Manju Jois TT Pt 1 0f 4 : Photo preview: Manju's Workshop in Rethymno, Crete

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

Manju's website

http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/manju-jois-tt-crete-assistadjustment.html

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Updates/Out takes/ Notes

There are all these other bits and pieces I want to add to this post related to adjustments .

Biggest drawback of the Adjustment element of the course was that we were all relatively experienced practitioners (obviously as we we're on a TT). We could on the whole get pretty deeply into the asana, although some were naturally less flexible than others and still and there was a good mix of ages and sex. It would have been nice to have a class the last day of volunteers, newer practitioners from the shala who get a free conference with Manju in return for allowing us to practice our adjustments, not sure how possible that would be logistically. I had something Like this on my TEFL training years ago. There was an actual class of students who had paid half price to be taught English by new teachers.

I mentioned Aikido and the counter to the counter to the counter. In Adjustment workshops we have the adjustments by the trainer or group leader to the adjuster doing the actual adjustment/assist on the person who is of course adjusting themselves into the posture.

And there is that aspect of surrender, once you're being adjusted you just have go with it and trust the skill of the adjuster, trust that they can feel your breath, the misalignment in your body (may just be a slight tilt to one side, the lifting of hip) and redirect it slightly to allow you more space to breathe with them more fully.

It was stressed throughout that in adjusting we (as adjusters) are NOT doing the asana for them, they have to do all the hard work, we're playing a supporting role, a little guiding and redirecting perhaps, offering a little more stability and thus confidence…this time, we may well not be there the next time they do the asana, were not there to be relied on.

The breath, constant reminders to breath while adjusting, there is a tendency to hold the breath which is ironic. Breath through the assist and feel the breath in the person you're assisting, often the hand is on the back, we feel it perhaps rather than hear it. And of course there is the option in assisting to make the ujjayi louder as a reminder to the person you're assisting. This was a problem for me, I like to breath long and slow but when being assisted in my practice the breath tended to be shorter than I was used to, wasn't sure what to do then. Perhaps the ideal is to tune in to the breath of the person you're adjusting and then as you give them more space, slow and lengthen the breath slightly encouraging them to breath more fully into the asana.

Not much assisting on the exits I noticed, assist them out of the posture, so it doesn't spring apart perhaps but then it's up to them to work on their own jump back, their own exit from Supta kurmasana say.

Supta vajrasana in the led second series, WOW, my first having always practiced this at home with a bolster, SO intense, thank you Nikos and for guiding me through returning the favour. Later I did the assist on somebody else, their own first time too, a nice moment.

Karandavasana: not sure about this, I can go down and up on my own. However, I'm not used to doing it away from the wall. I never seem to use the wall anymore but in flipping up I seem to need it for confidence. So I was helped here but in being folded down and up it felt as if it was all being done for me. When I practice this I move my hips and backside back as a counterweight for my lotus to come down, same when going up but here I felt I was being lowered and raised too horizontally. Would this assist help me to ever get it on my own if I was unable to land it, I wonder. But then perhaps I'm going about it in a less efficient way, finding a work around in my home practice and that is the reason I have difficulty straightening my arms as I take my lotus back up, will have to explore coming down straighter, see if that's possible.

And of course that's the point. you take your assist and then allow it to inform your own practice, to use it to notice the areas to work on when not being assisted. How many times was I assisted in every posture of primary last week? Lots to be working.

The course ended on Sunday, Monday I went to the Shala in Rethymno as a drop-in just to put all those assists, the whole week in fact in context, it was like seeing every asana for the first time.

UPDATE

See this extra post with a bunch of videos and photos from the course

Coming up

Manju Jois TT pt 3 of 4 : Practice

Manju Jois TT pt 3 of 4 : Q & A

The order of these posts is a bit mixed up, I should probably have written this practice post before the earlier Adjustment/Assist post then the Q and A, oh well.

Bit rushed too this one, tidy it up later (sorry, hope it scans OK) as I want to practice and get it in before the weekend and focus on going through my Q and A notes.

Thank you to Paris for some of the pictures below
Picture by Paris Georgiou/ Vinyasa Yoga Studio, Limassol Cyprus

Kristina pointed out that she didn't really know Manju's schedule, it would depend on his mood each morning whether he had us do Mysore self practice or a Led class.

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We met for practice in the beautiful Rethymno shala between 8 and 10 am then ran off for a shower and or breakfast before coming back for the second half of the workshop 10:30 - 1pm

That's me right at the frount on the Santorini blue mat- just worked out that way.

Here's how the practice element worked out....this time and for me personally.

Monday - Led Primary

Tuesday - Mysore self practice : I chose Primary

Wednesday - Mysore self practice : 2nd series

Thursday - Mysore self practice 2nd series

Friday - Led Primary series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

Saturday - Led Second series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

Sunday - (last day of course) Led Second series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

Monday - drop in : Mysore self practice :

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Going through day by day....

So the week started with a Led Primary then we had a few days of Self practice, I went with Primary the first day of self practice and then thought it would be a missed opportunity not to have a go at 2nd series, though I'd hardly practiced it for a year. First time with 2nd series went well, Manju even came up to me and mentioned I had a 'good' second series : ) ....the following day less so. Somewhere along the way ( I think as we walked to Kristina's for dinner - Manju Cooked), I mentioned to Manju that I enjoyed practicing with his DVD, the whole listen and repeat of all the asana names, vinyasa count and even drishti. He seemed surprised at that but pleased and said he'd do it that way the following morning. I also asked him if he had plans for a 2nd series DVD and he said that he did. I think it was Tasha who asked for a led second series too, be careful what you wish for, he ended up doing it twice and there was a collective groan I think as we repeated 'pasasana' on the last day of the course 9'though wouldn't have missed it for the world).

Manju's led class consists of the standard sequence but finishes with Parvatasana. He then moves into pranayama while still in padmasana and then on to chanting peace chants, around ten of them. Ramaswami talks about chanting as a meditative practice, meditation with object in Patanjali terms. Manju refers to his practice as a traditional practice and speaks of himself as merely a messenger rather than a guru, just passing on the teaching his father had passed on to him

The pranayama and chanting seem to be just as important to Manju as the asana element, it's as if one doesn't make sense without the others, it's a complete, integrated, system of yoga, the yamas/niyamas coming as a direct result of the practice. The ideal for practice seems to be with the breath slow and steady, equal inhalation and exhalation (no retention) and with the jump back/vinyasas to keep a circular flow of energy. There's a structure of asana but it's also flexible, do less asana if your running short on time ( just the Sury's, Standing, pachimottanasana, purvottanasana finishing, pranayama, Chanting) and jump to finishing and the pranayama and chanting, and if a posture is causing you difficulty then you should move on to the next rather than being held back, but still continue to work on the problematic posture(s), don't skip them altogether.

Also after the chanting we lay in savasana, skipping utpluthi and back to standing for the closing chant altogether.

I'll expand on the above points in the Q and A post after reviewing my notes.

Monday - Led Primary

First time in a shala for me in years although we had met for an hour the night before with Kristina to discuss the course. I came in quite early, three mats at the top of the room with a space in between right in frount of the altar/shrine, somebody beckoned me over to lay down my mat right there.... had planned on somewhere more discrete.

So we're warming up all in our own way and the you hear Manju's unmistakable, jokingly, "Guru here, nothing to fear" (or something along those lines, it seemed to change daily ). As soon as he gets to the top of the room, just to the left of me he begins the opening chant and then Ekam - inhale..... So it's Led.

And it went well, Manju has a nice pace to his Led that I'm familiar with from his DVD. He leaves a space during the asana , no 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... this means you can breathe at your own rate, I tend to do three longer slower breaths rather than five short ones.

Manju ends his Led primary slightly differently with Parvatasana after Yoga Mudra before settling into padmasana for pranayama and chanting

Here are some notes on Parvatasana from the excellent Absolute Ashtanga

Parvatasana -- Parvata = mountain. Manju Jois says: "Parvata is
symbolically the mountain where Shiva lives. It's Kailasa. You don't see
people even practicing Parvatasana in Ashtanga these days. Sitting in
Parvatasana is an important meditation and visualization. When you
draw the arms down [in this pose] you draw the energy in."

variation A– From downdog, jump through on an inhale, fold into lotus
on an exhale. Inhale as you interlace the fingers and stretch the palms
up toward the ceiling. Take 5 breaths. Drishti = hands.

variation B– With an exhale, fold forward with arms stretched out in
front, palms facing forward. Take another 5 breaths. Drishti = hands.
Inhale up to exit. Plant the hands beside the hips and lift. Exhale as you
swing the lotus back through the arms and a vinyasa to downdog..

We would be taught pranayama later in the week so for this Led Manju moved straight to chanting, around eight or so peace chants. As I mentioned Chanting can be seen as a meditative practice, meditation with an object ( the object being the mantra). Here's Manju discussing Chanting from a previous workshop but he said pretty much the same thing in Q and A on this one. One thing that did stand out for me was that he stresses the rhythm of the Vedic chant as setting up vibrations in the brain, this made more sense to me than just saying that it was important to pronounce the mantra correctly. I'd assumed it was the pronunciation of the words, the syllables but it seems to be more a case of getting the stress of the syllables right and thus setting up the rhythm.... I liked that but no doubt it's both.

And here's a link to a track from Manju's chanting CD, the first ten tracks are taken slowly like this one http://youtu.be/4kyKY3cUyLE

There still seem to be five tickets available for the drop-in Sunday of Manju's course at StillPoint Yoga in London ( London bridge). I highly recommend this, led primary, pranayama and chanting. Dont worry about the chanting, you can mumble along and just sing out the more familiar bits. Manju calls this traditional practice, don't miss it. Here's the link, I booked mine (paypal), see you there.

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Mysore Self Practice, Led Vinyasa Count, Pranayama, Traditional Vedic Chanting

Sunday 8th September,

9am – 11am

Led Counted Primary Series, Pranayama, Traditional Vedic Chanting

£32 drop in

(note, this class can be booked on it’s own)

Manju is in the UK in September, Five day intensive at Still point, a TT in Manchester and another intensive in Brighton. Check his schedule.

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Update:

This just came through from Manchester

We are honoured for "Manju Pattabhi Jois" 2nd visit to Chorlton at One Yoga studio, for his Teacher Training again in September 2013.

We understand not everyone can commit to a 5 day TT so we asked Manju would he teach 2 open Mysore classes too and Manju has kindly agreed.

Manju uses only ancient practices, offering truly authentic guidance to all who wish to follow Ashtanga's life enriching path to enlightenment and will be teaching Mysore Self Practice, Led Vinyasa Count, Pranayama, Traditional Vedic Chanting, to everyone who wishes to experience teachings with the foremost authentic authority on Ashtanga Yoga as taught by Sri. K Pattabhi Jois.

Manju & his Father, Sri.K Pattabhi Jois, brought Yoga to America in 1975, Manju has travelled worldwide continuing to teach this tradition.

Please do book for these 2 classes as places are limited:

30th August Friday Evening 6.30-8.30pm

2nd September Monday Evening 6.30/8.30pm

Single class is £30, both classes are £50 - Booking essential at: info@oneyogastudio.co.uk

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Manju's website

Tuesday - Mysore self practice : I chose Primary

Tuesday was self-practice, I went with primary, straight forward, took it slow but not as slow as at home, noticed the breathing around me in the shala was generally quite slow all round. Did notice that several people were adding in hanumanasana, frount and side splits in fact after Prasaritta Padonttanasana.

At the end of my practice I included a little Pranayama and as I heard some under-the-breath chanting around me included a couple of shanti mantras also. Nice practice.

If you've kept an eye on this blog recently you'll know I've been sick for the last three months, one thing after another, the most recent being kidney stones. It begin to clear up a couple of weeks before I left for Crete and I had two weeks of half decent Primary series before arriving in Crete. Cant tell you what a relief it was to get those first two Primary series under my belt. It was hot in the shala, I was sweating gallons but felt flexible and able to do almost anything....began to consider 2nd series.

Wednesday - Mysore self practice : 2nd series

Manju called out self practice again after the chant and I was still trying to decide all the way through standing whether to do 2nd. I went into pasasana but then forgot to fold the leg back for Krounchasana wondered if anyone would notice if I switched back to Primary. As it happened 2nd went relatively well, felt nice and flexible, again, like I could do anything in that shala. Later that day Manju came up to me and said I'd done a 'good' second, that was very kind, perhaps he just happened to look over at the good bits. Still was over the moon with that, practicing at home you really have no idea how your practice is, it might feel pretty much OK but you don't really know.

Thursday - Mysore self practice 2nd series

Self-practice again and I felt committed to continue with 2nd at least until Friday when I imagined it would be led Primary again. This time it didn't go as well and i felt uncomfortable with flipping up form pinca mayurasana and karandavasana without a wall there as a security blanket. I moved over to a wall but Kristina called me back. I don't like the adjust, felt she was doing all the work but then I'm just not used to being adjusted/assisted and I have no idea of shala etiquette.

Oh in supta vajrasana Niko casme over and helped me with Supta vajrasana. This was a first as I'd only done it with a bolster before. WOW, this is an INTENSE posture. thank you to Niko for leading me through it and then allowing me to return the favour on him, was paranoid I'd drop him on his head but it went well.

Also by now I felt comfortable to warm up just as I do at home with a little Vinyasa Krama tadasana sequence.

Friday - Led Primary series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

This was the best, just like Manju's DVD, he calls out the posture in Sanskrit (of course) and which version it is, first second etc, and the whole class repeats, he calls out the Vinyasa the class repeats, he calls out the drishti, the class repeats.

Saturday - Led Second series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

Kind of wanted to get a picture with Manju at the end of the course but went too English and awkward about asking : )

And it gets better, Manju did the same as yesterday but with second series up to Karandavasana. Wasn't comfortable flipping up still for pinca mayurasa so just went down on my forearms and lifted first one leg and then the other. For karandavasana I went into lotus and hopped up onto my forearms, bit of a cheat.

Sunday - (last day of course) Led Second series Repeating Sanskrit names of postures, vinyasas, drishti etc.

Oh and you get a Certificate, 25 hours of attendance on a Manju TT, wonder how many of these certificates some of the others have on the course, many seem to have taken it several times.

This was a surprise as we were expecting I think something gentle, instead Manju did the same as yesterday, led second with listen and repeat. Manju curiously goes into paschimottanasana and purvottanasana after standing so you assume it's Primary and then he calls out pasasana (same thing yesterday). We weren't expecting this and it's a tough practice... when the class repeated pasasana it sounded like a collective groan plus some nervous giggles.

We got through it of course and there's such a relaxed no drama atmosphere with Manju that you feel happy to give anything a go. Practice is serious in that you take your practice seriously but it's also light, enjoyable...even fun, just as it should be.

And that was the practice element of the course, 3 x primary, 3 x 2nd series. in Q and A (see next post) Manju seems less interested in Advanced series, primary and 2nd series is where it's at and it's good once you've learned 2nd to balance the series out, alternate them perhaps rather than just doing Primary on Friday and 2nd series the rest of the week. But more on that later.

Monday - drop in : Mysore self practice : Primary.

We were flying out Tuesday. Couldn't resist raiding M's purse and her souvenir fund for a last practice at the shala, a drop-in. I had no idea how such things work, how much it costs (and nothing on the website) or how you pay, before after? I really don;t know much about shala etiquette. But it was wonderful. I arrived early, nice warm welcome from Nikos. I began my practice in the half light, just one other mat, Nikos and the incense. As the light gradually came in so did the other Ashtangi's until it got pretty full. I practiced with the whole course in mind, each asana bringing back memories of the adjustments I'd received that week and those I'd given, informing my practice.

See my previous post for the Adjustment/ assist element of the workshop

Manju Jois TT pt 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

Next post

Manju Jois TT pt 4 of 4 Q and A.

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Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

Manju's website

Original Yogasanagalu see the ongoing translation project at the top of the blog.

Here's an extra post on a couple of videos I took on the course. I've asked permission from Maria and Paris to use them and they kindly gave the go ahead.

See the earlier post on Adjustments

Manju Jois TT pt 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

from my earlier post

"I don't know how others adjust/assist but with Manju it stuck me that he was mostly about being supportive, helping somebody keep their balance in standing postures, allowing them to keep the bind they already had in some of the seated asana, reminders, guidance and lengthening into the postures, making room for the breath.

I saw another series, what would that be seventh series, the adjusters series.

And that's why it's so up close and personal, again like Aikido you step in close to better work with your partner, their energy, the direction of their body, to redirect rather than impose your own energy on them, the least force possible.

Ashtanga Mysore, It's a long class, there can be a lot of bodies.

And some photos. haven't asked permission for these but I've tried to avoid posting faces, let me know if you'd rather I removed a picture your in.

Mostly these are the final position or a least the last shot I took with my camera phone ( foolishly left my camera behind after buying a 32gb chip for it). You need to be there of course but these may perhaps tempt you to attend one of Manju's courses.

A fantasy: This is new, thoughts on (me) teaching

Curious thing, since I came back from Manju's TT course I've begun to think about teaching Ashtanga.

OK, admittedly it was supposedly a TT, a teacher's training but that wasn't why I went. I went because I wanted to spend time with Manju, explore adjustments and because if I ever did want to teach someday, perhaps when we eventually move back to Japan then I should take the opportunity to spend time with Manju while I'm here, while I'm able ( not sure if he'll ever make it to Japan in the future).

That teaching certificate just says I've completed 25 hours of a teacher training course

And yet the first thing I did when I came back was start to think how many mats I could get in our downstairs room, if I cleared it and we pretty much moved upstairs.

Then yesterday I started to think about work. We have a room upstairs where we have a kind of Music School. It's not used in the morning. I went up and had a look, it would be ideal ( alright, it would be just about OK) for an Ashtanga space.

I started to think about the details, how many Mysore classes in the beginning, how many Led classes or intro's to Mysore....

How does one grow a shala from scratch?

Then perhaps some Yoga for musician classes and Vinyasa Krama in the evening.....

I was actually getting pretty serious about this.

But I'm not ready to teach, to share any of this....but then are we ever, don't you learn from teaching...

I say teaching but more a case of providing the space to practice, sharing what Manju and Ramaswami have shared with me, my own experience practicing alone.

How ironic, the Home Ashtangi setting up a shala. No doubt I'd be better off practising in a shala for a year before i even consider this but then perhaps I have a particular perspective on this, maybe it's not such a bad thing that' I've practiced at home, I could be encouraging my Ashtangi's to develop a home practice...

Manju talks of himself as a messenger rather than a teacher.

I could be the local Mysore UPS guy.

And it's exciting, never really felt like teaching before, I'd do it if I was asked and enjoyed the experience too but didn't want it to interfere with my own practice.

The course with Manju was a game changer, started to see teaching ( lets call it teaching for convenience sake) as a practice in itself. Adjusting a practice in itself ( for some reason this ended up as 'Adjustmenting' before the edit...kinda like that 'word'), in how you set up and align your own body to deliver the adjustment without any strain, the breath focus. Manju moving around the room chanting gently to himself, in his own world and yet also aware, very much aware of what's going on in the room, everything that's going on.

Teaching, sharing the practice seem to be all about karma yoga.....

Perhaps it's just time

Perhaps I'm ready....almost.

Then of course I started to think about the details, need to brush up on my Vinyasa count etc. if I'm going to present a Led (good god am I seriously considering this) but then I've been working a lot with Manju's DVD, the one chanting the names and vinyasa count along with the drishti, need to fully nail it but that's not a problem.

Brush up my shanti chants, rather than just mumbling through the tricky bits

Spend some time with Monica Guuci's beginner ashtanga book perhaps as a nice intro to complete newbies.

And the adjustments I learned with Manju, need to practice them more on M. ( sorry darling- she prefers Vinyasa Krama) but then I don't have to force them on people or practice every one of them but rather, allow myself to become more confident with the more straight forward adjustments and let the others come as that confidence with other bodies grows. Manju's adjustments are in many ways straight forward, there seems to be an industry grown up around adjustments and assists, distracting from the practice perhaps. I don't know, guess I'd see, a steep learning curve.

Practice the Ashtanga pranayama routine more strictly.... I tend to go off and adapt it slightly to how Ramaswami taught us......

When you start to learn something people tend to like a clear fixed routine that they get to grips with, a framework, even if they don't stick to it, nice to provide that option.

It's all not that far that, I could do this, make Manju's presentation of Ashtanga available in this town as well as Vinyasa Krama, see how the two approaches work together, play off each other.

Best thing of all is that I'd be doing it around my other job, have time to allow it to grow naturally, not making my livelihood out of it.

This is all fantasy of course. I might suggest it to my boss at work and he may well shoot me down right away, I'm sure he will.... but then perhaps I'd just start thinking about other options, church halls,....must be somewhere around here that would allow me to provide a practice space. I could just rent somewhere cheaply for the year ( even if it doesn't pay for itself, just take the hit and put it down to experience) and if anyone comes fine, if not, well that's fine too, can do an extra practice, more pranayama, meditation.

Actually like the idea of having this space and practicing alone in it, somebody comes, great (eek) nobody comes, fine too.

But god, what if it takes off, what if this town is hungry for ashtanga and I open the doors to find twenty keen wannabe Ashtangi's waiting outside....

Not saying this going to happen of course, it's a fantasy and this is just a a blog but it's a fantasy I'm beginning to consider more seriously.

One of the delights of Manju's Teacher training course in Crete was the relaxed, informal question and answer sessions at the end of the day. Manju was constantly asking for any more questions, generous in his answers and seemed in no rush to close up the Q and A session.

Manju referred to himself as a messenger rather than a teacher/guru, just sharing what his father had shared with him, here's a little of the message.

Monday : from notes

*If anyone has a recording of the first talk (some wonderful stuff here) as well as Wednesday's I'd love to have a copy (dropbox?) my notes are pretty sketchy.

Janu Sirsasana - the heel gets warm which is why it is important in janu shirsasana

Practice uddiyana bandha all the time, uddiyana provokes mula bandha

Ujjayi breathing stimulates throat chakra

Take as many breaths as you want while in the actual asana ( Pattabhi Jois would leave Manju and Saraswati and go off and do something else)

Long slow breathing is best , 5, 10, 15 seconds.... a minute even

inhalations and exhalations the same, no kumbhaka in asana

Standing is important - all areas of the body activated in standing, you could practice just standing and finishing.

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Tuesday : from recording (loosely transcribed)

I'd intended to put the question and then Manju's response but listening to the recording the questions seem to follow on from what had gone before, much of Tuesdays' talk was more like a discussion than a Q and A session. Another reason for transcribing rather than paraphrasing, I wanted to convey the relaxed atmosphere. It should be remembered too that Manju is chatting here with a group of students and in a relaxed, informal environment. He might approach his answers more carefully in an interview or if laying them out in a book. I've only transcribed those parts that I felt wouldn't be misinterpreted in the different context of a blog post.

Those questions I as I've used 'Me:' those asked by others 'Q:', for manju I've of course used 'MJ:'.

The questions

1. Best time for the practice, morning?

2. My question: Kumbhaka in asana? Creation of series?

3. What if you are unable to progress beyond the Primary series, how do you achieve the 'energetic' benefits suggested of the other five series

4. the series appear series appear to be fixed?

5. So we are allowed not to follow the series?

6. Isn't there a logic to the series, the order of the postures?

7. So it's not good to be held back in Mari D, kurmasana etc?

8. What is the thread your father wore?

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1. What is the best time for the practice?

Always nice to do it in the morning, but if you don't have time, most important thing is to bring yoga into your life, always make sure it is added to your lifestyle.
My father used to wake me up at 3:30am, used to bribe me with coffee
That's how you start the day, feel good all day.
But can practice in the evening but not to late as it hypes you up

Me: Can I ask one about Kumbhaka. Back when Krishnamacharya was teaching your father in Mysore in the 30's and in his book Yoga makaranda, Krishnamacharya was exploring Kumbaka in asana, in all kinds of asana and I was wondering 1. What do you think he was exploring and 2. that never made it into Yoga Mala and we don't seem to explore that very much now (why not?).

MJ: Well your not supposed to do Kumbhaka in the postures, kumbhaka comes only in the pranayama, that's how you do it. I don't know what Krishnamacharya...sometimes he has his own thing..

Me: I just wondered because he doesn't seem to have done it later, I just wondered what he might have been exploring there.

MJ: There was a lot of misguidance there, Krishnamacharya really didn't want to share with anybody... he didn't want to give...the Maharaja of Mysore, he wanted him to teach yoga as a job but he didn't want to...

Me: But he produced, .... there was Yoga Makaranda, Yogasanagalu... he was giving a lot of those texts out....

MJ: So actually it was my father who was the one who put all the series together, you see my father was... when he started getting interested in yoga then he followed Krishnamacharya, he was the only one teaching at the time. And, he didn't make it easy for him to learn and my father really wanted to learn it, he put all his energy into it. And then he had to go to the city to learn more about the science of yoga, the philosophy and the science behind it. Then he mastered it. then he started going through all these sequences, there were no sequences, one posture here, one posture there. There was no order...and then my father did the research, brought it all together... it took him for a while.
He wrote a book, Yoga Mala but he didn't have money to publish it. It was sitting in the house for a long time. then somebody helped him publish it.

Me: One more point on that. Each series it's said work on different energies within the body

MJ: Yes

Me: If you aren't capable of going beyond first series, say, or second series... how does that....

MJ: Well actually there is no such thing as you have to perfect the one thing to go on to the next one because they are therapeutic... probably these is sometime when you cannot go forward with the back, you have a stiff back so we use the other way around, the shalabasana from 2nd series or bekasana, ustrasana just to undo the knot you have in the back. They are supposed to be used as therapy...then once you start working everyday, slowly that how you teach the body to open up.
people always say this made up thing where you have to master one thing to get to this thing but it's not true because it's never been this way, not in the old times.

Me: But it seems to have become quite fixed, we practice it as if it's fixed. Is it like primary is a multivitamin......?

MJ: That's how we all learn it. We all have problems, I had a lot of problems going up because I was short i had no muscles and there was a lot of postures that (i couldn't do), so my father was 'why don't you try this or try this", so he did therapy he didn't do the whole thing. Slowly it becomes easy. Badha konasana was my bad one, I hated it when i was a kid. then my father used to give me personal training to me and my sister and another person, an indian guy who knew my father. So every time it comes to baddha konasana I excuse myself to the bathroom, then i stay in the bathroom for a few minutes, then i come out and everyone is still sitting in it. then I would say,
"No no, you shouldn't have waited for me"...
" We are ALL waiting for you".
There's no escape and i have to surrender and go ahead...actually he helped me with that...
So, everybody has problems, everybody always has to experiment with different postures to make it happen.

Somebody else asks : So we are allowed not to follow the series you mean? And take postures from the other...

MJ: Only if you have a problem

ALL: Laughter

Q: We all do

MJ: the series is good, naturally but if you have a problem then you can change a little bit... so it should not be like a military...

Q: But there is a logic to the... Guruji put the asanas in a certain order, no?

MJ: Yes...So he he studied, he researched the book, see before he wrote the book he had to research it, see these postures do what? So then he has to put altogether because there was the yoga Korunta, hathayogapradipika...there are so many yoga books each one has a few different postures in it. Some have eight postures, some have ten postures, there's not more than that and then you take everything together, then find out what is the best... they all talk about the circulation in the body, the respiratory system... ow it works through the pranayama... then you come to the curing of the diseases and all these postures we do, mayurasana, paschimottanasana, purvottanasana.... so it's how you fix your body
So actually this is what we were talking about, it's all about geometry, so when you start practicing that way your body will start cooperating. So we never say, if you have a problem with some posture, we never say.. " oh you can not do that posture, you'll never do that posture because that's bad psychology. We say, you can do that (posture) but it takes a little time, keep working on it, it will open up. See. if you want to be a yoga teacher you have to be a psychologst at the same time.

Q: So you think it is not good that you should wait at a posture, Kurmasana, Marichiyasana D before moving on.

MJ: You have to keep it in your practice though, keep working on it.

Q: But not to wait there until you can bind Marichiyasana D or Kurmasana ...

MJ: No, you can go forward yeah.

Q: Because I find to my body that it helps me to move into the 2nd series, to open better, to practice better the first.

MJ: Yes, whatever works for you, whatever works, whatever (your) body accepts you practice that one but you don't force yourself into something you cannot..., that's how people get hurt, see, don't force, there is not forcing here....

Q: So we should move people, when they're ready they should move further to the second series.

MJ: Yes, so you've got Sthiria, Indria, Dharana(?). See you have to keep going once you get into it you don't go back.You keep on preceeding for that. Sthira means to steady, when you do that then Indria means your body completely becomes relaxed, that's how you precede ...., very important.

....because we are doing all these things, next couple of days we will talk about the pranayama and breathing exercises so you know how to do that, so these are all very important, Yoga becomes part of your daily routine, we have to make that happen. Some people say they have no time to do yoga that means you will never have time to do yoga because you will be gone.

Q: May I ask why Guruji had the ash on his forehead and the string.

MJ: It's like a bahmitza, it means you've become a man now. It's a sacred ceremony. So they put the ash. Ash is considered pure, so that's why they put the ash on the forehead.

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Later I met Manju outside the shala as we were going to have dinner at Kristina's (Manju was going to cook - it was excellent).

Two other of Manju's dishes to come, the rice was just incredible - M. pointed out that I didn't bring any of the rice i raved about home ( she'd been invited too of course) but that it was OK because she had supermarket aubergine dip, stale bread and a couple of olives : )

I had the chance to say that I hoped I hadn't seemed rude in asking so many questions..We then discussed Krishnamacharya and Pattabhi Jois and the development of the Ashtanga series for a few minutes. I had my iPad so showed him the asana table from Yogasanagalu as it concerned me that what Manju had said in the talk about Krishnamacharya's asana teaching not having any structure and that it was pattabhi Jois who had first brough order to the asana, seemed more related to or more on the basis of Krishnamacharya's first book Yoga Makaranda (1934) with it's seeming lack of order to the postures. I wanted to show Manju how the table in Krishnamacharya's other book, Yogasanagalu (1941) was clearly an ordering of asana and very similar to the order we have now in Ashtanga. Manju looked at the list, pointed out a couple of asana that were in a different order. I showed him the original kanada language version and he did the same. It made me wonder if Manju had seen a copy of Yogasanagalu before, how well the book had been originally distributed. Surely his father would have had a copy of a book like this written by his teacher.

Translation of the first coupld of pages of the asana list in Krishnamacharya's 1941 Yogasanagalu, see the ongoing translation project at the top of the blog.

But here's thought, what if it WAS Pattabhi Jois who really did put the asana in any order and that it was Pattabhi Jois' first list, shared with his teacher, that made it's way into Krishnamacharya Yogasanagalu a list that Pattabhi Jois later developed into the Ashtanga series. Or perhaps Krishnamacharya sketched out a basic outline of a Primary, Middle and Proficient list for his student when Pattabhi Jois first went to teach at the Sanskrit college and it was this that was later developed into the course syllabus and what we have now. Either way the suggestion was that the tradition didn't revolve around a fixed series, that this is something new.

The practice, it seems, has always been flexible, to be adapted and approached in accordance with the students needs. Use it as a framework for your daily practice but don't become dogmatic about it or progressing from one series to the next or staying at one challenging posture before progressing. That's what I took form Tuesday but you have the transcription and might interpret it differently.

That flexible non dogmatic approach discussed on Tuesday, the focus on long slow breathing discussed on Monday and the stress on the importance of Pranayama and Chanting discussed later in the week, an integrated daily yoga practice (notes to come) all made Manju's approach to Ashtanga practice very appealing to me and very much in keeping with Vinyasa Krama. The similarities outweigh the differences, I find the approaches complementary, informing each other.

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Manju Jois TT Pt 1 0f 4 : Photo preview: Manju's Workshop in Rethymno, Crete

Manju Jois TT pt 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

Manju Jois TT pt 3 of 4 : Practice

Next post

Manju Jois TT pt 4b of 4 Q and A. Wednesday (notes), Thursday and Friday (transcriptions)

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Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

Manju's website

Still catching up on what I missed while I was away.

This video on Sharath came out made by Alessandro Sigismondi who I met on Manju's course last week, he was there shooting a documentary, this time on Manju. Alessandro is a lovely guy, you can't miss him, tall, really tall, just don't put your mat behind his as you'll be paranoid every time he jumps back to chatuaranga. He knew my blog too and asked me out of the blue how I was after the kidney stones, really sweet of him to ask.

Favourite quote from the video

"If everything was easy, there would no charm in that".

Not sure I will ever get the vast numbers on these world tours, or in the Mysore shala itself but what's the answer, turn people away? Sharath is in London today, I should have gone, perhaps I would have surprised myself and loved the atmosphere. I should go next year, just to see, perhaps it'll change my mind about Mysore too.

Merchandise, hmmmmm

Second favourite quote

"When someone needs help, skip practice and go and help them".

Still uncomfortable with the whole 'Guru leading you to the light' thing, did cringe a bit at this shot.

"Only a guru can remove that ignorance in you and take you towards the brightness".

Here's the full video, but you've seen it before right....

While I was in Rethymno, Crete another video came out, again beautifully shot by Alessandro. This was shot in and around the sights of Rethymno so loved that, M. and I watched it, getting excited at the places we'd already visited, days sometimes hours before.

And yet it made me uncomfortable. Make-up and Yoga makes me uncomfortable, Slinky evening dresses and practice makes me uncomfortable, Focusing attention on the Advanced, the more gymnastic/acrobatic postures makes me uncomfortable when perhaps we're trying to get passed that a little and suggest that the humblest of postures can also be the most advanced with a focused breath and attention. And asana in public makes me uncomfortable ( says me who once posted a picture of myself with my legs beghind my head in a bar as well as the fancy Advanced series shots I've posted here occasionally - hypocrite). But what made me most uncomfortable was the the shot towards the end where Sophie slips the straps off the dress and it falls to the ground..... Making Ashtanga sexy, presenting Yoga as Sexy, really? Is that necessary? I don't care how much sex sells, promotes, attracts interest

But then perhaps I'm being unfair, Alessandro's day job is advertising I believe, creating a little controversy is part of the game, it's not sex that sells perhaps but controversy. Ask yourself, every time a blog post pushes your buttons, if it was perhaps intentional and if your indignant response is playing right into that.

Alessandro and I had hoped to sit down together to do an interview for the blog, I wanted to ask him about the videos as well as what it's like following Sharath and Manju around, being behind the scenes as it where.... next time.

I love you really Alessandro please don't include a shot of my Utthita hasta Padangusthasana in your Manju video : )

Here's Alessandro's 'Lady in Black' Rethymno Video with Sofia Xirotiri

Sophia was practicing in the shala while I was there, a drop in I think rather than on the course, although perhaps Rethymno is her home shala. She has a very powerful 3rd series, strong and stable, amazing handstands. I'm sure I went through a couple of postures and with my slow breathing too only to find her still in the same handstand.

Here's Sophia again, this time in my beloved Athens, but shot by George Charisis·

And yet another from Alessandro, shot in Mysore this time....now practising asana in a busy Mysore Market make me well, you know, uncomfortable but I kind of love these too, damn fine asana beautifully shot, great colours, music whats not to love but can we have one shot at 3am while Mysore sleeps, nice and discreet...oh wait, Mysore never sleeps.

This last one though is perhaps my favourite of all these with the beautiful Anuraag from Ashtanga Yoga Ibiza as well as Gianrenato Marchisio from Yoga Sutra Studio Torino. I'm pretty sure I saw Gianrenato in Rethymno just finishing his practice before our first session with Manju Started.

Look at me the home ashtangi, name dropping

But all these Ashtanga videos....what's going on?

Is this a good thing?

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Here's Alessandro's Blogwebsite Digital Drishti

http://alessandrosigismondi.wordpress.com

his FB page

https://www.facebook.com/digitaldrishti

and Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGrYPGZabSjx0gSdszbhrgQ

....back to transcribing Manju's Q and A

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UPDATE
I still prefer those simple videos shot in actual shalas, the best ones are those where the room slowly fills up as the light comes in, no focus on any particular practitioner, each asana equal to any other.... just the objective gaze of a video camera stuck in the corner with the record button pressed. Endlessly fascinated by those, I guess by the practice itself, can watch hours of them... these I struggle to watch all the way to the end which is curious. By trying to show the extraordinary we're left with the ordinary. Sophie's practice for example is extraordinary, I've practiced a couple of mats away from her, the concentration, the focus but how to convey that, you'd think a shot of her holding some intricate posture would do it and yet it somehow distracts.... to hold the posture with such steadiness it's the breath, the bandhas, the mental discipline and yet we can't show any of these things, just the external form and even then it's the end result of all the hard work that gone into it,something else not shown....no wonder the videos become boring, all that is powerful in this practice is absent.

Manju basically said on his TT course in Crete last week, that he saw himself more as a messenger than a teacher (or guru), just passing on what his father had taught to him.

Here's more of the message.

More transcriptions and notes from Manju's TT, see the earlier post for the sketchy notes from Monday and full transcription from Tuesday.

Wednesday I screwed up the recording and only had a chance to throw a few lines down when I got back to the apartment and M. (If anybody has a recording from Monday and Wednesday and would like to pass it along via dropbox or something I would gladly transcribe them, fascinating going through these again this closely)

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Wednesday : Brief (very brief) notes

Chanting: don't worry (at first ) about meaning

Listening, nobody knows how to listen anymore (re chanting, learning chants)

I thought that was a bit like Jazz, how back in the day the musician would listen to the record, learn the solos phrase by phrase, wearing out copies of the records. I started off doing that with CD's Now it seems you have the books, the Berkeley like jazz courses and learn to play long reams of notes missing perhaps that delicate phrasing of the old masters.

Guruji wanted to teach philosophy classes but nobody came

First asana then bring in drishti, then bandhas, then philosophy

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Thursday (transcription)
Questions in bold, MJ is Manju, Me: are my questions obviously, Q: relates to questions from others on the course. I've tried to divide it up into related groups of question.

Q: It's said not to practice on full moon/ new moon days

MJ: Oh, WHY not practice on full moon days?

Q: I only thought, if you have a class on these days....?

MJ: Yes full moons are held as higher magnitude days, it means there are a lot of power there. if you look at the moon , the full moon, it is not a normal moon it's is know as a (?) moon, the moon is not taking care of anybody that day, it is on vacation. It's big and round and not responsible for anything that happens while your practicing, that's why they say you have to take a day off. The new moon and the full moon both have the same thing, we don't practice anything that day.

Q: So if we thought to give a lesson, don't do it.

MJ: You can give a lesson. But makes sure they are not trying to do anything fantastic. Sanskrit schools close all the schools at the beginning of the moon day to the end of the moon day, two days, so you don't have to go to school for two days.

(laughter)

Long pause

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MJ: No questions?

Me: Nancy Gilgoff and David Williams mentioned that there were originally five series, Primary, Intermediate, Advanced A and B... and then Rishi series. And David Williams talks about the Rishi series as taking ten postures and staying in them for up to say fifty breaths or so. And I remember in an interview with you, you mentioned that your father used to stay in some postures for a very long time, and I remember in another interview you saying that you used to choose... you would take some postures from Primary, some from Intermediate and some from Advanced. So I wondered 1. is that the Rishi series or was your father joking slightly...?

MJ: So when you start ageing you have to balance the body, in my age I have to balance it, so I don't want to get hurt or something like that. Or I want to keep my body in good shape so what we do is, you give Primary a few postures, then you pick something from Intermediate for your lower back, shalabasana, bhekasana, ustrasana something like that, then some Advanced postures to make sure you still have it.

( laughter)

So you pick so galvasana or astavakrasana, some of these postures... then you do some pranayama and some chanting and that will balance the whole thing.

But then the third series is named after all the sages, Vishwamitrasana, kasyapasana.... sometimes females are not supposed to practice those things, see there are so many postures, advanced postures that are not meant for females, it is male. The man picks the postures, so for example (? didn't catch the name of the posture, dighasana, trivikramasana?), leg goes this way in standing, he has to stay in this posture for at least 100 deep breaths, so that's how they all meditated in those postures... to succeed.

So that's why we practice, we're not trying to become a sage or anything, so we just keep it as simple as possible.

Me: And for you when you choose your practice, you would change it, on different days....?

MJ: Yes, it would depend on my mood, whether I felt like doing galavasana, asavakrasana, the balancing ones.... and finish by making sure I can still walk on my hands, practicing that because a lot of people after they're sixty can't do anything...well, I refuse to grow up.

(laughter)

Q: Why are advanced postures not for females?

MJ: It is not good for them, it has different effects on the body, for men too some postures like mulabhandasana...mulabhandasana, sitting on the heels...there are all sorts of postures that are not supposed to be practiced, that have a different effect. It (mulabhandasana?) completely takes away the sexual desire in the body, so... we are all married you know (householders), we don't want to lose that. So that's why we want to keep it simple, the practice.

Mulabandhasana from http://www.ashtangayogachikitsa.com/gallery/

Me: So why are they in the series? Why do we have those postures in the series?

MJ: There are so many postures in the series, so we pick only a few of them, because there are thousands and thousands of postures. It represents all kinds of reptiles, animals, birds...everything we have in the universe we have a posture for that. So we pick some postures, mostly beneficial for our health, so we practice that.

Me: Sorry, I meant if those postures we're not supposed to be practicing why are they in the series?

MJ: Some people want to become sages, they don't want to be dealing with anything else. You have always a choice about what you do.

Me: And I guess five breaths is not so long.

MJ: Five breaths is just a show, show me that you can stay in that posture for thirty minutes. then that becomes a challenge. See that's what they did. They were very determined person, so Durvasana(?) "if god don't want to meet me then I will go on strike. "I will do THIS posture". So he got in the posture and did not come out, start feeling numb, then he feel nothing, that's what those sages did and why their postures are named after them.

Q: And the same about the vinyasas? I was wondering as we are ageing we pick the postures. Is it the same counts for vinyasas, how many vinyasas we do, each side...?

MJ: Well it depends on our energy level. if we are feeling fit go ahead and do it. But we talk about certain postures that keep our body in a good shape. Every 3000 km we take our car and get the engine checked, same thing, the body needs to be and also practice certain positions so that we don't have a hip problem. Because usually when people start getting older, if they do nothing... in yoga we talk about keeping the spinal chord very healthy, strong...that's why we do all the postures, take many positions. So we bend, ustrasana lagu vajrasana, kapotasana, all this way and shalabhasana and bhekasana all go this way and then marichyasna Cand D and Bhardvajrasana all twisted, it needs to be twisted, then in the krumasana it needs to be round. So once you practice all these spinal positions there will be no calcium deposits where the bones can not move anymore and that's how osteoporosis starts. Mostly females get the osteoporosis. That's why we see more female's doing yoga, less men but men will get it later, they will pay later if they don't do it now. That's why spinal problems are very important, we don't over do it but some people are overdoing it because they are nimble then they can hurt more, you have to be sensible about it.

----------------------

Q: Again about age. What is the best age in your opinion to teach children? So when we can start?

MJ: You can start girls from the age of six, it's a good age for them you can start working on their spin and they grow healthier and healthier, boys it should be more like ten because if you start boys earlier their muscles start growing, that's what happened to me, so you have to wait until ten.

Also, don't force them to do yoga. All you have to do is just practice in frount of them and you get their attention, "Oh mummy's doing that, I'm going to do it".

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Q: Guruji can you tell us something about the relationship between Ashtanga Patanjali and Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga? I see the relationship with the asana and the pranayama combined and pratyahara with the drishti but the other limbs like Dharana, Dhyana?

MJ: So Ashtanga yoga is the eight limbs of the yoga, hatha yoga is the basis of the tree, these all come off the branches that we have to go through. so that's why we say there are Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana Samadhi, Yama, Niyama, yama/niyama come at the end. So that's where we start.
Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga is all about the purification of your own body, that's why we start with the asana, pranayama, mantra chanting... then when we start being there yama and Niyama start coming automatically. See there is no secret practice for that. It is called disciplining yourself, your thoughts, your body.... what you eat. We don't say people should change their diet because that all happens by the niyama. the Niyama will tell you how to keep your body, what to eat. The body becomes really sensitive from practicing yoga. It will tell you what kind of food you like.

See yoga is all simple, it's everything else that is complicated.

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Q: Manju, How many times should they practice in the beginning, when they are just starting the practice? Six times already or less?

MJ: I think if you start every practice everyday, this is another dish on the table. For beginners they should do it every day

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Q: How do I keep this feeling of relaxation (from the practice) when I get to the office?

MJ: Offices are depressing places for anybody. A lot of people are allergic to work. So we suggest you might try gayatri chanting. See gayatri chanting sets up a circle around you, to protect you. When we teach this you have to believe it, you have to have complete faith , you have to believe it, you see yoga doesn't work for the people who doubt all the time, "Is this really going to work"?

So you can add it to your daily life, a little chanting or if you get depressed at the office. Sit down for a few minutes, a little chanting

Om Bhuh Om Bhuvaha Om Swaha Om Maha Om Janaha Om Tapaha Om Satyamm,
Om Tat Savitur Varenyam Bhargo Devasya Dheemahi Dhiyo Yo Naha Prachodyat
Aum Apo Jyoti Raso Amritram Brahma Bhuh Bhuvaha Swarom

All the chanting that we teach are protection for the mind body, the whole thing, for the universe. When you start doing that nothing can come close to you. You'll feel stronger than you think.

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Q: I assume that you are still learning, in what ways?

MJ: Well, you learn a lot of things from people, we are all students, we are all just learning from one another. Some people ask me questions and I am hmmmmm. Sometimes we don't know the answers to questions but somehow it comes to you

Q: Do you also get frustrated and stressed?

MJ: I never get stressed, tired, frustrated, no. I never complain.

I think frustration is all inside of us.
(Quotes something in Sanskrit that I couldn't catch), There's no such thing as happiness, there's no such thing as poor, there's no such thing as rich... it's everything your creating inside of you.

In Sanskrit it says 'aham-brahmasmi' I am everything. I am the creator, the destroyer and the preserver.
Yog means to unite in yourself

Manju discusses here drug companies and how we're beginning to lose faith in them especially when we consider the side effects etc. ( and thus looking for other ways to stay healthy).

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MJ: So any questions that pops in your mind? ( still, after 25 minutes, Manju is happy to take more questions, encouraging them even).

Me: I wanted to ask you how, when your father was first teaching you, how he...because there is this period, we know what happened in the 70's when Nancy and David went (to Mysore). You told us stories about when you came to California and you were teaching there.. and we know what Krishnamacharya was kind of doing in the 30s and 40s and 50s, but we don't really... there is that period in between, that period when your father was teaching you yoga, teaching you the asana. Did he teach you the sequences that we learn or was he teaching you in a completely different way?

MJ: He started teaching the sequences.

Me: In the same way?

MJ: So when he wrote his first book, he was already.... he would call me and he would be sitting writing and he would call me and say :"Manju, do this posture", and I would do this, then he would make a note of that. he would research like this for days. that's how he did it, it took a long time for him to write.

Me; When did he write it first because you said it was later on that it was published, when did he first write it down, the first draft?

MJ: I was a little boy. He was always interested in writing a book about the yoga because it was all everywhere.

Me: But it was in Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu (Krishnamacharya's books), it was in the kanada language wasn't it.

MJ: Yeah, If you look at the Yoga Makaranda, none of them are in sequence

Me: But Yogasanagalu was in sequences, that book had tables

MJ: My father did all the sequences for all the yoga tables he was the one who researched it, then he started bringing it all together. Because my father was the only one at the university, at the Department of the Science of Yoga, he graduated from that and did a lot of research and was able to write that. Krishnamacharya didn't put anything in order.

pages from the asana tables in Krishnamacharya Yogasanagalu (1941)
Link to translation project

Me: But there was, in Krishnamacharya's other book Yogasanagalu 1941, it's in tables. There's the Primary, the Middle and the Proficient. It's not in the same way as Yoga Mala, the other series but it's in three groups, very similar.

MJ: I've seen Krishnamacharya's photos of him doing suryanamaskara, just one chart.... not many photos, they were all taken in the Maharaja's studios, so they used to hang those photos in the yoga school in India where my father was teaching. these are all the rumours.

Krishnamacharya standing below pictures of him from Yoga Makaranda.

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Q: (from the back of the room, hard to hear on the recording). Your father was a family man, he had a wife children and had to support them (through yoga). It must have been a difficult time

MJ: A very difficult time yes.

Q: Can you tell us a little about that, it was his faith I guess that got him through that difficult period?

MJ: My father was a very determined person, he was very determined, very perfectionist everything he does has to be perfect and when we were growing up the college salary was not very much, maybe 15 or 20 rupees at that time. So we did not grow up in a very luxurious life or anything. So that gave him even more determination to teach his children to succeed in their lives. So he started teaching us all the yoga. We were very interested too at that time because we didn't have any other kinds of entertainment. Even in 1975 when I came to America there was no cellphone. When you were growing up in India there was nothing, so you listen to the chant to amuse yourself or yoga, those were the choices. So it was the perfect opportunity for us, to learn together and from our father.

And slowly it started getting bigger and bigger and then a lot of the people who worked in music, they started studying with my father, lots of musicians, famous musicians because Mysore was very famous for music, they all want to study in Mysore. And they all start studying (yoga), vocalists, violinists, flautists and drum people.

Q: and people from the university?

MJ: Yes, professors from the university started coming, because they were all curious about the yoga because when yoga started coming out.... because Krishnamacharya wasn't taking anyone to learn, pushing people away, I don't know why. Then I think people were looking for...so then when my father became a teacher slowly he was discovered.

And then my father was discovered through me. When I was on the road in India, that's how I met David Williams.

Me: How long were you travelling (in India)? I remember reading that you were travelling around, ran away and travelled round India..

MJ: Yes I was getting a little bored in myself and wanted to do different things. Then I had a friend a best friend an ayurvedic doctor and he had a small clinic but he wasn't doing very good either. So we were talking, why don't we just go on the road because he knew the ayureveda, I studied the Yoga put them together and travel around a little and see what it looks like outside mysore. So we just got on the train, we didn't have money for the train but when the ticket collector came we just jumped off the train, they were steam trains then, very slow you could just jump off.
We made it all the way to the north, we visited Benares... I wanted to learn dhauti Kriya.

Manju tells his Dhauthi Kriya/sadhu story here, great story, great how Manju tells it and I don't want to spoil it for you in case you get the chance to take one of his workshop.

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In this series of posts

Manju Jois TT Pt 1 0f 4 : Photo preview: Manju's Workshop in Rethymno, Crete

Manju Jois TT pt 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

Manju Jois TT pt 3 of 4 : Practice

Manju TT Crete pt 4a of 4 : Q and A - Development of the Ashtanga series etc.

Next post Manju Jois TT Crete Pt 4c of 4 Friday's (transcription)

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Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

Manju's website

In this series of posts

Manju Jois TT Pt 1 0f 4 : Photo preview: Manju's Workshop in Rethymno, Crete

Manju Jois TT pt 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

Manju Jois TT pt 3 of 4 : Practice

Manju TT Crete pt 4a of 4 : Q and A - Development of the Ashtanga series etc.

Manju Jois TT course Pt4b of 4 : Questions and Answers - Rishi series? When to practice? Why 'females' shouldn't do Advanced series? When did SKPJ write Yoga Mala etc.

Ramaswami has been busy while I've been away in Crete and working on the transcripts of the Q and A from Manju's course. There are the Slide shows made up of the pictures from his book The complete book of Vinyasa Yoga as well as some chants including all four chapters of the Yoga Sutras and 10 vedic peace chants.. Also the excellent two part talk, "Linking Asana, Pranayama and Meditation.

Here are the Vinyasa krama sequence slideshows, will add the others if and when Ramaswami posts them

Two excellent lectures on Linking Asana, Pranayama and meditation, developing an Integrated Yoga practice.

Ramaswami Chanting all fours chapters of the Yoga Sutras.

More transcriptions from Manju's TT In Crete last week. This transcription is from the final Q and A session, just last Friday in fact (Has it really only been a week?)

Below: Manju on Advanced series

See the earlier posts (links at bottom of post) for the sketchy notes from Monday the full transcription from Tuesday, sketchy notes from Wednesday and full transcription from Thursday.

I've decided to include a video again from an EARLIER workshop. Listening to the recordings of our workshop in Crete while transcribing I have Manju's voice, his relaxed manner so clear in my head. Hopefully if you watch this video before reading the transcript you'll hear Manju's voice more clearly yourselves as you read the following transcription.

MJ: is Manju Jois,
Me: is Myself
Q: are questions from others on the course

MJ: Any Questions?

Q: If you are sick is it OK to practice?

MJ: It depends on what kind of sick you have. If you have a headache you can still do it, if you have a stomachache, (it's OK)..

Q: And a fever?

MJ: High fever NO. If you have a stomach problem you still do it. Any other kind of fever... or cold, just take it easy. If you have cold don't practice, the mucus is coming out, let it come out, don't practice. Because they are all natural things. If your body produces more mucus it automatically discharges it. So people should not take any medication to stop it. And high fever, it is the pita, the body gets overheated and the body starts sweating so you don't overheat it by practicng.

Q: And pregnant women? They can do after the third semester?

MJ: After three months, yeah. And after they have the baby they can take a break for a month, then jump on the waggon.

Q: What about women having their period, what is it they can do and cannot do?

MJ: We don't advise them to practice yoga then, take the period off. Because this menstrual cycle you go through, if you mess with that then in the future they will have problems. So that's why you have to take it easy. Be like an Indian women, they don't do anything for three days. They don't cook for three days, they don't clean for three days, just watching soap opera...the husband comes home and has to do all the things when he comes home, "Nothing is made what happened"? "It's My period". " Oh my god..". Then he has to get in the Kitchen and start cooking. So that's why we all know how to cook.

Manju had cooked some amazing food for us a couple of nights before, this is only part of it. took him less than an hour although we helped with some of the prep.

MJ: Next time I come back I'm planning on doing a cooking class too....we'll rent a kitchen... I'll come with a cooking kit, pans, German knives...

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So any other questions?

A couple of questions here on Pranayama relating to the earlier pranayama session that only really makes sense if I were transcribing the whole pranayama session (I'm not). Manju's pranayama is pretty much like the regular Ashtanga pranayama ( see my pranayama page at the top of the blog) but with some subtle, minor, variations that I haven't sat down and sorted out yet.

This was perhaps the only disappointing part of the course for me. Manju wanted to spend more time on pranayama in the course ( in this Q and A, he mentions that we are here for another couple of days and will be spending more time learning different pranayamas. However he was so keen to keep re enforcing the adjustments he'd taught us that we just ran out of time. Luckily I'd already been taught pranayama and have been practicng for a few years but I imagine if learning pranayama was one of your main reasons for joining the course you might have been disappointed. If you take the course ask Manju pranayama questions on the first Q and A session to show how much your interested in this area of practice.
Next year I'll swamp him with pranayama and Philosophy questions, watch this space : )

MJ: So have YOU got any questions?

(Manju looked right at me here, we'd been discussing a couple of things regarding asana in the break and I felt Manju wanted to mention them in the class. He'd been concerned about a couple of instances in the course book we were given where the chin was on the mat or knee rather than the forehead).

ME: I wanted to ask you about, you adjusted me today, thank-you, in supta kurmasana...

MJ: Yes

Me: ...and I learnt somewhere, somewhere or other I picked up that once you practiced Intermediate series then you do a dwi pada sirsasana (both legs behind head while seated) entry to Supta Kurmasana, you go in with the legs behind the head...but I noticed you brought my legs out from behind my head (/neck/shoulders) (on to the top of my head)...

MJ: Yes, they were never on top of your head in Supta kurmasana. It's all new. yYah there was never... you are not supposed to put your legs behind, they should always be..(above the head not behind) because if you look at a tortoise the head goes in the back is round. Somebody started doing that and in the future that's going to cause a lot of problems for people with their necks, it is not supposed to take so much weight. See that's when they are trying to slowly change all the things, not the way they are supposed to be doing it...

Me: ( I ask ) Because it made it into the book ( the Greek version of Manju's Adjutments book and also Manju's Ashtanga Yoga co written with Greg Tebi) ..., It's behind the neck here ( showing picture).

Manju says the forehead should be down in supta Kurmasana

Forehead down in Yoga mudra

Forehead to the knee ( as in the name of the asana) in Ardhabadhapadmapaschimottanasana

And here the same 'errors' in Manju's Ashtanga Yoga with Greg Tebi

MJ: See we're going to clean all that up (laughs)

Me: That makes sense because the exit (from supta kurmasana) is tittbhaasana..

MJ: The only time you can do that (legs behind head) is in dwi pada sirsasana because you are sitting and in yoga mudra you are actually laying on your feet. We did that book in a rush, that's why.

In our discussion earlier, outside class, Manju had been talking about the clues (often) being in the names, so in Janushirsasana the head should be on the knee. He's asked to check something in the book, Yoga mudra, and said that the forehead should be on the mat not the chin. He seemed concerned about these aspects.

Kristina questioned Manju here about the structure of the rest of the course. Found it interesting that Manju stressed once more that he wanted us to have the time to practice again and again the adjustments, to reenforce them. I liked this, I was afraid before the course that we would only get to practice each adjustment once or twice But Manju made sure we constantly re enforced them, going right back to those from the first day and to practice them in different groups and thus on different body types, an excellent aspect of the course.

MJ: Yes, last day just a practice and then practice everything we went through, just to make sure they are not going to forget. then they don't see me until next year. Then we're going to sit down and correct all the postures you know. There are all these postures that have got mixed up, done wrongly, we're going to sit down and make sure you all know the right way of doing them.

Like we (looking at me) were talking about padaangustasana, pada angusta. Pada hasta has never been there...somebody start to do it and then everybody start to do it that way... and in Supta Konasana they are holding here ( around the side of the feet) but it should always be here (the toes) otherwise it's impossible to come up. Small details to be cleaned out.

Me: I noticed in janu shirsasana this morning that you chanted naasaagradrishti ( this was the led Primary with listen and repeat of the names of the postures, vinyasa count and drishti) not padangushtadrishti.

MJ: Yes, everything is wrong, wrong, wrong.

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Q: In savasana today I felt very good after the chanting... it was different.

MJ: Well good, Good. We actually did a very traditional practice today, we did complete... meditation, pranayama, relaxation. Utpluthi is optional you know. In traditional practice you don't jump back and jump through, you take your rest and finish.

Q: Will we do a led class again ( the listen and repeat led)?

MJ: It depends on my mood...You like the led class : )

All/Most: yes, yes..

MJ: So how many of you do the second series?

Tashi (named : ) LED SECOND!?

(collective groan/gasp)

Me: be careful what you wish for

(nervous laughter around the room)

MJ: Led second is actually easier than the first one because there are less jump backs and jump throughs.

So maybe we can introduce that... perhaps tomorrow. We'll do a led class, intermediate, tomorrow.

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Q: (Can't hear the question clearly here - back of the room - seem to be asking about perhaps the future of Ashtanga Vinyasa, and traditional practice).

MJ: Yeah, that's why I'm trying to keep it as traditional as possible. That's the problem, everybody starts there own styles and that, it's quite dangerous actually because they don't know what they're doing. Even all the asana we do are sacred mudras actually, all the mudras we do in the posture are supposed to be accurate otherwise we don't get any benefit from it, so...I try my best to keep the way the original. Then I look at how many people are practicing and that's how it grows.

Q: if you don't know those mudras you use in the asanas, some people do mudras in marichasana(?). If you don;t know those you leave them out or... should we use those mudras?

MJ: You don't have to use the mudra in that one but if you use it no problem.

K: Nobody told me but naturally it came up.

MJ: When you start getting into more and more meditative yoga then automatically the mudra will go by itself, you don't have to do anything you see. So that's what happens ....there are so many mudras. (Manju shows a few different mudras here).

So all these mudras we can learn but as I say asana is a mudra, that's why you have to be a more traditional way to practice it, to get the complete benefit. It should not be like a circus. It's supposed to be a work of the physical and spiritual, they both merge there. If your practicing yoga you get the benefit.

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Me: Can I ask how important you feel that moving on into Advanced series is, as opposed to just deepening your primary and maybe your second series. you've been talking about chanting, you've been talking about the pranayama and bringing those in, you've been talking about slower breathing...rather than just... How important is Advanced series?

MJ: Not really important...because it is there people do it (laughs). I think the first and the second part(series) is perfect practice. It's not really that you have to do it (advanced series), It's not important. But it's just about balancing, all about balancing.

Me: Once you've learnt second series, normally the way it's done is that you only do your Primary on Friday but do you feel it would be better, once your comfortable with your 2nd series, as comfortable as you are with your Primary. Is it better, do you think, to do one day Primary one day 2nd, one day Primary one day 2nd, alternating them

MJ: Yes

Me: .... or half of primary half of 2nd...?

MJ: Once you know all the second part (of primary) you just do all the standing postures, then paschimottanasana, purvottanasana then go to passasana , krounchasana.. If you know only a few 2nd series then you just go up to navasana and then you change it to pasasana, krounchasana.

Me: But once you know?

MJ: Once you know then one day you do Primary, one day Intermediate. And if your practicing 3rd series so you do only Primary plus a little bit of 2nd and then you add... but you don't do all the second, then, again you go back... you see you should never stop doing Primary and the Intermediate because people are doing only the 3rd part ( series), different muscles will start developing and then they'll come back to the pasasana and they can't do it.... because they're not using the muscles. Everything has to be managed (balanced?).

(pause) That's my own personal experience as I found out. Because I was not a fan of the first part of Intermediate and then when I started 3rd I loved it. I even did not do three or five salutations sometimes, I just wanted to jump in. So I'd do three or four salutations and then start doing vasisthasana viswamitrasana... And then one day my father would say today... we are doing 2nd series today. Because he used to do a led class for us every other day. So when he said pasasana I would go like this...couldn't do it. Then he said pasasana PASASANA! " OK Dad, I'm trying you know.."I pulled my back muscles. So then I had to quit doing it for a while. So that's what happens when you do the handstands like this..., these muscles take a lot of pressure and start developing and then when you want to twist your lower muscles lock up... so that's why it's not a balanced. You have to balance it.

So if your doing 3rd series you can stop anywhere (anytime?) you want.

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Me: Can I ask just one more question? I remember in one of your interviews, I think in one of the German magazines you mentioned that you used to watch your father practice and he would do long stays in certain postures. Your maybe the only person who's seen your father practice. I wondered if you could share anything you remember from watching him practice?

MJ: Oh a lot of memories about my father, first he like to teach us then he wants to practice as well, sometimes I used to practice with him. he had a really nice body, the strength he had, amazing. that why I started getting impressed with this practice...sometimes he would stop his practice and help me with mine... but his help was pretty... hard (laughs). He just yanks you wild like sometimes.
It was actually very very nice to watch him do that (practice).

Me: Was it quite slow and meditative or dynamic..?

MJ: Just like we did today actuall.... inhale, exhale. Everything has to be a full, filled up to here and push everything out... and so we used to do about fifteen salutations and no carpet or anything just a cement floor. And it was hot but every time you got to chatwari it was like, "Oh it feels so good"(cool cement floor). Then we would start sweating and the sweat was running all over the floor because every Indian house has a hole, a water hole all the sweat would go down that..

MJ: I'd seen my mother doing yoga too, she had a good practice.

Me: How did she used to practice?

MJ: She used to do Advanced postures and everything my mother, yeah she was pretty good at that. But the only problem was they had to do all their practice with their sari's on, Leotards hadn't been invented then.

Q: What was the reason guruji stopped practicing... in his 50s, I don't know if it's true?

MJ: Oh no he did not stop practicing in his 50s, no he practiced until 75, 76. Then he got real busy but he still practiced. he used to do pranayama, chanting for almost an hour and a half everyday and early morning chanting, which drove my mother crazy. Until 90 years he was great and then he hit 90 and actually I think the car destroyed him. Buying the car was the biggest mistake because once he got the car he never walked.

OK thank you everybody.

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Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

Manju's website

Manju TT Crete Part 4A of 4 : Q and A - Development of the Ashtanga series etc.

Manju Jois TT course Part 4B of 4 : Questions and Answers - Rishi series? When to practice? Why 'females' shouldn't do Advanced series? When did SKPJ write Yoga Mala etc.

Manju Jois TT course Part 4C of 4 : Questions and Answers - Friday, final Q and A day. Woman and Ashtanga, Advanced series? Watching his father practice etc...

This is just a post to Introduce a new Stand- Alone Page at the top of the blog devoted to all things Manju.

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A stand alone page with all things related to Manju Pattabhi Jois.

This is a work in progress, for now I've just collected some earlier posts with interviews, videos, reviews etc. More material and links to come.

Reviews of My Teacher training Course in Rethymno Crete with Manju. August 2013

Manju Jois TT Part 1 0f 4 : Photo preview: Manju's Workshop in Rethymno, Crete

Manju Jois TT Part 2 of 4 : Ashtanga Adjustments ?

Manju Jois TT Part 3 of 4 : Practice

Transcriptions and notes of Crete Q and A sessions

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Earlier posts

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

Manju - Pranayama techniques and some traditional Indian Odissi dance.

Friday, 5 July 2013

Ashtanga History

This is just a post to launch a new stand-alone page sitting at the top of the blog that I've called Ashtanga History

Friday, 10 May 2013

Going to Manju Jois' TT in Rethymno, Crete August 2013 includes interviews and training videos(see below)

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

Manju Jois Bundle, DVD, Training manual and chanting CD - first look

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Interviews with Manju - From his website

Manju Jois interviews and Teacher Training videos

I came across a nice interview with Manju Jois last night on the Aspiring Yogi blog.

I particularly liked these questions

KPJ: Describe your usual yoga practice/routine?

MJ: I practice yoga in the morning every day except Saturday. My routine is to get up at 4am, have a shower and practice for 1 hour, picking a few postures from the primary and intermediate series, then four or five postures from the advanced series. The asana practice is followed by chanting for ½ an hour.

KPJ: You have been teaching for 47 years. What changes have you noticed over that time, either in your own approach to teaching, or more generally in terms of Ashtanga yoga?

MJ: I teach in the traditional style that I learnt from my father. My aim is to keep the teaching pure and simple. Unfortunately the teaching is often not the same as when I learnt. I don’t know if it is because of a shortage of time, or they don’t know the traditional style or don’t want to teach it.

KPJ: What do you think is the most common mistake that people make when practicing yoga?

MJ: The biggest mistake that students make is overdoing their practice and not knowing when to stop. Yoga is supposed to be relaxing! It is better to do fewer asanas perfectly with correct breathing, rather than lots of poses if you have forgotten about the breath and bandhas. Keep up your practice everyday. You don’t have to do 100 postures. Listen to your body, stop when it tells you it is stretched enough. People get hurt when they continue.

KPJ: In led classes, we hold each pose for five breaths. Is it appropriate to hold the pose for longer, especially if you have one side stiffer than another?

MJ: In Mysore style practice you can take as many breaths as you want. In fact, usually the body reacts after the fifth breath, so you need to stay longer to get the complete benefit. The Yoga Sutras say Sthira sukham asanam – meaning asana is a meditation and you have to stay in poses and breathe properly.

A couple of Videos from Youtube of Manju's Teacher training workshop

While on the topic of Manju, here's the excellent video from Warsaw that I posed last year, Hooked on Yoga

Hooked On Yoga: Manju Jois in Warsaw, July 2010 from Astanga Yoga Studio on Vimeo.

here's the link to where the video was posted http://vimeo.com/19598795

and a link to manju's own website http://www.manjujois.com/

NB: VIDEO PAGE TO COME once I've trawled YouTube.

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Manju's teaching of Pranayama

Transcription of this to come ( does anyone have notes on Manju's approach to Bhastika pranayama ( he didn't get around to it on the course, notes, videos etc. welcome)

Transcription to come of the video below.

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My review of Manju's Book, DVD, CD

Manju Jois Bundle, DVD, Training manual and chanting CD - first look

The Manju Jois 'Bundle' arrived from Ashtanga.Com.

Took Six days from confirmation of order to delivery, USA to UK. Only regular first class post too, not express or anything special.

I've been thinking very seriously about taking Manju's workshop this year, thought I'd take a look at his kit. Only thing is, I'm so into my practice as it is at the moment with it's slow, slow breathing that I don't really have much inclination to do a straight Ashtanga anymore.

At least I didn't......

So very quick first thoughts, another fuller review to come.

BOOK - Ashtanga Yoga Training Manual Manju Jois and Greg Tebb ( this is was designed with Manju's TT's, Intensives and workshops in mind.

A little disappointed in the quality, bit cheaply produced it has to be said, although I like the layout (mostly, at times things get a little bunched up). Good to have a ring binder although it's not as strong as the one on David Swenson's book, get the feeling it would be falling apart towards the end of a workshop.

I was hoping for something a little special, a little different ( not sure what I was hoping for exactly) but it's just the pose and the instructions/count etc. which seems pretty standard. I mentioned I like the layout, pretty much a posture a page with a space for notes. I'm going to scan mine and then paste in Krishnamacharya's instructions for the same postures for comparison, should be interesting.

The nice touch is the quotes from Hathayogapradipka, Geranda Samhita, Yoga Rahasya etc.

One interesting thing to pick out, in the majority of postures we find, as in the page above for Janu Sirsasana

"Dasha diirgha rechaka puuraka" - 10 long inhalations and exhalations.

DVD - Ashtanga Yoga Workshop (*90 minutes)
*2 min for opening chant and 15 minutes in padmasana chanting rather than Savasana at the end of the practice so about 75 minutes for the actual primary series

This was a nice surprise. It has Manju Leading a class with the chant but get this, everybody repeats every word of the count including the names of all the postures, great way to learn and practice the count.

I'd heard Manju did this on his workshops, really looking forward to practicing along with it.

I mentioned that in the book we find...

"Dasha diirgha rechaka puuraka" - 10 long inhalations and exhalations.

I checked the video to see how long we get for those ten, long, inhalations and exhalations, about 25-30 seconds, give or take a second or two. Interestingly, Manju doesn't count the breaths ( leaving that up to you) I liked that, it means I can get three longish, half decent breaths in but somebody else might choose, five shorter ones...or ten pants.

Here are some comparisons to put it in perspective, all for when in Janu Sirsasana at dwe ( this is hardly fair though as the time varies slightly in the different postures, especially in the led classes of Manju and his father ( it's guess work in Led), for example Manju left them in the preceding posture for 30 seconds), the demo's are a different case. gives an idea though of the general pace of the practice.

David Robson - 40 seconds!
Richard Freeman - 29 seconds
Manju Jois - 25 seconds
Lino - 24 seconds
John Scott - 20 seconds
Kino - 20 seconds
Sri K. Pattabhi Jois - 20 seconds
David Swenson - 19 seconds
Sharath - 13 seconds

What me?
Grimmly - 90 seconds, but that's really only because of the 10 long inhalations and exhalations.

So the stay in the actual posture is generous but overall it's taken pretty fast and you have to go some to keep up, 75 minutes isn't long, the last fifteen minutes of the DVD's 90 Minute run time is taken up with chanting.

UPDATE: A comment came in from Sereaux on Dave Robson's Drum Beat Primary

"I've been practicing periodically to David Robson’s mp3 Ashtanga Yoga’s Primary Series to the Steady Beat of a Drum. It goes to a 4 second inhale and a 4 second exhale – so 5 breaths equates out to 40 seconds. Not quite 90, but nearly double the others. It has helped to keep me to recognize when and where I’m rushing – also helped me stay focused on the breath. I always tend to rush the inhale. All Sanskrit counting. Whole practice takes 109 minutes with opening chant, 3 Sury A, 3 Sury B, and only two paschimottanasana variations.
Sereaux"

Chant CD - Shanti mantras

Consists of the opening and closing chant and then the Shanti mantras, at slow and regular speed. Nice and clear, I could practice with these although I prefer Ramaswami's traditional way of teaching chants.

There's also a pdf with the chants and translations.

Was a little underwhelmed when I first opened the box but am getting quite excited now to getting stuck in and even more tempted by the thought of a his workshop.

UPDATE 7/5/2013
Coming back to this post three months later.

I mentioned in the post that I was quite wrapped up with my 'slow Ashtanga' practice based on Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda at the time the Manju bundle arrived. Recently I've shifted back to a pretty standard Ashtanga practice in the mornings ( VK and pranayama practice in the evening slot) and that has a lot to with Manju's DVD. I like that Manju doesn't count through the actual asana on the DVD, this means I can get in three long slow breaths while in the posture, this works quite well. I can get through the whole series without sacrificing (my approach to) the breath too much. I've been practicing along with the DVD on my days off, Sanskrit count getting inside my head, enjoying it. Rest of the week I take it a little slower still but not by much, add in a few extra VK postures, alonger stay or two ( kind of weaving the Vinyasa krama and Yoga Makaranda influences into my ashtanga practice) but not too many to upset the balance. Wish Manju did a led 2nd Cd or DVD as I've moved back to 2nd series in the mornings.

I like it so much now, as well as the TT videos in the post above, (and I've always felt drawn to Manju's approach to the practice in general, as suggested by interviews and workshop reports) that I'm finalising the logistics for attending Manju's week long TT in Crete, in August this year (finally a workshop in our quiet time at work). Excited.

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Manju's website

Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family

http://alessandrosigismondi.wordpress.com

Note: I've added the images (screenshots of some of the links) to Ramaswami's newsletters. Grimmly

Warm Greetings!

First, a Ganesa prayer ..A short Ganesa prayer in Tamil which I chant at the beginning of my yoga practice/class. It is the invocatory hymn from Tirumandiram a very old Tamil classic written by Tirumular, said to be a contemporary of Patanjali
http://youtu.be/8AwD2V-OFm8

***I completed teaching the 200 hour Teacher Training Program at LMU. The participation was very good and satisfying. Hope some of them would teach Yoga in a comprehensive manner. I wish all the participants very well.

****During my stay in LA I had the opportunity to give a talk “Linking Asana, Pranayama and Meditation” in the studio of Sarah Mata. Thank you Sarah. Here is video of the talk in two parts—video by Venkatesh Kulkarni—in YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdD1G4xN0fw&feature=c4-overview&list=UUdpNhq6SnkMlKhi34EOIFTg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkDbEc9hMNA&feature=c4-overview&list=UUdpNhq6SnkMlKhi34EOIFTg

***Between May 20 to June 8, 2014 I plan to teach in UK in my friend Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga. Here is the link
http://www.harmonyyoga.co.uk/ramaswami-uk-visit-2014/

*** Come September, I will be teaching (Sep 20th to 27th 2013) at my friend Suddha Weixler's Chicago Yoga Center. Here is the link
http://www.yogamind.com/workshop-ramaswami-Set20-22_2013.shtml

***Here is my Yoga Sutra chant all the 4 chapters. Recorded for my book about 8 years back when I was about 65 . Please share it with your yoga friends if you like it.
http://youtu.be/Y87Ktcar6R4

***Two years back when I was in Chennai, one fine sunny Sunday morning I gave a talk at Ashtanga Yoga Madras of my friends Srimathy and Ravi. . They gave me the cd with about 45 pictures of me taken during the talk. Suddenly I thought why not make a slide show( I had never done that before) of the pictures and spent some time on this maiden venture. Here is the slide show of about 45 of my pictures, with wrinkles, warts and all and running for about 3 minutes.
Here is the link
http://youtu.be/vGTXdw-2yb0

***In May I was in UK for a program with Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga. My friend Ranju Roy for Sadhana Mala interviewed me and the video (about 27mts) is available at $3.75 to cover the costs (I am not getting paid). Here is the message from Sadhanaa Mala

“The video is also available on vimeo-on-demand which is a pay to view site at a cost of $3.75 (all the prices are in $US, and we have set this as equivalent to about £2.50 in British Pounds).If people purchase this they can then watch it as many times as they choose for up to year. This way we hope to produce a series of interviews (we have one recorded with Sriram already that will be next to produce) and cover costs".
This is available at http://vimeo.com/ondemand/ramaswamiinterview

****Peace Chants from Yajur Veda
One of the meanings of the word Yoga is peace of mind, apart from 'union' (yoga yuktih samadhanam). Sri Krishnamacharya always used a peace invocation before and after any yoga, chanting and theory class. He taught me several sections of the vedas including chanting of them. Out of it, ten vedic peace chants can be found in this audio. It is about 15 minutes. One or all of them can be chanted with Yoga practice in yoga studios. Hope you like the chant. I chanted it several years back for my book. It is said these vedic peace chants create a peaceful environment and create in all beings a sense of peace-whether one chants them, meditates on them or merely listens to them. Feel free to share it with others or give it to yoga studios for use if you like them. Here is the link
http://youtu.be/CA6YguVYJ0c

*****A 2 minute slide show of some vinyasakrama yoga jump throughs, jump arounds
Here is the link
http://youtu.be/1xHW-x8AAG4

****Rudram Camakam is one of the most popular Vedic chants. Said to be highly pleasant to hear (shravya) it is one of the favorites Siva chants among Vedic scholars. The upload also contains a few other Vedic chants like the trayambaka mantras, sivalinga mantras and rudra gayatri--chanted by Srivatsa Ramaswami
Here is the link for the half hour chant
http://youtu.be/Uu3z9sXUdCo

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VINYĀSA
Vinyāsa is a charming Sanskrit word, it indicates bringing out the beauty of an artistic activity. Modern Yogis are familiar with this word which Sri Krishnamacarya used quite extensively while teaching yoga especially yogāsana. It is from the root 'ās' meaning 'to place' and has two prefixes 'ni' and 'vi' having virtually opposite meanings. āsa is to place something like oneself as in an Asana. The prefix 'ni' indicates something permanent (nitarām). It actually specifies the parameters. Like how one sits like in lotus or padmāsana, where the feet are kept in a particular way and one may not change it. So ni would specify the parameters. Then 'vi' can indicate in a particular or special way as the word “visesha' would indicate . However 'vi' also indicates 'variety' as in the Sanskrit word 'vividha' (vi+vidha=manifold). Since there are many variations possible with the legs kept in Padmāsana like Parvatāsana, Yoga Mudrā, Urdhvapadmāsana and scores of other positions still keeping the legs in padmāsana, we could say 'vi' is variety or variations . So āsa is to place something, ni indicates the fixity and the parameters defining the position or posture and 'vi' would indicate the artistic variations possible without violating the parameters indicated by 'ni' So vinyasa is vi+ni+Asa. vi could mean in a special way(visesha) or a variety of special ways (vividha) as my Guru taught us in vinyasa krama.

The root “ās' would indicate to place something like oneself. Since we normally place ourselves in a seated position “ās' came to indicate placing oneself in a seated position. . So āsana is to sit. āsana also came to be known as the seat in which one sits. āsana is “āste, āsyate va iti āsanam' Sitting or that which facilitates sitting like a chair or a throne is āsana. It also meant the lower posterior portion of the body with which one sits. An English word indicating the seat area of the body rhymes with the Sanskrit root “ās”.

Even though āsana would mean a seated position like padmāsana, vajrāsana. virāsana siddhāsana and others, yogis use the word to any yogic posture provided it meets certain parameters, like steadiness (sthira) and comfort (sukha). Some adepts were and are able to stay comfortably and steady for long periods of time even on one leg (like Bhagiratāsana) or on their head (sirsāsana). Likewise the term vinyāsa in yogasāna is used to indicate among other things a posture without a name still meeting the basic parameters. Sometimes an āsana with a name is considered a vinyāsa if it forms part of a sequence—like for instance the well known Suryanamaskāra. Usually it consists of Uttānāsana, utkatāsana (in vinyāsakrama), caturangadandāsana, urdhvamukhasvānāsana, adhomukhasvānāsana and tādāsana. All these āsanas in sun salutation are counted as vinyāsas as they form part of a sequence. Vinyāsas sometimes form part of a lead sequence like getting to Vajrāsana from samasthiti. The sequence is same as in suryanamaskāra until one gets to adhomukhasvānāsana and then gently jumps through to Vajrāsana. (see the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZvRk16QHD8&list=TLKd00hvlI4mY
There are also a few modifications as you can see in the video.

But then Sri Krishnamacharya taught furthermore a number of vinyāsas in classic āsanas like sirasāsana, sarvāngāsana, padmāsana, trikonāsana etc. bringing out the beauty and effectiveness of these wonderful main āsanas. Scores of vinyāsas can be churned out of padmāsana like parvatāsana, yogamudrā, baddhapadmāsana, matsyāsana, utpluti, garbhapindāsana, uttanakurmāsana, urdhvapadmāsana and several other āsanas and vinyāsas. Here is slide show showing many āsanas and vinyāsas of Padmāsana or lotus pose in vinyāsakrama lasting for about 5 minutes. Contains the lead and return sequences, preparatory āsanas and vinyāsas and many āsana (not all) vinyāsas in Padmāsana. Sri Krishnamācāya talks about scores of vinyāsas in Padmāsana, here are a few.
http://youtu.be/ueVQgDk0W3w

Perhaps one of the best asanas that brings out the beauty of vinyāsas is the tādāsana sequence in which both the feet are kept together(with a solitary exception) but the body is worked around in scores of aesthetic and healthy vinyāsas. See the slide show of tadasana (abt 140 frames in 7 mts) from my book “Complete Book of VinyāsaYoga”
http://youtu.be/5d3shGufa8k

Sri Krishnamācārya in this fashion mentions about more than 60 vinyāsas each sourced from sarvāngāsana and sirsāsana. In this way my Guru taught me more than 700 vinyāsas built around about 150 āsanas. So we may say that one may find vinyāsas in lead sequences and return sequences and scores of more emanating from some classic poses. Additionally Vinyāsas become a very useful to prepare the yogabhyāsi to be able to do more difficult poses. For instance several vinyāsas like the forward bends and twists and movements in half lotus and sometimes lotus in inversions like headstand and shoulder stand would help the abhyasi to slowly achieve the capacity to be in lotus. Once one gets to such postures further movements/ vinyasas in those poses helps body make finer adjustments to reach the final posture. So Vinyāsas help to achieve the final pose like lotus and remain in it for a long time, steady and comfortable to be able to do prānayāma and meditation

Sometimes vinyāsakrama is very helpful in achieving very difficult poses. Take the case of Kapotāsana. This is progressively achieved by following the sequence done over many number of days step by step.
Here is the progression of back bend asanas/vinyasas in Vajrasana*.

The counter pose (pratikriya) of Balasana
Half camel/poor man's camel pose.
Ushtrasana (camel pose)
Kapotasana (pigeon Pose)-fingers inward
(niralamba) Kapotasana
ekapada ushtrasana (camel walk)
edapada ushtrasana/kapotasana- fingers inward
see slide show
http://youtu.be/inqZ0u8x4EQ
and here is a related video
http://youtu.be/XnTYJf4nPmY

As mentioned earlier some āsanas like sirsāsana, sarvāngāsana, lotus, trikonāsana lend themselves to several vinyāsas. Sri Krishnamacārya mentions more than 60 vinyāsas with each of the the twin inversions and scores of vinyāsas in Padmāsana. Some vinyāsas like raising the arms in many of these postures are simple but very effective. Raising the arms and stretching the waist in the process in Lotus is known as Parvatāsana and my Guru used to ask us to stay in it for several breaths, even as it would appear innocuously simple. Such vinyāsas done in many poses like tādāsana help to stretch the spine, pull up the waist and release the thorax and additionally the good inhalation helps to expand the chest and also effectively stretch the thoracic spine and help the nourishment of the spinal cord. But there are more complex asnan vinyasas , like garbhapindāsana in lotus or mandala in inversions.

In my June 2012 Newsletter I wrote about the use of breath in āsanas and vinyāsas which was the hallmark of Sri Krishnamacārya's teaching not sufficiently emphasized these days. He even would quote the Yogasutra “prayatna saitily ananta samāpatibhyam” to emphasize that even according to YS breath coordination and synchronization and mindfulness of the breath is sine qua non for vinyaāsa yogābhysa. Use of breath along with many vinyasa movements has many advantages. One is able to help increase both the muscle pump effect and the respiratory pump effect in the circulation of blood (rakta sancāra) by increasing the venous return of blood which in turn improves stroke volume and cardiac output thereby reducing the strain on the heart. A very favorite theme of my Guru was that the yogic exercises should help the heart and not strain it.. Further the mind is required to closely follow the breath (while maintaining the breath-movement synchronization) so much so the mind gets trained to remain focused. It also enables the yogābhyāsi to practice prānayāma well as the mind is trained to be with the breath all through the āsana practice. In other forms of physical workouts, there is a certain disconnect among the mind, breath and body (movements) .Further, slow controlled breathing has a relaxing effect on the system, one of the main goals of Yoga.

The word vinyāsa also would indicate a progression, say from easy movements to more involved postures and vinyāsas. For instance if one wants to practice very involved hip openers like dvipāda sirsasana (feet behind the neck) it is more systematic to work with simpler hip positions and movements like maricyāsana, then janusirsāsana, half lotus, then triangmukha, ākarna dhanurāsana, then krouncāsana. Staying in each of these āsanas and doing several vinyasas like forward bends, turns and twists then back bends will progressively help to open the hips. Additionally hip movements in several beautiful hip openers in inversions like headstand and sarvāngāsana will form a vinyāsa krama approach to more involved poses like dvipādsirshāsana, durvāsāsana etc.

In fact the entire aṣṭāṅga yoga (classical) is a vinyāsakrama or a progression. Firmly established in yama and niyamas, āsana practice helps to have a good control over one's body, reduce rajas (āsanena raj hanti). Then prānayāma starts working with the mind , reduce the tamas (tatah ksiyate prakāsa āvaranam--YS) and prepares the mind for meditation or antaranga sādhana. Thus prepared one helps the indriyas to fall in line with a delightful pratyāhāra practice like shanmukhi mudrā. Then meditation or antaranga sādhana itself is a progression according to Patanjali. One having prepared the body and the mind with āsana and prānāyāma may attempt to teach/learn an activity called one-pointedness (ekagrata) in a step by step approach, First the mind is given a simple, clean, uplifting object to think again and again during the short period of mediation time. If the mind wanders or dozes off, it is brought back to the same simple object again and again. This is the first stage of meditation where an attempt is made to break the non yogic habit of uncontrolled wandering of the mind. Once the mind starts staying with the chosen object in this first stage called dhāranā, the practice is continued with more vigour when after some practice the mind stays with the same object for the entire duration of meditation when it is called dhyāna which is good enough for most people. Some yogis go on to intensify their efforts and finally succeed in remaining with the object even forgetting themselves when they are said to be in samādhi. It is not possible for anyone to reach samādhi unless one follows the krama of the various steps or vinyasas of ashtanga yoga and the inclusive antaranga sādhana.
Vinyāsa is not exclusively a yoga term, it or its derivatives are used in several Indian arts like poetry, mantras, classical music. Vinyāsas are aesthetic variations within the parameters set like raga, tala, sruti in music, meter in poetry, nyasas like anganyāsa, karanyāsa matruka nyasa in mantra puja. The word vinyāsa is also used in the sense of an art form. In Chennai there is an art gallery called Vinyāsa gallery.

Back to yoga. My Guru used the vinyāsas very effectively and made yoga accessible to many others who could benefit by practising yoga, like the young, the old, the sick, the handicapped, obese, the agitated, the depressed, the faithful, the non believer and many many more. It is not possible to make yoga's benefit reach everyone if yoga teachers would teach only a couple of dozen asanas or half a dozen inflexible sequences made up of many difficult āsanas and vinyāsas. He used the enormous resources of Yoga, the hundreds of vinyāsas, scores of āsanas, a variety of yogic breathing routines/prānayāmas, traditional philosophy like the yogasutras, upanishads, the Gita, appropriate mantras and chants, religious practices to the faithful. He made yoga accessible to almost everyone in whatever condition or age one may be in. He used Vinyāsas as art form of yoga but also used them judiciously for varied individual requirements for physical and mental health. Traditional Yoga is rich, Krisnamācārya's yoga is very rich indeed.

There are some great yogis who depend entirely on their personal experience in their teachings, but there are many more who study a lot and depend upon the texts and sayings of other yogis present and past to explain yoga to their students. Krishnāmcārya was one rare exception who relied on both traditional studies and his exceptional practice and application. His yoga has therefore a certain authenticity which my be difficult to match.

Srivatsa Ramaswami

I have uploaded about 35 videos of vinyasakrama sequences, slide shows, vedic chants I learnt from my Guru and a few talks on Yoga. When you find time see some of my uploads, Thank You
http://www.youtube.com/user/srivatsaramaswami

EG. Ramaswami chanting Gayatri mantra

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Excellent video from Alessandro Sigismondi shot on and around Manju's TT course in Rethymno, Crete.

Lovely guy Alessandro, seems he reads my blog occasionally as when we met on the course he asked me how I was, referring to the Kidney stones, kind of him to ask.

Thank you Alessandro.

Hyon Gak Sunim ( that's him, the monk, chanting in the Video) puts it best perhaps in his Share of the video on fb

"A GREAT video about Zen meeting Ashtanga at our recent retreat in Rethymno, Greece. Wanna see the soft, wide world of yoga meet the laser-like technology of Zen? Please share this video! Please share this video! Just another amazing work of art by Alessandro Sigismondi.... "

M. got excited watching this pointing me out, a toe here, part of a thigh there , my belly, a glimpse of my blue with white rabbits tengui shouting "there's Guri....there's Guri....Guri....Guri again...and so on (Guri being short for Gurimu i.e.. Grim, Japanese work in syllables).

The shots below are for M. of course.

And the bit right of the end of Kristina singing, just beautiful, can't get it out of my head, what is that she's singing?

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UPDATE
This piece of music has been haunting me all day. i sampled the bit on the video and looped it to use during savasana this morning. First thing I did when i got home was to ask Alessandro if Kristina mentioned what it was she was singing. ( could have asked Kristina herself but was a bit embarrassed ). Turns out it's the most Ancient, Song of Seikilos

some notes from the Youtube upload

"This song is one of the earliest examples yet found of a complete musical composition from the ancient world. Although other songs have been found that pre-date 'The Song of Seikilos' by many centuries, they only survive in fragments.

Seikilos carved the song on a grave pillar in dedication to his wife.
The Grave was discovered in 1883, near Aydin in Turkey. Archaeologists believe it dates between 200 BC and AD 100.

Seikilos also inscribed a poem on the gravestone, it reads:

"Hoson zēs, phainou
Mēden holōs sy lypou;
Pros oligon esti to zēn
To telos ho chronos apaitei."

In English:

"As long as you live, shine,
Let nothing grieve you beyond measure.
For your life is short,
and time will claim its toll."

From the Atrium Musicae de Madrid directed by Gregorio Paniagua, recorded in 1979"

I've just bought the mp3 album on Amazon, still prefer the simplicity of Kristina's version (and with the Ashtanga breath in the background of Alessandro's video), but this is nice to, growing on me. Thank you to both Kristina and Alessandro.

I actually went to Uni to study Classics, it was during an Ancient Greek Philosophy class ( the pre-socratics) that I decided to switch to straight Philosophy in the second year, listening to this I almost regret it.

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We all met in the shala the evening before practice and Kristina mentioned that if we wished we could meet up at the white church nearby the following morning and head over to her place to chant with Sunim. The idea was that after chanting we would walk silently back to the shala to practice, nice.

I'd noticed Sunim, an American monk from Korea bouncing around in the shala with a huge fan and in his monks garb. What came next I wasn't expecting. We all squeezed into a room in Kristina's house behind the monk who passed us a little piece of paper with a mantra,

Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ.

And then the monk began to chant this huge reverberating voice that you hear in the movie, powerful stuff.

I didn't realise that this was an option available for us every morning as it was M. was getting up early with me. I'd planned on doing some pranayama and chanting as the sun came up. As it was, every morning M. andI just sat quietly together and watched the sun come up from our balcony drinking Greek coffee before I headed off to the shala.

I think Sunim would have approved.

Here's Alessandro's Blogwebsite Digital Drishti

his FB page

https://www.facebook.com/digitaldrishti

and Youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGrYPGZabSjx0gSdszbhrgQ

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Hyon Gak Sunim's blog/website

http://cloud-path.tumblr.com

Manju's website

Link to Kristina Karitinou website

Links to the extended Ashtanga yoga Greece family