February 2026 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Vinyasa

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

February 2026 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami–Vinyasa

In February I will be teaching a short  4 day (20hrs) program at Loyola Marymount University. I will be teaching some important Vinyasakrama yoga sequences and also teach Ashtanga Yoga as enunciated by Patanjali and Yajnyavalkya Here is the link. 

https://registration.xendirect.com/bclayogastudies/coursedisplay.cfm?schID=11012

                                       

I may also be teaching a two day (4hrs) online program in February on Yoga for the complete person (sarvanga sadhana) Will share the link in facebook when I get it

Vinyasa  विन्यास 

I started studying with Sri Krishnamacharya when I was about 15 and in high school. He taught hundreds of breath oriented movements in over hundred fifty asana subroutines. He would call it Vinyasakrama which is the name I use while teaching yogasanas. What is vinyasa? It is a very popular word with modern yogis as well. Many nowadays invent many vinyasa sequences . The videos are very nice to watch

The  sanskrit word vinyasa  विन्यास  is Asa  आस with two prefixes “ni”  नि  and “vi” वि. The word aas आस   itself comes from the sanskrit root “aas आस्’  to place something (down) or to sit. The word Asana itself comes from the same root as vinyasa. So “aas आस्” or “asana  आसन  " is to sit. But we do asanas that are not necessarily seated. Sirsasana or headstand, virabhadrasana or what is popularly known as warrior pose are non seated poses. Many people complete their asana practice without ever sitting down on the mat. Why did the yogis of yesteryears give such importance to seated positions as opposed to fancy poses such as standing upside down on fingertips? Because for the yogi the goal was to meditate, get into samadhi and ultimately reach citta vritti nirodha. They found that all non seated positions of the body are not conducive to pranayama and subsequent meditation. Lying down, one soon goes to sleep and is not conducive to meditation. Standing leads to constant movement for balance and one cannot stay for long. So sitting is the best position for meditation. What about sitting on a chair? With the legs hanging it leads to slow accumulation of fluids and results in poor venous return of blood and that is not good.

So the ancients spent a lot of time thinking about the seated posture to meditate. And then how to sit so that one can sit for a long time? Different yogis came out with different seated positions or asanas.

A seated pose is called asana or putting oneself down is “as”. Let us take the word vinyasa (vi+ni+asa).  Now the prefix “ni”. It has different meanings but in this context as my guru would say “ni” would be “nitaram” or always or during the time one sits in an asana. So “ni” + aasa would be nyaasa, as the vowel “i” +  vowel A would be the diphthong “yaa” So nyasa would be sitting in a particular way right through the time, the meditation or yoga time. There are different ways of sitting and it usually will be to determine how the lower extremities are kept as the upper body will be straight up. So the yogis came out with different forms of keeping the legs symmetrically. Keeping the feet on top of the opposite thighs was called Padmasana. If the knees are on top of each other that kind of sitting was gomulhasana.Keeping the legs in the formation of a swastika was swastikasana. Sitting on respective heels would be vajrasana and so forth. But the yogis felt that before one sits for pranayama or meditation one should also exercise the body. It can be done by moving the body, especially the torso in different ways. Here the prefix “vi”is added to nyasa when the word becomes vinyasa. The prefix vi may have different meanings but here it would be “vividha” or variously. So “aasa” is to be seated and nyaasa would be to be seated in a particular way like in lotus pose or any other for the duration. So vinyasa would be moving the body variously  but keeping the asana or the positions of the legs in a particular formation as lotus. So vinyasa  in padmasana would be keeping the legs in one formation but moving the body to different positions like yoga mudra, supta padmasana, urdhva padmasana, pindasana, garbhapindasana and so forth. And this kind of movement in one particular legs position is vinyasa krama or vinyasa methodology.

That is not all. Sri Krishnamacharya in his book yogasanagalu written in Kannada poses the question “ What is Vinyasa” and in answer refers to Patanjali’s yogasutras, especially the two sutras on Asana and the commentary by Vacaspati Misra. Misra interprets “prayatna” as effort or effort of maintaining life called “samsiddhika prayatna sariradharaka” the innate effort is to maintain life. What is that? It is “sarira dharka” meaning that which upholds the body which is prana or life force. Prana is the breath. Vacaspati Misra says in his commentary that while practising asana (and movements),  the breathing should be “sithila” or smooth ( ref prayatna saithilya of YS) as opposed to svabhavika or natural or uncontrolled breathing. One can make the breath smooth only by controlling it. So according to the interpretation of the sutra by Misra, the yogabhyasi should have voluntary control of the breath.

Sri Krishnamacharya’s other important work “Yoga Makaranda” implies that asanas should be practised with vinyasas or vinyasa movements.  It is very true. When a yogi sits down in a yogic asana and starts pranayama and meditation the body may not cooperate. One can stay in an asana only if the blood circulation and cell respiration is good and that is attained by doing the breath oriented vinyasa movements pertaining to that specific asana subroutine. He would mention how music (indian) becomes alive when the various parameters as sruti (pitch), laya (rhythm), swara (notes) raga (tune) are incorporated. Puja and mantra japa require nyasas or rules like anganyasa, karanyasa, matruka nyasa and others.

Here in this context the term vinyasa has to be considered afresh. Nyasa would refer to the basic rules which are sthiratva or steadiness and sukhatva or comfort. How are they achieved? Here the prefix “vi’ would be interpreted as visesha or unique. What are the unique or special rules? They are sithila prayatna or controlled smooth breathing and anantha samapatti or mental focus on the breath ( y s ), all resulting in breath oriented, mentally focussed and coordinated bodily movements. 

Nowadays very exciting “breathless” vinyasa sequence videos are created. But in Vinyasakrama the vinyasa movements are specific asana centric. There are no standalone vinyasa sequences in Vinyasakrama Yoga.