Kośa (कोश) Srivatsa Ramaswami's November 2014 Newsletter

November 2014 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami— Kośa (कोश)

Warm Greetings from Chennai. I have been here for the last ten weeks and hope to go to US by about the middle of November. It has been a long stay. Fell sick. Do Yagabhyasis get sick? Yes, when they are involved in or constrained to involve in non yogic laukika activities. Anyway getting better. Spoke briefly at Chennai Ashtanga Yoga Studio on Yoga. Had to cancel the weekend program at Ananda Ashram in US as I could not travel. \

For 2015. some programs have been finalized. Will be doing the 200 her Teacher Training Program at Loyola Marymount University from July 20, 2015 for five weeks. This may perhaps be the last time I will be doing the Teacher Training program. Then in May I will be going to Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga in UK to do a week long Certificate program in Vinyasakrama in London and a 13 day complete program on the Bhagavat Gita based on my studies with Sri Krishnaamacharya in Wells Somerset.

While in UK I will be doing a weekend program on Yoga for Internal Organs at Jivamukti, London
http://www.jivamuktiyogalondon.co.uk/jiva_events/physiology-yoga-for-internal-organs-workshop-with-srivatsa-ramaswami/

In September I should be going to Chicago to teach Yoga Vinyasakrama and Internal Organs programs at Chicago Yoga Center, which had to be canceled this year.

One of the less known but significant teachings of Sri Krishnamacharya was about the maintenance of the health of vital organs of the body, the six kosas. He makes a pointed reference to it in his Yoga Rahasya. Kosa in Sanskrit means a sac or a bag. In the olden days the king's treasury used to be called the kosa because gold used to be kept in pockets, leather pouches. The human body has six important organs kept in such bags and hence are called kosas. One is hridaya kosa the heart kosa contained as I had explained in some earlier articles in a sac called pericardium and acts as the driving force in a subsystem called the circulatory system or rakta sanchara. Likewise is the other vital organ, the lungs known as svasa kosa or breathing bag which is the driving force behind the respiratory system. It is called a kosa because it is contained in a bag like strong membrane called the pleura. Below the diaphragm is another important bag the stomach also known as anna kosa or food bag. It is the driving force behind digestive system. In the pelvic region there are three more kosas or sacs. One is mala kosa or faeces bag. Then we have mutra kosa or the urine bag or the bladder and finally garbha kosa or the fetus bag or the uterus the central organ in the reproductive system. In men it is the prostrate.

My Guru used to mention that the positional integrity of these kosas must be maintained for the optimal functioning of these kosas and the subsysten they serve. Yogis of yesteryears had defined the positions or sthanas of these organs. They had also discovered unique procedures, yogic procedures to maintain the position and tone of these kosas. Apart from several asanas and vinyasas, they came out with some extraordinary procedures like mudras, bandhas vipritakaranis like sirsasana and sarvangasana., kriyas and of course pranayama. Several of these procedures like pranayama look insipid, and procedures like Kapalabhati, Nauli look grotesque to nonyogis. Yogis who stay in Headstand and shoulder stand for long durations appear to some nonyogis as just weird. Many modern yoga practioners who practice these do it as a matter of routine but these are great inventions of yogis to give complete health to all the six kosas containing very vital organs

By giving considerable importance to these less understood but very powerful procedures Sri Krishnamacharya gave a more complete picture of Yoga and thus taught a well rounded yoga system . The human body is said to be a shat-kausika-sarira or a body made of six kosas or sacs. Yoga takes care of these six important kosas thereby nurturing important organs. Every aspect of yoga is quite significant.

Srivatsa Ramaswami

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Ramaswami has written about the Kosas and internal organs in several newsletters, these  below come to mind.