This is a Vedic Chant to honor our teacher Sri Krishnamacharya, who opened the doors of Vedic Chanting to everyone. This post is for my classmate from KYM. This chant may not make sense to the rest of my regular readers of 0.0142, including Borat from Kazhakistan.
Astanga according to The Yoga man Patanjali, is the eight parts that need to be followed to reach yoga. Asana or the hatha yoga is just one small component of the entire picture. For whatever reason, Pattabhi Jois (PJ) has redefined the word astanga to mean his vigorous athletic style of Yoga. So, I get into this confusion with all astanga yogis (ayogis), the pretty pale young things, who I come across in Mysore.
I was always aware that this word has been misused. Then it slowly dawns on me that another important word in Yoga has also been redefined. Either by PJ himself or his followers. I keep hearing conversations like, “I practice hatha yoga, not astanga” or the other way around. I ask the ayogis what is the difference. They tell me astanga is where one moves from one asana to the other with a vinyasa thrown in. Hatha is where one stays in a pose longer. Ok, Patanjali would be quite unhappy to hear the ayogis speak like this. Any physical yoga practice is hatha yoga, as far as I know. Flow, astanga, power, bikram, sivananda, Krishnamacharya KYM style, you name it. All of them are hatha yoga. So, astanga is nothing but a “style” of hatha yoga.
This film was made in 1938. Sri Krishnamacharya was 50 years at that time.
Can a yoga teacher be fat? I could not help thinking about this, when a fat teacher, sort of obese, taught a class at a yoga ashram in India. He was supposedly the guru and the face of the ashram. The class was okay, but I was not used to this style. He was mostly seated on a chair and he walked around once or twice. Before he taught this class, I was told many times that this guru was going to teach on this particular day and the energy of the class was going to explode. We were primed up to this class. I felt no explosion of any sorts.
I wouldn’t ask for my money back for the class, that’s just about how much I liked the class. I like my teachers lean and inspiring. That way, I know they are practicing their yoga, they are grounded and in touch with yoga and are not just talk. Isn’t the body a telltale of one’s yoga practice? (more…)
Patanjali’s Yoga Darshanam aka Yoga Sutras is the first authoritative work on Yoga. Patanjali (Puh-th-anjali) is not the author or the originator of Yoga. He is the one that compiled it in writing for the first time. He assembled the vast knowledge of Yoga from the Vedas, Upanishads and from the teachings of his guru. (more…)
I had recently attended a workshop called Heart of Yoga at KYM, Chennai. I had signed up for this course to learn Yoga Sutras, the first and still the most authoritative text on Yoga. The workshop had a few other classes which I was not aware of.
One such class was Vedic Chanting. I had a faint idea what it was and I thought, I simply have to put up with this class for the greater good. I thought it was something like the Hindu priests chanting in the temples, which always looked meaningless to me. After a few classes, it slowly dawned on me that this class was turning out to be so much fun, that it was one of my highlights at KYM. I have hardly come across anything since Yoga, that I have been so impressed with. (more…)
Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM) in Chennai is a non-profit organization started by TKV Desikachar, who is the son of Sri Krishnamacharya. The mandiram was started in 1976 to keep Sri Krishnamacharya’s teachings alive, so many people can benefit the Yoga and healing. Mandiram in Sanskrit means to dispel the darkness.
The motto of KYM is
Heyam Hetu Anaaghatham
This means, avoid the suffering that is to come. (more…)
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