Discussion of the rediscovered article Yoga and Therapy by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. Also next years practice, Kumbhaka in 2nd series.

This rediscovered article by Sri K. Pattabhi Jois was posted by Eddie Stern this week on his site Ashtanga yoga New york


Here's the intro and first three paragraphs but follow the link to Eddie's page for the full article.



The same old line from Vamana Rishi. I've always wondered, if Krishnamacharya was supposed to have studied the Yoga Korunta for seven years in Tibet with his teacher Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari, and, supposedly learned it by heart, as well as later, reciting it to his eager student Pattabhi Jois.....

Why do we only have the one line?

It's the same line, always the same line.

Before switching to Philosophy I began University as a Classics student, all we have of some of the Ancient Pre Socratic Philosophers are, if we are lucky,  a handful of lines quoted by contemporary or near contemporary authors. One of my favourite Presocratic philosophers Anaxemenes has only the one line surviving

“Just as our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world.”

“Just as our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world.”

And you thought it was only the yogi's who wrote about the breath

Makes one think doesn't it, perhaps Krishnamacharya in all his reading, and he appears to have read voraciously on Yoga from libraries all over India, perhaps he only came across the one line of Vamana Rishi and that referenced in another text rather than the Yoga Korunta itself.

Or perhaps he did indeed study Vamana Rishi's Yoga Korunta with his teacher. The story goes Krishnamacharya later discovered a copy in a Calcutta library but that the text, written on banana leaves like so many other ancient texts, had mostly been eaten by ants. Perhaps the only legible surviving line was the one quoted above. It's also often claimed that Pattabhi Jois accompanied Krishnamacharya to that library in Calcutta, that might explain why Pattabhi Jois and later Sharath only quote that single line.

I am slight bothered by the translation, now my sanskrit is a little rusty (read virtually non existent)  but there's no reference to inhalation and exhalation only to Vinyasa.

The line is often translated....


Ramaswami has 'V'i as variations, and 'nyasa' as defined parameters.

Here's Srivatsa Ramaswami on Krishnamacharya's use of Vinyasa in his 1934 book Yoga Makaranda ( written at the time Krishnamacharya was teaching the young Pattabhi Jois

My guru believed that the correct vinyasa method is essential in order to receive the full benefits from yoga practice. The following quote, which I translated from Yoga Makaranda, perfectly captures this sentiment.

"From time immemorial the Vedic syllables…are chanted with the correct (high, low, and level) notes. Likewise, sruti (pitch) and laya (rhythm) govern Indian classical music. Classical Sanskrit poetry follows strict rules of chandas (meter), yati (caesura), and prasa (assemblage). Further, in mantra worship, nyasas (usually the assignment of different parts of the body to various deities, with mantras and gestures)—such as Kala nyasa, Matruka nyasa, Tatwa nyasa—are integral parts. Likewise yogasana (yogic poses), pranayama (yogic breathing exercises), and mudras (seals, locks, gestures) have been practiced with vinyasas from time immemorial.
"However, these days, in many places, many great souls who teach yoga do so without the vinyasas. They merely stretch or contract the limbs and proclaim that they are practicing yoga…"

Vinyasa than can mean variations within defined paramaters, perhaps in this context 'correct method'. So Vamana Rishi's should perhaps be translated more along the lines of


For Krishnamacharya this 'Vinyasa' method was the linking of the elements of the breath to the elements of the posture. Each movement in and out of a posture, and here we're talking yogic postures, asana, should be accompanied with the correct inhalation or exhalation. This received perhaps it's most formal treatment in Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda where each movement received a count. Odd numbers were generally inhalations, even numbers, exhalations while the element of rest within the asana would often be associated with the appropriate kumbhaka ( breath retention). If the head was up in the posture, or stage of the posture, Antah Kumbhaka (at the end of the inhalation) might be employed, if the head was down then bhaya kumbhaka (at the end of the full exhalation) might be employed.

This is a practice that Krishnamacharya continued throughout his long teaching career. The formal count seems to have been discarded, perhaps it was only required for the large group of boys of the Mysore Palace and introduced accordingly, perhaps it was no longer deemed necessary in the one-to-one or small group settings Krishnamacharya taught after leaving Mysore in the 1950's. However, Krishnamacharya still continued to teach that each movement was accompanied by a particular stage of the breath and appropriate kumbhaka's continued to be employed.

In the Pattabhi Jois Yoga Therapy article Vamana's use of Vinyasa is translated as 'inhalation and exhalation' in keeping with the current presentation of Ashtanga in which no Kumbhaka is employed.

Pattabhi Jois also states in the article