be done with vinyasas to be able to achieve the asanas siddhi, the ability to not just get into a posture somehow but, stay in it comfortably and for the required length of time. Patanjali in the II chapter 47 sutra gives the parameters for attaining asanasiddi characterized by stability/endurance and comfort. The two parameters referred to in this sutra are prayatna saitilya and ananta samapatti. Sri Krishnamacharya taught me yogasanas for several years following the vinyasakrama. One of the main ingredients of his teaching was the use of breath in asana vinyasas. I started studying with him when I was 15 and studied with him until I was approaching 50. Invariably he taught asanas with vinyasas and with the accompanying breathing. Every expansive movement will start with an inhalation which would continue smoothly until the completion of the movement 5 to say 10 seconds long. Likewise every contraction movement like a forward bend or a twist will start with an exhalation which exhalation would continue with the movement until completion of the movement. Inhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale he wold say as he would ask you to raise the arms in a posture, say Tadasana, Parvatasana or Vajrasana, and exhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaale he would thunder as he would ask you to lower your arms in the same postures. He would ask you to keep attention on the breath, follow the breath he would say repeatedly. These two instructions in the vinyasa asana practice continued throughout all my 1 on 1 classes with him. Somewhere along, one day I asked my Guru if there are any texts that mention the use of breath in asana practice. Here is what I wrote in Namarupa a few years back on this as part of an article on My studies with Sri T Krishnamacharya. [http://www.namarupa.org/ magazine/nr06/ downloads/05_NR6-Srivatsa.pdf read the whole article] Vinysa Krama was the mainstay of Krishnamacharyas teaching of Hata Yoga. The word vinysa is used to indicate an art form of practice. This word is used in several arts, especially in South Indian Carnatic music, a fully evolved classical music system. Vinysa Krama indicates doing sana with multiple aesthetic variations within the prescribed parameters. Yoga was considered one of sixty-four ancient arts. Hence if you approach yoga sana practice as an art, that methodology is Vinysa Krama. The beauty and ecacy of yoga is eloquently brought out by Vinysa Krama. What about breath synchronization, another important ingredient of Krishnamacharyas Vinysa Krama? What about mental focus on the breath while doing sana practice, central to vinysa yoga? None of the yoga schools teaches yoga in this manner and no classic HathaYoga texts mention breath synchronization in sana practice specically. Where can one nd references to these?
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This was one of the few questions I asked my guru: Is Vinysa Krama an old, traditional practice? Sri Krishnamacharya quoted a verse indicating that reference to this practice can be found in a text called Vrddha Stpata and also in the Yoga Sutras of Patajali. There was no point in looking for an obscure text like Vddha Stpata, but Yoga Sutra was at hand. But where is the reference? There are hardly two Sutras explaining sana, and there is no reference to breath in themor is there? Going back to my notes on Yoga Sutra classes with my guru, I found a very interesting interpretation of the sutra, Prayatna-saithilya anantasampattibhym. The word prayatna, very commonly used in India, basically means eort. saithilya indicates softness. So Prayatna- saithilya could mean mild eort; hence you nd that many writers on the Yoga Sutras declare that the way to achieve perfection in a yoga posture is to ease into the posture eortlessly. This is easier said than done. There are hundreds of practitioners who cannot relax enough to be able to easily get into a posture like the Lotus, for example. So we have to investigate the meaning of the word prayatna as used by the darsanakras in those days. Prayatna according to (Navya)Nyya, a sibling philosophy to yoga, is a bit involved. Nyya explains prayatna of three kinds (prayatna trividha proktam). Two of them are the eort put in for happiness (pravtti) and the eort to remove unhappiness (nivtti). Every being does this all the time. One set of our eorts is always directed toward achieving happiness and the other toward eradicating unhappiness. But the third type of eort relevant here is the eort of life (jvana-prayatna). What is eort of life? It is the breath or breathing. Now we can say that prayatna-saithilya is to make the breath smooth. Thus in sana practice according to Vinysa Krama, the breath should be smooth and by implication long (drgha). The other part of the sutra refers to sampatti, or mental focus. Where or on what should the mental focus be? It is to be on ananta (ananta-sampatti). Now we have to investigate the contextual meaning of the word ananta, translated as endless or limitless, which many writers equate with innity. So some schools tend to say that while practicing sanas, one should focus the attention on innity, which is inappropriateand impossible, at least for the vast majority of yogs. Ananta also refers to the serpent, disesa, whose incarnation Patajali is believed to be. So some schools suggest that one should focus on a mental image of disesa or Patajali. It may be possible, but it is uncomfortable to think that Patajali would write that one should focus on his form for the success of sana practice. So what might ananta symbolically signify? The word ananta can be considered to be derived from the root, ana to breathe (ana svse). We are all familiar with the group of words--prna, apna, vyna, etc., names of the ve prnas derived from the root ana. So in the sutra, ananta could mean breath; ananta-sampatti is then translated as focusing the mind on the breath. In fact Ananta, or the serpent king, is associated with air. In mythology the cobra is associated with air; there is a common mythological belief that cobras live on air. If you look at the icon of Natarja (the dancing Siva), you will nd all ve elements of the universe (earth, water, air, re, and space) represented symbolically in Siva. The matted red hair represents re, the Gang in his tresses, the water element; the air element is said to be represented by the snake around the Lords neck. So ananta- sampatti would mean focusing the attention on the breath or prna. Thus this sutra means that while practicing sana, one should do smooth inhalations and exhalations and focus the attention on the breath. Since Vinysa Krama involves several aesthetic movements into and within yoga postures, to achieve the coordination of movement, breath, and mind, one should synchronize the breath with the movement with the help of the focused mind. By such practice, slowly but surely, the union of mind and body takes place, with the breath acting as the harness. But why dont other texts talk about it? There is a saying, Anuktam anyato grhyam. If some details are missing from one text, they
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should be gathered from other complementary texts. Hatha-yogapradpik explains a number of sanas but does not mention breath synchronization and other basic parameters. But Hatha-yoga-pradpik proclaims that its instructions are like a prerequisite for the Rja Yoga practice of Patajali. These two texts are therefore compatible. Thus we can conclude that Patajali gives the basic parameters of sana practice (and also of the other angas like Prnyma), but for details we have to refer to compatible texts like Haha-yogapradpik,Yoga-Yjavalkya and others. My Guru had written a book called Yogasanangalu in Kannada, a copy of which I have had for a long time, but never read it as it is in Kannada. Of course I have gone through the wonderful asana pictures of my Guru in it many many times. Recently I found a few pages of the translation in the blog pages of my friend Antony Hall and I am reproducing the relevant portion from it hereunder (Thank You Tony) Sri Krishnamacharya wrote: Vinayasas many people are curious about its secret. Some others want to know its basis. I agree. prayatnashithilyanantasamapattibhyam (Yoga Sutra II 47) Please see Patanjala yogasutra and Vyasabhashya (P 2, S 47) Both type of people (practitioners), be happy . Vachaspathi Misra in that commentary Saamsiddhiko hi prayatnah shariradharako na yogangasyopadeshtavyasanasya kaaranam. Tasmat upadeshtavyasanasyayamashadhakah virodhi cha swabhavikah prayatnah. Tasya cha yadruchhikasanahetutayaa sananiyamopahamtyatvat. Here is my translation: Surely the innate eort--prayatna-- (in every being) is to sustain the body (which is prana, Prana and sariradharaka are considered synonyms). But it (the normal innate breathing) is not helpful in achieving the task on hand (achieving the yoga pose). Therefore the natural/involuntary eort/breathing (swabhavika prayatnah) is counterproductive in achieving the intended goal. Consequently a man, practicing the specic posture as taught, should resort to an eort(prayatna) which consists in the relaxation (saitilya) of the natural/innate(swabhavika) eort (breath). Otherwise the posture taught cannot be accomplished Krishnamacharya continues to talk about using breath in asanas. Therefore, how many breathings for which asana? When is inhalation? When is exhalation? In what way? When body is stretched forward, inhalation or exhalation? What about when you raise your head? To know this mystery and practice in order is called Vinayasa. These along with the signicance of each asana will be discussed in 1 to 32. ******** Why do I do a urry of Vinyasas? So that I could sit in a Yogic posture Firm, for long ,comfortable Why sit in a Yogic posture? So I can do Pranayama, Pratyahara Do Parayana (chant), do dhyana (meditate)
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May be then I can get into Samadhi. Why do I want to get into Samadhi? To realize rst hand How intrinsically,immensely delightfully peaceful I really am So why do I do all this Flurry/Flow of Vinyasas ...? So what have I been trying to say? 1. Asana in Raja Yoga (Patanjala Yoga) refers to a seated posture in which the Yogi stays put comfortably and steadily for a long time 2. According to Patanjali and interpreted by Krishnamacharya it is achieved by Vinyasas done with coordinated /synchronous smooth breathing and focusing the mind on breath. While doing the vinyasas, Sri Krishnamacharya would ask us to breathe with a slight rubbing sensation in the throat and producing a 'hissing sound' a la cobra another aspect of ananta samapatti. As mentioned earlier some commentators refer to meditating on Ananta (ananta samapatti) and normally it is done by Sri Krishnamacharya by saying a prayer in praise of Patanjali at the beginning of a yoga practice session. There are a few prayers on Patanjali. Sri Krishnamacharya invariably chanted the prayers starting with yastyaktva rupam.. then yogena chittasya.. and aabahu purusha.. and then Srimate Anantaya Nagarajaya Namo Namah at the beginning of a session while teaching me, which I follow faithfully. 3. There are hundreds of vinyasas Sri Krishnamacharya taught. To meet the requirements of dierent individuals one chooses the appropriate ones from these. The individual package will depend upon the condition of the individual and the posture/s one would look to attain siddhi in. (Here is a commercial. To know and learn more about the myriad vinyasas, systematically, please refer to my book Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga) 4. In practice,for the seated asana siddhi, inversions along with the multitude of vinyasas in them are very helpful to relax and exercise the lower extremities; so also the joints of the lower extremities like the ankles, the knees, further up the hips and also the spinal column. My Guru would ask us to be careful about thighs and waist. Never allow the thighs and waist to spread and get out of control. Tape measure these and keep them under control. And the inversions with the vinyasas help keep the waistline and thigh size under control, very essential to achieve seated posture siddhis. Since the legs play an important role in seated poses these are very benecial to attain the sthiratva and sukhatva in seated poses. Further as many varied vinyasas in scores of other asanas as possible should be practiced to cover/ exercise the whole body comprehensively and with the bandhas at the end of exhalation and wherever appropriate. Yoga is considered a sarvanga sadhana or a system that reaches and benets all parts of the body including the internal organs. It is achieved by dierent vinyasas in dierent yoga poses, with appropriate breathing and the bandhas. When a Yogi sits down to start the Pranayama, the Yogi's whole body should be perfectly prepared with the Vinyasas in dierent asanas with smooth mindful breathing. All these to make it possible for the Yogi to sit comfortably for a long time and concentrate on the job on hand like Pranayama or meditation and completely be oblivious of the body . 5. A deliberate eort to link the breath with the movement mindfully (mind/breath unity) will help the asana siddhi as per Patanjali's instructions
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6. Sri Krishnamacharya taught asanas with a proviso that it should not be strenuous, no strain on the heart. Yoga should be helpful for the heart by the judicious use of breath (respiratory pump eect) and varied use of vinyasas (muscle pump eect). It is corroborated by a verse in Hatayogapradeepika. Quoting Gorakshnatha, Svatmarama says varjayet.......kayaklesa vidhim.. It indicates that the yogi should avoid procedures that put strain/pain (klesa) on the system. Yoga is to reduce pain or klesa, both physical(kaya klesa) and psychological(the pancha klesas). Brahmananda in his commentary explains kayaklesa that should be avoided will include, bahubhara udvahana or carrying heavy weights and bahusuryanamaskara or performing multiple sun salutations. Sri Krishnamacharya taught me Sun Salutation with appropriate breathing with the movements but it was an optional small part of the routine . Suryanamaskara chanting however was an important aspect of the vedic chantings he taught me. 7. He also would say that a serious yogi should be krisa or lean. For a yogi,heaviness caused by fat or lean (muscle) is not helpful. 8. The asanabhyasa I learnt from my Guru was not merely slowing down the pace of the asana practice but a deliberate practice to slow down the breathing rate itself. As against the normal breath rate of about 15 per minute, in Vinyasakrama the breath rate is brought down to about 6 or less per minute during vinyasa practice for most of the time. Without controlled breathing, the breath rate in many physical exercises, outdoor games and gym workouts could be much higher than the normal rate and is the antithesis of vinyasakrama I learnt from my Guru consistently for many many years. Sri Krishnamacharya had a clear preference for slowed breathing and advised his serious students not to participate in activities that tend to increase the heart rate/ breath rate substantially like running etc. even as he had no objection to walking as an exercise. This advice was of course for serious yogabhyasis. 9. I remember that once there was a talk/demonstration on Yoga by Sri Krishnamacharya , if I remember correct, at T S, in Adyar, Madras. Sri Krishnamacharya spoke for a short while and asked someone in the audience to come and check his pulse rate. It was about 60 or so. Then Sri Krishnamacharya, sat up and did some pranayama and bandhas a few times and asked his pulse rate to be checked. It was around 30. Within a short duration with Pranayama ( and bandhas) he was able to amazingly reduce the rate substantially. 10.When I was young I actively participated in outdoor activities. I even represented my college in three games, Cricket, Table Tennis and Tennis (Captain). For a few years I was learning Yoga and also playing outdoor games and I enjoyed both. But soon I realized the distinct dierence in the philosophy of both. While one--aerobics-- encouraged free breathing, increased metabolism, substantially increased heart rate during the physical activity, Yoga, at least the Yoga I learnt from Sri Krishnamacharya encourages, nay mandates, deliberate slower breathing, and achieve lower heart rate. I think both systems have their own idiosyncrasies and distinct advantages. Aerobic kind of exercises, especially the strenuous ones, may I say, tend to og the heart, by increasing the heart rate(sometimes even pounding), breath rate all of which of course help to strengthen the heart muscles and develop collateral blood vessels. But then Yoga virtually accesses, supports, caresses, gently massages and directly aids the heart in its function. (For more on this please read my article Yoga For the Heart, in my May 2009 Newsletter http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasakrama-announce/browse_thread/t... ) 11. So, Yoga may not be practised as a workout with heavy breathing, profuse sweating and accelerated heart rate . The nicety about hatayoga is the smooth, long, more complete breathing even while doing those beautifully owing vinyasas and asanas and unique Mudras,
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else there is physiologically no dierence between Yoga and aerobics/ workouts. And one must admit Sri Krishnamacharya knew a thing or two about the heart and health. He lived for a hundred years a healthy man and also, as documented, had shown tremendous control over the heart and its beat. Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami P S. Please write to i...@vinyasakrama.com for comments and suggestions. My earlier Newsletters can be accessed by visiting my website www.vinyasakrama.com and clicking on the Newsletter tab. If I practice asanas alone all my life and expect everything mentioned in Yoga texts to come to me, then how come Yogis of yesteryears like Sri Krishnamacharya studied, practised and taught other yogangas like Pranayama, chanting, meditation , texts and others in addition to those exquisite yoga postures? Am I missing something very vital in my lifelong Yoga practice?
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July 2012 Newsletter - YOGAGATE VISWAMITRA

As I have been writing, my 200 hr Vinyasakrama Yoga Teacher Training Program at Loyola Marymount University starts on July 9th and runs for 5 weeks. The program is registered with Yoga Alliance. Registration for the program is still open. You may also consider registering for individual courses. Here is the link http://www.lmu.edu/pagefactory.aspx?PageID=34949&PageMode=View ****** YOGAGATE VISWAMITRA Yoga is a shastra for Apavarga or the rollback of chittavrittis, the one and only source of all our experiences. Yoga may be portrayed as an inward journey arriving at the the root or core of oneself. Patanjali erects three gates that could be closed in tandem so that one goes through the homeward journey safely and without regurgitation. They are rstly Yamas , then Pratyahara and nally Vairagya. The rst threshold is determining the Yogi's relationship with all the beings and objects around and using the gate behind called Yama. Contemporary Yogis have started paying more attention to these aspects of Yoga. The Yamas are like a wicket gate regulating the interaction with and distractions from the outside world. Yamas along with niyamas are not just desirable attitudes but a necessary preparation for a committed yogi. Like Asana one should practice or observe these do's and donts so that one develops these samskaras or yogic traits and becomes yogic. This yama gate helps the yogi to take the next steps without any let or hindrance. Then he/she would train in asana and pranayama (bahiranga sadhanas) to reduce rajas and tamas and become more satwic and be ready to take up the next stage of Yoga called antaranga yoga or internal practice. But a pious academic understanding and acceptance of the yamas and niyamas is not sucient for the yogabhyasi, they should become part of the psyche of a serious yogi. Patanjali insists on a rm commitment to the yamaniyamas-- a great vow or mahavrata. To be angry and violent with others as a matter of habit by words, deed and thought should be slowly and with eort overcome as one would overcome a bad habit like smoking. A habitual liar, if one wants to follow the path of Yoga, would take special eorts to slowly overcome this habit, by constant reminders. To covet anything that does not belong to oneself is steya or thievery which again is not a yogic trait. Brahmacharya is celibacy in the strictest sense of the term. But Sri Krishnamacharya, in line with sastras, would say that it is not possible in this Kaliyuga with the rare exceptions of naishtika brahmacharis.. Hence he would say the next best approach would be that one should not transgress the institution of marriage. If I have a tendency to philander and still want to be a yogi, I should take special eorts to overcome this obsession. For businessman acquisition of wealth is perhaps a legitimate goal, but not for the Yogi. To be satised with whatever one makes with honest eort is aparigraha. Adi Sankara in his Bhajagovindam says one should feel happy with the returns one gets with honest legitimate work (nijakarma). The Yogi will also have to keep in mind the niyamas like cleanliness, contentment, lingual restraint (in eating and speaking), study and surrender to the Supreme. Thus it is possible and necessary to practice yamaniyamas as we practice asanas. Patanjali suggests that the yogi always should think of the adverse consequences of any transgression (vitarka bhadane pratipaksha bhavanam). Vyasa even says rather sternly that a Yogi should be ashamed of himself if he/she would transgress the rules of yama niyamas. You are no better than an animal which eats its own vomit he thunders, to drive home the importance of strict observance of yamaniyamas. Many suggest reviewing the day
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to day activities vis-a-vis the yamaniyamas at about bedtime or more frequently and this alone would help bring the yogi back on the yoga track. The daily ritual 'sandhya vandana ' contains mantras that help the yogi to do prayaschitta (regret/repentance) for such transgressions. In the daily prayer to Sun, one beseeches the Sun god to pardon and remove the ill eects of papa or despicable acts done by the misuse or abuse of the mind, the limbs, speech, the other organs. This constant reminder and a wholehearted commitment to follow the rules of yamaniyamas will slowly seep into the samskaras of the yogi. Then a habitual oender of yogadharmas becomes a habitual yami. With the feet rmly grounded on yamaniyamas, the yogi trains the body and breath with asanas and pranayama, twin angas of external yoga practice. These two are said to reduce the dominance of rajas and tamas and make the yogi's personality more and more satvic and one becomes t for Anataranga Sadhana, the second stage. Here again the yogi has to close one more gate or door. And it is the innocuous looking Pratyahara door. Patanjali gives the same importance to Pratyahara as he gives to Asana and Pranayama. When the indriyas which are the unique doorways for the external stimulii to reach the brain, are completely sealed as it were, it is called Pratyahara. Prati+ aahaara is pratyahaara. Ahara is what one takes into one's system. Usually Ahara refers to the food we eat, but here it is used in a wider sense all that we absorb from the outside world. The rupa paramanus/tanmatras or light particles that reach our eyes reach the mind through some transformations. Likewise the sabda paramanu or sound particles in the form of sound waves reach our ears and reach the brain after some modications. These stimuli are the aahara to the brain through the senses. When the Yogi also shuts down the Indriyas after gaining control over the body and mind with asana and pranayama, through the Pratyahara door, he/she completely shuts down the body/mind/senses complex which is commonly but --according to Yogis-- erroneously thought of as oneself. Thus with Yamaniyamas the Yogi shuts out the outside world, albeit temporarily, then by Paratyahara preceded by asana and pranayama completely shuts down and prevents any interruptions by the pseudo self. The Yogi now has only his mind which is very satwic to deal with. Lord Krishna indicates to Arjuna to withdraw the senses as a tortoise (turtle) would. So Pratyahara is a well thought out procedure which is not just symbolic but a solid pro-yogic procedure to shut out ahamkara from interfering with the internal practice or antaranga sadhana. Dierent texts refer to dierent Pratyahara procedures. One may follow one or a combination of them. Sri Krishnamacharya would invariably ask us to practice a charming procedure called shanmukhi mudra as an eective method of Pratyahara. Normally it is done immediately after the pranayama practice following asanaabhyasa. For the actual procedure you may refer to my book Yoga for the Three Stages of Life. Regular stint of Shanmukhimudra towards the end of Yoga practice (and before starting chanting or meditation) helps to calm the senses and bring them under the voluntary control of the mind. Savasana when correctly done is another Pratyahara. In the simple savasana one lies on the back and in an orderly manner relaxes all the major muscles and joints and remains focused on natural breathing. Then there is a more involved Pratayahara procedure. The details of this pratyahara procedure are mentioned in several old texts especially Yoga Yoagnyavalkya. Remaining in Savasana, the yogi will with concentration draw the prana/awareness from the 18 marma sthanas or vital centers in the body in tandem and deposit the collected prana in the heart or a chosen center. This way the Yogi will become completely free from the body and the indriyas and can with the pure satwic mind engage in antaranga sadhana. In this savasana pratyahara, the yogi is said to become completely oblivious to his/her body. The body is like a
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sava (savavath as HYP mentions) and when a limb is lifted it becomes limp without the normal muscle tone and when dropped falls without any resistance. A serious Yogi even during normal times engages very rarely with the outside objects of the senses maintaining a high level of pratyahara. My Guru while walking used to keep his back straight but the head down engaging minimally with the environment. A sage called Akshapada is said to keep his attention on his feet while walking. The name Akshapada means one whose eyes are on the feet. Akshapada also well known as Goutama is credited with a monumental work called Nyaya Sutras. Whether one is a born Yogi who can slip into a Samadhi state at the drop of a hat or a yogi who has muddled through the seven angas leading to Samadhi, an entirely new Yogic vista opens up. The enormous power of the understanding of all the subtleties of the Universe or prakriti becomes accessible to them due to their unique yogic perception (yougika pratyaksha) from samadhi which the mere yogabhyasis have yet to acquire. Such unique understanding of the subtleties of the prakriti produces concomitant yogic powers. From the abilities to control and even stop the heart, or to remain without food or water or minimal air for a long time-- a long list of empowerment opens up due to yogic knowledge. Ability to travel in space and time, knowing the past or the future, entering into someone else's body and mind, well the possibilities are numerous and many yogis get hooked to these siddhis. Knowledge is power and yogic knowledge is yogic power! Whole mankind worships such a Yogi and holds him/her in awe. These Siddhis are spectacularly supernatural. But yogis like Patanjali consider them to be impediments for the Yogi who is after getting into the core of himself/herself the Purusha, that immortal principle which is pure awareness/consciousness never changing, always aware of the chittavrittis. All other siddhis are but deviations, impediments to reaching the goal. Patanjali succinctly puts it: While for the others it may be siddhis but for the nirodha yogi they are just impediments and byproducts. He also says that the Yogi who is after the knowledge of the Self will guard against temptations. Invitations from high personalities like even Devendra (the boss of the heavens), should be dismissed nor should the Yogi feel proud of such achievements. So there must be in place in Yoga a procedure to overcome the temptations of the grandeur of the Sidhhis, to reach the ultimate goal of Kaivalya or absolute freedom, which is spiritual. The old schools have the next and nal door that has to be closed to consider and that is VAIRAGYA or dispassion. Samkhya, Vedanta and Yoga all proclaim the need of the sword of Vairagya to cut asunder the never ending cycle of reincarnation. Understanding all the tatwas of prakriti as the non self and developing vairagya towards them is the means. The Samkhyas talk about the 24 tatwas that belong to prakriti as the non self but which also form the human system of body, ego and breath. Contemplating on them, going into Samadhi to understand them thoroughly and rejecting them as the non self and developing Vairagya is what they say is the means. Vedantins, on the other hand, look at the human system as made up of ve kosas or sheaths, contemplate on them in Samadhi and develop Vairagya towards them. Then the yogi would reject them all, the physical, physiological, the mind, the intellectual and the ego sheaths as non self. Mandukya Upanishad considers the three stages of waking, dreaming and deep sleep as the awareness about the non self and leads the abhyasi to the pure state of Purusha in the fourth state, the pure state of consciousness as the self. The yogis consider developing Vairagya toward the human system consisting of the three gunas, the gross aspects made up of the ve bhutas, the subtle body, the intellect and nally the prakriti itself as yoga. Is there a system of developing Vairagya. Yes Vairagya is a systematic procedure leading to spiritual freedom. Vyasa in his commentary on the sutra Abhyasa Vairagyabhyam tannorodhah details the four stages of
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Vairagya and a systematic method of practicing it and also para vairagya. Here is quote from Mahabharata on Vairagya "The happiness one would get by the fulllment of all the worldly and all the other worldly desires is not comparable to even a sixteenth part of the mental peace one gets by the renunciation (trishna kshaya) of the very desires". So the last door the Yogi closes behind to reach a stage of Kaivalya is Vairagya. Yamas, Pratyahara and Vairagya are the three doors that the Yogi needs to close during the spiritual homecoming, the nal happy journey. In this connection here is the STORY OF VISWAMITRA, (my version). Kausika was a great powerful King, perhaps an emperor. All his subjects adored him, he was well known in the entire universe including the heavens. Once he was met by many subjects and at that time a sage called Vasishta came that way. Vasishta was a great Yogi. As soon as the people saw the sage they ran to him and started paying their respect in right earnest completely ignoring Kausika. Kausika was abbergasted, he could not understand what this simple fakir could oer to his subjects. To know more about the Rishi, Kausika later went to Vasishta's unpretentious ashram in a forest. He went there with his large army to impress upon the sage his vast wealth and power. Soon enough the sage oered to give the King and his army food as they had traveled a long distance and were his honored guests(athiti). Kausika was again bewildered, How can this pauper feed an army of soldiers like his? Mockingly he told the sage that he would be happy to have lunch with him. Vasishta had an innocuous looking cow, a milch cow, called Nandini believed to be an ospring of the famous Kamadhenu the divine cow that could give anything that one wanted. Nandini had been given as a gift to the sage by Indra himself as a mark of respect to the sage. The sage Vasishta then beseeched Nandini to provide food for the guests. Nandini promptly provided a delicious divine lunch for all of the king's army. Soon after taking food, the King told the sage, You are a renunciate and you really do not need a great gift like Nandini who can provide anything one wishes. I am a King ruling a large kingdom and if you could please gift it to me it will greatly benet me and my people and I can compensate you greatly. Vasishta explained to him that Nandini was a gift from the gods and was supposed to feed Vasishta and be with him and he was not supposed to part with her. You are not supposed to gift away what you yourself received as a gift, he added. Enraged, Kausika immediately ordered his men to forcibly take Nandini away from the ashram and take it to his kingdom. When the men attempted to take hold of the divine sacred cow, the docile Nandini suddenly became furious and rmly dug her front hooves into the earth. Lo and behold! From out of the dust particles from the hooves hundreds of soldiers sprang up and destroyed all the King's men. Defeated and humiliated Kausika returned to his kingdom. Soon he resolved that he would also become like Vasishta a great sage. But at that time kings or rajas would not become sages which was usually the vrittis of Brahmins. However he decided to do tapas or penance and follow the yogic path and become a sage like Vasishta. He then wanted to be praised by Vasishta himself as Brahmarishi. He renounced his kingdom and went to the forest to undertake the arduous tapas or yogic practice. As he was making great strides, Indra the lord of the devas, got worried and sent his most beautiful apsara and divine dancer to entice the king turned yogi and destroy his tapas and yogic powers. Menaka came to earth and was very quickly able to entice Kausika. She just came in through the yama gate left ajar by Kausika. When she appeared before him with all her beauty and charm the dormant rajas in Kausika came forth aggressively. He soon left his tapas, his sadhana and spent time with her. Menaka who was only supposed to distract
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the King herself fell in love with the powerful King Yogi and in course of time they had an ospring-- a very charming divine girl who came to be known as Sakuntala. But soon thereafter, Menaka told Kausika that she came at the bidding of Indra to destroy his tapas. Having accomplished her mission she should report back to Indra in heaven.Her permanent place was the heaven and not the earth, she reasoned. She gave the girl child to Kausika to take care of, but he refused as he felt depressed and angry with himself and wanted to go back to start his tapas once again. A mural by a famous painter depicting Kausika refusing to accept the child is still popular in India. Here is the link to view the mural. http://sushantskoltey.les.wordpress.com/2010/02/vishwamitra_menaka.jpg Kausika realized his folly of falling into the trap set by Indra. He had failed to close the Yama gate behind him before starting on his Yoga Tapas. He then decided to continue with his yogic tapas with redoubled vigor.. His baby girl Shakuntala was raised by a compassionate sage Kanva. Shakuntala grew up to become a beautiful lass. Her son Bharata who is said to have had lions(cubs) as his playmates as a child later became an emperor to rule ancient India. India in olden times (even now) came to be known a Bharata Desa or the country of Bharat. Kausika closed the Yama gate rmly behind him and did yogic tapas. Soon he went into Samadhi and many Siddhis came to him. Another test he had to face came to pass suddenly. Trisanku was another young king. While reading the puranas, he came across various religious rites that would propel one to go to heaven. He stopped all the works and went to Sage Vasishta and requested him to perform a yagnya, a religious procedure for Trisanku's sake so that he could go to heaven, But Trisanku also insisted on entering heaven with his mortal body. But Vasishta said it was against natural and cosmic law to go to heaven with this mortal body. Why don't you do good karmas and when you die you will reach heaven with your subtle body? That is the law of karma, natural law, cosmic law. Trisanku was disappointed. He was stubborn. He approached Vasishta's sons who were also well versed in vedic riruals. He said that their father Vasishta would not fulll his wish and requested them to do the yagnya so that he would go to heaven. They tried to convince him that what their father said was right and that was the course he should follow. The stubborn Trishanku was persistent. The young sons of Vasishta lost their temper and cursed him to become an old man. Progeria set in and instantly Trisanku looked an old man. He then rushed to Kausika who was intently doing his yogic tapas. When Kausika opened his eyes, he saw his former friend in tears and unusually looking aged. Trisanku put the whole blame on Vasishta and his clan and requested Kausika to help him go to heaven with his mortal body. Would Kausika use his magical yogic power to propel him to heaven? Kausika's ego was tickled and his natural animosity towards Vasishta came to the fore, his Siddhis blinded his eyes his vivks or discrimination.. He assured Trisanku that he would do it for him, and using his yogic powers made Trisanku levitate and quickly ascend to the heaven. The Devas, the divine beings in heaven were aghast at this unnatural phenomenal and with all their might pushed down Trishanku. But Kausika's power was incredible and soon there was a state of equilibrium, a stalematethe downward push of the divine powers of the devas was matched by the enormous yogi power of Kausika. Finally Kausika realized his limit but still wanted to placate Trisanku. So he created an intermediate heavensome texts say it was an illusory heaven-- in the southern skies, with its own stars around and was about to create even an Indra god of heavens. The devas immediately pointed out the folly of his actions and warned him that the very attempt would be considered a sin. Kausika cooled down and abandoned any further work on his heaven creating mission. Some believe Kausika's Trisanku Swarga is in the southern skies, here is a quote:
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Trisanku Svarga in the sky is identied by Indian Astronomers with the constellationCentaurus; and Trisanku is probablyAlpha- Ccentaurior Rigel Kent, a triple star system in this constellation. The other star in this triplet is theProxima-Centauri, the closest star to Earth next to our Sun. Closest as in about4.3 light years close Trisanku believed he was in heaven it is believed. By then Kausika had used up all his yogic powers that he had accumulated. He was back to square one. For a third time he started his Yoga journey. This time he closed the third door Vairagya. He developed a deep dispassion towards everything prakritic including powers, siddhis, etc. He became absolutely dispassionate, a Bairagi (one with vairagya).Finally he was shining as a yogi. Sage Vasishta visited him and declared him to be a Brahma Rishi the highest position of a renunciate. He went on to to do a lot of good for mankind as a Rishi. He discovered the most potent mantra from the Veda, the Gayatri Mantra, the mother of all vedic mantras, just as Pranava is the source of all Vedas and vedic mantras. Because of his great humanitarian work he came to be known as Viswaamitra' or the great friend of the Universe. Gayatri is still a mantra chanted by millions even today and every time one chants the mantra the name of Viswamitra as the Rishi of that mantra is fondly mentioned routinely and thus he became immortal..Yamas. Pratyahara and Vairagya are there in Yoga for a reason. To get a few moments of peace in sleep, a person closes the front gate of the yard then the front door of the house and nally the door of the bedroom before retiring to bed. The Yogi closes the yamaniyama gate to regulate interaction with one's own outside world (mamakara) rst, then pratyahara to take out of contention one's false identity with the body/mind/senses complex (ahamkara) and nally the para vairagya door to slip permanently and irrevocably into the peaceful Purusha/ Self. Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami PS. If you have any comments or suggestions please write to i...@vinyasakrama.com Earlier Newsletters may be accessed by visiting my website www.vinyasakrama.com and opening the Newsletter tab You may share this newsletters with your friends if you wish
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August 2012 Newsletter Divine Mother (Sakthi) Chants

Dear Yoga Friend: I am in Los Angeles, teaching a 200 hr Vinyasakrama Yoga Program at Loyola Marymount University. Again I am fortunate to have a compact but very yoga dedicated and talented group of participants coming from dierent places, regions and countries..Brazil, Mexico, Lithuania, UK, Australia. We are into the fourth week. The program is scheduled to conclude on Aug 11th 2012. It also aords me a chance to meet many friends in LA -David Hurwitz, Ross Smith, Sarah Mata, Lisa Leeman, Arun Deva, Dr Chris Chapple, Amparo Denney, Maxine Mills and several others. In August I will be teaching a two day workshop on Pranayama and Vinyasa Krama - August 16 - 17th - 9:30 am - 12:30 pm & 2- 5:30 pm at Ananda Ashram in Munroe New York. http://www.ananda-ashram-yoga-teacher-training.com/ DIVINE MOTHER (SAKTHI)CHANTS. With the end of summer, the festive season starts in India. Ganesa Chaturti, Krishna Janmashtami, the ten day Dasara and then Deepavali all happening during the rest of the calender year. Festivity is always associated with devotional fervor. Patanjali recognizes the importance of devotion to the Divine in his Yogasutras. While considerable emphasis is placed on individual eort for all levels of yogis, the importance of taking divine help and guidance is emphasized with equal vigor. Iswarapranidhana in three dierent contexts emphasizes this aspect. Whether one is a born yogi as in the Samadhi pada or the entry level yogi attempting Kriya Yoga or the lifelong Ashtanga Yogi in Sadhana Pada all can benet from this aspect of Yoga immensely. He also includes Swadhyaya or study and chants in both Kriya Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga for both spiritual knowledge and communion with one's favorite deity or Ishtadevata. Patanjali includes meditation as per one's own religious disposition as a powerful practice even for the Samadhi yogi in the sutra "yetabhimata dhyanad va" Some of the commentators like Sadasiva Brahmendra following the traditional line, interpret yetabhimata as following one of the six traditional methods of worship in India. Adi Sankara who wrote several outstanding works in Sanskrit on the six deities is hailed as "Shanmata sthapanacharya" or the one who formalized the six matas or religious denominations, which are as follows 1, Ganapathya or worship of Ganapathi/Ganesa 2. Kaumara or worship of Subrahmanya or Muruga as more popularly known in South India 3. Saura or worship of Sun 4. Vaishnava or worship of Vishnu and His many avataras such as Rama and Krishna 5. Saiva or worship of Siva and 6. Saakta or worship of Sakti or Divine Mother. This is a great help to many Yogis who have no problem with God and religion. Another expression used in Yoga and elsewhere in the vedas is Svadhyaya and the conventional interpretation is that of chanting vedas, and the benet according to Patanjali is communion with one's own deity (ishtadevata). Iswarapranidhana also is the term used by Patanjali on three dierent occasions giving considerable importance to Bhakti or devotion. Sri Krishnamacharya was foremost an exceptional Bhakti Yogi. He would interpret "Iswarapranidhanat va" as "Iswarapranidhanat eva" indicating that devotion was a superior path. Hence while there is considerable scope for individual eort in Yoga, one with Bhakti appears to command considerable advantage in the path of Yoga. The worship of Divine Mother as sakthi is a very popular devotional practice. There are several works on Sakthi that are very popular. One of them is Lalita Sahasranama
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Lalita Sahasranama (1000 names of Lalita) is a sacred Hindu text for the worshippers of the Goddess Lalita Devi, i.e. The Divine Mother, in the form of her power,Shakti. Lalita is the Goddess of bliss, an epithet for Shiva's wife Goddess Parvati. Etymologically, "Lalita" means "She Who Plays". In the root form (vyutpatti), the word "Lalita" means "spontaneous" from which the meaning "easy" is derived and from there the word implicitly extends to "play". It is supposedly one of the most complete stotras which can be recited for complete salvation The names are organised as in a hymn or stotra. This work occurs in theBrahmanda Purana. It is a dialogue between Hayagriva, an (avatar) ofMahavishnu.Hayagriva is the god of learning and knowledgeand the great sage Agastya. The temple atThirumeyachur,near Kumbakonam is said to be the place where sage Agastya was initiated into this sahasranama. The slokas are organised in such a way that Devi is described from "Head to Feet" also popularly known as kesadi-padanta-varnana. This kind of worship is said to enormously help in meditation. Lalita Sahasranama is held as a sacred text for the worship of the Divine Mother It is one of the principal texts of Shakti worshippers. Lalita Sahasranama names the various attributes of the Divine Mother, and all these names are organised in the form of a hymn. This Sahasranama is used in various modes for the worship of the Divine Mother. Some of the modes of worship are parayana or recitation, archana or individual oering for each name,homa or re oering, etc. Usually, in a sahasranamam, if the same name repeats, the commentators use their scholarship and inspiration to give dierent meanings to dierent occurrences of the same name (this practise occurs also in Jewish Talmudic commentary). Lalita sahasranama has the unique distinction, among all the sahasranamas, of not repeating even a single name. Further, in order to maintain the metre, sahasranamas use the artice of adding words like tu, api, ca, and hi, just llers. The Lalita Sahasranama however does not make any use of such auxiliary conjunctions and is therefore unique in being a pure enumeration of holy names that meet the metrical, poetical and mystic requirements of a sahasranama solely by their order throughout the text. Lalita Sahasranama is a very popular chant. Many people worship Sakthi as the Supreme Creatrix, Universal Mother, Her Majesty above all other devatas including the Trinity of devas, Brahma, Vishnu and Siva. Many chant the Sahasranama every day in the morning and or more frequently at dusk. Popular days for the Lalita Sahasranama chants are Fridays, Tuesdays and especially the Full Moon. As I have mentionedmany times, I recited this and had this work recorded in 1982 by Sangeetha which can be got on line from the following link http://www.sangeethamusic.com/album-details.php?album_id=1552 I nd one can also play/listen to it from the following link http://www.muzigle.com/track/sri-lalitha-sahasranama-stotram-4 Another important Sakthi work is Devi Mahatmayam from a purana called Markandeya Purana. This Sanskrit work has been translated into many languages including Tamil. Popularly known as Chandi and also Durga Sapta Sati as it contains 700 Slokas, it is recited regularly especially during the Dasra/Navaratri festivals in early Fall. The Dev Mhtmya slokas are from chapters 81-93 of the Mrkandeya Purana, one of the early Sanskrit Puranas, which is a set of stories being related by the sage Markandeya to
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Jaimini and his students (who are in the form of birds). The thirteen chapters of Devi Mhtmyam are divided into three charitas or episodes. The narrative of Devi Mahatmyam presents a dispossessed king, a merchant betrayed by his family, and a sage whose teachings lead them both beyond existential suering. The sage instructs by recounting three dierent epic battles between the Devi, the supreme Mother and various demonic adversaries (the three tales being governed by, respectively, Mahakali (Chapter 1), Mahalakshmi (Chapters 2-4) and Mahasaraswati (Chapters 5-13). Most famous is the story of Mahishasura Mardini - Devi as "Slayer of the Bualo Demon" - personication of Tamas and a tale known almost universally in India. It takes about three hours to chant it in its entirity. I had this recorded by Sangeetha in the mid-eighties. Here is the link for download http://www.sangeethamusic.com/album-details.php?album_id=1513 I nd that this volume, one can play/listen from the following link http://www.muzigle.com/home#!album/devi-mahathmyam-2 Mooka Panchasati, a ve hundred verse work by Mook Kavi, is another beautiful work . Written in unuasual Sanskrit meters, it is an exceptional work of Sanskrit beautySri Muka Panchashati was composed by Sri Muka Sankarendra Saraswati, the 20th Acharya to adorn Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam.The acharya was the son of one Vidyavati, an astrologer and astronomer. He was a congenital deaf-mute. But through the grace of Goddess Kamakshi he gained the power of speech. On knowing this attainment of speech by Mooka because of the grace of Devi, the then Acharya of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, Sri Vidyaghana, sent for the boy's parents and told them of his intention of giving sanyasa to the boy and, with their consent, gave sanyasa to the boy and ordained him as his successor in the Kamakoti Math. Vikramaditya Sakari of Ujjain, Matrugupta, some time king of Kashmir, and Pravarasena, who succeeded Matrugupta on the throne, all considered it a rare privilege to serve at the feet of this great Acharya. Muka Sankara is the author of Muka Panchasati, a lyrical outburst of poetry on Kamakshi, The brilliance of the work is said to be rivaled only by Lila Suka's Krishna Karnamrta. He attained mukti at a village near Godavari on full moon day in the month of Sravana of the cyclic year Dhatu (437 AD). Some consider him as the avatara of Kalidasa an outstanding Sanskrit poet, himself a great devotee of Sakti. I chanted this beautiful work in the mid-eighties and played a few slokas to the Paramcharya of Kanch Mutt. He listened intently to dierent portions for almost half an hour and blessed me with a shawl and himself released it at the Kanchi Mutt on the Dasara day, the day of victory for Devi. It was a red-letter day for me. The recording is available on line from Sangeetha http://www.sangeethamusic.com/album-details.php?album_id=1596 The following link can be used to listen/play the album http://www.muzigle.com/album/mooka-panchashathi Another chant I did which is dedicated to Durga is Durga Sahasranamam in early 2000. It is in the form of a stotra. It is from Skandamahapurana and again is chanted during the Navaratrri/ Dasara time. It is again a beautiful piece. You can listen to it . Here is the link http://www.muzigle.com/album/sri-durga-sahasranamam The Sun is worshiped in the female form in the name of Gayatri. In this volume many Gayatri meter mantras and also the Saharanama of Gayatri Devi can be found, This was recorded in 2002 Here is a link http://music.raag.fm/Sanskrit/songs-21251-Gayathri_Sahasranama-Srivat...
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To listen to my other albums, about 20, you may open the following link and search for Srivatsa Ramaswami http://www.muzigle.com/track/ With best wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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October 2012 Use of Voluntary Breath Control in Asanas

I returned to USA from India on Sep 5 and left for Chicago on 7th to teach at Suddha Weixler's Chicago Yoga Center. I taught a weekend program on Yoga for Internal Organs and a ve day 25 hour certicate program in Core Vinyasakrama Asana . Then another weekend on Asana, Pranayama, Mantras, and Meditation. I am now scheduled to teach in UK sponsored by Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga for about ten days starting from October 4, 2012. Hope I will be granted a safe smooth passage, by the border gods(guards). For 2013 I have started assembling some programs. I am scheduled to teach another 200 hr Teacher Training Program in Vinyasa Krama Yoga at LMU from the Monday after Independence day weekend (July 8th onwards for 5 weeks).... I am also scheduled to teach for about a week+ at Ricky Tran's Krama Yoga near Dallas, Texas in April- 10 hr Yoga for Internal Organs, 25 hour certicate program on Core Vinyasas and rst two chapters of Yoga Sutras for 10 hrs.. I may also be teaching again at Suddha Weixler's Chicago Yoga Center. If anyone is interested in arranging some of my programs please write to me at i...@vinyasakrama.com. During the early 1980s I gave a(n) 8 part series of asanas following the vinyasakrama with my students from Kalakshetra. Each program was about 20 mts aired every week under the youth program. Part of it was asanas and the other part an interview with me which I have deleted in these videos as they were in Tamil.. My son Badri, 8 or 9 at that time had recorded it. During my visit to Chennai in Feb, my friends Srimathy and Ravi of Ashtanga Yoga Chennai and former teachers at KYM helped to edit it and get portions of the audio replaced with my Indglish descriptions. The video quality is poor and the audio blank in the later parts. It was interesting even for me to see how I was teaching 30 years back. Have a look (at all the 4 videos) if you have the time and maybe you would like to forward it to a friend or two. Here are the links Vinyasa Krama asanas 1980 I http://youtu.be/vEM_QbH2fdo VinyasaKrama asanas 1980 II http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=iKbmT8Ssuho&feature=plcp VinyasaKrama asanas 1980 III http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=tjMrVq6HuOw&feature=plcp VinyasaKrama asanas 1980 IV http://youtu.be/olAhZEBWTr0 For a more complete treatment of Vinyasakrama asanas, maybe you would like to look at my book The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga. Here is the Amazon link Find this book on amazon.com During my stay in LA for the Teacher Training Program at LMU, one day after the 7 hr class hours I went to my good friend Sarah Mata's home studio for a short lecture. Sarah made a video of it and sent me the CD just a few days back, I managed to upload it on my Youtube channel. The one hour talk Yoga and the Three Gunas I-V can be viewed from the following link. Thank you Sarah. http://www.youtube.com/user/srivatsaramaswami?feature=mhee ******** USE OF VOLUNTARY BREATH CONTROL IN ASANAS The very rst instruction I received from my Guru in Asana practice was Inhale. Sri Krishnamacharya had started coming to our house in the mornings to teach my brother. A few days into it, I came to the room to join my brother and father. All were standing in Tadasana Samasthiti, and Sri Krishnamacharya with his default head down position had
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given the rst instruction. Inhale slowly with a hissing sound and a rubbing sensation in the throat and raise your arms. he said (in Tamil and a bit of English) and raised his arms slowly breathing in. The inhalation started when he started the movement of the arms and the inhalation went all along the movement continuously until he completed the upward movement, interlocked his ngers, turned them outward and gave a good stretch to the body. We followed suit. After a moment stay he instructed Exhale. He said Exhale and slowly lower the arms.. He started the exhalation with a hissing sound and synchronized the slow downward movement of the arms with the breath. Follow the breath closely he added after a couple of movements and thus completed the basic instructions regarding breathing in asana vinyasas. He taught like that for the nearly 3 decades I studied with him and, as far as I know, he did not teach in any other way to others. I was overawed by the smoothness,ow and fullness of his breathing. His chest would expand like a balloon, an expansion I had never seen. His face tucked against the breast bone would look like getting smaller against the background of his expansive chest movement Likewise his exhalation would be complete, the stomach muscles going deep into the abdominal cavity and the diaphragm into the thoracic cavity. That was the rst time I had ever seen a yogi doing movements completely synchronizing with the breath and with such unimpeded fullness of the breath. I was reminded of an episode I used to read when I was young. My mother had given me a tiny volume in Tamil of Balaramayana (Ramayana for kids). In it there was reference to the episode in which Anjaneya would prepare himself to leap over the Indian Ocean to reach the shores of Lanka in search of Sita, Rama's wife. To make that giant leap for the sake of Lord Rama, he would go up a hill and breathe in deeply, expand his chest like an ocean and control the breath in his chest. I used to imagine Anjaneya standing on top of a hill with a huge hairy chest ballooning and that image came to my mind looking at this extraordinary Yogi. (By the way, here is short video of Anjaneyasana following the vinyasakrama performed by Marina Boni, a participant of the 200 hr Teacher training Program at LMU this Summer of 2012 videographed by another participant Josh Geidel, http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=GtrLY7dxbi8&feature=youtu.be Whenever I mention about breathing in asanas and vinyasas, I feel that generally people do not pay much attention to the breathing aspect. There are a few who would say with tongue in cheek, we always breathe when we do asanas, don't we all do that?. There are others who would say that their breath is slow and not hurried. Some practice asanas breathing heavily or bordering on 'breathless' and a few long standing practitioners appear to develop the second wind. Of course a number of people who practice asanas vigorously leave the breath to take its own course. A few years back I was teaching a weekend workshop , and was teaching vinyasakrama. I was giving the participants intermittent rest pauses as I found many were not able to control the breath or were not paying attention to the breath perhaps as they were not used to this. But one of them, sweating and breathing rather heavily, objected to taking frequent rests saying that she had already warmed up and does not want the system to cool down. She would rather be on her feet doing a few suryanamaskaras than rest while others were savasana getting their breath back . But the point I want to make here is that the breath in asana practice I learnt from my Guru involved complete control of the breath throughout the practice.., The breath always was following the movement, there being a perfect synch between movement and the breath. Breath under involuntary control or autonomic control between the sympathetic and parasympathetic is known as 'swaabhaavika prayatna or natural breathing. In this the body, or more particularly the chitt's normal vritti (samaanya or saamaanyakarana vritti) adjusts the breath rate depending on the needs of the body. According to some commentaries on Taittiriya Upanishad explaining the Prana maya kosa, it is said that the main forces prana and apana , believed to be associated with puraka and
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racaka, are controlled by udana. But in vinyasakrama as taught by Sri Krishnamacharya the breath is brought under voluntary control and kept under this control throughout the asana practice. One may say that the Yogi maintains a good control over udaana. So for about half an hour to one hour of asana practice and then during Pranayama the breath remains completely under yogabhyasi's control. The more the breath is brought under voluntary control, the Yogi it is said, can bring the chitta under more voluntary control. Of all the involuntary functions, breathing lends itself to dual control. The Yogis take this route to slowly bring the mind and the heart too under control. When cortical higher brain control is achieved over one basic function (here the breathing), it is possible to achieve control over other basic functions like the heart .Thus a Yogi who uses voluntarily controlled breathing in asana practice, and follows it up with a good pranayama practice, has a much better preparation for meditation than someone who practices asanas with involuntary breathing and no pranayama. There are other important advantages of use of breath in asanas performed with variety of vinyasas. In vinyasakrama one can do about 5/6 vinyasa movements per minute and in a 30 minute stint one can do about 150 movements. Doing each vinyasa twice one can probably do about 70 to 75 vinyasas, much less if one has to take frequent breaks to recover the breath. There are many experienced practitioners who can do vinyasa practice for about half hour without having the need to take rest breaks in savasana due to shortness of breath resulting in the inability to maintain an acceptable slow rate of breath of about minimum 5 secs each for inhalation and exhalation. By carefully choosing appropriate vinyasas for one's practice, it would be possible to reach almost every 'nook and cranny' (nook and corner) of the body. The slow movement and stretch/contraction help to squeeze out used blood into the venous system enhancing the muscle pump eect of the various muscles and tissues. Simultaneously the deep breathing used helps to accentuate the respiratory pump eect and suck in more venous blood to the heart. Thus even as one practices asanas, both the vinyasas and synchronized breathing help to improve the rakta sanchara considerably reducing thereby the strain on the heart and supplementing its work. And Sri Krishnamacharya used breath very judiciously, altering the kriya between brahman and langhana kriyas and interspersed with occasional kumbhakas after rechaka (exhalation) or puraka (inhalation). Generally forward bends, twists, side bends, back rounding, knee bends etc. will be done on exhalation or langhana kriya as it facilitates contracting the abdomen and doing these movements more easily. Back bends, expansive movements like raising/stretching the arms or the lower extremities, raising the head and looking up will be done on synchronized slow inhalation or brahmana kriya. Brahmana kriya on back bends and extensions also helps to increase the inter-vertebral space slightly of the thoracic spine and is very benecial to the spinal cord which contains an enormous nerve bundle. But there are exceptions according to my Guru. People with elevated blood pressure or those who are obese, tense, or generally older would be encouraged to do these movements using langhana kriya. Several years back, in the early 80s, I wrote a series of articles in an Indian magazine called Indian Review. In one article. I think on salabasana, I mentioned that the back bend in that asana should be done on exhalation as I used to prefer that. When the article was read to my guru, he asked me to change it to brahmana kriya as that was the correct breathing for that movement and what I was doing was a permissible exception. He was very clear about the use of controlled breath in asana practice. He also modied the breathing to suit individual requirements when people came to him for therapeutic help. Breathing in asana movements was an important tool he employed while treating patients. Patanjali in his Yogasutra does not claim that his Yoga Sutra work was his brainchild but was based on tradition and as per the Vedas (anusasana). Likewise Sri T Krishnamacharya would
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mention that the unique use of mindful breathing he advocated in asana practice was not his innovation but was based on traditional and authoritative texts like Vriddha satapata, Yoga Sutras. Further texts that support this approach would be Navya Nyaya and also Vachaspati Misra's tatva vaicaradi, Yogasutra commentary. I have written about it earlier but repetitions are helpful. In the yogasutra, the phrase of two words, prayatna saithilya (YS II ) means a lot. Prayatna is a word used to indicate eort, but the old texts like (navya) nyaya explain eort as beings of three types, pravritti, nivritti and jivana prayatna. Pravritti and nivritti are activities that one does to get, respectively, what one wants or to get rid of what one does not want or wants to avoid . Patanjali uses the term chitta vritti and he groups them vefold. But cittavritti can also be classied as above. But in addition to the chitta vrittis mentioned above (vefold or twofold), the chitta incessantly is engaged in another vritti which the samkhyas call as samanya vritti or samanya karana vritti, which is the lifelong eort of maintaining life. Hence the pranic activity is called samanya vritii and in nyaya they call it jivana prayatna or eort of life. So in the above sutras, the word prayatna does not refer to pravritti or nivritti, nor the normal bodily movement one does in asana practice, but samanya vritti or jivana prayatna or simply put 'breathing'. Vachaspati Misra in his commentary on Yoga Sutra, tatva vaicaradi corroborates this interpretation of prayatna as pranic activity. He says samsiddhika hi prayatnah sarira dharakah. Here he says that samsiddhika or the innate prayatna or eort (of the yoga practitioner) is sarira dharakah or that of sustaining the body. What innate eort sustains the body? It is the breath. The root of the word dharaka, 'dhru' is used to refer to the prana's function in an important major upanishad called Prasnopanishad. In it there is an interesting episode. Once all the organs of the body, eyes, ears etc. started arguing which among them was the greatest. The disagreement reached a crescendo when the innocuous and incessantly working prana stepped in to say that it, the prana, dividing itself into ve dierent forces, holds up and sustains the body and it was the greatest. It uses the term 'dharayishyami (I sustain)' the same root (dhru to sustain or support) used by Vachaspatimishra in the YS commentary, sarira-dharaka. The sense organs thought it was incredulous and said so to Prana. Then prana to prove a point collected its forces and started leaving the body. Suddenly all the senses started losing their bearings and realized how dependent they were on the main prana. They all fell at the feet of Prana and beseeched it not to leave the body. Hence according to my Guru the term prayatna mentioned in the sutra is not the ordinary physical eort associated with the movements of the limbs when one does asanas but the breath itself. Having explained that prayatna in this context refers to Jivana prayatna or that of the sariradharaka or prana/breath, Vachaspati Misra proceeds to explain another important element of Patanjali's teaching viz., saithilya, which means to make it smooth. Here the instruction is that the breathing should be smooth which can only be achieved by controlling the breath. There are two types of breathing as we have two centers that can control breathing. One is under the autonomic nervous system with only very limited voluntary override, in which the sympathetic is involved the inhalation and the parasympathetic in the exhalation through the respective breathing centers. But breathing can also be brought under the cerebral cortex when we willfully take over the control of the breathing process . So here we take control of breathing as we do the various movements or vinyasas. The main message is that the breathing if involuntary will adjust to the metabolic requirements-- slow while resting, hurried under physical stress like weight lifting or doing Yoga as if like a workout. But in asana practice as per this sutra it would be under voluntary control, doing the movements with the breath under control and voluntarily. Vachapati Misra explains this beautifully. He says that the natural/ involuntary (swa-bhavika) prayatna or breathing will not be helpful in attaining the posture, actually it would be a
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hindrance. upadeshta vyaasanasya ayam asaadhakah, virodhi cha swaabhavika prayatnah) Hence one should voluntarily control it and make it smoother (saithilya) which is what Sri Krishnamacharya did. Here is the quote from Vacaspati Misra tasmaat, upadhishta niyama asanam abhyasataya svaabhaavika prayatna saithilyaatma asteyah, naanyata upadishta aasanam sidhyati iti| swaabhaavika prayatna saithilyasya aasana siddhi hetuh| Therefore when the intended asana is attempted, the breath should be made smooth/controlled, and in no other way the intended asana can be perfected. Thus the cause of asana siddhi is indeed making the natural breath smooth (by controlling it). To reinforce this concept, Patanjali adds that the mind should be focused on the breath indicating that the breathing should be mindful or in the voluntary mode and not allow the auto mode. Here he uses the word ananta to indicate the breath. The word ananta can be split as most people do as an+anta. The prex 'an' meaning 'not' rhymes with the English un used as 'not' in English. Anta means end or limit so ananta would mean endless or limitless and hence ananta is usually translated as innity and many commentators recommend focusing the mind on innity. However the word ananta, here more appropriately should be broken as a word derived from the root 'ana' to breathe (ana, svase) like prana (pra+and, vyana vi+ana etc). The word ending 'ta' would indicate containing so ananta is containing or controlling the breath. prayatna saithilya ananta samapattibhyam is the sutra about how to use the breath in asana practice. The instruction loud and clear is that one should bring the breath under voluntary control while doing asanas and not allow it to be under autonomic control. And Patanjali is the incarnation of Nagaraja or the cobra king also known as ananta. And cobras are said to live on breath, of course a mythological belief. So some say one could have the image of ananta or Patanjali in mind while practicing asanasa-- a symbolic way of saying 'focus on the breath' Whenever one says that one practices Hatayoga, I have an urge to ask if one does any yoga breath work like pranayama, because hata yoga is pranayama as per Brahmananda, the Hatayoga pradeepika commentator. So if one would have controlled breathing in asana practice as discussed above and also does pranayama, it would mean that the yogabhyasi would be in total control of her/his breathing during the entire period of hatayoga practice, and after all hatayoga is activity under complete control of the breath as can be seen from the yogasutras and the denition of Hatayoga of Brahmananda. I . When the breath would get out of control sometimes Sri Krishnamacharya would ask the student to lie down in savasana and regain the breath before continuing with the asana practice. Some need more rest pauses and some less and some hardly any. It was how Sri Krishnamacharya taught me Yogasanas for decades--, to have complete control over the breath while practicing asanas and apply the breath thoughtfully and well to dierent individuals and dierent conditions and in dierent movements/ vinyasas. A long-winded article on 'breath' in asanas.! Thank you Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami P S Any comments, suggestions, pl write to i...@vinyasakrama.com. If any of your friends wants to receive the newsletters directly and regularly by e mail, please send the e mail info to me to send an invitation. You may forward the letter to your friends . Earlier newsletters and articles may be accessed from the following link http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasakrama-announce?hl=en www.vinyasakrama.com
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November 2012 Newsletter Chittavritti,an Illusion

As all of us share the sorrow, prayers of all go to the families of those who lost their lives in this recent tragedy and may the souls of those who lost their lives rest in peace. Loss in property and belongings and disruption in daily life is enormous and one hopes that life will be put back to normal soon. Thanks to the planning of the authorities and prudence of individual citizens the loss of lives due to the mammoth hurricane was contained. ***** In October 2012, I taught a handful of yoga programs at Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga in Wells, UK,-- a 24 hour program on Krishnamacharya's yoga and a Practicum of Hatayoga and Rajayoga for an equal length of time. I also taught a one day workshop on Vinyasakrama and talks on Mantra yoga and asana practice. It was a nice group, a very nice group indeed. Thank you, Steve, Sally and all the hard working, sincere and well informed yogis for a very satisfying time. For 2013, I have three conrmed programs now, the 200 hr Vinyasakrama Teacher Training program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles starting July 8th and running for ve weeks, a ten day 45 hour program at Ricky Tran's Kramayoga near Dallas Texas in April and a week long program at Suddha Weixler's Chicago Yoga Center in latter half of September ******* . CHITTAVRITTIAN ILLUSION? Twinkle Twinkle Little Star How I wonder what you are. In childhood everything is a wonderment. There are so many things to know, to experience, to see, to search --like the stars, God. When I was a child, I had an uncle (my paternal aunt's husband) who was living in a small town in deep south India. We were living in Madras about 400 miles away. Many relatives and family friends used to visit us every now and then and my uncle also used to visit us. Usually in India the elders do not spend much time with children but this person used to spend considerable time with us. We used to like him. One evening my parents suddenly left Madras to his town, leaving us in the care of my grand aunt. My uncle had suddenly died. When my grand aunt told us that my uncle died I did not fully comprehend it and she started explaining following the general belief in India that he had gone to heaven. I would ask questions like if he had reached haven already, she would say that he would be traveling and would reach there in about 9 days or so and then he would reach God and be with him. She would assure us that we should not worry about him as God would take care of him. I remember my grand aunt pointing her nger up the sky where she said heaven was. I used to run out of the house and look up to see if I could see heaven. And heaven I learnt is above the sky, one has to see beyond the sky--up above the sky I guessed. Like this when we are young, a lot of questions arise in the mind like how the world came into existence, why and how we are born, about reincarnation and many more. Then as we get older, all these questions remain in the background unanswered. The care about family, career and the concerns about keeping the head above water consume all the time and attention. A few however keep these wonderment queries alive. Did a Super-being create the Universe or did it come about by itself, evolved by itself. Can one identify oneself in the purest form and answer the question Who am I, what am I made of? Is there any principle which
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does not undergo any change and hence is eternal or do all things change and are subject to time? Is it always nature's law to change and constancy alone is strange? And there are very powerful, compelling but competing theories, premises and speculations about these questions. So one nds over time that it is prudent not to spend time trying to nd convincing answers to all these questions. These appear to be trivial questions and we turn our attentions thereafter to trivia. While the puranas of ancient times describe in great detail how the Supreme Being created the Universe, there are also theories which nd it unnecessary to bring in a Supreme Intelligent Being to create the Universe, like the Samkhyas and the Yogis piggybacking on the Sankhya framework. The Sankhyas say that the entire universe evolved out of a primordial atomic entity called mulaprakriti made of three essential characteristics, called satwa (order), Rajas (energy) and tamas (disorder/chaos) in perfect equilibrium. Firstly with the equilibrium disturbed by the dominance of Satwa, the rst stage of evolution called Mahat or Universal Intelligence emerges. In it then Rajas raises its head to evolve the next tatwa called Ahamkara or what may be termed as Universal Ego. Then the Samkhyas thoughtfully say that from Ahamkhara emanate two streams of evolution, one the microcosmic the other macro cosmic. The satwic aspect of Ahamkara starts the microcosmic stream, leads to eleven indriyas, the ve sense and ve motor organs along with the coordinating agency called manas. On the other side, the tamasic aspect of ahamkara leads to ve sensations or tanmatras (touch, form etc) which in turn produce the ve bhutas or the gross elements like earth, water, etc. The intellect (buddhi), the ahamkara, the 11 senses (13 in all) form the subtle body. The three principles buddhi(mahat), ahamkara and manas are also called antahkarana or the internal organ. And life force made up of the ve pranas is considered just an incessant function (samanya vritti) of this antahkarana. The ve bhutas or gross elements combine in various combinations and dierent permutations and become the variegated universe we experience. The spirit or purusha, the non-changing eternal consciousness tatwa, joins the subtle body and remains with it, a mute spectator, until the yogi 'liberates' it with yoga. Until then with the subtle accumulated karma bundle and old vasanas attached to it, the subtle body transmigrates and takes a new birth and acquires a new physical body by taking the help of the bhutas of the macrocosm. There is no room for a creator principle in this rather ingenious philosophy. They are able to recognize that for the kind of experience we have, one has to explain how the subject evolves and how the objects evolve so that one can explain the kind of subject object experience we have all our life and life thereafter. They also recognize that in addition there has to be a consciousness principle that experiences all life without undergoing any change. This theory of evolution is accepted by Yogis in toto. But they also subscribe to a superior Being, an Iswara, which could be of considerable use in achieving the ultimate yogic goal. They also accept worship of dierent personal gods (so do samkhyas) which could be venerated for various ends including peace of mind but these gods are not considered as creator. But added to these various theories we also have modern theories of evolution, how the universe came out of one entity called a 'singularity' very similar in concept to Samkhya's mula prakriti which evolved into this universe by a phenomenon called 'Big Bang'. Over a period of time matter particles combined variously and then the rst single cell bacterium was formed, then various beings. The dierence with Samkhya conceptually is that the distinct two stream evolution of Samkhyas is missing, as is the recognition of consciousness as distinct from inert matter.
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The evolution of dierent species as per Darwin nds an echo in the Puranic stories of evolution. According to the Puranas the Creator took several avatars or incarnation like the sh, representing the aquatic 'animal', then the turtle the amphibious creature. Then the boar, then the half man/half animal, the man-lion incarnation. Then the dwarf (vamana), the wild man (parasurama) then the perfect man (Rama) and the divine man (Krishna). Several puranas are named after these stages of evolution-- some like Matsya (Fish), Kurma (turtle), Varaha (Boar), etc. The others are found in other puranas and itihasas like Ramayana and Mahabharata such as Narasimha (man-lion), Vamana (dwarf), Parasurama (wild man), Rama (the perfect man) Krishna (the divine man) etc. Then the Upanishads or the vedanta philosophy talks about evolution from one non changing principle that alone exists, viz., Brahman the pure consciousness which has expanded into this mammoth universe. Again there are dierent views like, if the created universe is really real. All these varying theories about the evolution of the universe, ancient and modern and all the cares of worldly life blunt the childhood wonderment as one keeps muddling through life. The three vedic philosophies viz., Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta form a group of philosophies that subscribe to the authority of the vedas. They are considered as essentially adhyatma vidyas or body of knowledge about one's own self. It is the view of these darsanas that all the suering one experiences birth after birth is due to the wrong understanding about one's own self and by implication the universe itself. And perhaps the most important contribution in this respect is by the Samkhyas who explained the evolution not as one stream but as indicated earlier along two streams, the microcosmic and the macrocosmicthe subject and the object as we experience. So all these philosophies start from our present experience of each of us as the subject and the entire universe as the objects. From this standpoint they start the discussions. Samkhyas talk about the need to know the manifest universe(vyakta) along with the origin of it (avyakta) and also the subject that experiences (jna). Similarly Patanjali in his Yoga talks of the subject, the experiencer (drashta) and the object or that which is experienced, here the chitta vritti. Adi sankara while writing the commentary on Brahma Sutra, the text for Vedanta philosophy, uses a similar approach. Here is how he starts his commentary, the preamble SELF and NOT-SELF It is obvious that the subject and the object that is, the Self (Atman) and the Not-Self, which are as dierent as darkness and light are cannot be identied with each other. It is a mistake to superimpose upon the subject or Self (that is, the "I," whose nature is consciousness) the characteristics of the object or Not-"I" (which is nonconscious), and to superimpose the subject and its attributes on the object. Nonetheless, man has a natural tendency, rooted in ignorance (avidya), not to distinguish clearly between subject and object, although they are in fact absolutely distinct, but rather to superimpose upon each the characteristic nature and attributes of the other. This leads to a confusion of the Real (the Self) and the Unreal (the Not-Self) and causes us to say such incorrect things as "I am that," "That is mine," and so on. Ultimately in the vedanta philosophy of Sankara's advaita, because it admits of only consciousness as satya or real and existent, the objects of the universe that are experienced are considered only an illusion. They explain it in so many dierent ways and using dierent examples. They explain our waking state experience of the world as no dierent from the dreams which while taking place inside the head appear to take place outside of us. Another example that is common among them is that of the image you see in a mirror. Even though there is no space or objects inside the mirrorit is at surface-- it appears to have three
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dimensions and objects too. Now let us try to see if consideration of Yoga's subject and object viz., purusha and chittavritti could lead to a similar conclusion of the advaita vedantins. Let us take one of the chittavrittis, the pramana vritti of which the pratyaksha vritti or the vritti of direct perceptiondirect perception through the sensesis one kind. When I see an objectI have talked about it in an earlier newsletter but we may go beyond by a further step light particles, rupatanmatras or rupaparamanus,, are selectively reected by the object and reach my eyes. The eyes channelize the reected particles by focusing on the object. The light particles reach the retina, and the retina stimulated by the sensation, sends electrical impulses through the optic nerves to the brain. Simultaneously, the objects may send sound waves or other sensations which are collected by the appropriate sense organs and transmitted to the brain. In the brain or chitta, there is a center called manas which coordinates all the information and makes a consolidated picture, which may be called mano vritti of the chitta. Another aspect of chitta known as buddhi (mahat) analyzes the information, refers to memory, etc. and understands the object and then another aspect of the brain called ahamkara or ego adds its own color. It introduces feelings and emotions to the whole picture, like I love it or I do not like it or I'm totally indierent to it. But this information in the brain is within the brain space. This modied/interpreted picture must by seen by me, must be experienced by me in three dimensions. So the chitta projects the information not in the outside physical space but within the brain by creating a virtual mental space. So what I see or experience is not on the physical plane but in the mental plane called chitta akasa. To complicate matters the chitta also includes me as the experiencer of this chittavritti by positing me or my image as the one that is having the experience. So it can be seen that my chittavritti is the totality of my experienceincluding me Ramaswami as the experiencer of this experience. The chittavritti I experience may have three parts, one the object/s I observe, the act of observing and the observer or me. This three part experience is called Triputi, like grahitru. grahana. grahya in Yoga sutras. So whatever I experience now is my Chittavritti.. This is all I experience. Now the next moment the chittavritti changes, The object may have changed or my attention may have changed to another object, so next moment I have another chittavritti representing the objects in the physical space. So moment after moment I have chittavrittis in my mental plane or chitta akasa which alone I see even as it appears that I am experiencing the objects directly from outside. Let us see the chronology of events. At moment 1, I see an object as a chittavritti. At moment 2, I see another object as chittvritti. But the light particles of the object I see the second time are from my previous chittavritti. Why so? Because I only see chittavrittis, even as I feel I am seeing the object from the outside world through my senses as mentioned when we started the discussion. Going backwards I realize that I see objects from my previous chittavrittis, and I have no proof that the objects do really exist, for I only experience a succession of chittavrittis in the mental space(like an innite regress) and I have no proof that they take place in the outer physical space or as the Mayavadins say that there is no proof of the existence of a world outside. There are three possibilities. One is that the universe is real which is the belief of almost everyone of us. The previous discussion will show that it is indeterminate (anirvachaniya), one cannot prove the existence of the world outside and then thirdly the vedantins assert that there is no real creation as we understand (maya). What we experience takes place inside the brain or chitta as a chittavritti but appears to be outside of us. The vedantins say all that happens takes place within our consciousness but
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appears to take place outside of it. Each Chittavritti draws information from previous chittavritti and my world, as is your world, is just a succession of chittavrittis. They further contend that even the chitta like the body is something observed or experienced by the purusha or pure consciousness and hence all that purusha/ consciousness experiences, i.e., the entire universe including me, Ramaswami, is just an illusion(maya) or rather not really real. The vedantins especially the advaita proponents quote the chandogya upanishad to drive home this point. :Namarupe vyakaravani. Nama means name-- here it represents sound and rupa is form, here it represents light. These are the two that our main senses absorb from the outside world for the mind to synthesize and present a picture. Namarupa the representative term, would also include the other sensations like touch, taste and smell but which are relatively minor when compared to the other two. So what we experience are just soundbytes and other sensations. Two sages once ran into each other in a celestial coee shop. They decided to sit down and chat over a hot cup of masala chai. One was a great scholar of the puranas and started stressing the importance of recognizing a creator for the universe. The other argued that it is not necessary to subscribe to this view as nature is capable of evolving without a superior entity. They argued for a long time, a billion years I guess going by a vedic episode. At the end of that period both of them had exhausted their very reasoned arguments. Without anything else to say and unable to convince the other about one's own viewpoint the discussion deteriorated into angry words and was leading to blows, as my guru would say Sesaham Kopena Purayet (the rest of the debate was made up of anger). Then the coee shop owner who was watching the debate and wanting to close the shop for the long cosmic day, butted in and said, Did you ever consider if the universe that we see was really created or just an illusion even before nding out the origin of the Universe and how it was created?' What is the use of all these discussions? If I am convinced this really is the truth about the subject and the object, my attitude towards myself (subject), the world around(objects) could change. Knowing the truth about oneself is a great benet. If I, like the vedantins, come to the conclusion that the waking state worldly experience is essentially no dierent from the dream experience(an illusion, a make belief) I may attach the same importance to these worldly experiences as I would to the dream state. When I wake up, if the dream is sweet, I have a smile and if it is a nightmare I shrug it away as mentioned in Chandogya Upanishad, like a horse which shrugs o the loose hairs. I do not dwell on it, not even on my dream self. No greater importance will I then tend to give for my worldly experiences or even to myself. I may even realize that I am really the pure unchanging consciousness and hence immortal leading to the Yogi's Kaivalya or the vedantin's moksha, which I could savor for the rest of my life. My mind projects what it sees I see what my chitta projects Now I see only what the mind/consciousness projects Incessantly all those illusions. Now I may sing the popular rhyme as follows Twinkle Twinkle Little Star How I wonder what WE are. Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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Mid November 2012 Newsletter An Interview

I was in LosAngeles th is summer teaching a 200 hour Vinyasa krama yoga teacher Training Program. Yuri Sharonin who was participating in the program suggested an interview for possible publication in a on line Russian Yoga Website which may be published in their English site. Here is the link of my interview with Yuri. Hope you like it. It is very long. http://wildyogi.info/en/issue/huge-variety-krishnamacharyas-teachings-interview-srivatsaramaswami However I thought I coul d take the liberty to forward it as a newsletter. Some of the typos and grammatical peculiarites have been corrected by Yuri who did the long interview. Thank you Yuri Sharonin and Ilya Zhyravley. The website articcle has some nice pictures. ******** Huge variety of Krishnamacharya's teachings Interview with Srivatsa Ramaswami Wild Yogi Magazine, www.wildyogi.info Yuri Sharonin Questions: Yuri Sharonin, Ilya Zhyravlev S. Ramasw ami (born 1939 in Madras, Tamil Nadu, India) was a student of the father of modern yoga, Sri T. Krishnamacharya, and studied under him for 33 years, from 1955 until 1988 shortly before Krishnamacharya's passing. He is Krishnamacharya's longest-standing student outside of Krishnamacharya's immediate family. e currently lives and teaches in the U.S. Yuri: Lets talk a about your Guru, Sri Krishnamacharya (1888-1989).You were studying with him until the end of his life, for 33 years. It seems that his teaching was represented by two major periods: teaching in Mysore (1926-1953), and teaching in Madras (Chennai) (1955-1989). Each period spans roughly 30 years. Nearly entire former period went under a patronage of the Mysore royal family, in his prime years. His Chennai years started in his mid-50s, and lead into the sunset of his life.How did you meet him? Shrivatsa Ramaswami:Yes, in fact, I had described this in my book [Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, see also an extract published as "My studies with Sri Krishnamacharya" in Namarupa magazine]. What happened is that I have a brother, who is somewhat handicapped. My father was told by one of his friends that there were a yogi from Mysor that settled down in Madras, and he was coming and teaching at the college where my father's friend was the Principal. And he suggested - "Why don't you try him?" My father met him, and brought into my house. He started to teach my brother, and all the members of my family one by one joined him. In fact,
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Krishnamacharya was coming to my house about 4-5 years every morning - about 4-5 days a week he would come and teach for an hour,hour and a half. After a long period of time my farther discontinued studying with him, but I continued. Later on I started going into his house, and this went on for a long, long time. What was your rst impression of him? First impression was that he appeared to be a bit stern. But once he started to teach - the rst thing he said was "Inhale, raise your arms. Breath with hissing sound, rubbing sensation in the throat." - I had never seen a yoga teacher doing it with breathing. I used to have a few teachers, seen a few books. I was young - just 15 at the time. Like all Indians, I had some exposure to yoga. First thing that struck me was the use of breath, the way he was teaching vinyasas. He was very clear with his instructions. And then also types and number of vinyasas he was able to teach - that was also very impressive. Even with the rst few classes I can see that yoga was much dierent than how we were practicing in India at that time. I had started studying with him, this went on, he started to teach lots of other things. Soon he started teaching pranayama, then afterward he started teaching Vedic chanting. I had some exposure to chanting when I was young; I liked the way he taught Vedic chanting. Then he started to teach various texts, like Yoga Sutras, Samkhya Karika... So this went on. I never knew he was a scholar, I thought he was just a yoga teacher. But later on I found he was an exceptional scholar. Did you have any background in sports, any martial arts? Me? No, not in martial arts. But I used to play cricket at school; I was playing tennis also. I had some exposure. In fact, I was in college tennis team, captain of the team. I used to play ping-pong. Once I started studying with him, I slowly cut down on these, and concentrated more and more on yoga. Do you feel it helped you? No, it feels so dierent, you know. Yoga was so dierent. But I used to be interested in yoga as a physical culture. Even in school we had a yoga teacher. I've learned many simple asanas. But the big dierence was use of breath . I had never seen anyone to teach like this. And look at the vinyasas - the number of vinyasas he taught was quite enormous! Was yoga in India then considered to be mostly physical, as it is now in the West? Yes, in India yoga was considered mostly physical, but still, the way yoga was practiced is not the way yoga is practiced in the west. It was still a physical practice, but more - subtle. They would practice some of the well-known asanas, like headstand, shoulderstand, and few
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forward bends. But not the kind of dicult postures you would nd in the West. A few teachers used to do it, but by and large, general public had about half a dozen - ten dierent asanas that they would practice. Most of them would be able to sit in vajrasana, or padmasana; most of them would be able to do a shoulderstand, or headstand. That's about all the practice we used to do. And a few people will do Surya Namaskara. But of course there are other people who are yogis. Usually yogis are known for their extraordinary feats, like getting buried in the pit, or laying down on the bed of nails, or thorns. These are few exceptions here and there. General public were interested in yoga, but their interest were limited to a few asanas. You would practice for 15 minutes or half an hour every morning. Not the kind of intense practice you nd in the West. That is my understanding. When did you realize that he is your Guru? I just started going to him - I thought everything he has to oer was very useful to me. I did not have any plan. I was very young then. I used to be interested in Indian philosophy at that time. When he started teaching I found that was another dimension to his teaching, which I thought was very good for me. I did not know he was able to do that. One day, I think it was his son, Desikachar - we started chanting together came and asked "I am going to study Yoga Sutras with my father. Would you like to join? My father asked me to nd out from you." I got interested, and started to study Yoga Sutras also. After we went through Yoga Sutras, we went through the commentary of Vyasa. By that time 4-5 years are gone by. Then he was started saying "why don't you study Samkhya Karika?" So we went on studying Samkhya Karika. Like that, he would suggest which subject I should study, and I studied with him. Young Ramaswami & Krishnamacharya How did you came to know T.K.V. Desikachar? I came to know him, because he is Krishnamacharya's son. He was studying somewhere else; after he completed his studies he came to Madras, and started to work with his father. He also started studying with his father. We came to know each other very well, because we are more or less the same age. I studied number of chants with Desikachar; we used to sit and chant along with Krishnamacharya. Yoga Sutras we studied together, Samkhya Karika we did once. A few Upanishads we did together. Then after some time, some common classes, Krishnamacharya stopped teaching, and asked his sons to teach. I was asked to study with Desikachar; I studied with Desikachar for a while. But then when Krishnamacharya started teaching texts, he said, he did not wanted me to have two teachers - he would take over and teach me. How old were you at that time?
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When I started studying I was 15, after he came to Madras and settled down. Then when Krishnamacharya stopped teaching for a year or so, at that time I was maybe 27-28, and after that I went back to study with him, until year before he passed away. Did he ever talk about his Guru, memories of his studies, or his students? No, no. In fact, he never spoke about his guru, at least to me. Maybe he told about it to his son. But basically our classes were conned purely to studies. I would go there, he would start with his prayer, go through the class, and then at the end another prayer, and then I used to come out. Very, very minimal communication on anything. Once in a while he would ask me, "How is your father?." Otherwise there were little or no talk. He never spoke of his guru. And I was not interested in that, I have never asked him. About his students, I don't think he spoke, except once or twice about Iyengar, I think. But about Pattabhi Jois I have never heard him saying anything. Or Indra Devi. Not for any reason, it just happened that way. There were no need for him to talk about it. Sometimes when you would ask questions which are not entirely connected with the subject, he would not encourage you to ask those questions. I don't know his lineage as far as his teachers. I've never asked him, he never told me. There is a saying don't investigate the Nadi Mulah and a Rishi Mulah. Mulah means the origin, Rishi means the sage. Don't try to nd out his antecedents. Likewise, don't try to nd out the source of a river. What I wanted from him, is whatever he could give. And he was interested in giving that. I am still not interested in all the gossip that goes on, what his teacher was, how did he develop his asana practice. Sometimes people say he borrowed his techniques from gymnastics... Then I get upset a little bit. Otherwise, let people say what they want to say. I go with what I directly was able to see from him. These days it is pretty common to indicate which lineage of yoga one follows, how did one came about it, and so on. Yes, but you see, at that time I went to him, I liked what he taught. He knew he had a proper lineage. And moreover, the way he was talking about scriptures, vaishnavite philosophy, and all that - you could see he was a great scholar. Subsequently I came to know through Desikachar that he had dierent degrees, in Samkhya, in Vedanta, in Vedas, number of other degrees. I knew he was a great scholar by the way he was teaching. And it is very dicult to nd in India a teacher with such a comprehensive background. Normally yoga teachers have a very limited understanding of the shastras - only physical aspect. But this was one man, who had tremendous control, tremendous knowledge about yoga - I am talking about physical aspect, and also knowledge of the shastras. You can't nd a person like that. That made me go to him - I thought I can get anything I want from him. Looking back, what do you think was most unique about him?
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His scholarship, his understanding. And one more thing - in India, when you want to study some of these texts, want to study Vedanta, you won't nd anybody who would be prepared to teach you at your level. I did not have a necessary background. But Krishamacharya was able to come down to my level and teach. He was not just a scholar - he could explain it to you so you can understand. Initially it was a bit dicult for me - I had to raise my own level. But at the same time he would come down to your level; he would talk to you so you would see he wants you to understand the basic principles. Whereas if you would go to lectures of scholars, you would get just a scholarly presentation. And you don't really get the feeling that these are all Atma Vidyas, things that are meant for our own good. So when you study Yoga Sutras, Vedanta with him, you would get the feeling these are all meant for us. How he selected his students? Was he teaching to anyone who is willing to listen? I don't know. So far as I am concerned, he came to my house, I saw him, and I started to study with him. He did not reject me, nor I did went about searching for a guru. I don't think he was very choosy about anybody who wanted to study with him, but then unfortunately not many people at that time came and studied with him. Of all those people who came to him, 90% of them came for some ailment or other, so he came to be known better a person who used yoga therapy. They did not know what he can oer. Most people came for some ailment or the other, and after that they used to go - very few people stayed with him for a long time. There were one or two who studied with him for a long period of time, but they did not want to teach, they had other avocations. He did not specically ask me to teach, until twenty years or so. One day he asked me "would you like to teach?" Until that time, I did not think of teaching, because when you sit in front of him, and study with him, you get a feeling you do not know anything. When this started, I started to think about various things I don't know, rather than what I knew. As I was studying I was also teaching - it helped me to improve my teaching, I asked more questions. I was able to broaden my base much better once I started teaching. As you start teaching, you start developing. It is a parallel development: you go back, refer to whatever he had said. That was a very good experience: studying with him on one side, on the other side going and teaching. Most of his teachings really are not well-known. If you say that most of his teachings limited to few of the sequences that you nd in the modern Ashtanga Yoga, I think that's not fair to him. Have you observed his practice? No, no. Ekagrata. Everyone has his own practice. But occasionally - suppose I was ve minutes early to his class, I could probably sometimes see him doing his headstand, or shoulderstand, or sitting in mahamudra, or some of those postures. But then, he would be completing his practice. So I would stand outside. Of course he did not object me observing his practice, but you don't really go sit down and look. Sometimes he used to show some pranayama, some postures. Beyond that I did not observe his practice. And he also had daily puja which he was performing, so I had a good idea how he spent his time.
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India had changed tremendously during those years. How is his teaching had changed through the years you had studied with him? I studied with him on one-to-one basis. I have no idea how he taught others, except when he asked me to come and observe if he wanted. For instance, when he was treating some people, occasionally he would ask me to come and observe. That was very rare, not frequent. I really have no idea how he taught others. But I can't believe that he taught anybody without breathing, synchronizing the breathing with the movement. Every time - it was thirty years every class I go to, he would start with the breathing. Another thing - he gave a lot of importance to pranayama, he gave a lot of importance to chanting. That is why I try to combine all of them, whenever I try to present this program [LMU 200hr TT], because he taught all these subjects. What was it like to study with him? His main goal was to convey the subject to the student, that's all. He would be focused totally on that. His focus would be teaching, and you would be always thinking whether you are able to understand what he was talking about. Usually he would close his eyes and speak for 5-10 minutes, because most of the Sutras he knew by heart. And then suddenly he would open his eyes to see if you were sitting there, then close his eyes and continue. With him, there were nothing extraneous. From the moment you come to the class and start with the prayer, go through the class, and end with the prayer.. After the prayer is over, I would just stand up, and go out of the room, and then come back next class. He was totally focused on whatever he wanted to teach. Not merely the subject, but how to convey it so you will be able to understand. That is the main thing. I think the impression you get from studying with him was this: these are the shastras, scriptures. His life goal was to understand it, bit by bit, so they will become part of his own psyche, his own way of thinking. And then convey it to the next generation. The rest of the things were secondary. I don't know how he was earlier. You can see a erce intent in transmission of knowledge. Of course he used to charge fees. He needed money, everybody needs money. But that was not the main thing. If you can show that you are really interested, he came out of his way to help you by explaining, that's about all. And normally I never used to ask questions. If I had a doubt, I would keep it to myself. I tried to understand it myself by thinking about what he said, did I miss something. Sometimes I refer to other notes, other commentaries. But usually, if I had a doubt, in twothree days time, I don't know how he knew, but he would explain it. That was something very good about him. You can see that he was really interested in you, in your development. Was he willing to be patient with a student, explain things over again? I had never asked him many questions. Very rarely asked him. I think one time I'd asked him a question, because I did not understand, he said, What is wrong you? You are not being observant. You are not listening. I kept quiet. Then I realized, yes, he mentioned about it. Why didn't I notice? One day he said, your absorption is not good. So I used to be very
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attentive. Not because of compulsion, but because the way he used to put it. But then again, I had studied with him for thirty years, and subjects came up again and again; I had plenty of opportunities to reect... Sometimes when he was teaching a new subject, even then things were explained again in a dierent way. The time factor, the length of time I could spent with him that played a very big role. So what you should do is try to develop your own studies. Krishnamacharya's scholarly qualications are so numerous and impressive, he could have easily been a stellar scholar. Why do you think he chose to be a Yogacharya? I will put it this way: There are hundreds and hundreds of yoga teachers, who just teach asanas. There are hundreds and hundreds of scholars who just teach philosophy. Very rarely you can nd a person, who combined yoga practice, and also philosophy. And his approach was this: that without yoga it is not possible to achieve all those things that were mentioned in the shastras. If you want to be a bhakti yogi, or you want to be a jnana yogi - whatever spiritual height you want to achieve, you have to have a solid yoga base, at least a solid hatha yoga practice, consisting of dierent asanas and pranayama. It is quite obvious: asana and pranayama are necessary to control one's rajas and tamas; without controlling rajas and tamas, you cannot really go into many of the meditative procedures mentioned. It was very clear the way he was teaching. Which part of Krishnamacharya's teachings is least explored? I think therapeutic applications of his teachings. His Chikitsa Krama. But then, I think more than giving simple movements or exercises to people, I think his approach to the Six Koshas is very important. It is not therapeutic application, it is more fundamental. This is something you can nd in Yoga Rahasya, he mentions these things. In Yoga Makaranda, see the kind of importance given to Pranayama, and also Bandhas, the inversions few things that are unique to Yoga. They have to be put in a way, so that ordinary people will be able to appreciate things that could happen rather than talk about chakras, and some of those things which are very dicult to explain. But you have to quantify it. The only reason why it is not brought about, is that we have to validate all those things. Once validated, it will become very popular, I am sure. It is quite logical. It will be quite useful. More people will do Pranayama, more people will do the Bandhas, headstand, shoulderstand, more people will meditate. My wife is a doctor she says they appear medically sound. Only thing is she says, it will be better if you can validate it. I tried to do that, but I was able to do some minimal work. In fact, two-three years back I was start thinking about coming up with a book called Yoga for Internal Organs. I can use my wife's help, so she can deal with professional terms used my modern medical practitioners, so they can appreciate what's been said. But the only thing is, I need some more studies to be done. I tried for two years, and initially got something done. But then I started coming here. Here , in the USA I cannot do anything. In India I stayed for two-tree months, I cannot organize anything in that time. But still, I got it clear in my mind; I know what I want to do. What I need is some good technician design some experimental studies, so whatever I want to do he
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will be able to implement. I don't know kinds of various equipment available now. I don't even need a doctor. See, these people are trying to say how it won't work. First thing they say, oh yes, this won't work. So I need a technician, I want this to be done, studied. I think this time when I will go I will be able to get something done.
This is one project I would like to do. If I can't do it, it is OK... Maybe this time I will do this... Otherwise his emphasis was on Yoga Sutras, Philosophy, Vedanta, Bhagavad Gita... There is a group of people which was interested in India, studying with him, they were not interested in asanas. In fact, I know a person who is two-three years older than me, about 75-76. He was a long time student of Krishnamacharya. He studied asanas, but not very much. But he studied a lot of philosophy, not even chanting. Very good in Yoga Sutras and all that. But he did not want to teach. He became a Public Prosecutor, he is a lawyer. He did not want to leave his profession. But because of his law background very very sharp fellow. Likewise, there are few people who studied with him, but at the same time they were not prepared to teach. In your time of studying with Krishnamacharya, were there any Indians who were seeking yoga as sadhana? Not for health reasons, or mental peace, or studying philosophy? People who came during his Madras/Chennai stay, many people came for some therapy. Some chronic back problem, or neck problem, or scoliosis... Or sometimes they came due to inability to sleep, physiological problems. Sometimes people came for treatment of bronchial asthma. That was one group. The other group was people who were interested in vaishnavite philosophy. They came to him because he had a lot of knowledge about Vaishnavism. In fact, once he was considered for a top post, to head Vaishnava Mutt - Matha is a particular vaishnavite denomination. He was a great vaishnavite scholar, and many people came to study with him. He used to teach Bhagavad Gita, Ramanuja's works, Desikan's works. That was another group. The third group was coming and studying asana. People like us, to whom he also taught related subjects like Samkhya, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Upanishads... And were there other ones who seeking yoga as sadhana? Many of the real yogis keeping it to themselves. At that time there were number of renown yoga teachers - Kuvalayananda in north India, there was a yoga teacher called Sundaram in Bangalore area, Krishnamacharya was in Mysore... His book was popular at that time, people would look at his pictures and practice. But again, as I told you, it is all conned to few asanas. What was Brahmacharya for Krishnamacharya?
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Brahmacharya, of course is a strict celibacy. Patanjali talks about two types of Brahmacharya. Brahmachayas, they called Naishtika Brahmachayas, people who maintained Brahmacharya throughout their life, and have no problems. They can live without sex all their life. There are very few people like that. On the other hand, if you don't have this capacity, don't have this mental control, you are not allowed to remain a Brahmacharya throughout your life. In Brahmacharya Ashrama [rst stage (Ashrama) of life in Vedic Ashram System, student life] you are expected to maintain the celibacy. But then , after completing studies, you must get married [enter the next stage, Grihastha, or householder], so you are not a nuisance to society. But still, as a Grihastha you can practice Yoga, then become Vanaprastha [next stage, in which one partially giving up material desires], ultimately, once all your duties are done, you can become a Sannyasi [the nal life stage of the renouncer] and proceed. So Krishnamacharya used to say, that during Kali Yuga [current epoch, or Yuga, in the cycle of four yugas described in the scriptures], this particular period of time, Brahmacharya is not possible. There are more distractions, they are not as disciplined as during previous Yugas. Brahmacharya is not a choice. You can't just decide I want to become a yogi. I want to become a Brahmachari. They won't allow that. If you even have thoughts about sex, you are not a Brahmachari, you must get married. This is a simple test. Unless you can maintain real Brahmacharya, you don't fool around, trying to say you are a Brahmachari. Because later on, all these people create problems. That is why in Vaishnava philosophy, they don't allow to remain Brahmachari even the heads of the Mutt. Whereas in the Advita Shankaracharya tradition, boys are taken and then made into Shankaracharyas. This system of maintaining celibacy all life in several religions have been less than 100% successful. Unfortunately sometimes they make mistakes. When they make mistakes, they create lots of problems. So basically, for him it was faithfulness to the marital vows. Yes.
It is said that in his late years he practiced only Bhakti Yoga, as he was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu all his life. Does this mean that he came to conclusion that Patanjala ashtanga yoga, and samadhi is not a practical way to achieve Kaivalya? No, that is not so.. He did not become a bhakti yogi in his late years. He was a bhakti yogi from the very beginning, it was his family tradition. If you want to categorize Krishnamacharya whether he was a bhakti yogi, or a jnana yogi, or a hatha yogi, I would say he was a bhakti yogi. That was a main thing. Everything else he did would have to lead to bhakti yoga. But then he also used to tell, that various procedures and practices mentioned in Yoga Sutras are very important, because Bhakti Yoga does not deal with that. That is why he started teaching. He used all angas of ashtanga yoga, or Patanjala yoga darshana, and simultaneously developed a bhaki yoga practice. He used to say there is only one dhyana - that is Bhagavat dhyana - meditation on the Lord. Once you practice your pratyahara, next thing for you would be meditating on the Lord. So all those things mentioned in Yoga Sutras become very academic, because that's not what you want. His purpose was to have a vision of the Lord, everything would be directed towards that.
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And what is the predicament of non-believer? If you have no faith in God, then you can go through the procedures mentioned there. Yoga Sutra provides provisions for that: do your pranayama, your meditation, try to develop onepointedness, and then try to understand True Self. None of them requires belief in God. There is a royal path available. But if you believe in God, you got additional support, additional help. You can use that. Have you seen him practicing asana in his late years? Yes, that is what I told you before. But not the same kind of asana you see him doing in 1938 lm, not that kind of yoga. He himself used to say that you have to change your approach to yoga as you get older. Clearly, more emphasis on pranayama. And then, I've seen his pranayama - something extraordinary was in a way he was able to expand his chest, and then do the bandhas afterwards. He insisted that everybody should practice pranayama. Unfortunately, nowadays pranayama is neither taught, nor encouraged. It is said that Krishnamacharya was continued to call himself a student because he felt that he was always studying, exploring and experimenting with the practice. It seems like his practice changed through the years. His yoga as presented in Yoga Makaranda seems quite dierent from yoga he taught you. I would not say Yoga Makaranda and Yoga Rahasya are complete representation of the way he taught. Sometimes when you write a book, you are writing about some asanas, how particular asana should be done. Watching snippets of his 1938 movie, one get impression of very active, fast practice. Right, right. I will tell you that all those things were done with a purpose of demonstration. For the purpose of people knowing it. See, when he was teaching in Mysore, he was teaching youngsters. He was also teaching the royal family. I don't think he was teaching those things to the royal family. They were not jumping through, or doing those dicult things. He would adopt to individual requirements. People like to see those things, so he presented things that people like to see. And that does not mean that this was what was he teaching. Even at that time he was teaching dierently to dierent people. It is clear that he was leaning towards individual, one-on-one approach in his later years. No, even in earlier years. Whatever you see in the movies, in those photographs, or whatever is mentioned in Yoga Makaranda - he wanted to present a particular view of the whole thing.
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Whereas in Yoga Rahasya he says that the whole thing have to change, depending upon your age, view not found in Yoga Makaranda. So books are not a complete picture of how he was teaching. That is what I feel reading Yoga Makaranda, Yoga Rahasya, those movies. And I think he himself would say it sometimes that those were made to attract people towards yoga. Because people like to see those things, and shown them. He was capable of that. I would not say that his teachings were conned to what you see in 1938 movie, or what was mentioned in some of the earlier books. That is my view. There is a saying "Success is 99% practice." Pattabhi Jois used to say: "Practice and all will come." Is the secret is just practice, or studying shastras is essential? What place study of scriptures should take in one's progress? Again, it all depends on individual interests. If you are happy with asana practice, and maintain that, that is good. But the way Krishnamacharya used to teach, it may not be sucient. Practice changes as we get older. That is why he had three dierent kramas: srishti krama when you are young and growing, with empasis on asanas and vinyasa; in midlife chikitsa, or sthiti krama to maintain a good health, and then as you get older, anta, or samhara krama. Philosophy helps to guide you in the old age. Many times in India, after they get to 60 years, they retire, and start studying Vedanta philosophy - it is dicult to understand it then. You have to have a good grounding even when you are young. I think people who practice only asana, and try to be satised with that - after some time... It is not a complete picture. So much written about Yoga Sutras, it is so commented, that frequently comments obscure the original meaning rather than clarify it. What was Krishnamacharya's method of studying scriptures, Yoga Sutras in particular? He considered Yoga Sutras as the most important text if you want to study yoga. It is the most important text, because it contains yoga philosophy. And yoga philosophy considered to be one of the fundamental philosophies belonging to the Vedic period. If you want to study yoga philosophy, you want to study Yoga Sutras. And then he said, once you have understanding of Yoga Sutras, you can compare it with other texts. If other yoga text is consistent with Yoga Sutras, then it is acceptable. Because Yoga Sutras by itself cannot explain everything in great detail. It can only explain basic parameters, because it was meant to be brief. It gives overview of the whole thing, and at the same time gives all the necessary details about the important things. If you want to know more about asanas, yes, Yoga Sutras gives only two sutras to explain parameters of asanas. It does not tells you about various asanas. There is a general rule "anuktam anyato grahyam" if the main text does not explains certain things, you have to go to other texts, which will help you to understand. That's a common approach. When I studied Hatha Yoga Pradipika with him, he said that most of it is quite acceptable, but there are certain areas that are not acceptable, you do not have to read them. Especially some portions of the Third Chapter. How do you tell they are not acceptable? They are not consistent with Patanjali Yoga Sutras, go against principles of Raja Yoga. HYP is a very
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good text, but don't take it as a Gospel Truth. But otherwise, it is an excellent book especially for Pranayama, the varieties of Pranayama discussed, you get idea about that. But in the olden days there were number of yoga systems which seem to violate some of the yama niyamas mentioned in the Yoga Sutras. So he would say, be careful about that. People who study the Yoga Sutras will know - this is not according to main teachings of the Yoga Sutras. Can you give any example of that? There are many practices that are not helpful to maintain brahmacharya. They are considered to be OK in some traditions, if they encourage that, or experimenting along those lines. He would say, don't go near those practices. This kind of information is available when you go to traditional yoga teacher, like Krishnamacharya. But if you go to a teacher who does not belong to this tradition, you do not know. There was a lot of mixing up in yoga practices in the olden days. and more so nowadays. Ramaswami teaches.(picture) How did he study actual source? There is actual text, which is very terse, and there are a lots of translations and commentaries. How did he approached it? Let us take Yoga Sutras. The st time around, he would just take the sutra, word by word meaning. Give a brief understanding of the sutra. Give a derivation of each and every word. The rst reading itself, you are very close to the text. Then whenever you read the commentary it goes much easier. But nowadays what happen is that people do not read the sutras, because some understanding of Sanskrit is necessary. Krishnamacharya would break down every word, every word in the source, and then explain etymology. That way you get very close to the Sutras. That is the rst reading. Second reading you go to the commentary. Then it becomes that much easier. If you read only the commentary, and don't have understanding of sutra, what it means - I read a commentary, write a book, then somebody reads my book, he writes another book... Over the period of time meaning becomes completely dierent, watered down - this is not acceptable. When I was young, there were not many people who were teaching Yoga Sutras at that time, because Yoga Sutras was considered to be a very dicult text to deal with. Whereas people would teach Vedanta very easily. Brahma Sutras were taught. At that time, I remember Yoga Sutras were taught more in Western universities than in Indian universities. You apply to the shastri position in Sanskrit college (teacher learned in the texts and commentaries) - people would prefer to study Nyaya Shastra, or Nyaya, Vyakarana (grammar), or Mimamsa, or Vedanta. Very few people were studying Yoga Sutras, because many people did not have necessary background to teach yoga. Yoga studies were very limited at that time, and only Krishnamacharya and few people like that could teach. Now, of course, almost everybody teaches Yoga Sutras. I remember we were very, very reluctant to explain Yoga Sutras at that time, because we were afraid we were not explaining it properly. Now because yoga is popular, people started to teach Yoga Sutras.
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He taught only Vyasa's commentaries. And then there were another comments by Shree Shankaracharya. But more than anything else, I would say that Krishnamacharya interpretation of Yoga Sutras was the most important thing. Again, the way he was approaching it was - go to the Sutras. Try to understand the Sutras without any of these frills. Then when you want a little more about it, and these commentaries will be helpful. But you can't understand Yoga Sutras by reading commentaries alone. You must have a basic understanding of the whole thing by reading the Sutras. When you start to explain Yoga Sut ras through commentaries - "this commentator says this", "this commentator says this",... - this way you are not really explaining the Sutras. There is little point in saying "X says this", "Y says this", etc. What is it you want me to understand? This is exactly what you would get from Krishnamacharya: he would explain what it means. You would study it, and then think about it. Because there should be cogency. Some of the things he would say - Yoga Sutras divided into three parts meant for three dierent groups: the born yogi, an entry-level yogi, and a life-long yogi. This kind of representation you cannot nd in modern commentaries. Then what happens, you try to take one sutra from here, one sutra from there, and then try to paste some meaning out of it. There is a structure to it, you know. That he was able to present properly. Again, you don't nd that even in traditional commentaries. This makes you understand Sutras structure, whom Patanjali is addressing, all these things. It becomes easier when you study with a guru like him. What other works he considered to be essential? After the Yoga Sutras, he asked us to study Samkhya Karika, because a lot of things that are taken for granted in Yoga Sutras you nd in Samkhya Karika, that is a theoretical basis for Yoga. [Yoga philosophy piggybacks on Samkhya philosophy.] He taught Samkhya Karika shloka by shloka, and then he also used Gaudapada's brief commentary on that. First you go through the Samkhya Karika text, and then - the commentary. There is also equally good commentary by Vachaspati Mishra; both are available in English translation. Traditional translations are available. That was the second most important text. Then he went on to teach several of Upanishads. Not the complete Upanishads - he would take one section, they called Vidyas, Upanishadic Vidyas. Like the Panchakosha-Vidya, or Panchagni-Vidya, or Sad-Vidya, Bhuma-Vidya... That went on for a number of years. And of course, in addition to that - chanting, a lot of chanting. I have learned a lot of chanting. Was it part of part of Bhakti Yoga? No, the interpretation of Svadhyaya in Yoga Sutras is study of the Vedas. Chanting of the Vedas. [Traditions of Vedic chant are considered oldest unbroken oral tradition in existence, dating back to early Iron Age.] He would teach chanting of mere Yoga Sutras, some portions of Upanishads. Updanishads portions of Jnana - the knowledge portion. And some Bhakti like Purusha Sutra, Rudram Chamakam. They are Bhakti portions. And some of them are rituals. You take Surya Namaskara mantra, the chanting is done every Sunday. Those supposed to have a very laudable benets - if you chant Surya Namaskar, you are supposed to
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have a very good health. He used to say, even if you only hear those mantras, you are bound to feel healthier. That kind of belief is there. We used to study and chant Surya Namaskar every Sunday along with him for a number of years. There were number of other sections he taught. Mere chanting itself has an eect. Chants are supposed to vibrate in dierent chakras in the body, they are very auspicious sounds. If you believe in that and chant, it has a very salutary eect on your system. Vedic chanting must be done in a very particular way, and it is not singing, is it? [The oral tradition of the Vedas consists of several pathas, recitations, or ways of chanting the Vedic mantras.] Yes, you cannot change that. He himself studied the Vedic chanting when he was young, and he was able to teach us. Krishnamacharya wrote several books throughout his life. He wrote in his mother tongue, Kannada. What was his target audience - who was he writing for? E. g. Yoga Makaranda has a very dierent form than Yoga Rahasya. I think Yoga Makaranda was written for Indians in general. It was not addressed for Western audience per se. He wanted many Indians who were not practicing yoga to start practicing. He was probably directed by Maharajah of Mysore to write a book, and I understand he wrote it in two-three days time; pictures were taken, and he wrote the whole thing. It was two things - one is the instructions for Maharajah, and two - he wanted more Indians to practice yoga. Whereas Yoga Rahasya is a text which was lost, remember, I told the story of Natamuni wanting to transmit a knowledge to his grandson. He wanted to represent the Vaishnava Yoga, yoga based on vaishnavite philosophy, and also number of other things that he wanted to say: the therapeutic benets of some of the procedures, like pranayama, etc. So he wrote that book. I don't know when he wrote that, because during the class he used to quote from Yoga Rahasya, he would say "this is what Yoga Rahasya says." I used to note down many of those things. But later on Desikachar was able to collect all of them and publish it as a book, I found that some of the shlokas he taught in the class are not there, and some of the shlokas the he did not teach were actually there. Let us assume that he wrote everything himself, with the inspiration from Nathamuni, if you take it that way. It was addressed partly the vaishnavite philosophy, partly the therapeutic applications. And also I could see he was talking about three stages of practice. There were few other ideas you do not nd in Yoga Makaranda. I think later on, towards the end of his life, he wrote a commentary for rst chapter of Yoga Sutras. He wrote it in Kannada, translated to Tamil, and then published. Unfortunately, I don't know why it was not translated in English. I don't know if he wrote the commentaries on the other three chapters.
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In his writings he sometimes comes across as severe, categorical, and sometimes angry. Is it sign of times, or his character? A bit of disciplinarian he was. And all of that was directed by his rm belief in the shastras. It is not only him - most of the elders at that time were very forthright. They won't mince words, they tell you right in your face. Maybe is is the case in every civilization. He was one of those. Yes, he was very stern, but at the same time there was a very beautiful element in him, very nice things about him. He was interested in Yoga, how many teaches are there like that?
He was also a patriot. India was not independent at that time. Yes, he believed that by following yoga, by maintaining good health Indians should be more disciplined and not be so easily swayed by Western inuence at that time. Was Krishnamacharya was only speaking Kannada? No, that's very interesting about him. He knew Kannada, his mother tongue virtually. He lived in Mysore. Then when he came to Madras, he learned Tamil, and started to teach in Tamil. He learned Tamil. He was in Madras for about two years before my father met him, and by then he learned it. The only thing, he had a very strong accent. He would use many Sanskrit terms, that was very helpful. Initially, for rst few days it used to be funny, like the way we speak English sometimes. Like that, he had an accent, he had an odd choice of words... But then, over the period of time you get used to it, and it was very good. No problem at all. Did he understand or speak English? He spoke English, but it was worse than his Tamil. English was very dicult. But at the same time he had Western students, and they were able to understand him. Did he have Western students? Yes, at that time there was an American Consul General in Madras. He learned Tamil, and then he would study with him. What was his name? I wonder what become of him. His name was Dr Albert Franklin. He is no more. But he was a very, very good friend of his. He was my father's age. He was a good friend of his, and he and his wife used to come there.
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I don't know if he wrote anything about Krishnamacharya, but I think he studied with him for a number of years, because he was living in Madras, and he was US Consul General. He was one of those people who did not merely studied asanas. He also studied number of other things. I think he studied Bhagavad Gita, Yoga Sutras, and all that. He was a Harvard Ph. D in Political Science, great scholar. A very nice man. Were there any other western students? T his one I remember. May be there were a few others. Because sometimes after his class was over, I used to go for my class. I used to meet him just outside the class and speak for couple of minutes. He knew Yoga very well. I wish people like him teach Yoga. Unfortunately... This man would have been a very good teacher. I don't know why he chose not to teach. Indra Devi was there. Indra Devi was born and brought up in Russia, actually. She emigrated after the revolution, but visited USSR a couple of times after she settled in Argentina. I've met her just once, for a few minutes. She came to see him on his 99thbirthday or something. I did not speak to her; somebody introduced me, she said Hello. Did he ever share his thoughts about Tantra? You see, Tantra itself is a huge subject. There are some practices that were considered to be not acceptable from the Vedic approach. They called it Sadachara and Vamachara. He was pretty severe about Vamachara practices, objectionable practices. If it is an idol- worship, some people say it is Tantra. He himself used to practice that. He had an icon, and worshiped it on a regular basis, but that is acceptable. And then some other practices, like I told you, in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, that are not acceptable. He would say "Be careful about those practices." Are you familiar with tradition of Tamil siddhis (sittars), and Tirumantiram scripture? Do you think this tradition is still alive? In fact, I wrote an article about Tirumantiram in Namarupa magazine (there was also an article about Tirumular and Tirumantiram in Vinyasakrama Oct 2009 newsletter). Tirumular was a great yogi, supposedly a contemporary of Patanjali. He was more known as siddha,. The entire Tirumantiram consists of 3000 verses or so. There is one section, one eights of it, is on ashtanga yoga. The others is about Tapa Siddhi. If you want to understand those, it is a very good text. Some shlokas hit you as very very meaningful. In your opinion, why in lineages originated from Krishnamacharya (B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, T.K.V. Desikachar, you, A.G. Mohan) Shatkarmas (cleaning procedures) are not
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taught? In his early work, e. g. Yoga Makaranda, he gave plenty of attention and importance to these practices. In traditions of Sivananda, Bihar school of yoga, Vivekananda, and followers of Dhirendra Brahmachari place great emphasis on teaching these procedures. In fact, Krishnamacharya, when he started teaching us, never gave much importance to them. Only the kriya that he said was important was Kapalabhati kriya, because you are not putting anything external into the system. See, Kapalabhati takes the air to cleanse the whole system, whereas other kriyas introduce a lot of foreign material. And they are not very pleasant. He said, in fact I do remember him indicating it, he mentioned them because they are all in the texts. It does not mean you should practice them. He himself would say, I think it is mentioned somewhere, that these are not necessary for everyone, only people who got a lot of toxins that should be removed. They should practice this. So when we were practicing, he said, "it is not necessary for you, your breathing is normal, you do not have to do all those kriyas." When you talk about the system, you must know that these are various things available, use it if it is necessary, not on the regular basis. You don't need to use a Neti Pot daily, just because it is mentioned there. To be able to use it, one needs to know how. Yes, you have to learn how to use it. Did he teach it? No, at the time he said, "It is not necessary for you." At that time I was not thinking of teaching, so he was teaching only for my own requirements. I did not ask him how to do this, and he did not teach me. I do not teach it to anybody, because I don't know how to use this. And then Hatha Yoga Pradipika clearly says this is not for everybody, but only when absolutely necessary. Shat-kriyas need not be practiced by everyone. They are there if needed, it is an option we have. Did he give any recomm endations on massage, oil bath, other cleaning procedures? Yes, oil bath is som ething that people in India, especially in South India, do it regularly. He did not give any particular recommendations, but he would say don't let anybody do an oil bath or a massage to you, as a yogi, a practitioner of yoga. You have to massage your own body, allow 20 minutes to half an hour for oil to soak, and then have a bath. And then there are some materials that are available to remove excess oil from the body. Usually this was done twice a week. He would also recommend taking castor oil twice a year for cleaning digestive tract. These were accepted practices. Normally in Madras we take a warm water bath in the morning. Many times we take a cold water bath, it is more refreshing. But Krishnamacharya insisted you take warm water bath. Of course yogis take cold water bath, we know that. But he said, at your age, this is what you
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should do. Naturally the condition of yogi who lives in Himalaya will be dierent. But from that day on, I take a warm water bath before my yoga practice. Did he gi ve any other recommendations on diet, sleep, or monitoring one's health? As far as sleep is concerned, he would say, go to bed early, and get up early in the morning. Because morning is the best time for you to practice your yoga, or chanting, or meditation, or whatever. He himself used to wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning. But he used to go to bed around 8:30 at night. Of course, this would be dicult in the Western countries. In India sunset is always around 6pm, whether it is winter or summer. So he used to go to bed around 8-8:30, be up by 3 in the morning. By 6 or 7 would have completed all his morning ritual, and the ready to receive anybody for a class, about 7 o'clock in the morning. He would say, "go to bed early, get up early in the morning, try to get at least 6 hours of sleep." "Don't put on weight, be careful about your diet." I think I mentioned to you, that he would say "don't allow your thighs and waist to spread." Did he recommend measuring thighs, waist, and heart rate regularly? Yes. Another thing he would say, "don't allow a heart rate to go up, don't allow a breath rate to go up." Even though you are practicing asanas, you have to take a rest frequently. Whenever you nd a student struggling for breath, don't ask him to go on. If the breath rate is above the normal, allow them to settle down. The whole purpose was to slow down the breath rate. The metabolic breath rate should come down. He was a lso an Ayurvedic practitioner. It seems that in old days, yogic approach, including shat-kriyas, was prevention of diseases, and was independent from Ayurveda. Yes. Yoga texts in general don't talk about Ayurveda practices. Whereas Ayurveda, I understand, mentions that if diseases cannot be cured by Ayurveda, it should be tackled by Pranayama. That is what I hear. I did not study Ayurveda practices. But then you must also understand that yogi was usually a recluse. He did not have facility of Ayurvedic doctor/ vaidya. They would have to manage the everything by themselves. So yoga, over period of time, develop its own techniques of maintaining the good health. The rst thing they would have to do is to have a good health, so they could sit down, meditate, be alone. From that point of view, yoga got enough material to maintain a good health. How did he come up with Ayurveda? Did he use it in his own practice? Did he use it for healing? For his own sake, I don't know if he used ayurvedic preparations, I don't know. But whenever students came to him, he would teach them asanas. But asanas were not sucient, because they did not have same discipline that he had. So he would supplement them with ayurvedic preparations. I don't think Krishnamacharya himself was an Ayurvedic expert,
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Ayurvedic Vaidya. He had a good working knowledge of Ayurveda. That is my understanding. He would use them as a supplementary method. When students come to him, he used to prescribe medicated oils, for joint pain, or things like this. He also gave certain lehyam [ayurvedic jam], powder. And he had a good understanding of human anatomy, physiology. He used pulse. He had his own methods of diagnostics. He would check your pulse, check your marmasthanas [vital body regions]. Few things he developed and used. I don't think he taught this to anybody. Maybe his son learned about it. He had a good working knowledge how to treat patients - with asana, with pranayama, with few ayurvedic preparations. And sometimes he would teach some mantras to chant. Like that, he would draw from dierent sources, and then make a recommendations to his students. Let's talk about Pranayama. In his writings he says numerous times, that Pranayama is the key to the whole practice; it is the most important anga. Vinyasa Krama you teach is centered around the breathing. Right. And yet, Pranayama, by and large, taught on the fringes, and sometimes has an air of being remote like samadhi. Often presented as dangerous. How Krishnamacharya taught it, and how soon? I don't remember when he started to teach me Pranayama. I know it was very early, because he had started to use breathing on day one. That itself is half Pranayama: long inhalation, long exhalation. You start from day one. And then Pranayama practice is regular. I think I mentioned, Pranayama practice is an integral part of daily routine in olden days. You are required to do ten times Pranayama with Gayatri Mantra, and all that. Pranayama is considered essential part of your daily life. You are required to do, say, ten in the morning, ten in the afternoon, ten in the evening, and there two or three in addition in every sitting. Virtually you do forty pranayamas every day. Everybody - you don't have to be a yogi to practice Pranayama. Everybody is required to practice Pranayama forty times every day. So, what's the big deal? Samantraka Pranayama (pranayama with Mantra)? Samantraka Pranayama. But still a pranayama. In fact it's a more dicult pranayama. If everybody, even non-yogi do forty times pranayama, why yogi should shy away from that? And I don't think Krishnamacharya told anybody not to teach Pranayama. He might have not told somebody to teach specically pranayama, I don't know what happened. But he didn't prevent anybody... He taught Pranayama from very beginning. In fact, almost anybody who has studied with him learned Pranayama from him. He would himself teach Pranayama. Normally your asana practice ends with pranayama session. I have never come out from his class without practicing Pranayama. I think I've mentioned it several times. You see, Pranayama is the one that makes Yoga unique. In all other systems there is no control over the breathing. In all physical exercises, there is no control over the breathing. Here you try
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bring your breathing under voluntary control. If there is something very big, very unique about Yoga - it is the breathing. Any people who want to meditate, to achieve samadhi, achieve kaivalya, some of those things that are mentioned - if you shy away from Pranayama, how can you progress? You have to use this vehicle, you got to use Pranayama. Krishnamacharya was insistent that without Pranayama, there is no Yoga. In fact, word Hatha, as in Hatha Yoga, means Pranayama. You look in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the commentator says Ha is Prana, Tha is Apana, Yoga is a Union, Hatha Yoga is a union of Prana and Apana, which is Pranayama. So Hatha Yoga Is Pranayama. How can you say, "I practice Hatha Yoga without Pranayama?" I don't know why people are unnecessarily discouraged from Pranayama. Everything is dangerous. If you do Pranayama in very unorganized way, then perhaps... But then enough instructions are given in the books. And they say you have to be careful, you have to learn from a teacher. Yes, you have to learn from a teacher. See that it is within your limits. In fact in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the rst instruction is "Inhale as much as you can." Yetashakti "Exhale as much as you can." Slowly build your capacity. You have to work along these lines. People who discourage Pranayama are doing a disservice to Yoga. That may not be their intent, but they are creating unnecessary fear in people, and they are doing a disservice to Yoga. One reason why people are reluctant to teach Pranayama because they are afraid of teaching it. They don't teach Pranayama because they don't want to get into any problem. They don't want to teach Sirsasana, or Sarvangasana because they don't want to get any problem. These postures, these procedures are a bit tricky. If you understand, if you are able to practice them well and good; but sometimes you make a mistake, you feel very uncomfortable... If Hatha Yoga is Pranayama, then Pranayama is Kumbhaka? Kumbhaka is breath-holding. It has to be preceded by inhale, or exhale. Pranayama is control of the breathing. Kumbhaka is the most essential aspect of that. You have to use your inhalation or exhalation before you are able to hold your breath. How would Krishnamacharya teach it? Aft er you practiced your asana, he would ask you to sit in padmasana, vajrasana, etc. do your Kapalabhati, 108 times, or whatever. And then he would ask you to do - one day Ujjai, another day Sitali, another day Nadi Shoddana, like that he would slowly build up the practice, and then later on you have to practice Pranayama on your own. You don't have to teach forever. Once he knew that you practice your Pranayama properly, he would say at the end of the class, "practice Pranayama for 15 minutes." Which Pranayamas were taught, and which ones were mostly frequently used?
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Mostly, in Vinyasa Krama practice, he would use Ujjai breathing, because we use Ujjai in our practice, so it becomes easier. Ujjai and Nadi Shoddana are the two most important pranayamas. And then if you combine those two, you get Anuloma Ujjai, Viloma Ujjai, Pratiloma Ujjai. Occasionally he would ask me to do Sitaly pranayama. When weather is very hot, he would say "you look tired, why don't you do a Sitali pranayama." The main emphasis was on Ujjai and Nadi Shoddana. Normally for Mantra Pranayama, they use Nadi Shoddana pranayama. Inhale through one nostril, chant the Pranayama Mantra, exhale through the other nostril. Nadi Shoddana pranayama is mentioned in the texts also. What about Bhastrika, Brahmari? Brhastrika, Brahmari are special pranayamas. They are not as common as Nadi Shoddana and Ujjai pranayamas. Because most of benets expected from Pranayama you can get from these two procedures. Next question is how long you can inhale, what ratios you can maintain [puraka antar kumbhaka rechaka bahya kumbhaka]; there are dierent parameters that come into play. He did not use much of Bhastrika? No. He would ask you to do Kapalabhati. Because Kapalabhati is a cleansing kriya. Bhastrika is a specic pranayama, for certain conditions. What scriptures did he use as authority on Pranayama? Hatha Yoga Pradipika talks about it. And then there are number of Smritis (texts) which refer to Pranayama, how to use the Mantras. Pranayama has two things: one is technique of doing pranayama; the other is how to use the mantra in this pranayama. There are several Upanishads, several Smritis which talk about Pranayama. So, lot of material available on Pranayama. Pranayama, according to Krishnamacharya, not eective without Bandhas. Just as Bandhas not viable without Kumbhakas. Yes, without Bahya Kumbhaka, especially. How did he teach the Bandhas? And how soon? Once your breathing is comfortable, you have long inhalation and exhalation, and you can hold the breath for a short period of time, Bandhas can be done. I think he taught Tataka Mudra as the best procedure positioned to teach Mulah Bandha, and Uddiyana Bandha. Once you are able to do Bandhas in that position, then the next thing for you would be to try
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it in Adho Mukha Svanasana, then some of the seated postures, especially Padmasana and Vajrasana. These are the postures he would ask you to practice the Bandhas. I think considerable confusion exists about Bandhas, and perhaps it may be useful for many people if we will discuss it. Let's go through three major bandhas. In case of Mulah Bandha, queues can be very simple - yet books written about it. He gave simple instructions, he did not elaborate on this. He would say draw your rectum and tighten lower abdomen. That is all instructions he would give. He would observe how your Bandha is, and say, it is ne. That's about all. Uddiyana Bandha, anatomically, is a passive stretch of a diaphragm, done by exhaling, closing one's voicebox and lifting the chest. But that description does not make it possible to do Uddiyana Bandha on inhale. Yet Hatha Yoga Pradipika talks about it. How is it done? Some lineages talk about Udiyana Bandha vs. Udiyana Kriya. I don't know about Udiyana Kriya, so I can't talk about it. Hatha Yoga Pradipika talks about Uddiyana Bandha, I think, even at the end of your inhalation, Antar Kumbhaka. I asked my teacher, he said, "this is not for Grihasthyas" [non-Brahmachari]. The idea appears to be getting the union of Prana and Apana, by pushing the Prana in the Antar Kumhaka, pushing up Apana. It is a dicult procedure. Probably you can learn from a teacher. He himself practiced this, it is not impossible. But, the most benet you get from certain things - for instance if you want to work with your heart, it is better to do it on exhalation. Depending upon the requirements, your condition. If you want Prana Apana Vayu to enter Sushumna and all that, maybe you would like to do your bandhas on inhalation. On the other hand, if you want them to be helpful to massage your internal organs, probably you want to do your Uddiyana on exhalation. Do I understand it correctly, Uddiyana on exhale is not only passive lifting a diaphragm, but also active pressing of abdomen against the spine? Yes, pinning of abdomen against the spine. So Uddiyana on inhale, it is only pressing abdomen against the spine, because you cannot lift the diaphragm? But there would be pressure there, you see. What I am trying to say, we do the Jalandhara Bandha, and then you got the air inside your chest. When you try to pull Uddiyana Bandha, it may be not as deep, but at the same time we produce enormous amount of pressure inside your chest. That way they say the Apana is moved up, and you get the union between these two, that's the idea. You can't lift the diaphragm as much as you can during Bahya Kumbhaka, it may be a negligible movement, but at the same time you will be able to feel the pressure. I don't know why it is mentioned there, I've not been taught that, but he said, it is
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not for us. Because he was not talking in terms of the Kundalini Yoga, Prana, Apana through Sushumna and all that. He was using Uddiyana Bandha, Mulah Bandha, for the six koshas of the body. If you look at it from this point of view, it appears to be very logical. It all depends on who is asking you to do what. I guess it is confusing to me because on exhale the diaphragm is relaxed, and this normally continues in Bahya Kumbhaka, where as during inhale, it is contracted, and after inhale completed, in Antar Kumbhaka, it can be either left contracted, or be relaxed. Yes, but increasing chest pressure is what they are wanting to do - they wanted to get Prana and Apana closer. Jalahdhara Banha. How did he teach it? In Jalandhara Bandha, he showed me, saying, "get the chin to the breast bone, and then pull it up." Try to bring chin down, he would say four inches below the neck pit, some of the texts talk about it. Then lock the chin, and then straighten your back. What happen is the whole chest moves up along with it. And that is the correct Jalandhara Bandha. And this bandha is let go once you start inhaling or exhaling? Yes. The main thing you want to do it when spine is straight, while you hold your breath, that is during kumbhaka. You inhale, bring your chin down, pull it up and lift your chest. During this kumbhaka period, Antar Kumbhaka, you maintain Jalandhara Bandha. In Bahya Kumbakha also, you bring it down down and pull it up. In Bahya Kumbhaka you maintain Jalandhara Bandha, Mulah Bandha, and Uddiyana Bandha. The bandhas are very important during kumbakha period. Naturally during inhale or exhale you will relax your bandha, but still you have to control the breath. You still control the breath by maintaining Jalandhara Bandha. You maintain the control with Jalandhara Bandha in Ujjai; you maintain the control with your ngers in Nadi Shoddana pranayama. Jalandhara Bandha aids Ujjai. Denitely! Jalandhara Bandha aids Ujjai. It also has a number of other benets. It helps you to keep your back straighter. Once you pull up the spine, your Mulah Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha also become more eective. Because the pelvic muscles are pulled up, there is more space between the pelvis and ribcage, so you are able to do the bandhas much better. They are all related. What asanas recommended for its practice?
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Usually Padmasana, Vajrasana are two main postures, which are helpful. You can do it in Maha Mudra, you can do it in Maha Bandha and all that. Sidhasana is very good for that too, you can keep the back much straighter. What about practicing banhas during inversions? Yes, in Sarvangasana, Shirshasana - if you can develop good Mula Bandha and Uddiyana Bandha it is helpful, both from the Kundalini point of view, and for helping your body koshas. Jalandhara Bandha is natural during the Shoulderstand and the Plough. Yes, Jalandhara Bandha is nat ural during the shoulderstand. But it is better than in the Plaugh, because you keeping your whole body up. You don't get a gravity advantage in your Halasana. If you want to work with Jalandhara Bandha, you can do it in Halasana. But there is no point for staying in Halasana for 15 minutes, as you are able to stay in Sarvangasana. Benets you will be able to get for staying in shoulderstand for 15 minutes are entirely dierent from what you will probably get with Jalandhara Bandha in Halasana. What about Viparita Karani? Viparit a Karani is just an intermediate procedure for a shoulderstand, so your legs and the whole body can relax, and then get into a proper shoulderstand. How is Drishti used in Vinyasa Krama? Drishti is mentio ned in many of Pattabhi Jois works, but for all those years I've been studied with Krishnamacharya, he never mentioned about Drishti. He never mentioned about it. Only thing he will say, whenever you do Trataka you gaze at the lamp, and then internalize it. That's about all. But whether you must look at the toe, and all that I nd, that kind of thing he never mentioned. Keep your head down, and your eyes closed. Most of the time our eyes are closed, we are following the breath. Most of the asanas you keep the eyes closed and work with the breath. Concentrate on breath, except in standing poses. When you are doing Paschimottanasana, you better have your eyes closed, so that you will be able to focus on the breath and the bandhas. Everything is happening inside, you don't need to keep your eyes open. Did Krishnamacharya teach Jihwa Bandha, Kechari Mudra? No, no. Whenever we do Ujjai breathing, we will ask you to roll the tongue back.
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But that is not comparable to the real Kechari Mudra, it is much deeper. No, no, no. All those things mentioned in Hatha Yoga Pradipika, or Yoga Makaranda, - any of the fancy things you nd in those books - undercutting the tongue, or the Neti Pot, or the Suttra Neti, all that he mentioned in Yoga Makaranda, he did not teach in the later years. And people won't do it in India. He was not teaching yogis, he was teaching ordinary people, you know. Ordinary people were coming, and I was part of that gang. You go and study. Fortunately over the period of time, I developed interest in that. I think I had a very deep interest in the subject. Otherwise, most people... He won't be teaching all these things. And then he was not teaching teachers. He did not try to develop teachers or anything. During his later part of his years, he was teaching to people whatever is required for a particular individual.
Yuri Sharonin & Shrivatsa Ramaswami(picture)
Why didn't he teach yoga teachers, or yogis? Prepare, so to speak, a replacement for himself? No, the whole thing is, we have a dierent impression about him, as some... But he, at that time, what he was trying to do - he was in Mysor, he has come to Madras, and what do you do? There are not many people who want to become yogis, yoga teachers. Even now in India, yoga teachers... It is completely dierent. What is going on in the West is dierent from what is going on in India. Nowadays a few people are interested because it is more popular in the West. In my time, you don't even tell anyone that you are practicing yoga. The elders used to discourage it, they think you will become a recluse. Lots of misconceptions were there in India at that time. It was very dicult to get married if you were to become a yoga teacher at that time. He had to teach for anybody wants to come to him and wanted to learn something. And he would teach. Most of the people never knew what he was capable of. Nobody knew. They would come, take few lessons and go away. A few people, like us, got interested in that. Because of our own personal interest. I wanted to know what it is all about. Not because you wanted to become teacher, or become this, or that. I wanted to know. He was the man who can give you the knowledge that you need. What about Dharana and Dhyana? Since they are entirely internal practices, antaranga sadhana, and teacher's options are quite limited. How did he teach? Not much here that he would teach. See, what I was found with him, rather than teaching Dharana, Dhyana directly, he started teaching the Chanting. I think I told you, chanting also helps your mind to become focused. You take a particular chapter; the chapter has got a theme. As you chant, if you know the meaning, you are able to get this particular theme in your mind. For instance, Pancha Kosha Vidya in the Taiitriya Upanishad, it slowly leads you,
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from Annamaya Kosha, to Pranamaya Kosha, to Manomaya Kosha... Like that it leads you... So if you chant for fteen minutes, you have done a meditation on that. It develops Ekagrata [focus]? Yes, instead of taking a mantra and repeating it, - that's one way of getting your mind focused - now you take one particular concept, one particular idea, and then you remain focused on that. The same approach is done in the Puja also. You take one Akriti, one particular deity you want to meditate upon, that has a physical form, that helps you to bring your mind to it, then you do Archana to it [chanting names of the deity], then it helps you to do Akara Dhyana [form meditation]. There are hundreds of methods by which this can be done. The one that we do is one method, it is not the only method. If you are Bhakti Yogi, you don't have to go through all this. That's why he would say, there is only one Dhyana, Bhagavad Dhyana. If you are doing Bhagavad Dhyana, start doing all these things. Every day for 15 minutes or half an hour, if you are doing Bhagavad Dhyana, it can be a Puja, it can be Akara Dhyana, or chanting sahasranama, a thousand names of a particular deity, like that. I thought he was insisting more and more along these lines, rather than going through the various parts of Patanjali. Because either you go through Bhakti Marga [path of devotion] or Jnana Marga [path of knowledge]. This is in addition to practice of Dharana, Dhyana? He taught tha t you practice it. But he also brought all these other things. So if you really look at him, he did a lot, he did a lot to develop your Ekagrata, he did a lot for your meditation. He did not stop with taking a mantra and asking to do your Dharana, Dhyana, because other mantras are also available. It is also a very conventional way. And then the problem with most people of other backgrounds is that it will be dicult for them to do the chanting; it will be dicult for them to attach to this kinds of practice. In such cases it is better to go through Patanjali's procedure. He taught both of the methods. But I prefer after some time to go through the chanting procedure. I chant and meditate upon that. Surya Namaskara you chant for one hour. Entire one hour your mind will be on that. You can't think of anything else. It is peculiar that here in the West, people seeking to start meditation practice come to Vedantic or Buddhist meditation, and think of Yoga only as a source of health benets. Why do you think that is? Why not Yogic Meditation? The whole problem is, nobody teaches that. Nobody teaches the yogic meditation. You look at some older teachers, they don't teach meditation at all. So people who practice Yoga, when they want meditation, because meditation is mentioned there, what do they do? They have to go to Vedantic school, because they can teach some Vedantic mantras, like Aham Brahmaasmi, So-Ham, Shivo-Ham, and all that. Or, they go to Buddhist meditation, or, sometimes they take a mantra. They go to religious people, take a mantra, and trying to meditate.
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It may be that the format of typical yoga studio does not allow it. You have 1.5 hour class, and it is invariably a drop-in. It is very dicult to teach Pranayama or Meditation to someone who just shows up. It is true, but at t he same time the studio can oer programs on Pranayama, or Meditation. If you come to study yoga for three years, if you say, I am going to teach Pranayama, a few people may be interested. Have one class every week, whereas you can have classes all through the week for asanas. Have one class for Pranayama, then slowly introduce the Meditation. Then it will grow. Once two or three people will study Pranayama, and they will practice... It goes the same way with asanas. If people won't teach, it won't spread. Unfortunately this will not be done, because most teachers have not studied Pranayama, so they can't teach. And they won't let anybody else come and teach Pranayama. You will ask them, how to learn Pranayama, and they will say, oh, it is dangerous. Because they can't teach. I am telling you, the reason why Pranayama is not taught, is not nearly because it is considered to be dangerous, but because they not taught about it. It is not so dicult if you apply your mind to it. All yoga teachers can learn safe simple Pranayama and teach. First you learn it for your personal practice, because you need Pranayama to teach it. And then when you go to yoga school to learn some yogasanas, there should be a provision for it, there should be some classes available. Unfortunately it is completely shut out here. Is it dierent in India? In India, again, asana people practice only asanas. There is no seriousness. And then yoga is not practiced with so much of enthusiasm as it is done here. Krishnamacharya has taught Pranayama, that is all I know. How can his students, and thousands of thousands of people who follow them say they are following Krishnamacharya traditions? But they don't do Pranayama. They say, don't do Pranayama, it is dangerous. It is not fair to Krishnamacharya ,his teaching. Can you describe the Vinyasa Krama, the method you are teaching? It's uniqueness? Vinyasa Krama is a method, by which you do asanas, with a number of movements leading to asanas, movements in the asanas, counter-poses to the asanas. And then all the asanas are done with a proper breathing. There is an appropriate breathing for each of these movements. And then the mind is focused on the breath. These are the main dierences between Vinyasa Krama and other methods. The term Vinyasa means Art. Vinyasa Krama is practicing yoga as an Art. That's why it got so many movements. All of the various movements body can do, falling within common denition of asana. One more advantage of Vinyasa Krama is that you are able to access dierent parts of the body, which you won't do, if you doing xed number of movements, xed number of asanas. There are so many dierent movements, you are likely to reach and exercise all parts of the body. Prana goes to those areas, Rakta [blood] goes to those areas.
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How does Viny asa Krama relates to Chikitsa Krama [therapeutic approach to practice]? Vinyasa Krama, if you learn and practice it, will give you a lot more, the bigger base for you to apply in Chikitsa Krama. Because in Vinyasa Krama we have, say about 700 vinyasas or so. If you want to teach somebody for a particular condition, you can study the patient, and then try to pick and choose. Those vinyasas are going to be helpful. But if you learned only a few asanas, then you don't have that scope. Again, if you have Vinyasa Krama, then you can teach for dierent people: young people, old people, middle-aged people. There is no need to have a same structure that you teach to youngsters, and then ask old people to perform it. Of course in a group class, like the teacher training, some people may nd it dicult to do a dicult posture. But at least they will know, that when they would teach youngsters, they will have enough material to teach them. At the same time, when if they need to teach older people, they have enough material to teach accordingly. How does Vinyasa Krama relate to long hold asanas? Long hold asanas are there, because they require time to give proper benets. You want to go into shoulderstand, headstand, you have to stay there for a long period of time, because if you stay for only a minute, the body won't relax. It takes time for a body to relax; it takes time for internal muscles to relax and then move, so you have to provide time for that. That's why we give more time for headstand, shoulderstand, and also for Paschimottanasana. In his early works, Krishnamacharya recommends 10-15 asanas for a regular [long hold] practice. You mentioned he asked four asanas for constant long hold practice: Maha Mudra, Paschimottanasana, Sarvangasana, and Sirsasana. Yes, t hat is what I remember, because, for instance, he also talks, for example, about Mayurasana in the Yoga Makaranda. But I remember these four. He would insist, almost every day he would ask us to do these four asanas. Do you think this reduction in number of poses was due to maximizing eectiveness, or a concession to students? No, no. You are required to do vinyasas. There are number of movements you will do. Everyday practice consists of dynamic movements, and also static postures. Among the static postures, he would say these four are important. My practice should have a number of movements and also should have these postures. I can't just go on for an hour and just keep on moving. Nor remain in one posture for a long period of time. I have to have a mixture of these two. The reason why I have to do movements, I have to access dierent parts of the body. The human body is so unique. Each part has its own set of movements. So what yogis are done, they came up with all the movements the body can do, so we can access all parts of the body.
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I have to nd out the way so I can exercise the whole body. And that's what they have done. Why do you want to stay in those static postures for a long period of time? Because these postures take time to give you benets. I will keep it in mind and adjust the practice in such a way. In addition, Pranayama was another must. He practiced Maha M udra as one of the main poses. Did he practiced it by itself, or with conjunction with Maha Bandha, and Maha Vedha, as text recommends? Basically he would teach only M aha Mudra, followed by Badha Konasana. He was teaching Maha Mudra to almost everybody. Usually about 5 minutes on each side. Normally he would say number of breaths, "do twelve breaths." If a breath is short it will take a short time, if the breath is long, it will take a longer period of time. Twelve breaths for ve minutes is quite acceptable. How particular was Krishnamacharya in Vinyasa sequences? Did he require to stick to a particular sequence, or did he encourage variations? Yes, he w ould teach you the way I go about teaching this class. Once you learned these vinyasas, then in your own practice you will pick and choose on a daily basis. That is your responsibility. But, on the other hand, if you come to me for a treatment, then I will pick and choose the vinyasas and give it to you. But if you are doing it for yourself, and you had learned these vinyasas, then you have to design your program on a daily basis. You don't need a teacher to come and tell you. I've done this, tomorrow I think I should do something for my neck and shoulders, or sometimes I feel heavy in my legs, so I probably spend more time doing vinyasas in my shoulderstand, or headstand. I vary my procedures from day to day. Did he taught Surya Namaskar, was it a part of a daily practice? You mentioned earlier it was a part of weekly routine. No, no. That was a chanting, not the physical aspect. Just a chanting. We used to do only chanting part. We never used to do the physical part. He taught it, but then he never insisted on a physical part of the Surya Namaskar. Not as it is being done in the West. So physical Surya Namaskar sequence was not practiced at all? No, no. It was just taught out, that's about all. Even the physical Surya Namaskar sequence you taught us is quite dierent from what I practiced before in Ashtanga-Vinyasa-style practice it is slow, done with long kumbhakas while mantra is chanted, and includes prostration. In eect, it is a Samantraka Pranayama.
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Yes, because these mantras are there, Surya Namaskara mantras. He was insisting on mantra portion more than the physical portion. So he did not taught sequences like Surya Namaskara, or Ding Namaskara. Ding Namaskara he taught. That's why I teach it. Because, we do Ding Namaskara on a daily basis, in our morning procedure, I told you. You do it every day. It is done anyway. The mantras are there already. The only thing, instead of doing it in haphazard way, he brought out a system. He just organized it. Things like Chandra Namaskara? I've never heard of Chandra Namaskara. Surya Namaskara he merely taught, but he did not insist. He did not make it a part of regular practice. There is a big dierence with doing 108 Surya Namaskara. But then Hatha Yoga Pradipika commentary clearly says: don't overexert your body with heavy weight lifting, or doing multiple Surya Namaskaras. It clearly says that. Read the commentary to Hatha Yoga Pradipika. He uses the term Kaya Klesha. What makes Kaya Klesha? Pain. Kaya means body. What are the examples of that? Bahu bhara vahanam carrying very heavy weights. Then the second will be Surya Namaskara. Bahu Surya Namaskara. He didn't say, don't do Surya Namaskara - but don't do too many Surya Namaskara, which will exert the system. How specic he was about alignment, in any vinyasas or asanas? He would make minor adjustments. Few minor adjustments I've made in the class, similarly to that he will do. [very minor, gentle physical touch, rare; occasional verbal suggestions.] Supposing your shoulderstand is very uncomfortable, so he would come and help you out. But it won't be rough. Not a very meticulous kind of adjustment to the posture. Some things, especially after Ashtanga Vinyasa-like practice, look odd in Vinyasa Krama. For instance, legs together in Adho Mukha Svanasana; exing a knee more than 90 degrees in Virabhadrasana sequence, Uthita Prasvakonasana; Jalandhara Bandha in Urdva Mukha Shvanasana; dierent Trikonasana sthiti... When you jump through your hands and you cross your legs, or bring legs one after the other, there will be asymmetry. You will have to shift to one hand and then to the other hand. If you want to maintain symmetry you got to keep your legs together. It is better to keep the legs together and do all these movements, rather than allowing them to ay without any control. Hips seems to open better if legs are apart and internally rotated.
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No, but then hips also need to be closed. That is another position for the hips. Why they should always be open? Normally when you walk you keep your hips open. When do you keep the legs together? Tadasana requires you to keep your feet together. You better o to keep your feet together and do the entire sequence. For instance, the Iyengar school insists that knee does not over- project forward. Oh yes. If you properly keep your feet position, a good base, not overextended, and not a narrow base, you got a stable position so you can do these movements properly. If you are overextended, it is not going to be helpful. That is not a critical aspect. Maybe for some people, sometime... The critical aspect is that I am able to stretch. I am not saying that everybody should project the knee out. If that is going to be helpful for me to lower my body and get to a Virabhadrasana properly, I may as well do it. I won't make it an issue at all. I won't make a forward knee position an issue in Virabhadrasana, Uthita Parsvakonasana. I think it is more stable if your knee goes forward. I've never been told that this should be a factor to be considered at all. As long as the knee does not projects to the side? No, no, that has to be straight! You should not move the knee inward or outward, it should be straight. The movement is lateral. Was Krishnamacharya teaching Jalandhara Bandha in Urdva Mukha Svanasana, Adho Mukha Svanasana? Yes, you can see it in his book also. In fact, I would say that default position of the head is head down any posture. Unless you are required to turn your head, or take head back otherwise you keep the head down. That keeps your neck relaxed, your back is straighter. And it is going to aid your balance, if you keep the head down. Stretching of the spine is easier, if you keep your head down. A lot of importance is given, advantages are there if you keep the head down. If you keep the chin down, the you can stretch the spine better. I got to lock the chin, it is a very beautiful procedure, for you to pull up the spine. Jalandhara Bandha pulls the whole chest up, along with that the spine pulled up. If you keep head straight, you need somebody to come and pull up your waist, or pull up your ribcage. In your opinion, why Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga follows strict sequences, no variations allowed? Pattabhi Jois was stating that he was teaching strictly according with Krishnamacharya tradition.
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Right. I can only speculate. One is that Krishnamacharya taught only those vinyasas at that particular time. They belong to much earlier group, 1940s maybe. And another thing, it is all depends on how long they studied. I studied with Krishnamacharya for a long, long period of time. I specically asked him for more vinyasas, when I started teaching. I realized that that I was not able to teach much more, so I went and asked him, are there more vinyasas? I said, I am not able to teach my students, is there something more? Yes, then he started, did you teach this vinyasa, this other vinyasa. Like that, he kept on teaching more and more... I used to practice, and then go and teach. Now many new vinyasas would he teach? No, it is all went on for a long period of time. One class I would learn these vinyasas, I will go and teach. Maybe the next class, or two or three classes he will teach another set of vinyasas. Like that it went on and on for a long period of time. This opportunity some of the earlier teachers did not have. Do you have any observations on how Krishnamacharya was able to provide an individual instructions for a diverse group, such as in your family, and otherwise. Because of background, because of enormous knowledge he had. He knew how to apply it to individuals. He would study the person, and then design what is required for him or her. In fact, he used to say that everyone should have a capacity to draw from this and then adopt the procedure on a daily basis. You can't mindlessly practice yoga. You have to know, why am I doing this particular procedure?, what does it do for me?, if I change it, what will happen? You can change any of these vinyasas, provided you know why you are changing it. That kind of attention and that kind of application is necessary for a practitioner. You can't mindlessly practice the same thing over and over again. In any walk of life, you can't blindly do the same thing over and over again, you must know why you are doing it. Likewise, there should be some understanding, why am I doing this? Is it only to see how it feels, does it aect my body, does it give me any benet? If I know this, then my practice becomes more and more intelligent, if I can use the term. That is why you need adaptation on the daily basis. I feel more tamasic, let me do more Pranayama today. I feel more energetic, I will do more vinyasas today. This kind of thought should be in my daily practice. Does practice needs a plan? You ne ed a plan, yes. You think about it, plan it, then execute it. Daily practice need not be the same, because you change. Some days you are lazy, some days energetic, some people very pensive, immersed in thoughts. This is my advice: if you really want to make personal progress, and also be able to share with other people don't stop with asanas. I am not saying don't do asanas. Don't stop with asanas. I feel very sorry for people who practice Yoga for ten years, and then after ten years they know only asanas, nothing else.
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How hard the practice should be? Where should be the balance between making an eort and centering on your inner peace? How did Krishnamacharya managed this? Did he sometimes make you work harder? When I was young, naturally he would ask me to do more and more vinyasas. As you get older, he said, try to cut down on your vinyasa practice. Try to do more of the stable postures, and then also start doing a lot of Pranayama. Then, chanting, meditation, all of them become part of your practice. Asanas are still there, but they are not the major part of the exercise. When you were young, that was the major part. During the middle part of the life, when I was working and running around, and all these things, he started slowly introducing all of these things study of the texts, chanting, more and more pranayama, and the stable postures... They take over. Was this a meaning of the title of your book, Yoga for Three Stages of Life? Yes, that's right. In fact, that is what he mentioned in Yoga Rahasya also. You can't teach the same practice to everybody. Can you tell a bit more about your books? The rst writings I did for a journal, called Indian Review journal. I think it was way back in 1978 or so. At that time I was a trustee of Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM). When the Mandiram started, I was one of the trustees. Desikachar, myself, and one of his class fellows, we were all the trustees. So at that time, what we did, Desikachar said, we should publish to make Mandiram known, and this particular magazine was interested. He asked me to write those articles, so I started writing. In about six months time I got out of Mandiram. But the publishers said, why don't you keep on writing? I went on writing, it went on for about 28 months or so. First few issues I used to type the article, give it to Desikachar, and he would, whenever nd time, read it to his father, explain it to him. And then he would make suggestions. Not corrections, suggestions. He used to be very happy about what was going on. Then after a few years, one of the Desikachar students, Paul Harvey from the UK who studied Yoga Sutras with me at that time, asked me to write a book, an introductory book on Yoga Sutras. So I wrote a book called Basic Tenets of Patanjala Yoga. It was not a great success, not many people read that. When the book was published in 1982, I was not going to classes for three-four months, I had something going on. But when Krishnamacharya came to know about it, he came all the way to my house. One Sunday, he and Desikachar came to my house, I was surprised. He said, I understand you have written a book, and I want to bless you. It is a very good thing, you must write more books. He was very positive, very supportive. He used to encourage you very well. So he wanted Vinyasa Krama, he wanted these teachings be known.
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At that time, Pattabhi Jois and Iyengar were teaching, but not directly in contact with him; Desikachar started to go to dierent parts of the world. He was very supportive. And then another thing started doing, I rst recorded the Yoga Sutras, then wanted to have a recording company do it. Ultimately I was able to nd a Recording company, they recorded it and released it. Then subsequently they asked me to come up with a number of other subjects. So over the period of 15 years, most of the chanting I have learned from Krishnamacharya I was able to record about 30 in all, about 30 hrs of Sanskrit chants, and this company released it. This was another important aspect of Krishnamacharya's teaching.
These were two early publications. Then in 1999-2000 I wrote Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, and in 2005 I wrote The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga, a Vinyasa Krama book, and in 2006 a book with David Hurwitz, Yoga Beneath the Surface. These are the publications. And subsequently, I started to send Vinyasa Krama newsletters, so I can share whatever I consider is important. It was good to keep on writing, one way or the other. What do you think is your best work so far? Of course Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, I really, really enjoyed writing it. But then Vinyasa Krama book is also good. Reason why I wrote this particular book, is that I found that even though I go and teach workshops, not many people heard about it. I thought I will not teach, so I wanted to put everything I knew in form of the book, and publish it, so it is out of my mind. And then LMU fortunately started this program [LMU 200 hr Teacher Training with Srivatsa Ramaswami in LA, California, USA]. Few people now had studied this. And then book with David was good I could see what kind of questions arise in people, that was good. It is a wonderful format, Q&A. Yes. We started without intent to write a book. He asked me, can I ask a few questions? I agreed, he sent me an email, I replied, he kept them with himself. Then after some time, after I wrote a Vinyasa Krama book, I asked him; David put the whole thing in a form of the book, and we submitted it to a publisher. Initially they hesitated, but ultimately, published it. Any other books, besides essential scriptures, that should be studied? As yoga teachers you must be familiar with various texts. Bhagavad Gita, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Yoga Yajnavalkya these three texts... Yoga Upanishads are there, but they are not very accessible, some of them are repetitive. You can still have a look at them. This is all with respect to Hatha Yoga. There is also other text it is not a text, it is part of the Purana it is called Suta Samhita. It is not very important, just an additional material.
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Then you can probably think about Samkhya Karika. It is work of 75 shlokas or so, like Yoga Sutras it is also very concise, and a beautifully written text. Lot of things that are taken for granted in Yoga Sutras can be found there. For instance, the three Gunas, the evolution from the Mulah Prakritti explained very well, Transmigration; number of other concepts that are taken for granted by yogis can be found there. English translations are available; English commentaries are also available. Samkhya is one of the six traditional Indian Philosophies. Samkhya, Yoga, and Vedanta form a compact group. They all talk about Nivritti Shastras how to stop the Transmigration. Go through the Yoga Sutras, get a good outline of that, then try to support it by Bhagavad Gita from one side, and Samkhya Karika on the other side. Bhagavad Gita will be very helpful, because it is very user-friendly, not like the Yoga Sutras. Yoga Sutras are very dry Bhagavad Gita tries to explain. In fact, you don't need any commentary for it, because same ideas explained over and over again. Arjuna was a warrior, not an intellectual. Then once you are familiar with these texts, then you can read some of the Upanishads, Upanishad Vidyas. Vedas per se might not be of much importance to us. It contains lot of rituals, things like this. More important thing for people who study Yoga is to study Upanishads. The Upanishads portions is the Thought, philosophical ideas are contained there, and there are many. Can you give some advice on approaching Upanishads study? There is one called Chandogya Upanishad, another one called Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. Katha Upanishad is another Upanishad that is very important. Another important Upanishad is Prashna Upanishad. It is a series of questions and answers. Smaller ones are Taittiriya Upanishad - Panchakosha Vidya discusses 5 koshas (sheaths): Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Anandamaya,Vijnanamaya, Anandamaya. They are dealt with in Taittriya Upanishad. Again, it is the same subject, but approached in a diernt way: body made of 5 koshas, like in Yoga Sutras we have 24 Tattvas (principles). Then there is another Upanishad, called Mandukya Upanishad; it talks of the meaning of Pranava Mantra, Om. Om divided to 3 phases, states (Avasthas), A-U-M. Akara related to a waking state (Jagrat), Ukara dream state (Svapna), and Makara is a deep sleep state (Sushupti). Omkara, AUM is the state that is beyond all three, called Turiya-avastha, or Turiya- samadhi. These ideas are taken up in the Mandukya Upanishad, and commentaries been written. This is another important Upanishad Krishnamacharya taught. In Chandogya Upanishad there is a Vidya called Sat Vidya. Sat means that which is true, unchanging, permanent, or that which exists. That refers to anything that exist forever Brahman or the Ultimate Reality, according to them. The way they go about explaining it, it is all anecdotes it is a nice story. It is a dialog between father and son. The son goes to the teacher and excels, after studying for a number of years. Then he comes home proud of this knowledge, thinking his father doesn't know anything. His father gets upset of his attitude, and teaches him a lesson, teaches him. It is a beautiful story. In that they say main Mahavakya
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(great pronouncement), called tat tvam asi. Tat is the Ultimate Reality, Tvam you are one of the same. There is another Vidya called Bhuma Vidya. There are number of them. Same idea, but they are trying to put it in so many dierent ways. I asked my teacher, There is only one Brahman, why are there so many dierent Vidyas? He said, it all depends on attitude of dierent people. Dierent people dierent questions arise. They tried so many ways to put across the idea... If you like, go and buy a book on Upanishads, and then look for these Vidyas. Otherwise what happens, you give it a general reading, there are a lot of things that may not be of much interest to us. The re is also another Upanishad I told you about, Brhadaranyaka Upanishad. It has another Vidya, Madhu Vidya. Madhu means the sweetest part of the ower, nectar. In that, they try to tell you what is the sweetest thing again they go to the Brahman. It is where Sage Yajnavalkya tells his wife he was going to partition his property and become a recluse. I've told you this story. So there are stories, sometimes direct discussion between a teacher and the student, that way they made it very interesting. Take some of the Upanishads, try to nd out which interpretation you like, whether it is Vashishtadvaita, or Advaita, or Dvaita. Advaita seems to be most popular, more and more books has been written on that. So like that, you take one of these, and then when time permits, try to go understand. You can interest yourself by studying Upanishads, doing one Upanishad after the other. Because you may not nd teachers straight away, it may be a good idea to read them, try to nd a book that explains them in easily understandable terms. Just don't go to the scholarly/academic works, they are going to make it dicult. In 2010 or so, there were 5000 yoga teachers registered with Yoga Alliance in the USA, countless others are not registered. Do you nd modern teacher preparation satisfactory? At my stage of life, what I want to do is to be able to teach what I know. If the few people can learn... You see, it is very dicult, people come with dierent expectations. Dierent teachers teach dierent approaches, so many dierent practices are there. What I can do is to teach what I had studied with my teacher. Whatever I practiced, whatever I thought about that. That is all I can do. Initially, when I came here, I thought, not you teach what you want, others may teach what they want. It is ultimately up to the people to nd out what is good for them and practice. Do you feel that someone with a serious practice of several years has a duty to teach? My feeling is, anybody who practicing Yoga for ve years should start thinking about it. Where am I going, what I am trying to do? Some introspection is necessary. You can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again. That is not an intelligent approach to Yoga. You try to nd out, what else is there in Yoga. Suppose somebody says, don't do Pranayama - why you should not do Pranayama? Or if somebody says, don't do shoulderstand what are the problems? Why shouldn't I do shoulderstand? Otherwise it is all the same routine. As they get older, it will not going to be helpful, I am sure. Practices that are good when you are young will not be helpful when you get older. You need a dierent set of practices.
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How did your teaching career proceed? I was teaching in India, in the Dance School. It was mostly dealing with youngsters. There was no scope for teaching other things. It was asanas, asanas, over and over again. It went on for about 20 years. I did not have much opportunity to teach Philosophy. When I started teaching here, I asked University (LMU) if I can also teach. This program (TT) has Yoga Sutras. I've taught Samkhya Karika a couple of time here. One or two Upanishads. Mandukya Upanishad... Like that, I was able to teach, what was not possible back then. Because it was a school, a junior college. Basically, children. I've taught some one-on- one, but not much. That is what Desikachar told me, you seem to work with groups, whereas he was concentrating on one-to-one basis, like his father was doing. But then Krishnamacharya was teaching groups when he was in Mysore. It so happened, because I went on to school to teach. You are teaching for more than thirty years now. How did your teaching evolve? When I rst started teaching, I was concentrating on teaching asanas. I hesitated teaching Pranayama, hesitated teaching Mantras. Hesitated talking about philosophies. Initially, rst few years were just asanas. I hesitated to talk about all that. Slowly I started to teach that, now I am comfortable. It lets you teach as wide a spectrum of yoga practices as possible. I nd more people liking aspects of yoga that are not fancy people are able to settle down for the Pranayama, for the Yoga Sutra class. All these things are happening. These things interested me when I studied with Krishnamacharya. I always felt there should be few people with a similar temperament that I have. By and large, people who come to my program seem to be interested. Nobody said what is this fellow talking about? That is good. I am sure, that just because this appeals to me, there should be a few people around who may have a similar temperament, to whom this may appeal. So what I should do is keep on teaching, as many people as possible. If they like that approach - good, well and good. Like attracts like, student nd his/her own teacher. Yes, if I feel that it has something to oer to me, then I will like it. Can you please share your opinion about sources of modern Hatha Yoga? All Indian schools widely known in the West, trace their origins from Sri T. Krishnamacharya, Swami Shivananda, Dhirendra Brahmachari. We know only names of their Gurus. Further lineage is invariably unknown. On the face value, lineage of modern yoga can be traced no further then 19th century. Natha order Natha Sampradaya that authored medieval Hatha Yoga scriptures are not practicing Hatha Yoga for several centuries now, and does not teaching it in their ashrams. There is also a modern research, which suggests that Asana practice adopted a lot from modern western bodily exercises.
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My Guru used to say that lots of the written works of that period are lost. They used to be written on palm leaves, many are Agraharam (habitats with scholars) , Agraharam means that almost in every village used to be a yogi who would have written about his own experiences. In fact, in early part of my studies with him, one day he said, you people should go out into the villages, and then nd out people who practice yoga. They all may have dierent personal experiences, or how they develop asanas, and all that. But then, unfortunately, all of them are lost. I am not saying this because of the materials are not available, but because books were not written, until about a hundred years back. Where are the books? Even in the western world, where are the books? Books are written only recently. In fact, if you look at Indian background, Puranas written a long time back, those texts are available, if you really look for old sources on yoga, they are available only in India. And then if you look at some very very old texts, like Puranas, Smritis, and Vedas, Asanas are mentioned. If you look at Ramayana, Rama was supposedly sitting in Virasana, the rst shloka of Valmiki Ramayana says. It means Virasana was known at that time. But lots of details were lost. Just because we don't have it, it does not mean they were not available. Most of them were Karna Parampara. Take the Vedas, you learn from the teacher, there is no written records on that. Just because there is no written records you cannot say it does not exists. These are very big mistakes these modern scholars are making. They say the way Krishnamacharya teach is only a hundred years old. I don't know. Krishnamacharya used to say he taught according to traditions. I tend to believe him more. And then look at some very old books, very very old books. Yoga Sutras. Brahma Sutras says that one should sit in the yogic posture before asana for a meditation. The Padmasana is mentioned by Puranas. I don't believe just because no records are available it was not there. I don't have my nancial records 20 years back. If somebody would ask me in the court, what happened? I do not have them. That does not mean it didn't happen. It is common knowledge that Patanjali in Yoga Sutras denes asana as comfortable still pose for pranayama and meditation. Usually sitting postures. Right, sitting postures. Asanas as body exercises seems to originate from Natha Yoga. Do you think in old times these were entirely separate lineages of yoga? In your opinion, does modern Hatha Yoga merges these two traditions satisfactory? Hatha Yoga and Raja Yoga? Even though Hatha Yoga says it leads to Raja Yoga, there are some people who specialize in Hatha Yoga. They develop more and more asanas. Several sages are supposed to have developed dierent asanas. The focus was on physical and physiological development, as far as Hatha Yogis were concerned. Raja Yogi was bent on more on ability to concentrate, with a spiritual development. There was a division on specialization, if you want to call it. But they were complementing each other. Raja Yogis say that unless your body physical health is maintained, physiologically you won't be able to control the mind. So they said, you practice asanas, and Pranayama, I don't want to mention it, because texts are available. There were teachers available that would teach you Asana and Hatha Yoga. I will concentrate on dierent aspects. That is why in Yoga Sutras, he did not talk much about asanas. But he gave a lot of importance to Yama Niyama. But Hatha Yoga Pradipika does not say anything substantial about Yama Niyama. They complement each
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other. There is no point in everyone writing about Asanas. Patanjali writing about asanas, Swatmarama writing about asanas, Puranas writing about asanas... There is a saying Anuktam anyato grahyam, if you don't nd some information in the text, you go to a complementary text, and then you will be able to nd that information. You have to study them in the group. Do you feel these traditions merged in modern yoga satisfactory? It is a specialization, I would say. Some people are specialized, and they are very good in that, so they developed that particular branch. At the same time they recognized that this is not the end of the story. Can you share your thoughts on the future of Yoga in the West and in India? Any observations on changes in spirituality and ideas of dharma in the modern world? No. See, I w ill tell you this: Yoga is an old discipline. So what I would say is, if you want to teach Yoga, you must understand, what is there, what practiced there, what is the philosophy behind that, and then teach. If you would say, it is not necessary, I want to create my own yoga call it Contemporary Yoga, and practice. It is up to you. Do you feel like in the West people are reinventing the Yoga? Yes, many p eople are now inventing Yoga, because they don't have access to tradition, like Krishnamacharya had. What happens yoga is popular, so I run my own yoga, or stick to the same routine. I am not saying that everybody is doing it... At least in olden days, I used to know many people who come to India to study. Nowadays it is all gone. They say that who knows Yoga in India? Now it has become established here. My approach would be: alright, I had studied with Krishnamacharya, and the only reason I had stayed with him for a long period of time, was because he was interpreting the shastras with his experience to me. If he would have said, it is a yoga he is invented, I would not have gone to him. I would not have gone to him. Because I had wanted to know what was Yoga, Vedanta have to oer. I wanted to know that. And he faithfully interpreted those shastras to tell you what they are all about, which he did admirably. Whatever I understood from him, now I want to explain to people the way I understood. It is not as good as he taught, but that is the best I can do. I will do whatever I can do to explain the way I understood. And I should be happy about it. What is your advice for those times when one feels uncertain, even discouraged about yoga practice, practice progression? Everyone has those moments at some point. Right. I g et that feeling quite often even now (laughs). It should not be frequent, it could happen once in a while. What I can tell you from my own experience, 90 people out of 100, when they start on Yoga, after some time they don't nd any improvement whatsoever. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? That is why I would say,
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the reason why we are getting this feeling is, we are not getting everything that practice supposed to give. Yogis promise so much, but they are very sincere. They have no ax to grind, they tell you what they had experienced. The only problem, I am not able to experience it, that is the only thing at least when I was young. The reason why it does not work for me is I don't know what they are talking about. Maybe I am not doing it properly, not understood it properly. I have to persist. That faith I must have in this. I had that faith in my Teacher. I have the faith in subject also. These two things you must have. That's what they call Shraddha (faith with love and reverence). So rst starting point - you must have Faith. And then another thing, what happens in our life sometimes there are other problems. They come into our life... Here Yoga Philosophy co mes more importantly. You try to understand Yoga Philosophy, what does it say about Three Gunas... One of the reasons sometimes we get more depressed, or more and more angry that can be due to preponderance of other two Gunas: Rajas and Tamas. Philosophy is the only way they can help us. We must try to nd out situations that causing these problems. Sometimes you must nd a permanent solution for a chronic problem. All of us we don't solve the problem, we expect it will go away. So we have to devise a solution, and then deal with it. Then there is certain problems which you cannot completely eliminate. Then you must at least learn to make use of Yoga so you can overcome those diculties. Sometimes it can be Pranayama practice, sometimes it can be Asana practice. But to greatest extent the Philosophy. Personally, I will tell you: Yoga Philosophy, the Upanishads, they were very helpful. These thoughts contained there... You are able to see that those people in olden days they were able to see those problems; it is nothing new to me. It has happened to many people earlier, only details may be dierent. All of us have our own set of problems. If we can make use of Yoga to deal with these problems better, it will be good. There is no other way. If we don't deal with the problems at this level, then we have to depend on external help. We must slowly try to see that these problems do not aect us. They may not go away completely, but at least they won't aect us so much. I am not saying it is going completely solve the problem, but to some extent Yoga Philosophy may be very very helpful. Like you, I too have or had my own problems, but it is much easier to deal with them, if you understand philosophy. Maybe Asana and Pranayama can help on physiological level. On psychological level you have to sit down and analyze. Frankly speaking, many problems we come across in life are of our own creation. When you solve the problems, you also have to give up certain things. You have to sit down and analyze, what do you want to give up, what do I want to get rid of. Analyze and choose a course. Sometimes, though, we take ourselves too seriously, and get aected by outside factors too much. Practice sustained by Yoga Philosophy. For the mind to become quiet, it should have an anchor. The mind should know it can be peaceful without any external things, things you depend upon, health, relationship. So long as everything OK, all is ne, but if something goes wrong, mind is shattered. I should not allow myself to get shattered. Once I allow it to get shattered, it is a big problem. It is very dicult to rebuild it. That is why these things will be helpful: Practice to some extent, Philosophy to
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some extent. Between them, mind is reinforced so I can deal with problems better. Mere Practice won't do. Can any Philosophy support practice? Do we have a choice? All practices must be supported by a strong philosophy. You must know why you are doing it. Just because I practice Yoga, it will do me good it is good. But to appreciate the whole thing you must have a strong philosophy. That is why sooner or later whether you like Upanishads, Buddhism, or Vedanta, or any other philosophy, I don't know about Western Philosophy, I think there should be something very strong, that is possible some kind of a philosophy should be there. Personal philosophy you will have to develop. All these things will help. What you value most in life. We must have some kind of guiding philosophy in our life. Once you will be able to develop certain peace of mind in yourself, once you start valuing it more than other things lots of problems will get solved. But Yoga Philosophy will help you to get this particular state of mind, which is not dependent on the external circumstances. I may be peaceful with a lot of money, with no money, with problems, or without problems and this is to be maintained. But you have to believe in this philosophy, and I am not saying blindly follow philosophy. I want to give mind some peace that is all I am trying to do. This we lack I can give a lot of happiness, pleasure to the mind, I can do that. But I am not able to get right kind of peace. What is why I say, have your practice, do your Pranayama, do your Meditation, and also support yourself with a good, solid Philosophy. I don't know if it is Yoga, Samkhya, or something else. But you must have a guiding philosophy in life. Any books you are currently reading? No, nothing in particular. Now I tend to read Advita books. There are some very good books written by Shankaracharya's students. I tend to sit and read them. Because you need to go over them. When you teach Yoga, you do not teach Vedanta, but you read them, go over them. There are very good works. There is one written by Adi Shankaracharya called Dakshinamurthy Ashtakam [Shiva Devotional Stotram (hymn) ], there is a commentary, beautiful commentary written by one of his students. There is another text, called Panchadasi, 15 chapters written by one of the Shankaracharya students. They explain it in terms accessible by ordinary people, not just scholars. These are very interesting books that are available. I tend to read these books in my mother tongue, their translations and interpretations are more faithful. And they use terms close to original. Where are in English translations, it is very dicult to understand those English terms. When I nd Tamil translation, that's my mother tongue, I tend to read that. So whenever I am not doing anything, I read a few shlokas every day, think about it. It keeps you going. Do you have any advice for teachers who are only starting? Or do you wish you had done something dierently in your own teaching career?
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I will say that Yoga is a very very rich subject, it is very rewarding. It helps you physically, psychologically, disciplines your mind. Only thing is, try to understand all these things, reect on all the practices. Even if you do your asana practice, reect upon that: how do you feel after this particular asana, this particular vinyasa, kriya? How do you feel after Pranayama? And look for long- term eects. Over the period of time maybe practice for a month or two, and see how you feel. I am sure that the whole system was designed in such a way that it was going to benet the individual. It meant to benet the individual. They have done a lot of research, a lot of practice on this. It is a result of accumulation of lots of individual practices, and practices of gurus, like my Guru, Krishnamacharya. Teachers must teach with certain amount of conviction. You practice, see how you feel, and start teaching that should be helpful. Try to maintain practice, try to enlarge your base, so you make it really useful for yourself rst. Before you start teaching others, nd usefulness to yourself. And then, share it with others. Thank you very, very much for your time. Thank you. I hope it will be useful. Yoga Teacher Training with Srivatsa Ramaswami, Loyola Mormont University (LMU), Los Angeles, California. Class of 2012, July-August. (picture) Website of Srivatsa Ramaswami isvinyasakrama.com Yuri Sharonin is certied (No.81) Vinyasa Krama teacher, located in Blmont, San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA Copyright 2009 - 2012 Wild Yogi Non-commercial use of material from this site is permitted with attribution.
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December 2012 Newsletter RISHIS

I started this monthly newsletter four years back, fr om Jan 2009, thanks to the generous help from Ross Smith who created the whole setup and my friend David Hurwitz ( Yogi Dave) , David has gone through each and every one of my articles these four years, and made the necessary corrections and passed on brief valuable opinions. I am very thankful to both of them. I hope some of you may have found some of the articles of some use. But it gave me an opportunity to write several topics that were oating in my mind and based on the teachings of my guru. This way one can communicate freely with friends. Of course most of my writing require heavy editing. Thanks are also due to my friend Anthony Hall for posting these regularly in his highly popular Yoga blog and making them available to more yoga friends. Thank you all for the kind support and interest shown all along. You may access my earlier newsletters from the following link http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasa-krama-announce?hl=en Any comments or suggestions? Please write to i...@vinyasakrama.com For the year 2013, I am scheduled to teach a 200 hr week Teacher Training Program at LMU in July/Aug and a 45 hour program at Ricky Tran's Krama Yoga in Dallas in April and at Suddha Weixler's Chicago Yoga Center for a week in September as I mentioned earlier. I am also scheduled to teach in Wells. UK,at Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga in May . It will be 18 hrs of Yoga Chikitsa Krama, 24 hrs of Yoga Sutra and 18 hrs of Hatayoga Pradipika. And 6 hrs of Suryanamaskara with mantras. I may also possibly teach in San Fransisco for about ten days including Memorial day weekend. ****** RISHIS During my lon g studentship with Sri Krishnamacharya, he taught several asanas and vinyasas normally not well known at that time. Some bore the names of renowned sages or rishis. I had known about rishis being associated with a few asanas even earlier but these were mostly seated poses, basically meditative postures like Vajrasana also known as Dadhichi asana about which I had written earlier. But Sri Krishnamacharya taught several new asanas I had not known, not even heard of before. These were also featured in his book Yoga Makaranda. Some like Bhardwajasana, Marichyasana are simple seated poses but many others are more dicult ones and one may wonder if the rishi would be able to stay for a long time in those postures and also meditate. Of course some of the asanas were one legged poses like Bhagiratasana and Durvasasana but I had heard and also read in some puranas that such one legged standing poses were resorted to by several tapasvins to get the blessings of the Lord. The asanas named after rishis and taught by my Guru can be classies into simple seated meditative poses like Dadhichi asana (vajrasana), more involved seated poses like Bharadvajasana, Matsyendrasana, Marichyasana and others. Then we have a few poses which can form a group like the 'side plank' poses such as Vashishtasana, Viswamitrasana, Kasyapasana and others. Then we have a series of poses centered around 'ekapada sirsasana' like Kapilasana. Krishnamacharya thus taught many asanas bearing the names of well known rishismany of which I had not heard of, before I came to study with him. These Rishis were well known though, not necessarily for their yogasana capabilities. There is a view that the entire vedas was called Arsha or the creation of rishis, even though Sri Krishnamacharya would say, quoting the vedas, that the vedas are apourusheya or not created by human beings. The view is that the vedas were created by creator Brahma when creation took place but were dormant. The rishis with their deep contemplation were able to
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tune in with the hidden vedic mantras and then gave it to human beings for proper use and understanding. So the rishis were known as seers of mantras, as Yaska the vedic etymologist would say Rishayah Mantradrashtarah. But then vedas were considered revelation of the absolute truth so another denition of a Rishi as quoted by Sri Krishnamacharya from a well known Sanskrit thesaurus Amarakosa is that Rishis are revealers of Truth (Rishayah Satyavachasah). Of course both the denitions could amount to the same. So we can say Rishis are those who reveal the absolute truth after they experience the truth through the discovery of vedic mantras. Some scholars indicate that the words Rishi, Rtam (truth), Rju (proof), Rk( vedic mantra), Arjava (straightforwardness) can be traced to one sanskrit root rj' meaning 'to be straight' . Kapila was a vedic rishi, and still some Indian families carry his name. According to Bhgavata purana he was the avatar of Lord Narayana Himself. His discussions and advice to his mother on spiritual matters known as Kapila-devaahuti samvada is very well known. He is credited with the formalization of the Samkhya philosophy. It was also known as Seswar Samkhya. He is also credited with the Samkhya Sutras one of the earliest works on Samkhya even as Iswarakrishna's Samkhyakarika became the standard text for Samkhya philosophy. Kapila also is associated with the story of how the Ganga was brought to earth from the lofty heights of the Himalayas by Bhagirata. Please read the story of Bhagirata in an earlier Newsletter. Maharshi Kashypa is another well known vedic rishi. Reference of Kashyapa is found in some Buddhist literature also. Rishi Kashypa is mentioned along with the understanding of the solar system in the well known Surynamaskara portion of the vedas. Kashyapaf pashyako bhavati. He is said to be the son of Marichi (does it ring a bell?) who was believed to be one of the ten 'mind children' (manasputras) of Brahma. Here is an interesting story about how dierent species were created. Kashyapaa married 13 women and through them were born so many ospring/progeny that the whole universe was lled dierent beings. Divine beings like the 12 suns (adityas), several creeds of demons, tigers and lions, birds like garuda (eagle), then snakes and other reptiles all were born to these women, each set of species to dierent wives. Kashyapa thus became the father of all beings and all beings of the universe were considered to be related to one another (not just the human beings) through a common forefather Kashyapa. Thus not only other human beings but all the beings belonging to all the species were considered kith and kin. Many families in India still carry his name. Sage Bharadwaja is another renowned vedic rishi. He is considered to be a great vedic scholar and teacher. An episode found in the Kaataka portion of the Taittiriya sakha of Yajur Veda would be of interest. Bharadwaja was so much concentrating in studying the vedas that even as the life was coming to an end he was still continuing with his studies. Indra, the Lord appeared before him and reminded him that it was almost the end of his life. He told Bharadwaj, Bharadwaja!! If I give you another human life what would you like to do? Back came the reply, I will study the Vedas further. Upon that, the Lord asked him to look at the three huge mountains the Lord created and took out from each one of them a handful of earth and placed them before Bharadwaja and said, These mountains represent the three vedas and the three handfuls of dirt in front of you represent the vedas you have studied so far. You see the vedas are innumerable and innite (ananta vai vedaH) and any number of births would not be sucient to exhaust all the vedas. You try to understand the essence of the vedas, the source of all the Universe, the Brahman. And Bharadwaja became a great spiritual teacher of the vedas. Again many families carry the Bharadwaja name. Vasishta and Viswamitra are two renowned vedic rishis. I have already written about these two in an earlier article Yogagate. Viswamitra is credited with revealing one of the most
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important mantras of the vedas, the Gayatri which is used by thousands everyday and is the mantra used lifelong by many. Viswamitra also is credited with teaching a pair of important mantras to Lord Rama (and Lakshmana), known as balaa and atibalaa mantras in the Ramayana. If one masters the bala mantra one would not tire during a war and the atibala would protect the disciple from thirst and hunger while on the battleeld. Again many families still carry the name of Vasishta and Viswamitra's earlier name Kausika. These are some of the stories of rishis well known to yogis through the asanas that bear their names. There are many more rishis whose lives, discoveries and service to mankind in the spiritual path are very signicant and can be found in vedas, puranas, itihasas, smritis and various other ancient works. Usually mantra meditation(japa) is well organized. When one wants to use a mantra she/he should associate the mantra with the author rishi of the mantra, the meter in which it is constructed and the devata or the divinity it addresses. If you take the gayatri mantra, you rst say the rishi of gayatri mantra is Viswamitra and touch your head (nyasa) with the nger tips as head(brain) is the thinking instrument the rishi used to discover the mantra. One touches the nose(instead of the mouth) and mentions the name of the meter in which the mantra occurs and then one touches the heart and mentions the deity that the mantra represents. In the case of the Gayatri mantra the meter is (nichru)gayatri and the devata is savita the bright sun and of course the rishi is Viswamitra. There is another interesting procedure for the Gayatri meditataion. Prior to Gayatri meditation one has to welcome or imbibe/invoke into oneself Goddess Gayatri and there is a mantra called 'gayatri avaahana mantra '. the rishi of this vedic mantra is Vamadeva and the meter is anushtub and the devata is of course Gayatri. Likewise when one uses the pranava, the rishi in this case is Brahma the creator Himself-- it is said in the vedas that Brahma created the Universe chanting OM. Om iti brahma prasauti say the vedas. Then in the daily Sandhya routine the seven vyahritis mantras are used while doing pranayama. The seven vyahritis are bhuH, bhuvaH, suvaH etc. These are important mantras next only to pranava and gayatri. Which are the rishis associated with these seven mantras? They are the seven rishis (sapta rishis) who are Atri, Bhrugu, Kutsa, Vasishta, Gautama, Kashyapa and Agirasa. What are the seven main meters found in the vedas? They are gayatri (6 syllables per line), ushnik (7 syllables), anushtup, the most common meter (8 syllables), brihati (9 syllables), Pankti (10 syllables) tushtup (11 syllables) and jagati (12 syllables). And the devatas or divine beings represented by the mantras and meditated on in the heart would be agni, vayu, arka, vageesa, varuna, indra and visvedevaH. When I was young I used to do the rishi asanas with reverence. One day I started wondering how the sages could stay in these postures like viswamitrasana, durvasasna for a long time and still meditate. Maybe some yogis gave the names of rishis for some of the postures. Maybe asanas with rishi names can be found in older texts like puranas and smritis, I do not know. It is one of the million questions I did not ask my Guru. Many postures are named after objects like catushpadapeetam or table pose, Some were given the names representing the eects the posture has like paschimatanasana (posterior stretch pose) or sarvangasana (whole body beneting asana) and some were named after rishis I guess. The rishi poses are majestic, great fun, but the mantras and philosophies of the rishis are very profound indeed. Rishis are known and remembered more for the mantras and philosophies and not so much for their yoga poses. Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami
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January 2012 Newsletter Yoga, Knowing the Unknown

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February 2012 Newsletter Mantra Pranayama

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Mid March 2012 Message from Sri Krishnamacharya's Daughter

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April 2012 Newsletter Yoga Sutra Quartet--VK Yoga

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