The Mahalakshmi Stotra

Good Morning from Mysore

Sights and sounds

Tomorrow is our first day of classes at the KPJAYI. 

 In the background you can hear the same sounds that I heard this morning just outside my window.

Live from India

Journey Across India from Mike Matas on Vimeo.

Visualtraveling - India

Visualtraveling - 'Holy Cow' from Patrik Wallner on Vimeo.

Incredible India {Documentary}

Welcome to India

"Learning how to survive on an increasingly crowded planet is probably our ultimate challenge. But there is one place, home to over a sixth of the world's population, which is already making a good shot at adapting: welcome to India. This extraordinary observational series casts aside the usual preconceptions about the sub-continent, and lets a few of India's 1.2 billion show how their world really works. With astonishing access into the densest districts of Kolkata and Mumbai, it celebrates the impressive resourcefulness, resilience and absolute pragmatism of those living and working there, and reveals the psyche needed to get ahead in the biggest of crowds. This follows two main characters as they employ all their ingenuity to carve out a home. With more people moving to cities in India than anywhere else on Earth, securing that place you can call home is vital for nurturing your family's future. Kaale has come to Kolkata in search of gold - incredibly, he earns a living by sweeping the streets of the jewellery district for stray gold dust. But to fulfil his business ambitions, he must escape his landlord and rent a room of his own. His plan pushes even his resourcefulness to the limit: dredging for gold in Kolkata's drains. Rajesh and his wife Sevita have created their home on a Mumbai beach after their controversial love marriage. They support their kids' future with some impressive improvisation, including running their house as a makeshift beach pub selling cane liquor. But then eviction by the Mumbai council threatens their home for good."

Weekend Edition #16 The week in review

Thanks to the participants and organizers of last weekend's Anahata Yoga Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It was a wonderful event and there is already talk about the next one...



Here are a few articles, posts, and conference notes worth a read:

• Yoga: Changing The Brain's Stressful Habits by Alex Korb, Ph.D. in Psychology Today
  "As a neuroscientist, despite my initial incredulity, I came to realize that yoga works not because the poses are relaxing, but because they are stressful. It is your attempts to remain calm during this stress that create yoga's greatest neurobiological benefit."
  
• Ellen Williams Kympton, 68: Practicing with Gratitude, Living Gracefully with Cancer by Robbie Norris in the Richmond Private Blog
  "I teach a 78-year old woman who has experienced major revitalization during two years of daily practice. Her 40-minute (and growing) practice has dramatically changed her body, increased her overall wellbeing, and enlightened her sense of humor with moments of childlike bliss.
  People who know only a little about Ashtanga Yoga (including many who might say they've tried it) often characterize it as fast yoga, athletic yoga, yoga for the young and healthy, or a practice that is too strict with no room for innovation. When you hear someone speak about Ashtanga Yoga in that way, be assured they know virtually nothing about it, and let a red flag go up -- because it will be a person who assumes authority about that of which his knowledge is slight."
  
• AY:A2 ashtanga session ‘bootlegs’ via YogaRose.net
  Here’s the session as one long view.
  Eight limbs and tristhana.
  Ashtanga as a natural movement practice.
  Ujjayi pranayama versus breathing with sound.
  House Recommendations.
  Communicable diseases in the Mysore room.
  Finally, here’s a playlist of all the videos.
  
• Conference notes with Sharath Jois in Mysore, India via Jois Yoga
  -January 8, 2012 by Andrew Hillam
  -July 22, 2012 by Anna Muzzin
  -September 9, 2012 by Megan Riley

For the home practitioners, there is also a new live stream of Sharath teaching in Moscow:

I'm heading to Mysore in the fall to practice and study with my teacher R. Sharath Jois.  Here is a glimpse of a led intermediate class at the shala a couple of years ago:



Lastly, I've opened up an online shop to help raise funds for my trip and also for Uttarakhand disaster relief.  Check it out!

Thanks for reading!

Namarupa & ♥India Fundraiser

Namarupa Magazine's latest edition is now available online for free.

In this issue there's an article detailing Sharath's conference in New York earlier this year at AYNY as well as many other good reads.  You can read it online or purchase a print copy here.

"Vishnu" by Elise Espat

I am really moved and inspired by the work being done to help the people in Uttarakhand.  To help raise funds I launched ArtByElise with the intention of donating 50% of the profits to the Namarupa Bandhava project.  The other 50% helps fund my trip to study with my teacher R. Sharath Jois in the fall.  Your support is appreciated!

Weekend Edition #14 India ♥

"The Journey Home" is a sweet companion video to Radhanath Swami's book of the same title. (We have a copy in the Shala library).

Rishikesh, Haridwar in Uttarakhand, India

Via Namarupa:

ON JUNE 16, 2013 DISASTER STRUCK IN UTTARAKHAND!
An early monsoon brought days of torrential rain, bursting dams, landslides and floods. To date the death toll is well over a thousand with many still missing. Whole villages washed away. Places that had existed for hundreds of years gone without a trace. Those who had not perished were left with the shreds of the clothes they were standing in. The papers have been filled with stories of the disaster and survivors are trickling home with harrowing tales. Much has been written about the terrible plight of the many pilgrims in the area.

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE VILLAGERS AND HOW WE CAN HELP? See more at: http://www.namarupa.org/bandhava/bandhava.php

Yoga Stops Traffick 2013

Based in Mysore, India Odanadi is a wonderful organization initiating real change and positivity in the lives of many.  Their annual Yoga Stops Traffick event raises awareness and funds which help provide a "safe haven for survivors of human trafficking, sexual exploitation, slavery, domestic abuse and destitution".

Donate.  Get involved.  Learn more.

Ravi Shankar (1920 – 2012)

The Ravi Shankar Foundation - Nada Brahma - Sound is God

Intermediate Series Demonstration

This is a video from an asana demonstration we did in India in 2010. It was during the Dasara festival (around this time of year). We did two. One was outdoors in front of the Mysore Palace. The other was in the JSS Hospital. Sharath picked a few students to do the demonstration and he led us through some asanas from primary and intermediate series while he spoke on the benefits of practice. 

In general, I prefer not to demonstrate asanas. I think people (myself included) often only see the form. They see the acrobatic feat and think that that person must have been born like that or that it is easy for them or that they can do it because they are old or young or have short or long arms or were dancers or whatever. A bunch of judgements that distance the viewer from the possibilities and potentially disregard the actual story being told. 

That said, something very important and unique to this lineage of Ashtanga yoga is that the people teaching it are people who actually practice and do their absolute best to be living it. To be Authorized or Certified by the KPJAYI is as some have said not an accomplishment, but an obligation. We practice every single day. We continue to make the pilgrimage to Mysore.  We hold ourselves to the highest of standards because we are so small with the great responsibility of sharing an immense tradition.  We are and will always be students first. This I think is very important. 

So I'm posting this demonstration because it tells the story of years of continued daily ongoing uninterrupted unglamorous practice.      

Mysore Conference Notes: 1st Conference of Season by Suzanne El-Safty

Sharath’s First Conference of the Season 
By Suzanne El-Safty

22 October 2011

Source http://suzanneelsafty.com/2011/10/22/sharaths-first-conference-of-the-season/

 

Last Sunday Sharath gave his first conference of this season (it’s taken me forever to write this up – too many classes and too little sleep this week). The conference was short as it was the first day and Sharath didn’t want to overwhelm the new students (‘lot of new students, is good, means Ashtanga Yoga is spreading’).

He started by speaking about appropriate behaviour in Mysore – appropriate dress (not beach clothes, women should wear a shawl to cover themselves), not standing in big groups at the coconut stand, avoiding making unwanted ‘friends’.

Sharath then described how yoga first came to Mysore (I’ve added a few details here in order to be precise and complete; additional details have been taken from the book ‘Guruji’):

In the early 1900s Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (a yoga teacher and scholar, often referred to as ‘the father of modern yoga’, his students include Shri K. Pattabhi Jois, B.K.S. Iyengar and T.K.V. Desikachar) was touring India to try to spread hatha yoga. In 1927 he went to Hassan to give a yoga demonstration and, fortunately for us, watching in the audience was a 12-year old Pattabhi Jois (the grandfather of Sharath). Pattabhi Jois was so impressed by the demonstration that he asked Krishnamacharya if he could become his student and the following day began his yoga practice. At that time yoga was not held in high regard and Pattabhi Jois had to keep his practice secret from his family.

In 1929, at the age of 14, Pattabhi Jois ran away from home with just 2 rupees in his pocket and went to Mysore to further his study of Sanskrit at the Maharaja Sanskrit College. In 1931 Krishnamacharya also moved to Mysore and Pattabhi Jois was able to continue his studies with him for the next 22 years, until 1953 when Krishnamacharya moved to Chennai.

In 1937 the Maharaja of Mysore set up a yoga department at the Sanskrit College and appointed Pattabhi Jois as its head; Pattabhi Jois then taught there until his retirement in 1973. And in 1948 Pattabhi Jois established the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute (the predecessor of KPJAYI) at his home in Lakshmipuram, a suburb of Mysore.

Prior to Krishnamacharya all of the great yoga masters had been in the north of India, and people at that time believed that yoga was only meant for sadhus and sannyasis (wandering monks, renunciants), that in effect the practice of yoga led to a withdrawal from society. Krishnamacharya changed this – he demonstrated that anyone can do yoga.

Sharath finished by saying that this lineage from Krishnamacharya is not anywhere else in the world and that in order to learn Ashtanga Yoga we have to study through this lineage.



MORE CONFERENCE NOTES

 Conference – Asana as the Foundation of a Spiritual Practice – 1st January 2012 by Suzanne El-Safty

The Brave Yogi – Conference Notes from Mysore, Funny Student Questions, Memories of Guruji by Kino MacGregor

'Yogis should be honest.' Conference notes Nov 6, 2011 w/ Sharath Jois by Magnolia Zuniga

 

Video with Kino MacGregor about the Mysore Experience

Going to India, Mysore practice, yoga.

Interview with Krista Shirley by Xinalani Yoga Retreat

 Interview originally published here:
http://www.yogaretreatsinmexico.com/2012/07/asthanga-and-mysore-tell-us-more.html

Asthanga and Mysore, tell us more!

Our first retreat of the 2012-2013 season will be hosted by Krista Shirley and Elise Espat, an Ashtanga Adventure!  We wanted to find out more about Krista, Ashtanga, and the Mysore teaching method. Get excited, their retreat will surely prove to be an amazing experience!

Xinalani: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with us and allowing our readers to learn more about you and your upcoming yoga retreat.  Tell us a little about how you found your practice.  How did it all start for you?  

Krista: It all started at a World Gym in Altamonte Springs, Florida my junior year in College. I decided to try a new yoga class that appealed to me because it appeared to be quite a challenge. It was a modified led Ashtanga Yoga class and I loved it. After a couple of weeks of classes at the gym, my teacher introduced me to Winter Park Yoga where she practiced each day and where they taught traditional Ashtanga Yoga in the Mysore method. I committed to come six days a week for one month and then I was totally hooked. The transformations I went through mentally, spiritually and physically were truly life changing. The rest is history…I eventually started teaching this method because I live it each day and it seemed a natural progression for me to share this passion with the world.  I love waking up each day and doing my practice, then teaching this practice to others. I feel truly blessed in this life to have this yoga to help me be the best me I can be, and to be able to do what I love for a living.

Xinalani: You teach Ashtanga Yoga. Can you tell us about this particular style of yoga?  

Krista: Ashtanga Yoga is a 5,000 year old discipline that explores, develops, and integrates the body, mind and spirit. Ashtanga Yoga purifies the body, the nervous system, the internal organs, and the mind through the use of vinyasa (breath with movement), asana (physical postures), deep breathing, and drishti (looking place or gaze). Practicing Yoga Asanas purifies the body and strengthens and gives flexibility to the body. Performing deep breathing purifies the nervous system. Drishti is the place where you look while performing asanas, or postures in order for you to concentrate on one specific place; also helps to stretch the eyes. The goal of incorporating drishti to your practice is for purification and stabilization of the mind. Daily practice of Ashtanga Yoga promotes weight loss, vitality, mental clarity, stress reduction, deep relaxation, and overall health and wellness to the practitioner. Our beloved Guru, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois was the modern father of this yoga method and taught students from around the world in his home in Mysore, India until his passing in 2009. Now Guruji’s grandson Sharath is the primary lineage keeper of this yoga method and is my and Elise’s teacher. 

Xinalani: How do Ashtanga and Mysore yoga relate to one another?  

Krista: Mysore is a specific way to teach the Ashtanga Yoga method. Ashtanga Yoga is a specific ‘yoga style’ that consists of breathing, bandhas, drishti and a specific sequence of postures that make up the primary, intermediate, 3, 4, 5, and 6 series.  This ‘yoga style’ can be taught in a led setting or a mysore setting. In a led setting a teacher will verbally guide an entire class from start to finish (Surya Namaskara A to final rest). Students must start at the same time, move at the same pace, and end together.  Unlike led classes, mysore classes are very unique, very individualized, and truly the absolute best way to learn and practice yoga.  This unique method of instruction is suitable for beginners as well as longtime practitioners because every student is taught individually. In other words, each student is given a one-on-one lesson in a group setting in order that he or she can progress through the Ashtanga Yoga series’ at their own pace and according to his or her individual needs.  Timings are also flexible so people can come to their mat when it works for them and are not mandated to get to their local studio by a specific time.  For example most mysore rooms will have a morning program from 6am to 10am, for example, and students can literally show up and start their practice anytime between 6am and 9:00am as long as they finish practice by 10am.  This allows students flexibility in their schedule, and helps in the natural functionality of the mysore room because different students need help with different asanas and the spread out timing allows teachers the ability to help all students when they need help – if it were a led class one teacher could not help 20 students in drop backs in a timely manner but in a mysore room he/she can.

This is the way that yoga is taught by our teachers, Shri K. Pattabhi Jois and R. Sharath Jois in Mysore, India and why it has come to be known as “Mysore Style” teaching. For more information on Ashtanga Yoga please visit www.kpjayi.org

Xinalani: In the fitness world, experts often say you need to change up your workout in order to constantly challenge your muscles in new ways so they don’t become accustomed to the same movements.  Why is Ashtanga different, even though you follow the same series repeatedly?  

Krista: I’ll try to answer your question from a purely physical perspective:  In Ashtanga Yoga asana practice you do repeat the exact same series of postures in the primary series until you master those asanas (postures) – until you are indeed accustomed to the movements and your body has not only physically mastered the ability to do the movements with grace but also mastered breathing fluidly without strain while doing the postures with grace.  This is not cross training, this is yoga and one of our goals is to steady the body by training the body and breath so that we can then work to steady the mind.  But it takes a long time for a person doing the Ashtanga Primary Series 6 days per week to truly master that series and be ready to move onto the next.  During that period of working towards mastery the student is doing the same sequence each day struggling to find balance and agility, stamina, control, coordination, build strength and flexibility and much more.  And over time, doing the practice consistently, for a long period of time, without break, a student will eventually become master over those movements that make up the primary series – as that is part of the process.  If we took the approach of the general fitness world, we would never master any yoga postures– to me there is little benefit in that.  While physical fitness is certainly a benefit of yoga practice, it is only one of many – the process should take us deeper and deeper, not keep us on the surface level.  But please don’t mistake me, this asana practice is an intense physical challenge.  Once a student does master primary series he or she will slowly build up second series postures and later 3^rd and so on, and each series is progressively more challenging and demanding on the body.  One thing that really makes this yoga method unique, even for fitness buffs, is that the student can gauge their own progress in their practice each day – as they get deeper into postures, attain more balance and flexibility they can see that on the mat because they are repeating the same sequence over and over until it is ‘mastered’ so that their body and mind is ready to embark on the next series of asanas to continue to challenge their body, mind and spirit.

Xinalani: Is there space for creativity in an Asthanga practice?  

Krista: Absolutely!  I can guarantee that not one day is ever the same on your mat.  Let’s say you are working to master primary and have three poses left in the sequence.  Sunday-Friday you do your practice exactly the same each day, but on Sunday you focus on keeping with the Vinyasa count, Monday you are extremely tired and move much slower than the count and holding postures a few extra breathes, Tuesday you are short on time so you have to leave out your final three seated postures before moving to finishing, Wednesday your mind is all over the map thinking about a deadline at work and you are not very focused on asana but you show up and do anyway, on Thursday you are totally connected with your breath and bandhas and nothing in the world can distract you in practice and you attain a true moving meditation session on your mat, and Friday your teacher leads your class through primary series with proper Vinyasa count and you end in final rest with your eyes closed, clothes drenched in sweat, smiling knowing tomorrow is a rest day.  Every single day is different and YOU make it what it is.  You put in the effort or you don’t, show up and do or you don’t, allow the distractions in the room or in your head to affect your practice or not, go to classes outside your local studio when traveling or chose to roll out your mat in your hotel room…While Ashtanga yoga does not allow for creativity in sequencing of postures in the series, that doesn’t mean the practitioner cannot be creative within the structure of the sequence in each series.  If Ashtanga did allow creativity of sequencing, then it would no longer be Ashtanga Yoga – it would be power yoga or flow yoga or power flow yoga or Vinyasa or any of the many names people have made up in recent years to describe their own creative diversion from this traditional Ashtanga yoga method.  In Ashtanga yoga the creativity comes from within you.  Each day is a blank canvas and you get to color it how you wish. I see my practice exactly the same way – my Ashtanga yoga practice is my canvas – I get on my mat and take my prescribed practice and the outcome of that practice is totally up to me – the lessons I learn, the stuff I release the thoughts I have or don’t have…New styles of yoga that ‘mix things up’ remind me of today’s toys for children.  Toys today are so detailed and so intricate there is little room for creative freedom on the part of the child.  Today’s yoga classes are so mixed up and flavored with this and that, there is little room for yoga practitioners to go deep within themselves to have their own creative experience.  Simple is best – allows more room for growth, change, transformation and joy.

Xinalani: Each year you go back to Mysore, India to practice and learn.  What are some of the more valuable bits you have taken away from your recent trips?  

Krista: Ha, funny question for me personally because my most recent trip with my son (then 1 and a half), and the trip before I was six months pregnant with Kaiden.  Regardless of my condition, I can say with certainty that India is a magical motherland that feeds your soul and each trip I make fills me to the brim with adventure, mystery, struggle, joy and faith. 

I return to India each year to study with my teachers at the Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga institute to ensure my practice is progressing under the correct path.  Doing my practice alone at home all year, it is a true gift to get to return to Mysore and ‘check in’ with Sharath for a few months, to be a student only, to surrender to India, allow myself to be vulnerable, and to soak in all that India has to teach me.

The valuable bits truly are the ones words cannot describe.  Taking yourself out of your comfort zone, putting your faith and trust into a practice such as this, allowing yourself to be open to learn from every single interaction and experience – these are the things that make each trip so special.   Be it India, Mexico, Morocco or anywhere on this globe that you consider an adventure or something on your bucket list, something that excites you or moves you – remember life is short and you deserve to live it to the fullest.  So whatever it is you wish to experience, wherever it is you wish to travel – do it now!  You might just learn something along the way!

Xinalani: You and Elise Espat will be holding a yoga retreat at Xinalani this fall.  How did you two meet?  What makes you two a good match to lead a retreat together?  

Krista: Elise and I met in the fall of 2007 in Mysore, India.  We were both studying at the Krishna Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute in Mysore with Guruji, Sharath and Saraswathi.  When I met Elise I loved her spirit.  We hung out that year in Mysore, have stayed in touch through the years, and have met up when we can in India, New York and California.  We cherish our friendship with one another, enjoy the chances we have to see one another, practice and learn together, and we both love travel and adventure.  So when Elise came up with the idea of doing a retreat together I was totally on board.  This will be our first of many retreats together because we know it will be a week full of fun, adventure, hard work, dedicated practice, relaxation, and exploration.  We both love this practice, are both deeply dedicated to our teachers and this lineage, both own our own yoga schools, both work hard, play hard, and practice with devotion.  We enjoy adventure, challenges, problem solving, and fun; we work well together and care deeply for each other and I know our retreat participants will benefit tremendously from our co-contributions as well as our individual ones.  I am very excited about this week at Xinalani with Elise and am eager to share our friendship and passion for this yoga with our group.

Xinalani: What will your group experience during your Yoga Retreat in Mexico?  

Krista: ADVENTURE!  We will start each day with our Ashtanga Yoga practice followed by chanting.  We will then enjoy a wholesome group breakfast.  Participants will enjoy some free time to relax, explore, read or rest until lunch at 1:30pm.  After lunch each day Elise and I will facilitate excursions for the group from body boarding, kayaking, shopping, mule rides, swimming with the dolphins, trekking and snorkeling.  These excursions are optional so participants can join in or do their own thing.  The group will reconvene back on resort property at 5pm for meditation, chanting, lectures and much more and we will end each day with a group dinner at 7:30pm.

After a week of yoga and adventure with me and Elise at Xinalani, our group will leave with some stellar memories, new friendships, and a new found or re-discovered love for travel and adventure!

Xinalani:  What advice would you give from your own personal experience to our readers? 

Krista: Don’t ever look back wishing you had done something…Do…and do without regret…even if the outcome is not what you envision, the experience is wisdom gained to carry forward to the next opportunity…So DO and by doing you will live your life to the fullest.

Xinalani: Is there anything you wish to share with our readers that we have not covered?  

Krista: Define your life by your actions, not your words :)

Interview with Guy Donahaye by Elise Espat Part 2

Part two of my interview with Guy Donahaye on his book "Guruji: A Portrait".  And beyond.

Originally posted here:
http://yogamindmedicine.blogspot.com/2012/07/reflections-on-guruji-portrait.html

Reflections on "Guruji: A Portrait" 
- Interview with Elise Espat - Part II

Everyone you interviewed spent time with Guruji in Mysore.  Why is making the time to practice in India so crucial? Or is it?  

If you want to go deep into a subject, you have to go to the source. Spending time in mother India is an incomparable experience and having the opportunity to study closely with a master such as Pattabhi Jois is a priceless opportunity. I believe that it is almost impossible to understand yoga without spending extended time in India, so for a deeper understanding I think it is necessary.

Practicing with Guruji, especially in the intimate setting of the "old shala" in Lakshmi Puram was a very powerful and transformative experience. Receiving the asanas from Guruji and being adjusted in them by him on a daily basis also has a profound impact. Beyond the effectiveness and beauty of the sequences he created, the nature of his adjustments and the way in which he engaged with each individual were teachings on a daily basis. Much more is conveyed through teaching asana than is at first evident.


He would observe our personalities, mental and physical states and engage with us accordingly - teaching us yama and niyama and other yogic truths indirectly or in a practical way. For instance, in some students he was always trying to curb ambition and break down an over inflated ego, in others he was pushing, encouraging, demanding more effort. For each individual on each day it was different. This often caused a lot of confusion, intense emotions and outbursts of anger - either in private or in the shala - one day you though he loved you, the next he seemed to despise you. This caused a lot of self reflection and self analysis.

Prior to 2002 Guruji's yoga shala was very small. In the beginning there was space for eight yoga mats - two rows of four. As the numbers grew we squeezed an extra mat in each row and then eventually there were two in the middle - making twelve. In '91, when I first arrived, Sharath was just beginning to assist, so there were two teachers and eight students in the room. Prior to this and during the summer months there were only a handful of western students, sometimes only one or two - they would get private lessons from Guruji.

With the new shala there was space for sixty students to practice at the same time so the teacher student ratio changed radically. By this time there were many of Guruji's students teaching around the world and students coming to Mysore already knew the practice, so the teaching in the new shala for most students was more about quality control and less about one-on-one teaching. At times there were as many as 300 students present in later years. However, Guruji's commanding presence continued to have a powerful impact on everyone present even though he did not necessarily engage with you directly. It was a common experience that when Guruji spoke to one student - he would shout "straight(en) your leg!" or "touch your chin" - other students in the room felt spoken to also and even though his prompts were not directed at them, they were able to use them also.

Much is made (with good justification) of the ashtanga sequences, however, it makes a huge difference who you learn from and the environment in which you learn. Some say the practice is the teacher. I feel the practice is more like therapy. The guru is the teacher. Even though the teaching may not be explicit, by investing the teacher with a real or imagined superior knowledge, he causes us to reflect on our own limitations. When you are in close proximity to the Guru, these reflections take on a much greater intensity. We used to call mysore a karma accelerator - we felt that enormous transformation was taking place.

How does Mysore influence the practice?  Or does it?

Going to India can help by making practice the central theme of one's day for a period of time. It is also an opportunity to allow the transformations which want to take place in the mind/body to unfold in an environment which does not elicit one's habitual (conditioned) responses. Somehow India has the effect of opening people to greater acceptance and transformation.

I believe it is easier for those who spend time in India to become less materialistic and to start to guide their lives on the basis of a spiritual purpose. While churches in the West are closing, in India every tree or road side rock is a temple to a deity. While many indians crave the same material rewards as westerners, the celebration of and devotion to the divine is everywhere.

The traditional Hindu culture as primarily propagated via the Brahmin caste is based on the same principles as yoga. Guruji's old shala was in Lakshmi Puram, a neighborhood hardly touched by the twentieth century, where people lived much the same way they had been living for hundreds of years. We lived simply without furniture other than a mattress on the floor, intermittent electricity and water. We went to bed when the sun set and got up long before it rose. All around us the local people were all also involved in their early morning rituals, chanting, cleaning, bathing, etc. The target of life for the Hindu is liberation, yoga's target is the same.

Yoga is only one of 64 arts, each of which can bring a practitioner to samadhi and Self realization. Many students learn a musical instrument or study Sanskrit or philosophy - these pursuits take one deeper into an understanding of the science of Self realization.

Guy Interview

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

Guruji clip from "Yoga Unveiled"

Movie: Mysore Magic

http://www.mysoremagicfilm.com/

Magnolia's Conference Notes: Obstacles in Yoga Practice

'Yogis should be honest.' Conference notes Nov 6, 2011 w/ Sharath Jois
By Magnolia Zuniga
Posted 11/8/11
Source blog.mysoresf.com

Every Sunday afternoon at 4pm (shala time) is conference with Sharath Jois. This is a time for him to talk about the practice, the philosophy, etc and answer questions from students. Conference on Nov 6th, 2011 Sharath spoke on the many obstacles that come along the path. I touch on just a few...  

Obstacles in Yoga practice...

On Doubt - The practice of Hatha Yoga is not easy and requires sacrifice of many things. Many people have doubt about the practice, the lineage. Instead of surrendering they want to argue. As life changes we have new doubts and new challenges. Guruji used to say 'Practice and all is coming' but if there is no practice how will doubt be cleared? 

In college we must prepare and study. To find answers we read books. But in yoga we practice to find answers. We can read Bhagavad Gita, and Hatha Yoga Pradipika but this is intellectual knowledge. We continue practicing Hatha Yoga to find better answers to the questions...

What is God?

What is yoga?

What is spirituality?

What is life?

On Carelessness - Our carelessness brings lots of problems and our minds get distracted. When we're careless we're not thinking properly. Students come to Mysore, do yoga one month and turns into a gym. If you come to surrender yourself to practice, the effect will be totally different. When you come to Mysore your aim should be to practice yoga. Then mind is clear and focused. Many times it happens students lose energy...

too much talking...losing energy...

too much talking...losing energy...at coconut stand...talking, talking.

On Confusion - Confusion kills yoga practice. Students learn tradition and someone tells them 'oh what they are teaching there is not correct, do this yoga, this is better yoga' then 6 months same thing, and they do another type yoga, then 6 months later another type yoga, and it's like this. Then they say 'Oh I did this yoga, and that yoga and this yoga.' They should also say they are confused. Yogis should be honest.

Question: 'Sharath, why if we're supposed to be relaxed in a posture do you push our limits?'

Answer: [Smiling] You're misunderstanding relaxation. Relaxation in a posture means that if I count it for 2 hours you can stay. You have to reach your limitations longer. You should steadily take to your posture. Bring stability then you can hold for long time.  

[laughing] I feel happy for you Guruji is not there. 

Magnolia started practicing various styles of yoga in 1991. She began practicing Mysore Ashtanga Yoga in 1997 with certified teacher Noah Williams and authorized teacher Kimberly Flynn. She first met and studied with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and Sharath Jois in 2004 on her first trip to India. Since then she has traveled and studied in Mysore 7 times and taught Mysore Ashtanga Yoga in Hong Kong, Tokyo, France and is currently running a traditional Mysore Ashtanga School 'Mysore SF' in San Francisco. She continues her studies with Sharath Jois in Mysore South India each year.

Magnolia received blessings to teach in 2007 and is now an authorized level 2 teacher.

For more information about Magnolia please visit her website www.magnoliashtanga.com

republished with permission

Reminds me of this:

Mysore Conference Notes: Practice, Food...

Conference – Asana as the Foundation of a Spiritual Practice – 1st January 2012
By Suzanne El-Safty
Posted 13 Jan 2012
Source suzanneelsafty.com

This conference was being filmed. This was also the day that I started to feel unwell – so I’m probably going to look very miserable and a bit green on film. Oh well! My notes are mostly okay I think but tail off towards the end as I began to feel worse and worse:

In Ashtanga Yoga we always do so many asanas. Not only in Ashtanga Yoga but in Krishnamacharya’s lineage in general. If we are following that lineage then there are lots of asanas. Many people have that question: why do we have to do asanas? Many teachers say that you don’t have to do asanas – you can just sit. But, if you see the yoga shastra - the Hatha Yoga Pradipika or even the Upanishads – they all say why asana is so important – to control our minds.

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika says that before we can think about getting enlightened we have to stabilise this body and mind. We have to practise asanas to stabilise our body and mind, to discipline this body and mind.

Now the mind is very chanchala – not in your control. The thought waves are so strong, the mind is like a monkey, a drunken monkey. To control the mind we need to bring some sort of discipline. You need to bring discipline to asana practice. It doesn’t come at once, you need to do for a long time – ‘sa tu dirghakalanairantaryasatkarasevito drdhabhumih’ (Yoga Sutras I:14). Asana is the foundation for the spiritual building; the foundation needs to be strong otherwise the building will fall. That is why asana is very important – it is the foundation to build the spiritual building.

It is only when you practise asana for many years that you realise how spiritual it is. To others it looks only physical. Other people who say that asana is just gymnastics, I call them sailors on the ocean – they don’t know about diving. They can’t see the beauty of the ocean – the colourful fish, the beautiful whatever animals you get in the sea. It is only if you know diving that you can see. Yoga is also like that – if you just sail on top of the ocean you will never get anything.

When you experience through the asana practice you can relish the purity of this practice.

Even in the Upanishads they talk about asanas. They compare consciousness to the sun. When the sun rises the rays of the sun are too harsh, at 12 o’clock they are too powerful; but as the sun sets it withdraws its rays and becomes very calm. This is like when a yogi sits in the third limb – in asana – he doesn’t have any mental disorders. We can feel that when we are practising everyday. We are totally concentrated on our mat – we forget all the nonsense happening around us. When we practise, day by day we get more focused, more concentrated.

Questions:

1) Which Upanishad was that?

Answer – the Kena Upanishad.

This system that we do, this vinyasa system, is very special. Only Krishnamacharya’s lineage knows this system. No one else knows this system. Three things are very important in this practice:

(i) Breathing

(ii) Posture

(iii) Gazing.

These are the three pillars which we need in our practice. I have not included bandhas – bandhas are to be done all of the time, not only in asanas.

For example, Surya Namaskara A has 9 vinyasas, this means 9 breathing techniques – 9 times you have to inhale and exhale. Surya Namaskara B has 17 vinyasas. Like this each asana has a certain number of vinyasas. This allows the breath to circulate in the body and activate the jatar agni (digestive fire). There are 72,000 nervous systems in the body – they must get purified – but how? by practising asanas with vinyasa.

The basic asanas – in the primary series – are very good to cure all diseases. Medical problems can be cured by doing the asanas in the primary series.

2) Should students put as much effort into the drishti (gaze point) as into say posture?

Answer – yes, these three things are very important. This develops your focus and concentration. So when you go to the next step – pranayama and dhyana (meditation) – these things will help you, they will help you to concentrate. This is dhyana what you are doing, it becomes like that.

3) Is a seated meditation practice then redundant in this system? or is it something we are striving towards?

Answer – first you have to understand what is meditation. Meditation is not something where you go somewhere, you close your eyes and sit. It looks very nice. But inside the mind is very disturbed – it goes to your country or to your boyfriend. First you have to control your sense organs. Then automatically meditation will happen within you.

First you need to bring the sense organs under control. That is why Patanjali says ‘yogascittavrttinirodhah’ (Yoga Sutras I:2) – yoga is to bring the sense organs under control. Once you still the mind – that is meditation, yoga or union.

For that we need to develop certain qualities within us. For this we have to practise certain asanas. I can go into a meditative mode when practising asanas.

Some people say they go to do a vipassana for 15 days, they go every day and they sit like this. For the first two days they have lots of enthusiasm; after the third day the mind starts wandering.

To reach the higher levels in practice first you have to build the foundation, that is asana, and then think about yama and niyama. It is a process which should happen day by day, year by year. A real yogi does not need a certificate saying he is enlightened. We have seen so many yogis in the past – nobody has a certificate.

4) When we practise, how do we keep a state of dhyana and also some awareness of where our legs and arms are?

Answer – that will automatically come. In practice your mind is thinking about your body – not about the nonsense outside. When I say kurmasana (turtle posture) your body will automatically do that. When we are practising our focus should be on our asana through our drishti and breathing.

When you are out on the street you see lots of street shows, like in Covent Garden. Like that in India we also have, lots of shows on the street – they are called games. In one game, there are two pillars and one rope between. One girl walks from here to there on the rope with 5 or 6 pots on her head and a bamboo stick in her hand. With hundreds of people watching. When she walks her mind is so concentrated on the pot. If she thinks about the people watching her she will fall and the pot will fall. See how beautiful that game is. Like that see the beauty of the asana.

5) If the purpose of the basic postures is to cure diseases then what is the purpose of the more advanced series?

Answer – to show off (laughs).

Primary Series is chikitsa vibhaga - to cure diseases. If yoga is used as a therapy then you do certain asanas to help, so that the body gets purified.

Then it gets more advanced – nadi shodhana (intermediate series is known as nadi shodhana) - to purify the nervous system. But nadi shodhana happens in all of the series.

In the advanced series there are lots of different postures – arm balances, back bends.

They allow you to see your limitations, in body and mind. When you are young it is easy to do all the postures. When I was young I used to practise for 3 hours – from 3.30am to 6.30am. Now I do just 2 hours.

6) Was the system designed by Krishnamacharya? or did Guruji design it?

Answer – Guruji put the asanas into different levels. It is the same thing he learned from Krishnamacharya, just more refined.

7) Can you talk about diet?

Answer – vegetarian food – that’s all. It is very good for the body. Non-vegetarian will give you stiffness, it will give you more muscle, that’s all.

8) What is the difference between doing lots of postures for 5 breaths each and fewer postures but for more breaths?

Answer - you can try both. If you sit in one posture then only certain organs will get exercise. If you do more postures then more organs get exercise. When you do more postures you generate more heat and the blood becomes warm and can circulate properly.

republished with permission