http://www.tonbridgepottery.co.uk/gallery/index.html "I started making these pots in 1993. My mum had bought a simple terracotta garlic storage pot and dropped it the first day she had it. I had not long been making pots but I thought I ought to be able to do something and this is the design I came up with. The porosity of the unglazed earthenware clay and the small holes ensure that the garlic doesn't sweat and go mouldy. I've been making them in small batches ever since. The making process is quite time consuming. Each one is thrown on the wheel and then the shape altered and carved with a wooden tool whilst still soft. The lid is cut from the base and I then paint three or four layers of a white slip (liquid clay) on the outside and rims. The red clay shows through in places, giving an interesting surface. It has been suggested that I could slip-cast them - but the point is that I like the way they are all individual! Because this is the only thing I make in red clay I have to clean up the wheel and all my tools before and after making them, so I just do a batch every so often. They are popular so it is best to check with me that I have some before travelling".

Making the most of these last couple of days before the shala opens for Morning Mysore Monday.

This week is a trial run, up at 4am to make M.'s Lunch and have my Nespresso before heading upstairs for my own practice.

No excuses now, time to reclaim my 2nd series. After the disruptive three month illness I focused on getting my Primary back for Manju's TT in Crete last month (although I ended up doing 2nd series three, or was it four times on the course), then figured I might as well stick with Primary until after Manju's Led primary at Stillpoint Yoga Sunday....., then for the first couple of 4am starts in the new shala, familiar Primary made sense.... I've run out of excuses, back to 2nd series it is.

Thankfully Manju stresses that you shouldn't perhaps neglect Primary once you move on to 2nd or neglect Primary and 2nd for that matter if you move on to Advanced series, so I'll be splitting my week between Primary and Intermediate series from now on, three of each.

This morning I practiced standing then paschimottanasana and purvattanasana before moving on to pasasana. Another interesting thing about Manju's approach, he seems to include paschimottanasana and purvattanasana when practising 2nd series. Must ask him about it, or if anyone is taking a course with him over the next few months and notices the same thing and gets the chance to ask, please let me know what he says.

I like the idea.

Anyway, took it easy, went through 2nd up to Laghu vajrasana but decided to leave kapo for a couple of days, know I can do a toe grab but thought I'd ease my way back to a full 2nd.

Instead of  the leg behind head postures I just practised the Janu's then  the kurmasanas and baddha konasana in place of Dwipada sirsasana and yoga nidra, again, no rush.

Carried on through 2nd up to a 25 breath Pincha then called it a day, had to choose between completing the series or moving on to finishing and leaving time for pranayama and chanting....no contest, pranayama and chanting every time..

Nice practice. Finished at 6am time for a quick shower. Next week I'll be opening the door at 6:15 but for now I went back into the shala to find my beloved going through her Sury's in the rainbow onesie I bought her for Christmas) Went through standing with her, few suggestions here and there.... she has to start getting ready from seven so we skipped the rest of Swenson's 30 min short form and settled into a few breaths in half lotus padmasana/jana mudra.

Yesterday's practice
M: "But David Swenson says.....".

My fault, I had put David's Primary series on her iPod along with some chanting, I don't dare give her Richard!

I started this blog five years ago with a jump backs and you know I can't resist a good jump back video, feels like old times.

Here's Peg (Peggy Mulqueen )with a nice video of a recent workshop. What I particularly like about it is that at the end she includes approaches to jumping back from other teachers. I think this is important, my own jump back epiphany was when I realised that Lino Miele's was not the ONLY way to jump back. I'd been trying to lift up like Lino way back then, I still can't lift up like him but I have a respectable jump back and through now.


Try all the different approaches to jumping back, work with each one for a while, really work with each method but chances are different aspects of the different approaches will end up coming together in a way that works for you and your body type, one size does not fit all here....or anywhere else in the practice perhaps.

And of course it's not important (except to you and for a long time me), find a half way stage perhaps that you can make nice and smooth while you work on building strength and bringing the elements together. Good to lift the hips and backside off the ground at the end of all the seated postures then do your jump back variation. Decide on a couple of postures to give it a really good try every practice ( after Janusirsasana perhaps and especially after the konasana's). Same with jumping through, do your variation but try and hold yourself up for just a moment before lowering back down...it'll come....or not, if not you just make your jump back variation as smooth as smooth can be (Nancy Gilgoff supposedly didn't jump back for years ). I ended up trading my fancy floaty version for a delicate little Sharath one that seems to use the least energy possible, I'm happy with that.

Influenced by the International Physical culture movement?

I linked to a Q. and A. on Richard Freeman's Yoga Workshop site this morning. The questioner asks..

“Mark Singleton has written a sweeping and nuanced account of the origins and development of modern postural yoga in early twentieth-century India and the West, arguing convincingly that yoga as we know it today does not flow directly from the Yoga Sutras or India’s medieval hatha yoga traditions, but rather emerged out of a confluence of practices, movements and ideologies, ranging from contortionist acts in carnival sideshows, British Army calisthenics and women’s stretching exercises to social Darwinism, eugenics, and the Indian nationalist movement...an ancient tradition was reinvented against the backdrop of India’s colonial experience.”

I really want to quote all of Richard's response but that hardly seems fair, so here is the link so you can head over and read it at his place.

http://yogaworkshop.com/blog/2013/09/07/yoga-history/

OK I'll  just quote Richard's the last paragraph

"It is important to note that the practice of asana is well documented in ancient texts. It is not strictly a modern invention as has been misinterpreted by some when reading Singleton’s work. In good Ashtanga vinyasa yoga and in good yoga in general, we are working asana in direct relationship to balancing and cleansing of the nadis, the proper practice of bhanda, mudra and pranayama. More and more practice reveals that these things are the purpose and primary focus of asana, and when done well lead directly into Raja yoga and deep contemplative practice".



In any other field there would be tens (hundreds?) of other 'scholarly' texts questioning Mark Singleton's conclusions in Yoga Body, other yoga studies scholars presenting their own theories or take on any new scraps of evidence they've come up with that they then rework in their Phd thesis. Some will get picked up by publishers and, in the modern climate, will get reworked, sexed up, have their day. Unfortunately ( or fortunately) there don't seem to be that many Yoga Studies departments around, so we pretty much just get Mark's book and perhaps a handful of others in the public eye. This is a shame, Yoga Body is an excellent book, although I'm not convinced by much of it.  Mark could do with somebody challenging his interpretation of evidence, going respectfully hammer and tongs at some colloquium which would allow him bring out other aspects of his work that perhaps get overlooked.

Don't get me wrong, big fan of Mark and his book, great read and made me think and question the practice I love, it still does.

Whenever I come across reference to the Yoga body discussion, the argument that Modern postural yoga owes much to the international physical culture movement I'm reminded of a couple of sections in Krishnamacharya's own books from the 30's and 40', Yoga Makaranda ( 1934) and Yogasanagalu (1941). Krishnamacharya was keen to stress the distinction between what he saw as the traditional Yoga he was presenting of which asana was one small element and the modern forms of exercise being introduced into India.

This of course doesn't refute Mark's claims necessarily but Krishnamacharya clearly thought there was a distinction, however much the 'traditional' practice he was presenting was reintroduced/repopularised on the coattails of the  enthusiasm for health and fitness prevalent at the time. My own suspicion was that it was a response to the introduction of modern 'foreign' approaches to health and fitness, along the lines of  "We don't need that, we have our traditional yoga arts....now where did we put them".


Here are what I consider the relevant quotes from Krishnamacharya's texts.

"Q. 9.Why don’t we move our limbs faster like they do in today’s physical exercises such as drill and sports? A.9 If you move your limbs quickly like they do in drill and sports, it will lead to imbalance in blood circulation and movement of pranavayu and will lead to sthoola kaya and vakra kaya body type instead of samakaya, but may also develop crooked limbs". Krishnamacharya Yogasanagalu (1941)

Also this from Yoga makaranda  (1934)

"But we cannot say that people outside India are practising yogabhyasa and not just some form of physical exercise. I don’t know about their practice earlier, but their practice nowadays may resemble or be based on yogabhayasa as noted by people who go abroad."

and, again from Yoga Makaranda

 "These people then ridicule yogavidya and their sanatana dharma, and start doing physical exercises that are contrary to our country’s ahara guna (diet), jala guna (water) and vayu guna (climate) and waste a lot of money on this. Who is at fault?"

also this long section, yep 1934 again and Yoga Makaranda

 "Nowadays, we follow Western exercises and methodology, think that this is easy, spend a lot of money on it, procure expensive equipment from abroad and exercise with no consistency or routine. This is not an achievement of the body but a bodiless eort or a body destroying eort. We did not make up these names. We realize this from the kinds of kriyas that are being followed by the practitioner of these exercises. Moreover, such exercises will give proper blood circulation to some parts of the body while reducing the blood flow in others. This will result in poor strength, and eventually will cause paralysis and lead to an early, untimely death.
To make things worse, when we observe the practitioners of the kinds of physical exercises that exist nowadays, they make loud noises while practising and we notice that they breathe through their mouths. This is very dangerous. It is a danger to our lives. We have life only as long as prana vayu exists in our body. Therefore, such exercises are not suitable for people in our country. It is more intelligent to spend the money nourishing the body than to spend the money on such physical exercises.
There are only three forms of physical exercises that give equal strength to the joints and blood vessels in our bodies: yogabhyasa, karadi sadhana (fencing or fighting with weapons) and archery. I don’t know why people have given up the skill of archery in the present day".

And one more Yoga Makranda quote

"For such achievements in yoga, we do not need to send our country’s money elsewhere to procure any items. Whatever money we get, there is plenty of place in our country to store it. The foreigners have stolen all the skills and knowledge and treasures of mother India, either right in front of us or in a hidden way. They pretend that they have discovered all this by themselves, bundle it together, and then bring it back here as though doing us a favour and in exchange take all the money and things we have saved up for our family’s welfare. After some time passes, they will try and do the same thing with yogavidya. We can clearly state that the blame for this is that while we have read the books required for the knowledge of yoga to shine, we have not understood or studied the concepts or brought them into our experience. If we still sleep and keep our eyes closed, then the foreigners will become our gurus in yogavidya.
We have already given the gold vessels we had to them and bought vessels from them made from bad-smelling skin and have started using these. This is a very sad state. Our descendents do not need these sorts of bad habits.
The physical exercise that is yoga, this asana kriya that is with us is more than enough for us. The hut that we live in is enough. We don’t need excessive amounts of money for that. What yoga mata wishes for us is that we eat only the sattvic food that Bharatmata can give us. The ability that our youngsters have to follow outsiders can also be used to follow the knowledge and skills of our country. I have complete faith in this. In schools, it is very important to have this yoga vidya in the curriculum. I do not need to emphasize this specifically to the great scholars who know the secrets of vidya."


Got to run off to work but page numbers to come for all the above quotes.

Manju's adjustments/assists from intermediate series.

Picture by Paris Georgiou/ Vinyasa Yoga Studio, Limassol Cyprus

Krishnamachrya adjusting (Screenshot from a photo album in Breath of Gods)

http://www.presentermedia.com/index.php?target=closeup&maincat=clipart&id=5227

As promised Ramaswami uploaded his Youtube tutorial to chanting the Yoga Sutras ( first chapter only so far)

"The other Sunday at Stillpoint Yoga I practiced Led primary with Manju Jois. On coming to the final padmasana we practiced pranayama and then chanted shanti mantras. Ramaswsami refers to chanting here as Dharana, it's one of the meditative limbs of Ashtanga,  concentration on an object (next, according to Patanjali you would move on to concentration without an object). The object might be an icon, the breath, or here a mantra. Ramaswami would have us practice Japa mantra meditation, repeating a short mantra over and over, Manju happens to have has us chant a number of Shanti (peace mantras). I guess you could replace your own preferred approach to meditation practice here if you not yet comfortable with chanting ( I wasn't for the longest time)" from an earlier post

March 2012


I forget what happened after that, I should look back and check. I might have switched back to Vinyasa Krama for a while ( but that doesn't make sense as Ramaswami's Bow sequence makes for great kapo). Anyway I let my kapo slip such that I was barely landing on my toes. I thought perhaps that was that, a glory kapo gone never to return. Turns out kapo's do come back, a couple of weeks and I was back to  grabbing my heels. nice to know which is why I posted on it.

Feb 2013


I even explored it with David Robson's drums, taking it nice and slow.

Feb 2013


That was back in February, it was around that time I began to explore in practice Krishnamacharya's Asana descriptions in Yoga Makaranda. That was followed by, what, revisiting Primary but taking it really slow and with long stays. Intermediate series was out of the picture.

And then I had that three months of disruptive practice with the Kidney stones and what have you, very  basic practice although I managed to get a couple of good weeks in before Manju's TT in Crete. The TT was interesting actually, third day I figured I might as well have a go at my 2nd in the Mysore Morning practice of the course, it was hot and sweaty in Kristina's shala, felt I could do manage almost anything there. Turned out there was still a fairly acceptable 2nd including kapo. I really don't remember much about the actual Kapo's  though, I think I landed back near my feet and managed to grab my toes, mostly I remember those first lagu vajrasana assists.

Coming back from Crete there was Manju's led Primary at Stillpoint yoga to look forward to, so again Intermediate on hold, focus on primary.

No more excuses, this week I started to revisit 2nd and it's a bit of a mess, neglected.... there's a lot of fuzz. I could list the catalogue of shame but I wont bother, sure you can guess/imagine.

Shame, who am I kidding, it's just asana, and yet I do feel I've let my discipline, as reflected in the practice ( and my waistline), slip a little.

So here then is where I'm at now, my kapo after what six months away from it, this is a marker of sorts to see if it will come back and how long it takes. I think the first time I went away and came back ( see above) I'd retained the flexibility in the back, looking at the screen shot below that seems to have gone completely ( and yet i still drop back and come up....just) or is it more that I've lost strength in my quads and can't keep my legs vertical, I remember that being key...? No doubt a little of both.

I figure this time I should be more aware of what's going on as it does come back (Assuming it does). I keep getting asked about kapo, how I worked at it, what made the difference, hopefully this time around I'll have a clearer understanding.

Sept 2013


And because my practice fee's so disrupted, so out of sorts, the Mysore room idea is on hold for now, some 121 Vinyasa Krama classes still but more than anything I want to re establish my own Ashtanga practice ( I practice my Vinyasa krama seperately), ground it, feel settled in it before I consider the challenges of holding a space for others.

Oh, my approach?

Basically still an Ashtanga framework , Standing, Manju's pre 2nd series pashimottanasana and purvotanasana ( yes he includes them in his 2nd series it seems) then into pasanaa and krounchasana before sliding into Ramaswami's Bow sequence ( Basically the postures leading up to kapo in 2nd but with more variations, more prep).

from my Vinyasa Krama  practice book

Then a little of the Vinyasa Krama meditative sequence built around vajrasana. Back on to 2nd series but leaving the early leg behind head postures to one side for now and slipping into Primary's janu sirsana's and kurmasana's instead. Pick 2nd up again at yoga nidrasana ( Karandavasana? Don't ask, not pretty) and carry on to the end and on into finishing, pranayama and meditation/chanting.

“May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness. “May they be free from suffering and the root of suffering. “May they not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering. “May they dwell in the great equanimity free from passion, aggression, and prejudice.” -Traditional Chant

So basically on the inhalation I mentally recited

"May I be happy"

...and then continued that throughout the whole practice, every breath, every inhalation, every exhalation for going on two hours".

Nietzsche, much missed

MAITRI KARUNA MUDITO PEKSHANAM SUKHA DUHKHA PUNYA APUNYA VISHAYANAM BHAVANATAH CHITTA PRASADANAM ||33||

• I always try to accept other people in a loving fashion (maitrī), and particularly when time is at a premium.
• If someone needs my help, I try to be there for them (karuṇā). This is part of my job as a yoga teacher and physician. In some cases, this help takes a very concrete form, e.g. when I prescribe a drug or therapy. However, when it comes to personal problems I rarely provide specific answers, but instead try to help the student find their own solution.
• mudita means conviviality, which is an important trait for me as a yoga teacher and physician. When I have to give a patient bad news, I nonetheless try to be as upbeat as possible – because after all, how can he be expected to believe in his own recovery if I rob him of all hope from a medical standpoint?
• Of the four key traits, I have the most difficulty cultivating imperturbability (upekṣa) – for example being accepting when a close friend lights up a cigarette. I need to exhibit this same kind of acceptance in cases where a patient refuses to undergo therapy that I feel he needs. This ability to accept a person as they are is a sign of a good relationship.

Introduction

• immeasurable love (byams-pa, Skt: maitri, Pali: metta),
• immeasurable compassion (snying-rje, Skt: karuna, Pali:karuna),
• immeasurable joy (dga'-ba, Skt: mudita, Pali: mudita),
• immeasurable equanimity (btang-snyoms, Skt: upeksha, Pali:upekkha).

I liked the New Meditation Handbook a lot, the 21 contemplations are short enough that I can bring them into my morning practice, turn one of the meditations into a mantra, similar to the loving kindness mantra and repeat it throughout my practice before sitting with it at the end of my practice.

For a long time I've been wondering why Krishnamacharya included Kumbhaka in his presentation of asana in Yoga Makaranda (1934). I explored the practice myself, liked it, found it quite powerful actually and still include kumbhaka in my own practice. It's an approach that Krishnamacharya seems to have continued to explore throughout his life. Ramaswami, who studied with Krishnamacharya for 33 years through the 1950s-70s included a kumbhaka option in many of the asana he taught to us on his teacher training in 2010.

Kumbhaka in asana wasn't taken up by Pattabhi Jois in his presentation of Krishnamacharya's Ashtanga in Yoga Mala. When I asked Manju Jois recently about this he went so far as to suggest the practice was wrong, that Krishnamacharya was mistaken in including kumbhaka in asana.


We could come up with several reasons perhaps why one might seek to explore kumbhaka in asana but what was Krishnamacharya's reasoning, what was he after? Was it something he introduced himself or did it come from his teacher and perhaps his teacher's teacher, is it part of a lost teaching, a break in the lineage? Krishnamacharya argued that you knew a yoga practice was wrong if it it didn't correspond with the Yoga Sutras.

So is there any ground for including kumbhaka in as asana practice based on Patanjali?

I think there is.

"While practicing yoga with reverence, one can offer their essence to God during exhalation and during inhalation, imagine/suppose that God is entering your heart.  During kumbhaka, we can practice dharana and dhyana.  Such practices will improve mental concentration and strengthen silence/stillness.  Eliminates agitation and restlessness".  Krishnamacharya: Yogasanagalu (1941)

"While practicing yoga....



Here Krishnamacharya appears to be referring to yoga asana and that would tie in with his unique approach to asana as found in his book Yoga Makaranda (1934) written a couple of years earlier than Yogasanagalu (1941). In Yoga Makaranda he describes kumbhaka while in asana and not just padmasana but almost all asana that he describes.

"When practising asana, the breath that is inhaled into the body and the breath that is exhaled out must be kept equal. Moreover, practise the asana with their vinyasas by breathing only through the nose". p27

"Brahmana kriya means to take in the outside air through the nose, pull it inside, and hold it in firmly. This is called puraka kumbhaka.
Langhana kriya means to exhale the air that is inside the body out through he nose and to hold the breath firmly without allowing any air from outside into the body. This is called recaka kumbhaka".
p27-28

"In each section for each particular asana, we have included a description and an enumeration of its vinyasas. The vinyasas in which the head is raised are to be done with puraka kumbhaka and the ones in which the head is lowered must be done with recaka kumbhaka. Uthpluthi (raising the body from the floor with only the support of both hands on the floor is called uthpluthi) should be done on recaka kumbhaka for a fat person and on puraka kumbhaka for a thin person...." p28

2 Parsvottanasana
"...Standing in tadasana krama, draw in clean air through the nose and practise kumbhaka...." p59

11 Janusirsasana
"...This form follows the hatha yoga principles. Another form follows the raja yoga method. The practitioner should learn the difference. First, take either leg and extend it straight out in front. Keep the heel pressed firmly on the floor with the toes pointing upward. That is, the leg should not lean to either side. The base (back) of the knee should be pressed against the ground. Fold the other leg and place the heel against the genitals, with the area above the knee (the thigh) placed straight against the hip. That is, arrange the straight leg which has been extended in front and the folded leg so that together they form an “L”. Up to this point, there is no difference between the practice of the hatha yogi and the raja yogi.
For the hatha yoga practitioner, the heel of the bent leg should be pressed firmly between the rectum and the scrotum. Tightly clasp the extended foot with both hands, raise the head and do puraka kumbhaka. Remain in this position for some time and then, doing recaka, lower the head and place the face onto the knee of the outstretched leg. While doing this, do not pull the breath in. It may be exhaled. After this, raise the head and do puraka. Repeat this on the other side following the rules mentioned above.
The raja yogi should place the back of the sole of the folded leg between the scrotum and the genitals. Now practise following the other rules described above for the hatha yogis. There are 22 vinyasas for janusirsasana. Please note carefully that all parts of the outstretched leg and the folded leg should touch the floor. While holding the feet with the hands, pull and clasp the feet tightly. Keep the head or face or nose on top of the kneecap and remain in this sthiti from 5 minutes up to half an hour. If it is not possible to stay in recaka for that long, raise the head in between, do puraka kumbhaka and then, doing recaka, place the head back down on the knee. While keeping the head lowered onto the knee, puraka kumbhaka should not be done..." p79-80



Perhaps it has something to do with this.....

Translations of Yoga sutras below from Chip Hartranft
http://www.arlingtoncenter.org/Sanskrit-English.pdf (with some additional notes from Ramaswami).

1:30 vyâdhi-styâna-sanåaya-pramâdâlasyâvirati-bhrânti-daråanâlabdha-bhûmikatvânavasthitatvâni citta-vikæepâs te ‘ntarâyâï
Sickness, apathy, doubt, carelessness, laziness, hedonism, delusion, lack of progress, and inconstancy are all distractions which, by stirring up consciousness, act as barriers to stillness.

Ramaswami writes, "These are the nine impediments (to practice) removed by meditating on ishvara (The Lord, God)".

1:31 duïkha-daurmanasyâògam-ejayatva-åvâsa-praåvâsâ vikæepa-sahabhuvaï
When they do, one may experience distress, depression, or the inability to maintain steadiness of posture or breathing.

1:32 tat-pratiæedhârtham eka-tattvâbhyâsaï
One can subdue these distractions by working with any one of the following principles of practice.

"One principle' could refer to Ishvara". Ramaswami

Patanjali then goes on to outline seven attitudes, meditation/contemplation/concentration techniques to overcome these barriers to stillness.

The first is the traditional Buddhist meditation approach of contemplating the four imesurables that I mentioned in my previous post and which I have brought into my own practice.

1:33 maitrî-karuñâ-muditopekæâñâä sukha-duïkha-puñyâpuñya-viæayâñâä bhâvanâtaå citta-prasâdanam
"Consciousness settles as one radiates friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity toward all things, whether pleasant or painful, good or bad"

Krishnamacharya however seems to be introducing into his asana descriptions the second meditation technique Patanjali outlines when he writes

"While practicing yoga with reverence, one can offer their essence to God during exhalation and during inhalation, imagine/suppose that God is entering your heart.  During kumbhaka, we can practice dharana and dhyana.  Such practices will improve mental concentration and strengthen silence/stillness.  Eliminates agitation and restlessness".  Krishnamacharya: Yogasanagalu

1:34 pracchardana-vidhârañâbhyâm vâ prâñasya
Or by pausing after breath flows in or out.

and also the seventh, for him Ishvara, the Lord, God

1:39 yathâbhimata-dhyânâd vâ
Or through meditative absorption in any desired object.

"or by taking your own favourite religious practice ( a particular god: an image; or a feeling) and meditating on that". Ramaswami


In our own asana practice we all struggle with 'monkey mind' citta-vëtti, the fluctuations of the mind. the idea has always seemed to be that by praqctcing asana and  pranayama that we will be able to still the mind somehow and then be able to practice meditation with a more stable mind.

What Krishnamachaya seems to be doing is bringing mind stilling techniques found in Patanjali into the asana itself, stilling the mind while in the asana. We do this already by seeking to follow the breath, focusing on drishti, on bandhas but it doesn't always help does it, our minds are still too often all over the place. And perhaps we go for ever more complicated asana in an attempt stay concentrated when perhaps with the most appropriate attitude/meditation technique we can still the mind in the most straight forward of asana.

Here are the seven contemplation/meditation techniques patanjali recommends in Chapter 1 of his yoga Sutras that we might consider bringing into our asana practice.

I.33 maitrî-karuñâ-muditopekæâñâä sukha-duïkha-puñyâpuñya-viæayâñâä bhâvanâtaå citta-prasâdanam
Consciousness settles as one radiates friendliness, compassion, delight, and equanimity toward all things, whether pleasant or painful, good or bad.

I.34 pracchardana-vidhârañâbhyâm vâ prâñasya
Or by pausing after breath flows in or out.

I.35 viæayavatî vâ pravëttir utpannâ manasaï sthiti-nibandhanî
Or by steadily observing as new sensations materialise.

I.36 viæokâ vâ jyotiæmatî
Or when experiencing thoughts that are luminous and free of sorrow.

I.37 vîtarâgaviæayam vâ cittam
Or by focusing on things that do not inspire attachment.

I.38 svapna-nidrâ-jõânâlambanam vâ
Or by reflecting on insights culled from sleep and dreaming.

I.39  yathâbhimata-dhyânâd vâ
Or through meditative absorption in any desired object






Examples of usage of Kumbhaka (Breath retention) in asana in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda

"When practising asana, the breath that is inhaled into the body and the breath that is exhaled out must be kept equal. Moreover, practise the asana with their vinyasas by breathing only through the nose". p27

"Brahmana kriya means to take in the outside air through the nose, pull it inside, and hold it in firmly. This is called puraka kumbhaka.
Langhana kriya means to exhale the air that is inside the body out through he nose and to hold the breath firmly without allowing any air from outside into the body. This is called recaka kumbhaka".
p27-28

"In each section for each particular asana, we have included a description and an enumeration of its vinyasas. The vinyasas in which the head is raised are to be done with puraka kumbhaka and the ones in which the head is lowered must be done with recaka kumbhaka. Uthpluthi (raising the body from the floor with only the support of both hands on the floor is called uthpluthi) should be done on recaka kumbhaka for a fat person and on puraka kumbhaka for a thin person...." p28

ASANA

1 Uttanasana
"Following the rules for tadasana (yogasana samasthiti krama) (Figure 4.1, 4.2), stand erect. Afterwards, while exhaling the breath out slowly, bend the upper part of the body (that is, the part above the hip) little by little and place the palms down by the legs. The knees must not be even slightly bent. Raise the head upwards and fix the gaze on the tip of the nose. While doing this, draw in clean air through the nostril, hold the breath firmly and maintain this position. This is called sahitha kumbhaka...." p51

2 Parsvottanasana
"...Standing in tadasana krama, draw in clean air through the nose and practise kumbhaka...." p59

3 Prasarita Padottanasana
"...Stand in tadasana krama. Jump the legs apart, placing the feet 3 mozhams apart on the ground. Practise jumping and placing the feet at the correct distance all in one jump. While jumping, either puraka kumbhaka or recaka kumbhaka can be done...." p61

4 Ardhabaddha Padmottanasana
"From tadasana, do puraka kumbhaka. After this, choose either leg and place its foot on top of the opposite thigh. Slowly, little by little, move the foot up until the back of the heel is pressed against the lower abdomen. Whichever leg is raised, move the same hand behind the back and clasp the big toe of that foot (from behind the back). Keep the other hand in tadasana sthiti and do puraka kumbhaka. After this, slowly exhale through the nose and bend the upper part of the body forward down to the floor. Place the palm down by the foot and keep it firmly pressed against the floor. Release the breath out completely, and without inhaling, practise kumbhaka and lower the head, placing it on top of the kneecap of the extended leg...."p61

6 Urdhvamukhasvanasana
"This has 4 vinyasas. Vinyasas 1, 2, and 3 are exactly as for uttanasana. The 4th vinyasa is to be done following the same method as for caturanga dandasana. But in caturanga dandasana, there are 4 angulas of space between the body and the floor everywhere. In this asana, the palms and toes are as in caturanga dandasana. However even while keeping the lower part of the body from the toes to the thighs just as in caturanga dandasana, raise the upper part of the body. Make sure that the navel rests between the hands and do puraka kumbhaka...." p65

8 Pascimattanasana or Pascimottanasana
"...This asana has many kramas. Of these the first form has 16 vinyasas. Just doing the asana sthiti by sitting in the same spot without doing these vinyasas will not yield the complete benefits mentioned in the yoga sastras. This rule applies to all asanas.
The first three vinyasas are exactly as for uttanasana. The 4th vinyasa is caturanga dandasana, the 5th vinyasa is urdhvamukhasvanasana, the 6th vinyasa is adhomukhasvanasana. Practise these following the earlier instructions. In the 6th vinyasa, doing puraka kumbhaka, jump and arrive at the 7th vinyasa. That is, from adhomukhasvanasana sthiti, jump forward and move both legs between the arms without allowing the legs to touch the floor. Extend the legs out forward and sit down. Practise sitting like this with the rear part of the body either between the two hands or 4 angulas in front of the hands. It is better to learn the abhyasa krama from a guru. In this sthiti, push the chest forward, do puraka kumbhaka and gaze steadily at the tip of the nose...." p69

11 Janusirsasana
"...This form follows the hatha yoga principles. Another form follows the raja yoga method. The practitioner should learn the difference. First, take either leg and extend it straight out in front. Keep the heel pressed firmly on the floor with the toes pointing upward. That is, the leg should not lean to either side. The base (back) of the knee should be pressed against the ground. Fold the other leg and place the heel against the genitals, with the area above the knee (the thigh) placed straight against the hip. That is, arrange the straight leg which has been extended in front and the folded leg so that together they form an “L”. Up to this point, there is no difference between the practice of the hatha yogi and the raja yogi.
For the hatha yoga practitioner, the heel of the bent leg should be pressed firmly between the rectum and the scrotum. Tightly clasp the extended foot with both hands, raise the head and do puraka kumbhaka. Remain in this position for some time and then, doing recaka, lower the head and place the face onto the knee of the outstretched leg. While doing this, do not pull the breath in. It may be exhaled. After this, raise the head and do puraka. Repeat this on the other side following the rules mentioned above.
The raja yogi should place the back of the sole of the folded leg between the scrotum and the genitals. Now practise following the other rules described above for the hatha yogis. There are 22 vinyasas for janusirsasana. Please note carefully that all parts of the outstretched leg and the folded leg should touch the floor. While holding the feet with the hands, pull and clasp the feet tightly. Keep the head or face or nose on top of the kneecap and remain in this sthiti from 5 minutes up to half an hour. If it is not possible to stay in recaka for that long, raise the head in between, do puraka kumbhaka and then, doing recaka, place the head back down on the knee. While keeping the head lowered onto the knee, puraka kumbhaka should not be done..." p79-80

12 Upavistakonasana
"This has 15 vinyasas. Recaka kumbhaka is its primary principle...." p83

13 Baddhakonasana
"This has 15 vinyasas. The 8th vinyasa is the asana sthiti. The 1st to the 6th vinyasas are like the 1st till the 6th vinyasas for pascimottanasana. In the 7th vinyasa, just like the 7th vinyasa for pascimottanasana, keep the hands down and bring the legs forward in uthpluthi. But instead of straightening them, fold the legs and place them down on the ground. Folding them means that the heel of the right foot is pasted against the base of the right thigh and the heel of the left foot is pasted against the base of the left thigh. When the legs are folded in this manner, the soles of the feet will be facing each other. Hold the sole of the left foot firmly with the left hand and hold the right sole firmly with the right hand. Clasping the soles together firmly, do recaka kumbhaka, lower the head and place it on the floor in front of the feet..."
 p85-86

14 Supta Padangushtasana
"...The first krama for this has 21 vinyasas. Through the 6th vinyasa, it is exactly as for pascimottanasana. In the 7th vinyasa, lie down facing upwards instead of extending the legs and sitting as in pascimottanasana. While lying down, the entire body must be pressed against the ground. The toes must point upwards and the back of the heels must be stuck to the ground. This is also called savasana by other schools. This is the 7th vinyasa for supta padangushthasana. In the 8th vinyasa, slowly raise the right leg straight up. Hold the big toe of the right foot with the fingers of the right hand, do recaka kumbhaka and remain in this position for as long as possible. .."p86

17 Utthitahasta Padangushtasana
"...First, push the chest forward and stand erect with equal balance. While standing this way, make sure that the head, neck, back, hips, arms and legs are aligned properly and gaze at the tip of the nose. The feet must be kept together. Now, raise one leg up slowly and maintain this position with the extended leg kept straight out in front at the height of the navel. The knee should not bend and the leg must be kept straight for the entire time that it is being raised. After the leg has been raised about 3/4 of the way without any assistance, take the first three fingers of the corresponding hand (the same as whichever leg was raised) and tightly clasp the big toe of the raised foot. Remain in this position for some time. Keep the other hand on the hip. Inhalation and exhalation of the breath must be slow and of equal duration. One says the sthiti is correct if there is the same measure of distance between the standing leg and the raised leg. In this there are many other forms.
After staying in this sthiti for some time, take either the face or the nose towards the knee of the raised leg and place it there. Recaka kumbhaka must be done in this sthiti. That is, expel the breath completely from the body, maintain this position and then without allowing any breath into the body, bend the upper body. Now carefully pull in the stomach as much as one’s strength allows and hold it in. Stay in this sthiti for at least one minute..." p99

18 Baddhapadmasana
"...Place the right foot on top of the left thigh and the left foot on top of the right thigh. Take the hands behind the back and tightly clasp the big toe of the right foot with the first three fingers of the right hand and tightly clasp the big toe of the left foot with the first three fingers of the left hand.
Press the chin firmly against the chest. Keep the gaze fixed on the midbrow. Sit down, keeping the rest of the body straight. This has the name baddhapad- masana. This asana must be repeated on the other side (that is, first place the left foot on top of the right thigh and then the right foot on top of the left thigh) in order to exercise both sides of the body.
This has 16 vinyasas. The 8th and 9th vinyasas are the asana sthiti. The other vinyasas are like pascimottanasana. Study the pictures (Figures 4.52, 4.53) and learn how to keep the gaze. In this asana, one must do puraka kumbhaka..." p103

25 Marichasana
"This has 22 vinyasas. This needs to be done on both the left and the right sides. Study the sannaha sthiti (the preparatory state) of marichasana in the picture. This sthiti is the 7th vinyasa.
The right-side marichasana paristhiti is shown in the second picture. Maricha Maharishi was known for bringing this asana to public knowledge and hence it is named for him.
Stay in the 7th vinyasa for some time doing puraka kumbhaka. After this, do recaka and come to the 8th vinyasa. Stay in this position for as long as possible. In case your head starts reeling (you get dizzy), come back to the 7th vinyasa, do puraka kumbhaka, close the eyes and remain here for some time. The dizziness will stop.
The 9th vinyasa is like the 7th vinyasa. The 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th vinyasas are like the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th vinyasas of janusirsasana.
The 14th vinyasa is marichasana sannaha sthiti on the left side. This is demonstrated in the 3rd picture. The 15th vinyasa is the left-side marichasana paristhiti. This is demonstrated in the 4th picture. In the 14th vinyasa do puraka kumbhaka and in the 15th vinyasa do only recaka..." p115

26 Niralamba Sarvangasana
"This has 14 vinyasas. The 8th vinyasa is the asana sthiti. The form depicted in the picture is the 8th vinyasa. This is niralamba sarvangasana paristhiti. In order to get to this sthiti, slowly raise the arms and legs either together or one-by- one in the 7th vinyasa . Do only recaka at this time. Never do puraka kumbhaka..." p115

27 Ekapada Sirsasana
"This has two forms: dakshina ekapada sirsasana and vama ekapada sirsasana. Both these forms together have 18 vinyasas. The first picture depicts dakshina ekapada sirsasana and the second picture vama ekapada sirsasana. The 7th and 12th vinyasas are the asana sthitis of these different forms. For this asana, you need to do sama svasauchvasam (same ratio breathing). In the 7th vinyasa, the left leg, and in the 12th vinyasa the right leg, should be extended and kept straight from the thigh to the heel. No part should be bent.
Keep the hands as shown in the picture. In this sthiti one needs to do equal ra- tio breathing. When the hands are joined together in ekapada sirsasana paristhiti, one must do puraka kumbhaka. One must never do recaka..." p120

29 Yoga Nidrasana
"This has 12 vinyasas. The 7th vinyasa is yoga nidrasana sthiti. The first 6 vinyasas for kurmasana are the first 6 vinyasas for this. In the 7th vinyasa, sit like you did in dvipada sirsasana and instead of keeping the two legs on the back of the neck, first lie back facing upwards. Then lift the legs up and place them on the back of the neck.
In dvipada sirsasana, we joined the hands together in prayer and placed them next to the muladhara cakra. In this asana, following the krama, take the shoul- ders (that is, the arms) on both the left and right sides over the top of the two thighs, and hold the right wrist tightly with the fingers of the left hand beneath the spine. Study the picture.
In the 7th vinyasa, after doing only recaka, arrive at the asana sthiti. Then, one should do puraka kumbhaka and lie down...." p123

32 Bhairavasana
"This has 20 vinyasas. The 8th and the 14th vinyasas are the right and left side asana sthitis.
From the 1st until the 7th vinyasa, follow the method for ekapada sirsasana. In the 8th vinyasa, instead of keeping the hands at the muladhara cakra (as in ekapada sirsasana), hug both arms together tightly as seen in the picture and lie down looking upwards. While remaining here, do puraka kumbhaka, raise the neck upwards and gaze at the midbrow...". p129

33 Cakorasana
"This has 20 vinyasas. This is from the Kapila Matham.
After observing that this follows the form of flight of the cakora bird, this came to be called cakorasana. In the Dhyana Bindu Upanishad, Parameshwara advises Parvati that “There are as many asanas as there are living beings in the world”. We readers must always remember this. The 8th and 14th vinyasas are this asana’s sthitis. The 7th and the 13th vinyasas are like the 7th and the 13th vinyasas of ekapada sirsasana. In the 8th and the 14th vinyasas, press the palms of the hand firmly into the ground, do puraka kumbhaka, raise the body 6 angulas off the ground and hold it there. Carefully study the picture where this is demonstrated. Keep the gaze fixed on the midbrow. The other vinyasas are like those of bhairavasana..." p131-132

37 Trivikramasana
"This has 7 vinyasas. From the 1st to the 5th vinyasas and then the 7th vinyasa, practise following those for utthita hasta padangushtasana. Practise the 2nd and 7th vinyasas as shown in the picture (study it carefully) and remain in these positions. The 2nd vinyasa is the right-side trivikramasana sthiti. The 6th vinyasa as shown is the left-side trivikramasana sthiti. The picture shown here only demonstrates the left-side trivikramasana. It is important that equal recaka and puraka kumbhaka must be carefully observed while practising this asana. Keep the gaze fixed on the midbrow. Both legs must be held straight and must not lean or bend to any side...".
p136

38 Gandabherundasana
"This has 10 vinyasas. The 6th and 7th vinyasas show the asana sthiti. The first picture shows the 6th vinyasa and the second picture shows the 7th. In the 4th vinyasa, come to caturanga dandasana sthiti and in the 5th vinyasa proceed to viparita salabasana sthiti. In the 6th vinyasa, spread the arms out wide, keeping them straight like a stick (like a wire) as shown in the picture. Take the soles of both feet and place them next to the ears such that the heels touch the arms and keep them there.
Next, do the 7th vinyasa as shown in the second picture. This is called supta ganda bherundasana. In this asana sthiti and in the preliminary positions, do equal recaka puraka kumbhaka. Keep the gaze fixed on the midbrow. This must not be forgotten". p142


We can see that Krishnamacharya has indicated Kumbhaka in well over half of the asana described in Yoga Makaranda. In Yogasanagalu, Krishnamacharya includes the asana described in Yoga Makaranda and as well as a fuller list of asana divided up into three groups, Primary Middle and Proficient. The Primary and Middle groups correspond closely with the Ashtanga Primary and Intermediate series presented by Krishnamacharya's student from the Yoga Makaranda/Yogasanagalu period, Pattabhi Jois.


Interestingly, in the full table of asana found in Yogasanagalu Krishnamacharya indicates the appropriate kumbhaka but these are mostly found from the middle group onwards. However, because kumbhaka is found in the fuller descriptions of Primary asana found in the same book (and taken from Yoga makaranda) it may well be that in the beginning students would not include kumbhaka. Once students had gained some proficiency then kumbhaka may well have been introduced into the primary asana as well as the middle and proficient asana. this may also explain why Pattabhi Jois in his manual, Yoga Mala failed to include kumbhaka in his asana descriptions. One further point, in the book released by AG Mohan which he has titled Yoga Makaranda part II, Kumbhaka has been indicated but tends to be short, beginning at two seconds and rising to five seconds with proficiency. 



See also this earlier post
TKV Desikachar speaking about exploring the breath in Asana and pranayama

My Krishnamacharya Blog

KRISHNAMACHARYA'S 'ORIGINAL' ASHTANGA PROJECT

and the ongoing

Yogasanagalu Translation Project

And OK here where I am currently with my own backbend, this is from this morning. I usually practice three feet from the wall so i can touch off the first couple of times coming back up. I haven't been practicing them much recently, three drop back every other day perhaps.

I think the closet I ever got walking in was to just touching my heels ( must find a picture) so this is something new.

Kind of playing on my old Richard Freeman 14 day Karandavasana challenge.

Besides I'm interested in studying with Vinay Kumar in Mysore, see yesterday's post and he does a lot of work on backbends, so need to tidy mine up a little at my own pace.

Here's Vinay Kumar of Mysore from one of the videos I added to my post yesterday (Much more to Mysore part II), the second video I think but if backbends are your thing you'll want to watch all of the second and third videos, it's quite a demo.

WARNING: This is Pure speculation, a bit of fun only.....for now.

What happened to all these kids, did any of them end up teaching Yoga?

In recent posts I've been looking at  the idea of 'Much more to Mysore', following Michelle's recent guest post. Michelle is studying Ashtanga with Vijay Kumar in Mysore and in yesterday's post I focused on Vijay's big brother Vinay, the former 'Yoga Champion', who teaches a vinyasa approach to Yoga in Mysore that he calls Prana Vashya Yoga

But where did Vinay and Vijay learn their Yoga, were they students of Pattabhi Jois? Vijay does teach pretty standard Ashtanga by all accounts.

Turns out that Vijay Kumar was taught by his brother Vinay, but who was Vinay's teacher?

This is what I've heard.....

"So Vijay's asana teacher is Vinay. No-one else. He started when he was 12 learning from Vinay, that was 14 years ago. Vijay's other yoga teacher (philosophy etc) is an old guy in a little village near his mother's home town of Hassan".

Had this 'old guy' also been his brother Vinay's teacher?

The old Man of Hassan

How's your Ashtanga Vinyasa history? Krishnamacharya was working for a time in a coffee plantation around 1925/26. In fact that was where the young Pattabhi Jois first saw him. Krishnamacharya was giving a demo and lecture there on yoga ('...jumping from asana to asana' according to Pattabhi Jois).

Krishnamacharya's son Desikachar mentioned in his book about his father that Krishnamacharya struggled to attract enough students in the beginning so had to take a job for a time on a coffee plantation...... in Hassan

'enough students', so Krishnamacharya was teaching yoga even back then, of course he was.

Supposedly Pattabhi Jois walked a few miles from his house to Hassan every morning, for two years, to study Yoga with Krishnamacharya ( although I believe Jois' school was actually in Hassan so he would have had to walk there anyway, still he had to get up a couple of hours earlier).

"Sri K. Pattabhi Jois began to practice astanga yoga at age 12. He had seen a demonstration and heard a speech by T. Krishnamacharya in Hassan's community hall in March of 1927, and this impacted him greatly. After intense questioning by T. Krishnamacharya, two days later K. Pattabhi Jois stood on a mat as a student (sasthaka) of Krishnamacharya and received his first Astanga Vinyasa Yoga class under his soon-to-be Guru. He came and practiced daily with him for two years.

The path of yoga is not necessarily ideal for a child living in a regular Brahmin family. Yoga used to prepare the aspirant for the life of a monk (sannyasis), living outside of society and was not of particular benefit to being part of a family. This ended up causing some conflict with his parents, and for a time he chose to hide his intense interest in the path of yoga. The 12-year-old Pattabhi Jois woke up two hours before his school-classmates, walked five kilometers along a path to Hassan, where T. Krishnamacharya's school was, did his practice while Krishnamacharya counted the vinyasas... and then went to regular school". http://www.petriraisanen.com/guruji.asp


So here's the question?

Who else did Krishnamacharya teach in Hassan?

Vinay's teacher perhaps?

If the had studied with Krishnamacharya as a boy he would have been an old man by the time Vijay and/or Vinay met him.

Speculation of course but.....

Vinay's approach to asana, which he calls Prana Vashya  is a vinyasa based system, movements follow the breath. It's very similar to the Ashtanga we know and love, especially if like me ( and Manju Jois too supposedly) you do a mixture of Primary and 2nd series with a couple of advanced postures thrown in for luck.

Prana Vashya Yoga

It only seems to have been Krishnamacharya who was teaching vinyasa, especially back in those days, a coincidence then that an old man in Hassan, where Krishnamacharya used to teach, teaches Vinyasa ( assuming this is the approach Vinay was taught back then).

Vinay teaches Kumbhaka in Asana, again, that has Krishnamacharya written all over it seem my recent post (UPDATED: Why did Krishnamacharya introduce kumbhaka (breath retention) into the practice of asana in Ashtanga?).

"A significant development of potential is experienced during the practice of kumbhakas. The use of kumbhakas helps quiet the mind and keeps the awareness on the breath/asana. The body experiences a better development in its resistance power and this helps to impart the complete effect of the asana practice without fatigue. Concentration on the bandhas isn't necessary when consciousness is on the simultaneous action of the breath and movements." Vinay Kumar

This of course would link Vinay back to the pre Mysore Krishnamacharya, one small step closer to the cave in the Himalayas perhaps and Krishnamacharya's own teacher Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari.

Of course it may well be that Vinay began practicing and teaching a vinyasa approach when he moved to Mysore and he might have read about kumbhaka in asana, just as I did, in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda, but when, I wonder, did he teach his brother Vijay, in Mysore or Hassan, and what did he teach him in the beginning a vinyasa practice not unlike Ashtanga Primary?

Speculation, complete speculation of course and perhaps in a day or two I'll hear more and the connection will turn out to be nonsense but Krishnamacharya did teach in Hassan, what happened to those kids,  I  do love the idea of The Mystery of The Old Man of Hassan.

Krishnamacharya 1925?

Warm greetings

I have uploaded about 50 videos so far on You Tube. I have grouped them into five play lists

1.Yoga sutra
2.Sanskrit chants
3.Vinyasakrama asana videos
4.vinyasakrama asana slide shows
5. Yoga Talks.

I hope you would like them and share with your yoga friends. Here is the link.
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdpNhq6SnkMlKhi34EOIFTg/videos?view=1

The Yoga Sutra group contains chanting tutorial of all the four chaptersof Yoga Sutra, Patanjali Prayer, and also a recitation of the entire yoga sutra. I hope to be able to include video talks on YS in due course.

Sanskrit chants are those I learnt from Sri Krishnamacharya for several years and include, the Ten vedic peace chants, Siva chants and others.

The asana videos give some insight to asana practice by vinyasakrama approach and also include several videos from the 1980s when I did a number of TV programs in India with my students in Kalakshetra.

The slide shows use the pictures from my book.

There are a few yoga talks which may be helpful in looking at yoga from some different perspectives.

Hope you can find some time for browsing and watching these audiovisuals. Please let me know whether you like them and also if you think anything else may be useful.

I find that I may have to work for some more time (a year or two) if I can—social security and medicare obligation excuse. In 2014, I am planning to do the TT program again at LMU, go to London and Wells for teaching programs organized by my friend Steve Brandon of Harmony Yoga and Chicago Yoga Center. I may also go to Miami and Ananda Asram in New York for workshops.

VIDYA
The words vidyā, viduṣa, veda,vidvān all come from the root 'vid' to know. Vidyā is knowledge or body of knowledge. Upaniṣads contain a number of vidyās, all aimed at disclosing the nature of the ultimate reality Brahman, and we have several upaniṣad vidyās

Sri Kṛṣnamacarya taught us several such upaniṣad vidyās. The famous pañcakośa vidyā from the taitiriya upaniṣad is one of them. He taught us to chant this oft chanted upaniṣad and also the vidyā contained in it. Then we have the pranava vidyā detailed in the upaniṣad called Mandukya upaniṣad. from the atharva veda. This vidyā interprets the sacred syllable “OM” as representing the pure consciousness the ultimate reality referred in many upaniṣads as Brahman. Yogis may find some similarity ( and some differences) between how Patañjali interprets pranava and how this upanishad explains it. Then he also taught an important vidyā called “sadvidyā” from the Chandogya Upanishad belonging to the Sāma Veda. Sat would mean truth and here it would indicate that which really exists again represented as Brahman. This vidyā contains the famous mahāvākya or great saying “tat tvam asi” or 'that you are'

As we were going through different upaniṣad vidyās one day I asked him. If all these vidyās are about the same reality then why the vedas have so many different vidyās. My Guru said something on these lines “Different sages teaching to disciples of different capabilities and temperaments at different times at different places.” Bādrāyana harmonized the various upaniṣad vidyās into one single work called Brahmasutras, a classic which has very many commentaries written.

All these help lead us to locate and understand the ultimate reality in us, the pure consciousness, the awareness-the Self- (with) which we experience everything. How to find the soul within this body? How to find me within me? This is what the upaniṣad vidyā, the pancha kosa vidyā of the taittiriya upaniṣad attempts to expound.

It starts with the physical body all of us identify as 'oneself'. It occupies physical space and for convenience is considered to have five parts, the head, the right limb (wing) the left limb (wing), the torso and fifthly the lower extremities, or the tail. The wings and the tail are mentioned in the upaniṣad considering the body as that of a bird. Anyway there are five parts of the body which itself is made of seven humors. It is the material body or annamaya.

This is the gross body all of us are familiar with. Subtler than this is the body of prāna or prāna sarira. It is the energy body. Just as the skeleton gives a structure to the physical body, it is the prāna sarira (or prana maya kośa)which upholds the body and makes it work, without which the physical body can not even stand up. Miśra the commentator of the yoga sutra while on the 'prayatna saitilya' sutra in the Yoga sutras calls prāna as śarira dhāraka or that which holds up the body. This prāna sarira also has five parts, the prāna, apāna, vyāna, udāna and samāna. The prāna is considered to be the head or top part of this. Its main function is respiration especially drawing prāna vāyu into the lungs or svāsa kosa. Then we have vyāna which is responsible for the entire circulation in the body. It takes prānavāyu and other nutrients to different parts of the body, different cells. It is said to be like the right limb of the prāna body. Then apāna is said to be the left limb or wing of this subtle body. Apāna is responsible to excrete waste products from the body. Then the upaniṣad refers to samāna as the trunk or torso of the body, samāna is said to be responsible for the harmonizing the food we eat, And finally the udāna vāyu which looks upward is the one that is said to be the support and that balances the forces prāna and apāna or inhalation and exhalation. It is therefore referred to as the seat (or lower limbs) or the tail. It could be seen that the prāna sarira or the prāna-maya-kosa is the energy body or the forces that dominate the autonomic nervous system. The sāmkhyas refer to the five factored prāna as an activity of citta (brain) and the vritti or activity as samanya vritti or sāmānya karanā vritti which corresponds to autonomic or independent kind of brain's activity. Respiration (prāna), circulation (vyāna), excretion (apāna), digestion (samāna) and maintaining balance between inspiration and exhalation is udāna constitute the energy body. When udāna fails, prāna or inspiration does not start at the end of the breathing cycle resulting in death. Mere prāna or respiration is not sufficient to maintain life, a complete system the prāna maya, is necessary to maintain life. If there is no prānamaya then the annamaya alone would be a body but a lifeless one.

The next kośa which is suppler than this is called mano-maya. This subtle body, subtler than the prāna maya again is visualized by the sage as made of five parts.,The head of the manomaya is yajurveda, the right limb or wing is the rig veda, the sāma veda is the left limb or wing. The tail, seat or support is the atharva veda and the heart or torso is the “ādeśa' or vedic or upaniṣadic instructions.
While it is not difficult to relate the five aspects of annamaya and prānamaya, it is rather difficult to say that the manomaya is made up of the various vedas. Perhaps one in a million may have studied all the four vedas and understood them properly. How about my mano maya - of one who has no idea what the vedas are? Here we have to consider that the sage is talking about his/her mano maya. He or she has studied the vedas and the mind is full of vedic knowledge. Further the basic information about the subject on hand which is the knowledge about the Self is contained in the upaniṣads, a part of the vedas.

Manas is considered to be a representative term for the entire group of indriyas, the five sense instruments and the five karma indriyas or instruments of activity, the mind being the coordinating aspect of this group. The Sāmkhyas call this group the ekādaśa or 11 indriyas. An infant grows up collecting information from the outside world through the senses which education goes on all life. Information through the eyes ,ears, and by touch smell and taste reach the mind which processes and coordinates them and some of which is retained as memory in the mind. The information I have is different from what someone else may have or the vedic ṛṣi may have got. Since the olden days sanskrit was not a written language a lot of information as the four vedas were chanted by the teacher which were heard and memorized by the student. Thus the mano maya is the subtle body of the citta that collected and retained information. This is represented by the upaniṣad as the mano maya with the four vedas as different parts of this subtle body and the core instructions as the heart of this body of knowledge. If there were no manomaya kośa the person would be in a comatose state until the prānaṛṣ leaves the body.

There is the fourth body subtler than the manomaya which is called vijñanamaya. This is the kosa which has the ability to analyze data and come to conclusions, hopefully the correct one. The other term used for vijñana is buddhi. Sāmkhyas call buddhi as that which is able to break down data like a farmer using a sharp plough is able to break the earth and make it fit for cultivation. How does this kosa operate? It has śraddha or faith as the head. ṛtam or straightforwardness is the right side of it and then truth is the left limb or wing. Yoga or one-pointedness/samādhi is the heart of this kosa and it rests on mahat or universal intelligence. śraddhā -- initially one should start with the faith that the knowledge about the self can be found the vedas/upaniṣads. ṛtam will refer to an open mind or straightforward thinking. Satyam would refer to the truth of the Self. Then how can the truth be found out. By ekāgrata or yogic samādhi and that is the implication of yoga being the heart of the whole endevour. And Mahat is universal intelligence (the order or dharma of the universe) which is said to support (puccha) this vijñanamaya.

Then the last subtle kośa or sheath is the ānanda maya which is identified as the bliss kosa or one may say the place of emotions or ego. Without this everyone would be like a moron, a robot. This is also visualized to have five parts. The head is identified with priya. Commentators refer to priya as the feeling one gets when recalling a distant object one likes, just the visualization. The right limb of this is moda. The example is the feeling when one gets the object desired. Then the left wing is pramoda or something similar to the feeling one gets when one uses/enjoys the desired object. Then ananda the generalized feeling of satisfaction is the core or heart of this kośa and finally the whole range is said to be established (puccha) on Brahman the ultimate reality. Since the whole exercise is about realizing the Brahman, here priya the head would indicate the feeling one gets thinking about oneself, the dearest thing. Then the moda would indicate the feeling one gets by identifying the true self by study of the these vidyās. Then the pramoda would be what one gets when one conclusively understands the true nature of oneself by repeated meditation on it. Then ananda would indicate the feeling when one is directly able to experience through Yoga samādhi. Ultimately one realizes the Brahman and loses one's own individual identity and remains merged in Brahman. These are the stages of ānanda.

These kosas or all the bodies, gross and the subtle ones are to be kept clean (śuddha) or highly satvic. Yoga helps in such a clean up. Asanas help the annamaya, prānāyāma the prānamaya, pratyāhāra the manomaya, antaranga sādhanā the vijñanamaya and finally nirodha or nirvikalpa the ānandamaya.
The vedas have a a beautiful mantra “ātma śuddhi mantra”. One line of it specifically prays for the purification of all the five kosas so that one can clearly work through the kosas and realize the underlying Brahman/ātman the pure unwavering consciousness, the core, the foundation of my being.
“annamaya, prānamaya, manomaya, vijñanamaya. ānandamaya me śudhyantām, jyotiraham, virajā vipāpmā bhuyasam, svāhā”. The Brahman or the self which is pure unwavering consciousness is beyond the five kosas but is the support of the five layered body

This pancakośa vidyā is one comprehensive upaniṣad vidyā or a step by step system of knowing oneself. And there are quite a few other choices the upaniṣads offer.

The long Sanskrit vowel 'O' (as in boat) is considered a diphthong by Sanskrit scholars and vedic sages. “O' may be considered compound vowel of 'a' ( as in up) and 'u' (as in put). Try to say 'a' (as in up) and then momentarily in the same breath 'u' (as in put) also, then we have “O” The pranava or 'OM' mantra is made up of O and ending with the consonant 'M' Actually the first vowel in Sanskrit is 'a' and the last consonant is 'M' leaving aside the siblings. So 'OM' or “AUM' would contain the first sound when one opens he mouth “a' (as in up) and 'M' when one closes the mouth and hence he pranava is considered to contain the entire alphabets and the entire vedas. Here in the pranava vidyā as found in Māndukya Upaniṣad, the syllable “OM' is considered made up of a, u and m. .a. is identified with the pure consciousness, the Brahman in the individual waking state, 'u' in the dream state and 'm' in the deep sleep state, the three states (avasthā) of awareness of the same atman or brahman. And then it refers to the transcendental state as the fourth state of awareness or the turiya avastā the state of pure consciousness which is what the previously discussed pancakośa vidyā leads the abhyāsi to. There is another brief vidyā in Mahānārayana upanishad on these lines. The pranava is associated with three vyāhritis, viz., om bhuh, om bhuvah and om suvah. The three vyahritis represent the three states of waking ,dream and deep sleep. The sage māhācamasya talks about a fourth state of consciousness beyond the three all of us are familiar with. He calls it 'caturti' or the fourth. That he calls it as maha, so the fourth vyāhriti 'om mahah' represents the fourth state of consciousness. The upanishad affirmatively says 'that' consciousness is the atman, the brahman (tat brahma, sa atma)

Then the famous prānāyama mantra in the same upaniṣad refers to seven vyāhritis all of which refer to seven states of consciousness, four at the microcosmic level and three at the macrocosmic level. In this the first four 'om bhuh, om bhuvah, om suvah and om mahah' would refer to individual consciousness and the other three 'om janah om tapah and om satyam' representing the pure state, the state of contemplation and the state of actual creation by the supreme being. The message is to consider that the same consciousness prevails in its pure state as satya (om satyam), then in the contemplative state before creation, identified as .'om tapah' then in the state of creation it is known as 'om janah'. Then the same consciousness is known further down at the micro level as the fourth state 'om mahah' and then the three individual states. The whole exercise done along with prānāyāma is to contemplate on one Consciousness in all the seven states three at the macro level and four in the micro level, the fourth being a state obtained after practicing these vidyās and understand the unity of consciousness.

The yogis on the other hand identify the states of the mind, citta into five categories called citta vrittis. These can be related to the three avastas of pranava vidyā. The nidra vritti would correspond to the sushupti avastā . Pramāna, viparyaya and smriti may be considered as forming the jāgrat avastā or waking state and finally the vikalpa will basically correspond to the svapna avastā. The nirodha state of the citta will correspond to the turiya state of the ātman (individual self) or the kailvalya.
There are several upaniṣad vidyas and scholars have identified 32 as very important mostly belonging to the 10 major upaniṣads. A Brahma Vidya is a path of contemplative meditation taught in the Upaniṣads. The passage of time has largely obscured the nature and culture of these meditations, and subsequent discussions of them are largely academic, drawing on the texts and their subsequent treatment in the Brahma Sutras. Scholars eventually identified the upaniṣad meditations or vidyās as 32.

One such enumeration is given below:
Sad Vidyā,Antaraaditya Vidyā ,ākāśa Vidyā. Prāna Vidyā, Paramjyoti Vidyā. śāndilya Vidyā. Upakośala Vidyā , Vaiśvānara Vidyā , Bhuma Vidyā ,Satyakāma Vidyā .Dahara Vidyā .Madhu Vidyā .Samvarga Vidyā , Gāyatri Vidyā .Pancāgni Vidyā ,Akshi Vidyā .Antaryāmi Vidyā .Akshara Vidya , Jyotishām jyotir Vidyā , Maitreyi Vidyā , Sarvāntarātma Vidya .ānandamaya (panchakosa) Vidyā . Vāruni Vidyā , Nyāsa Vidyā , , Paramapurusha Vidyā , Naciketa Vidyā. Angushta-pramita Vidyā . Paryanka Vidyā , Pratardana Vidyā , Bālāki Vidyā . Aksharapara Vidya , Isāvāsya Vidyā

Other well known vidyas include pranava vidyā, dahara vidyā.
Sri Krṣnamācārya taught many of them in addition to teaching the nuances of āsanas, prānāyāma, bhakti meditation, vinyāsasakrama, religious and philosophical texts, wonderful sanskrit chants and many more. Putting all his teaching merely in the āsana straight jacket is not doing justice to his scholarship, experience and what he did as a compassionate teacher . His teaching had a very far reach and it is necessary to explore and bring out the many facets of his teachings so that modern yogis may benefit.

What is the use of these upaniṣad vidyās?
They help remove avidyā

Sincerely
Srivatsa Ramaswami

Previous newsletters

There is a great line from the classic Western, The man who shot Liberty Valance

Kristina Karitinou posted these few lines on fb Saturday about her first Ashtanga teacher Linda Kapetaniou and the early days of Ashtanga in Greece ( and thus Europe). I asked her if I could post them here and if she had any pictures to go with then, as ever she was more than generous.



"Linda Kapetaniou (left) was the first teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in Greece, Athens(Kifisia). 

She taught the method over 5 years with the help of Periklis Christodoulopoulos at the "Yoga Centre Lotos" back in 1988. 

Both were students of Derek Ireland and Lesley Warell( Randa) founders of the "Practice Place", the first Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Centre in Europe. 

The practice place ( More posts to come on Derek Ireland and The practice place)

Derek Ireland adjusting

Hamish hendry and John Scott in Derek Ireland's room

The first Greek student that visited Sri K. Pattabhi Joys in Mysore were Maria -Voula Tsakona. Next were Elleni Kyriakopoulou, Alexandra Dimitrioiu, Maria Papaioanou Lila Petrineli!

Richard Freeman Michaell Anastassiades, Elleni kyriakopoulou and Kristina Karitinou

Alexandra Dimitriou!

Most of us were students of Linda's! She gave us the right knowledge and tools to move on and become part of this magic!

The greeks where students of Lindas ( including me ) and all did practice with Guruji! 

Me, I was the first Greek to have Guriji s blessings to teach !After few years Maria Tsakona, Maria Papaioanou as well! 

All of us apart from Maria Papaioanou! All the rest with first Linda, where students of Derek and we where the first team of teachers to build Ashtanga community in Greece! 

Maria Tsakona, Maria Papaioanou, Lila Petrineli,  Kristina Karitinou

Linda thank you so much for teaching me, for trusting me and for giving me this life!!! the life of a teacher!

And in this life the most important path is the gratitude to the lineage"!

Kristina’s work is a continuation of Derek Ireland’s teaching principles. Her work is dedicated to him. http://www.yogapractice.gr

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My earlier post on Derek Ireland 

Tuesday, 14 May 2013

Crete - Derek Ireland tribute in old edition of Fusion magazine also Ashtanga.com article links

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Derek Ireland Ashtanga Led Primary CD and Pranayama CD

Wednesday, 13 April 2011

Derek Ireland

Outside Kristina's Shala in Rethymno, Crete - Manju's TT course 2013

The picture on the door of Derek Ireland is the same as on the cover of the Fusion magazine edition devoted to him.

Read this edition of the magazine free courtesy of Yogamatters http://www.yogamatters.com/cmscontent/documents/Files/Derek%20Ireland.pdf

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Last week I came up with the bright idea of giving myself a one month to Chakra Bhandasana challenge. I kind of forget why, grabbing my heels after dropping back was never something I was particularly interested in, never really got the seeming Mysore obsession and yet, on reflection, I decided there was something to be said for taking the heels in Kapotasana, drawing yourself in to settle on the breath, perhaps there was something similar to be said for Chakra Bhandasana.

And I saw this video from Jen, Peg Mulqueen and Michael Joel Hall.


Peg does this thing where she drops back to blocks as a way or reaching the ankles, was curious about trying that.

But my own drop backs have slipped somewhat, my whole second series actually, where I used to take my ankles in kapo these days I'm just getting the side of my feet but it's coming back.

I won't post a video because the one I took was too far away, I'm half naked and very  very pink. But here's the gist of it in pictures. ( there's a video of the general approach on the original post from last week http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/chakra-bhandasana-grab-heels-in-month.html )

I've always tended to take three steps (toe to heel) away from the wall, now I'll do s couple of those then two and a half steps and then just two. I tried one step but it seemed insane...not yet.

The blocks thing doesn't seem to be coming into their own yet, we'll see when I can drop back to the floor one step away from the wall then bring the blocks back and see if there seems any likelihood of reaching for the leg.

It doesn't seem likely, certainly not in just three more weeks but then how many times have I said that about Ashtanga, it constantly surprises you.

Summer Solstice : 108 dropbacks. UPDATE: Morning after

If anyone is interested in attending contact Oscar details at the bottom of the poster above.

UPDATE.
I was asked in comments below for some more details about the workshop

We're still working out the details but the Friday evening will be perhaps a discussion of Krishnamacharya's approach as found in his books, Looking at Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu pretty much what I've covered in the blog. I'm no expert but have looked at these books quite closely both with Ramaswami and here but more importantly tried to explore them in my practice.

Saturday morning will be a kind of led practice/workshop in the style of Krishnamacharya's first book Yoga makaranda and Yogasanagalu relating to the earlier discussion but exploring through practice ( we did something similar with Ramaswami on his TT course). I'll seek to make it available for any level not so much difficult asana but a strong breath focus, slowing it down, perhaps some longer stays etc.

the second workshop will look at Krishnamacharya's later work as taught by Ramaswami and how I feel it can help us in our Ashtanga practice. Again, appropriate I hope for any level. The asana practice will be shorter to allow time for exploring pranayama and pratyahara as well as a little meditation practice.

That's basically the idea