The pursuit of Yoga requires a journey to go inward, which helps overcome the obstacles.

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The power adapter of my notebook computer went kaput. I cannot be online or use my computer for anything else. Just when I was getting to amp up my job search in my regular day job of software development, it goes dead. All of a sudden I have so much time on hand, now I have to figure out a different plan for my day. I cannot believe how addicted I am to the internet, it is never enough.

I can picture myself being on the internet when Mr.Yama (not to be confused with yama/niyama of  Yoga Sutras), the Lord of death shows up and tells me  that it is time to close all connections and leave. I will be pleading for 5  more minutes online. Wait, I actually hear someone telling me the time is up.  I look up, the person looks quite normal. He tells me I need to leave this terminal at the library, my time is over. Damn, I am addicted to this.

The importance of Iśvara has been explored in the last 6 sutras I.23, I.24,  I.25, I.26,  I.27,   I.28.  The previous sutra wraps the topic of Iśvara for now. We are discussing the first chapter out of four chapters in Yoga Sutras.  Patañjali is explaining what is Yoga, what is not Yoga and how to achieve Yoga.  Iśvara is one of the pathways that one can achieve the State of Yoga.

Iśvara is someone like god and that he is a special being, quite extraordinary. He is untouched by delusion, agitations, actions, afflictions, consequences and time. He represents past, present and future. He knows everything that is to be known. He is simply the teacher of all the teachers. He is addressed by a special symbol Pranava that specifies the qualities of Iśvara . By meditating on Iśvara, one can realize oneself (or go nearer). By meditating on an object, one imbibes the qualities of the object. How can meditating on Iśvara make oneself realize themselves? Iśvara is within all of us and one needs to be able to see for themselves. Iśvara is part and parcel of all of us.

You can read all the sutras that have been discussed on this blog.

Ashtanga        $20
Bikram            $20
Flow                 $14
Swimming      $5
Running          Free
Walking           Free, my favorite!

**Vancouver rates, per session

Yoga is definitely an elite activity, you got to make tons of money to spend on a yoga class.

I like this trailer a lot. May be I will watch it sometime this summer. Kung fu cult says, everything is Kung fu, just like the Yoga cult.

This move is called IruttiKaal in Malayalam. This clip is filmed in my Kalari Institute CVN Kalari, Thiruvananthapuram (as complicated as Massachusetts!).  This is one of the toughest basic sequences for me. The hip joints have to be completely flexible to sit down completely like in full splits. I could not do it completely and my Gurukkal Rajasekaran Nair asked me not to do it. Children learn this easily and adults who are already flexible can do this, for others this is quite difficult. The spine turns around 360 or feels like it. And the gurukkal will pretty much manhandle the students. He would pull the kids’s hair to twirl around. It does not look too difficult while watching it. But one gets to do this, it is extremely demanding. One needs to coordinate the right and the left, twirl and change direction. When it is time to twirl, the brain needs to adapt so quickly as to where the body is and the control is important. The gurukkal would never be happy with the students. He would always complain and sometimes hit the children mildly to ask them to keep the focus. This is something I will have to practice next time I go to my Kalari Institute.

We all know that Yoga is good for us. The South African team knows it too. They are pictured here doing a modified Vasistasana. They all have sthiram, but sukham is completely missing.  Here’s Boston’s Big Picture on World cup 2010.

Definitely comes easier when you are 7 years old. I love the Sanskrit name Poorna Bhujangasana. In English, it is translated as King Cobra pose, somehow it loses a lot of beauty in the English version. Poorna means full, complete and it is never captured in the English name of the pose. So lost in translation.

I love the Sanskrit names of asanas and the Indian names of Indian people. Most people in the West want to shorten my already short name, so it gets easy for them to say my name. I have never agreed to that and it is always my full name that I ask people to refer me by. There is so much beauty in the name when it is said the right way. I was definitely cross, when someone wanted to call me “S”, as my name was too complex for that person. I said no way, I cannot be called S. That’s a huge loss for my name.

Imagine teaching a yoga class, come to the top of the mat. Come into U, then U, then A, then B. Just because someone found it too much to handle.

This is a fabulous pose to start an asana practice. It looks so simple but quite works the entire body and wakes it in a gentle but conscious way. I love to start with this and I can feel how it works on my body. I also have to add that I have not seen this sequence in any other “style” of hatha yoga, except at Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. This is the asana that made me realize how a mild and easy looking asana can work so well.

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