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| A 'jumping' practice really? |
Iyengar is focusing on the 'jumping' aspect of Krishnamacharya's teaching and explaining it as a result of Krishnamacharya teaching the warrior class boys of the Mysore palace. Practice as exercise, as fitness, somewhat akin to a 'martial art'.
And of course this is something Mark Singleton, picks up on in his book Yoga Body and likens to the exercise/fitness regimes in vogue at the time.
Mark too is focusing a little too much perhaps on the 'Jumping' aspect of Krishnamacharya's vinyasa approach (following Sjoman he likens it to the practice of wrestlers) which he encounters in Contemporary Ashtanga, perhaps extrapolating backwards rather than focussing directly on Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda (1934) and Yogasanagalu (1941). In those texts we get a fuller presentation of the teaching on yoga, and asana practice in particular, that Krishnamacharya wished to communicate more widely at the first opportunity he was given to do so.
The reports of Krishnamacharya's demonstrations and the Iyengar section of the 1938 film footage do seem to support Mark's argument but we must remember that they were short demonstrations, a closer look at Krishnamacharya's texts questions that view as do the Krishnamacharya sections of the 1938 film footage. Krishnamacharya's practice was always all about the breath, it was and even in contemporary Ashtanga still is, a breathing practice.
The focus of attention, as it appears from the outside at least, is of the dynamic aspect of Ashtanga practice, the jump back and through, the moving from one posture to the next, the fitness aspect, the beautiful 'hard body'.
Poor Ashtanga, so misunderstood.
And yet it's not surprising, it has itself to blame somewhat. From David Swenson to Kino MacGregor we have images and videos of "ta da" moments, beautiful jump throughs, handstand, lots of handstands, all the fancy Advanced postures..... it's acrobatic, gymnastic, contortionist, it's astonishing. And look at all the fit, beautiful, scantily clad bodies, ashtanga can make you beautiful......
A quick aside, Norman Sjoman argues that Krishnamacharya was influenced by the texts he found in the Mysore palace Library, that may be so and yet just looking at the screenshot above surely we see an Ashtangi's body, this is a man who practiced and for a long time.
My apologies to David (whose book was a HUGE influence on my practice) and Kino ( who I have referred to on this blog previously as the patron saint of home ashangi's, on account of all her Youtube tutorials) for picking them out of the crowd but David's video with it's perfect floaty jump through and handstands was perhaps the first on the market and the Internet is bombarded with Kino videos, no wonder then we now have the seemingly endless Ashtanga selfie videos and the current perception of ashtanga is becoming one of vanity, vanity, vanity.
Demonstrations of the beauty and dynamism of Ashtanga are nothing new of course, it was Manju Jois' demonstration that drew David Williams to Mysore and Pattabhi Jois.
It was the demonstration of"jumping from posture to posture" that drew the young Pattabhi Jois to his guru Krishnamacharya.
And Krishnamacharya was of course drawn to his own guru in Tibet, Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari, by his reputation for...... hang on a moment, for philosophy.... not asana?
Krishnamacharya supposedly went to study with Ramamohana Brahmachari to study philosophy, Patanjali's Yoga Sutras in particular. Ramamohana Brahmachari was said to be an authority on the text by one of the leading scholars of the university city of Varanasi. This may be why Krishnamacharya laid such great emphasis on the Study of the Yoga Sutras.... if writing or practice was in-line with Patanjali then it was correct, if not, incorrect practice.
And what characterises Krishnamacharya's understanding of the Yoga Sutras in relation to physical practice? The breath.
Yoga Sutra II-47
“प्रायत्नशैथिल्यानन्तसमापत्तिभ्याम्”
“prayatnashithilyanantasamapattibhyam”
"prayatna - effort (of life which is breathing)
saithilya - smooth (make it smooth)
ananta-samapattibhyam:
ananta -breath
samapattibhyam - focusing on it
By making the breath smooth (and long), and by concentration or focusing the mind on the breath, the perfection of the posture is obtained.
Note: Krishnamacharya interprets this sutra differently than other teachers. he gives the correct technical meaning (in this context) fromn prayatna or Jivana prayatna, or effort of life which is breath. he says that it is the breath that should be made smooth and effortless, not the posture. it is not physical; it is the breathing" Ramaswami
And yet we know this of course in our contemporary Ashtanga vinyasa practice, we may post a selfie video occasionally, particularly of our jump back ( this blog began with the jump back six years ago) but our practice is still characterised by our attention to the breath. For 60, 90 or 120 minutes each morning our attention is on the breath or at least on the attempt to bring our attention back to the breath, of attempting to matain the integrity of the breath.
The jump back and jump through are only two vinyasas out of around 22 for most of the seated postures, it just looks more visually dramatic than the five breaths taken in an actual asana especially since the count of five in a posture is becoming short and shorter.
To be fair to the detractors, in contemporary practice 'Half vinyasa' is practiced, the first 7 vinyasa are skipped as are the final two (rather than coming all the way back to standing, we just jump straight in to the next posture), that brings the vinyasa count unofficially to 13. We jump into the posture take five quick breaths then prepare to jump out and jump back in again for the other side, then we jump out again and back in for the next posture. Hmmmm fair enough, there does seem to be a lot of jumping and preparing for jumping in contemporary practice.
Perhaps in full vinyasa, where the posture begins and ends in standing it all appears more balanced. Krishnamacharya would also stress the long slow breathing 'like the pouring of oil' (Pattabhi Jois also in old interviews, 10, 15, 20 seconds for inhalation and the same for exhalation), this has.... speeded up somewhat, is your breath like the pouring of oil, is mine? Krishnamacharya also focussed on kumbhaka (retaining the breath in and out and the end of the inhalation and exhalation respectfully) outlined in his books Yoga Makaranda and Yogasanagalu. Not only are there kumbhaka while in most of the the actual asana but often in the vinyasa before and after the asana, in fact kumbhaka could be introduced at almost any stage of a vinyasa, the jumping aspect begins to recede into the background. A breathing practice indeed.
It's understandable perhaps that anyone looking from the outside might characterise contemporary ashtanga as a jumping practice, overlooking the subtleties that are still our own experience of our 90 minute breathing practice each morning, and more apparent to us of course as we gain more experience in our practice ( by more experience I mean the months, years of practice rather than the asana that make up our own individual practice). However I find it harder to understand how that mistake could be made regarding Krishnamacharya's Yoga Makaranda which is all about these subtleties.
An interesting post from Paul Harvey this morning relating to a online exchange we had earlier in the week around the previous kumbhaka posts.
"My understanding from my discussions over the years with TKV Desikachar regarding the context and content of Yoga Makaranda, is that when teaching youngsters the length of the breath was minimised to a relatively short fixed length and use of Kumbhaka was limited to a few seconds Antar Kumbhaka and Bahya Kumbhaka.
However there were no limitations on the range or intensity of Āsana and lots of use of variations to be engaged with within each Āsana.
In the adult there were no such limitations for the breath and the work with variations of the Āsana was re-prioritised to working with a fewer Āsana and fewer variations within each Āsana, but with the challenge of a greater range of breathing patterns both in length and combinations.
Certainly Antar Kumbhaka or Bahya Kumbhaka of 10″ was commonplace in the adult practice and here the ‘perfection’ of the Āsana was measured by mastery of all aspects of the breath rather than for the youngster, where ‘perfection’ of the Āsana was measured by mastery of all aspects of the form.
This was consistent with Krishnamacharya’s teaching in his Yoga Rahasya on Yoga Sādhana and Stages of Life
Furthermore my understanding is that if we use a particular Āsana with all its permutations of form and thus less focus on the variations of the breath it operates more as an Āsana.
If we use an Āsana with all its permutations of breath and thus less focus on the variation of the form it operates more as a Mudrā.
Sarvaṅgāsana is such an example with its 32 variations devised by Krishnamacharya emphasising its role as an Āsana and its static solo form with its focus on extensive breath ratio, perhaps augmented by the Tribandha, emphasising its role as a Mudrā". Paul Harvey Centre for yoga studies
I wonder if it's a mistake to link Yoga Makaranda too closely to the teaching Krishnamacharya was doing in Mysore at that time, especially to the warrior class boys. We can clearly see this teaching in Makaranda but the book itself goes further, is actually quite extreme with it's long stays in certain postures, also in Part One at least, there are no limits outlined for the ever present kumbhaka. Iyengar characterises Krishnamacharya's teaching at this time as concerned with 'jumping' but for me the dominant characterising factor of Yoga Makaranda itself is the breath. No doubt constantly developed into the form outlined by Paul and his teacher Desikacher above.
One last thought, In the Krishnamacharya documentary 'Breath of Gods' there is the scene of the young boys chanting while holding a posture, one way perhaps Krishnamacharya stopped the boys getting bored during the occasional long stays suggesting perhaps Krishnamacharya did manage to squeeze them in occasionally.
Chanting too of course can be considered akin to pranayama with it's breath and diaphragm (uddiyana bandha/) control. I must count the number of sarvangasana and sirsasana variations Krishnamacharya presents in that old 1938 B and W footage above.
I often come back to this line from yoga Makaranda part II
We have already mentioned that all asanas are not necessary for each individual. But a few of us at least should learn all the asanas so that the art of Yoga may not be forgotten and lost. p76 Krishnamacharya Yoga Makaranda part II
The asana seem to be safe for now at least, plenty of us learning and passing on Advanced postures (see Kino again recently with 4th and now 5th series posture videos on Youtube) but perhaps there is the danger that other aspects of the 'art of yoga' are in danger of being lost.
Paul Harvey just shared with us an Introduction to Yoga Makaranda, I hadn't seen it before, thank you Paul as ever. Download the pdf here
http://www.yogastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/KYM_Darsanam_November_1993.pdf
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| Centre for yoga studies |
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| Centre for yoga studies |
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| Centre for yoga studies |
There is a line in the above that reminds me of Mick Lawton's recent guest post describing the astounding health and healing benefits of Kumbhaka in his Ashtanga practice.
CASE STUDY: "The Benefits of employing Kumbhaka (retaining the breath in or out) during Asana." Guest post by Mick lawton
"The then Maharaja of Mysore Nalvadi Krishnaraja Oda-yar, who was seriously ill, requested T. Krishnamacharyato treat him. Through yoga, proper diet and herbs the king recovered and became very healthy"
And of course Krishnmamacharya seems to have been employing kumbhaka at that time. Was it the kumbhaka aspect of practice that perhaps helped heal the Maharaja?
We'll never know of course.
If Krishnamacharya hadn't healed the Maharaja he wouldn't have been given the Yoga Shala, Pattabhi Jois wouldn't have been his student there, we wouldn't have the Ashtanga we have now.
If we focus on the jumping, the dynamic aspect of practice, if we promote ourselves and the practice through the presentation of advanced postures then perhaps we will come to overlook the subtleties of the practice.
Unfortunately, the breathing is getting quicker, the stays in postures shorter, variations from the 'sequence' are frowned upon, Kumbhaka does not seem to have been picked up by Pattabhi Jois at all, I do wonder how many aspects of the Art of yoga are already in danger of being 'lost' and that saddens me.
The question becomes of course, how to include these aspects of practice, of our tradition and lineage that become neglected, how do we avoid them from becoming lost altogether. How do we reintroduce the exploration of kumbhaka and it's effects or slow the breath, introduce variations where appropriate and if required, maintain familiarity with the count in all series and yet still complete a series or maintain at least the integrity of the sequence.
My own solution, what works for me personally, is actually also Pattabhi Jois'.... give up on the idea that a full series must be completed in one practice (it's right there at the back of yoga Mala as well as in interviews, do what you can, what you have time for just maintain the order and the last three postures).
If we only have an hour an fifteen minutes to practice we can switch from full to half vinyasa, speed up our breathing, count to five quickly while in the state of the asana, stay on the count rush/force ourselves into the challenging postures as well as the easier ones, give up on any thoughts exploring the effects of kumbhaka or at this rate of practice effective use of bandhas.
OR
We can do half a series, first half of Primary one day, the second half the next. Allowing us to slow the breathing, stay for five or more long full breaths in the state(s) of an asana, take long full extra breaths to actually get into any asana that are more challenging for us personally, explore kumbhaka and bandhas more fully....
Or we can practice for two - three hours and do both, have our cake AND eat it.
Afterthought: And yet we have this, Mysore rooms around the world, the selfies and demo's put to one side, Ashtanga as it's actually practiced each morning, rooms like our own, where we just turn up to breathe. http://grimmly2007.blogspot.co.uk/p/mysore-rooms-around-world.html
Mysore rooms around the world,