Yogadanam

Srivatsa Ramaswami

yogadanam — Thu, 29 May 2008 19:00:21 +0000

T Krishnamacharya’s name isn’t as well known as you might expect, when you realise how famous some of his students are. Patabhi Jois (Ashtanga/Power Yoga), BKS Iyengar (Iyengar Yoga), TKV Desikachar, AG Mohan and Indra Devi, were all taught by Krishnamacharya. Ramaswami studied with him for over thirty years, from the mid-50s until Krishnamacharya’s death in 1989: longer than anybody else, apart from Desikachar, Krishnamacharya’s son.

Ramaswami’s book, Yoga for the Three Stages of Life, has a fascinating account of his studies with Krishnamacharya, starting as a ten year old chanting alongside his father; going on to learn other aspects of yoga, including philosophy and therapeutic applications; and gradually starting to pass on that knowledge to others.

Several articles that Ramaswami wrote for Indian newspapers are available from dharmadownloads. He also wrote:

Basic Tenets of Patanjala Yoga (1982) – not available at the moment, as far as I know, but I hope it will appear on dharmadownloads before too long.
Yoga for the Three Stages of Life (2000, Inner Traditions)
The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga (2005, Marlowe)
Yoga Beneath the Surface (with David Hurwitz, June 2006, Marlowe).

Ramaswami will be teaching in the UK in February next year. Details are available from Steve Brandon, who can be contacted through his Harmony Yoga web-site (the dates, places and titles are listed under “events” on the site).

A Simple Start

yogadanam — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:28:19 +0000

Ideally yoga is learned from a teacher who can develop a practice tailored to suit the needs and interest of each student individually. In reality, that isn’t always possible. We end up learning from a DVD, a book or a computer. If we’re lucky, we can get to a group where at least there’ll be some individual attention.

On the whole, it’s better to get started with something than to keep putting it off until we can find a perfect situation. And it’s better to do ten minutes a day consistently than an hour or two every other week. Once the ten minutes a day is established, then you can increase it if you want to, and have the time. You will have a good habit to build on, or you may feel that just now that’s as long as you can manage.

Here’s a simple ten minute practice that will be within the physical capability of most people. It can be done at any time of day: first thing in the morning, last thing at night, straight after work – whenever is your best time for getting ten minutes to yourself.

Counterpose for Life Sequence (pdf, by Paul Harvey, from his Dharma Downloads site)

Take the sequence slowly, allowing your breath to flow in and out over a few seconds, and taking several breaths to just be still at the start and end of each posture. Think of this as a moving meditation – that’s what it is. It’s a vehicle to take you from movement to stillness. Take the time to enjoy the journey.

In Search of Real Yoga

yogadanam — Tue, 27 May 2008 21:05:35 +0000

These days you can find lots of different styles of yoga class to attend, from the athletic to the therapeutic, so you might be tempted to wonder which is the “real” yoga. But if you go back to older writings about yoga, digging back through the centuries, although the presentation changes, you won’t find it much easier to track down just one “real yoga.”

You might find hatha yoga, with its postures and breath control; or bhakti yoga, with its emphasis on service and devotion, like Ghandi; or you’ll find an emphasis on studying philosophy and meditation to develop knowledge and wisdom. It seems that there is no single definitive version. You can find nice neat definitions of yoga, but when it comes to setting down a bit more detail, things always get more complicated.

Even within a single text, such as the Bhagavad Gita, or Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, two of the most famous traditional ones, there isn’t a single right way to practice. What the authors all agree on is that the purpose of yoga is to be able to see things as they really are. Most of us, most of the time, are caught up in our own fantasies about the world. Listen to two people describing the same event, and you can see this at work. It’s human nature to try to make sense of the world around us; to build models and tell ourselves stories. It’s only when there is some control over our mind’s tendency to make up stories that we can start to really be true to ourselves – otherwise we’re busy constructing an image and then trying to maintain the illusion.

All the different styles and techniques of yoga are just means to get to this same end: not to be a slave to your own fantasies. Different people at different stages of life will find different approaches more helpful. Children might do well with strenuous exercise to help direct their energy; stressed young parents might find some gentler exercise or breathing work better. Others might find detailed study of philosophy helps them to make sense of the world. The same person might need a different mix at different stages of life. Foe instance, even if you’re the sort of person who thrives on study and meditation, if you’re in pain, you may need to take time for some therapeutic work in order to be able to focus on your study. The hours of strenuous yoga postures that made you feel sharp and energised when you were younger may leave you exhausted and stressed when you’re trying to fit them around the demands of work and family. The end goal is still to become more truly yourself, but the tools that will help you to do it may vary.

Yoga-what?

yogadanam — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:05:25 +0000

The word yogadanam means communicating about yoga. I’ll probably wander onto other subjects, but writing something about yoga is where I’ll start – and we’ll see where it goes! I am interested in how yoga works in day to day “ordinary” life, and I also enjoy delving into history, philosophy and sanskrit (the language of the old yoga texts). I’m interested in food, photography, music and assorted other bits and pieces that are likely to show up here too.