September 2021 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Texts

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

September 2021 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Texts

In August 2021 I taught an on-line two-day workshop on Sarvangasana hosted by Omyogashala in New Delhi. Later I taught a 20 hour eight-day program on the study of the popular yoga text, "Hatayogapradipika" hosted on line by Anantayoga studios in Wicklow, Ireland.

In September I am scheduled to teach the text, Samkhya Karika (20hrs) which I studied under Sri Krishnamacharya. It is an online program starting on September 18 for 8 days and hosted by Atmayogashala in Chennai. Here is the link

https://atmayogashala.com/samkhya-karika/

Texts

He studied a lot in depth

He practised a lot diligently

He taught a lot compassionately

All his long fruitful life

Our Guru

Sri T Krishnamacharya

My book "Yoga for Three Stages of Life "was published in 2000. Around that time, I had started teaching in USA. I got an opportunity to be a presenter in a Yoga Conference in Austin Texas. It was a two-day conference and the theme was Bhakti Yoga. I had to present three sessions in the conference. True to the conference theme I prepared subjects like  Mantrayoga, bahaktiyoga and shadanga yoga. But then I found that most of the other conference programs were on regular asana practice. I wondered why was the conference theme called "Bhakti Yoga?". Because the previous conference was "Karma Yoga" . it was left to each presenter to present what they wanted to. The next conference would have been "Jnana Yoga".

 I was very lonely during the program. My programs had the least attendance, in fact for one program there were only 3 participants. Naturally I was not invited ever again. During the stay at the conference venue, I spent the time in a room given to the presenters. When I was alone a very well-known yoga teacher came in and sat next to me and introduced himself as the well-known student of a well-known disciple of Krishnamacharya. He said that he had learnt that I spent about three decades studying with Sri Krishnamacharya. He asked me about what I did with Krishnamacharya for so long. "Would you be practising daily in front of him?" I remember to have told him that I used to do my yoga practice at home but went to study with my Guru.  . He left with a wry smile. He may have wondered "What is there to study in Yoga, Yoga is practice, practice and practice." I wanted to say that he taught me hundreds of vinyasas and scores of asanas, varieties of pranayama, meditation, tons of vedic chanting ( svadhyaya) all of which took a lot of study time. Even before I started telling him about the various yoga and yoga related texts Krishnamacharya taught, he was gone.

Sri Krishnamacharya taught not only those exquisite asana vinyasas in a flawless flow with the breath playing a second fiddle, he also chose to teach several texts he himself had studied. He chose to teach many religious texts for his more orthodox vaishnava students. You know he was considered to head a vaishnava mutt, it was said. He chose to teach several yoga and yoga related texts to many others. He also taught many darsanas or vedic philosophical texts to a few others. I never asked him to teach me any texts. He himself chose and volunteered to teach like samkhya the upanishads. I never asked him to teach these texts even though I had some interest in them. In those days these texts were reserved for scholars and maybe sanyasins. But he decided that these should be taught to yoga students. Over a couple of decades, I studied several texts taught by him.

When I started teaching in the West, I was initially teaching weekend workshops. Then when Loyola Marymount University asked me to teach some programs, I requested them to schedule a 4-week 60-hour program to teach the entire Vinyasakrama Yoga asana routine I had learnt from my Guru. Surprisingly they accepted the suggestion and in the next few summers I offered the program. Later on, it was converted into a 200 hour Teacher Training program in Vinyasakrama which went on for a number of years. In the 200-hour program I included a few texts for study, Patanjali;s yoga sutras, Sri Krishnamacharya's Yoga Rahasya and Yoga Makaranda.

Later on, I decided to offer more of the texts Sri Kishnamacharya taught,  initially at LMU and then in other places. The response was lukewarm but my understanding sponsors were kind enough to let me persist with these offerings. Then there were other friends who hosted similar programs. I am beholden to all those who encouraged me to offer these programs at their facilities. I should mention the help and support of Dr Chris Chapple of Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles California. I have been teaching there almost every summer for about 15 years. Even during these lockdown periods they have hosted several on line programs of various texts. Others who have helped me include Suddha Weixler of Chicago Yoga Center. For more than ten years, come September, I have been regularly teaching both asanas and also several texts. Steve Brandon arranged many programs over an extended period, different subjects at his Harmony Yoga facility in England. My friend in Canada, Ryan Leier, had hosted many programs in Canada at different locations like Saskatoon, Victoria, Vancour.  Pam Johnson of Houston organized asana and textual studies. Back home in Chennai,  I was able to offer the 100hr vinyasakrama program for a few times at Saraswathi Vasudevan's Yoga Vahini. Many texts studies were also organized here. My friend Mini Shastri has arranged many programs at her nice facility. OM Yoga Studio in New Delhi. Even during the pandemic, I was able to teach on line many texts organized by Om Yoga Shala. Similarly, as I had to cancel 100 hr programs, I taught several texts during the last two years on line hosted by Liz Richards of Ananta Yoga Studios in Wicklow, Ireland. Of late, Jyoshna Ramakrishnan had hosted some textual and asana programs on line through her Atma Yoga shala in Chennai. I have also taught important texts for Andrea in Chile, Shriram Sarvottam in San Fransisco, Rachel and Eric of Centered City Yoga in Salt Lake City in Utah. and a few others. Thank you all and also the many friends who have attended many of my programs

The texts I taught included Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It is also known as Raja Yoga or Yoga of enlightenment. Enlightenment of what? Of the true nature of oneself or what should be known as "I". Subscribing fully to the Karma Theory it gives the theoretical basis and practical means to achieve the goal of Kaivalya or freedom from the clutches of karma

Samkhya Karika of Iswarakrishna was another important text Sri Krishnamacharya taught in considerable depth, going through each and every word of the dense text. Samkhya philosophy is the first orthodox (vecic) darsana to point out the immutability of consciousness/awareness and should be called as the SELF or subject. It enunciates three principles, the observer/Self, the origin of the manifest universe and the detailed process of evolution of the universe knowledge of which will lead to permanent relief from duhkha or unhappiness. There are several theories, like Samkhya about the origin and evolution of the universe as modern science, vedanta, puranas and other religions. Samkhya gives a unique framework and thought process and one may compare it with the other powerful theories of evolution of the universe. It will be worthwhile studying this text also for a better understanding of the yoga process of Patanjali

Nathamuni's Yoga Rahasya, a creation of our Guru, gives a much clearer and authentic understanding of Krishnamacharya's Yoga. In four chapters he gives enormous amount of information of the goal of yoga, the process of yoga, yoga as a therapeutic and health tool and Bhakti. I have been able to teach this text at a number of places

The Gita is another text my Guru taught extensively, He used to give public talks so that even people who did not study with him could learn this great text. He taught to many of his vaishnavaite students who would study the Gita as a bhakti yoga text. Then as is customary, many would read the Gita as an important treatise of Vedanta philosophy. Sri Krishnamacharya as one with a title as Vedanta Vageesa would give a clear exposition of Gita as a vedantic text. Additionally, he taught the Gita to his yoga students as a text on Yoga, Infact one may find that every chapter in the Gita is called a yoga like karma yoga, sanyasa yoga and others. He would explain the Gita as a companion text to the Yogasutras. I was able to teach this in many places as a 50 hour program. Surprisingly there was enough interest in this subject among yoga students and teachers. I taught at various places starting with Harmony Yoga in UK, Loyola Marymount University in LA, part of the gita at Saramata yoga again in Los Angeles, Yoga Vahini in Chennai, Omyogashala in New Delhi and recently an online program hosted by Anantayoga in Wicklow, Ireland. It is heartening to note that many found the Gita not just interesting but even resonating.

Yoga Yagnyavalkya is another text Sri Krishnamacharya taught.  It follows the Ashtanga yoga template and explains each of the angas in separate chapters. The treatment of Pranayama and Samadhi is unique in this book. It tries to establish the final experience of jnana yoga, kundalini yoga and hatayoga could be the same which is nullifying the karma bundle so that rebirth is eliminated. I was able to teach this again in several places

Hatayogapradipika is another text Sri Krishnamacharya taught. Even as the text proclaims that without Rajayoga Hatayoga is of no avail, still Sri Krishnamacharya would want the students to tread the path of Hatayoga gingerly as some of the procedures enunciated in the book go directly against the gold standards set in Patanjala yoga. This is an extraordinary book if one could eschew some undesirable practices contained in the book according to my Gure. I recently taught this text on line hosted by Anantayoga studios in Wicklow Ireland. It was well attended..

Sri Krishnamacharya also taught several upanishads and upanishad vidyas. I taught Mandulkya upanishad which gives an esoteric explanation of pranava or the mantra OM. Considered to be perhaps the most important upanishads by many scholars it deals with the one consciousness experiencing three different states and in a vedantin, at the final stage remains completely in Itself called the fourth state of turiya avastha. He also taught other Upanishads like Mundaka, prasna, Taittiriya and a few important upanishad vidyas from Chandogya and Brahadaranyaka Upanishds. He also taught Svetsavatara upanishad and Kaushitaki Brahmana Upanishad,  Brahma Sutra, Tarka Sanghraha. I was able to teach some of these on line recently.

I learnt to chant many vedic passages from him. However, I have not been able to teach vedic chanting. Even so I managed to record several of the vedic chants I learnt from my Guru. I learnt the entire Taittiriya aranyaka, Ashwameda Taittitiya Kataka and others from yajurveda, the actual chanting time running for tens of hours

It was a great experience to be a student of Sri Krishnamacharya for such a long period of time. I have been able to teach whatever I could learn from him whether they are asana vinyasas as per vinyaskrama, varieties of pranayamas with mudras, meditation or the various rich texts.

There are thousands of yoga practitioners who follow the Krishnamacharya tradition in some form or the other. There are scores of yoga teachers who teach yoga in the Krishnamacharya tradition in one form or the other. All teach an important, the most important aspect of yoga for many which is asana. But Sri Krishnamacharya emphasized equally the importance of study of yoga texts especially for yoga teachers to contribute better to the physical and mental health of yoga students. After some mastery of asanas, yoga teachers may very well consider studying in depth yoga and yoga related texts