May 2023 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Insightful

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

May 2023 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami--Insightful

Early June I am likely to teach Yoga sutra for 10 days (20hrs) based on the insightful teaching of the sutras by my Guru. Will post the details on facebook when ready

Insightful

Sri Krishnamacharya had  unique insight into the great philosophies of ancient times like the vedanta samkhya yoga and others. In the olden days when I was young these subjects were studied by scholars, a small percentage of sanyasins and older retired people. However ordinary people had little access to these philosophies as these were beyond the comprhension of many and the tachers were also equally unhelpful. Sri Krishnamacharya on the other hand because of his unique insight into these philosophies was able to bring these subjects to many of his non scholarly but otherwise interested students, especially of yoga. At a time when ordinary people were scared away from studing these subjects, Sri Krishnamacharya would explain these in simple language with his unique insight. Afterall these philosophies are said to reveal the truth and the teacher should be able to experience the truth and explain to the student in a way he/she can understand and appriciate the enormous depth of these teachings.

One such instance is with regard to yoga sutras being addressed to three levels of yogis, This approach of Krishnamacharya helps to understand the rather complex sutras in different chunks. According to my Guru, the YS is addressed to firstly uttama adhikaris or the highest level of yogis. They are born yogis who have the innate ability to fall into a stage of amadhi, With this samadhi capability and with the abhyasa or contemplation ofn the 24 prakritic tatvas and then the nature of purusha one would be able to get the highest goal of nirodha samadhi also known as kailvalya cittavritti nirodha. However according my guru Patanjali does not teach yoga which is appropriate only to the top level yogi but also to two differnt catagories of yogis, one the entry level yogi and then the life long yogi. The entry level yogi would practice kriya yogi so that the troubling klesas would come down and the yogabhyasi could take to life long yoga practice, The life long yogi would practice the more comprehensive ashtanga yoga so that he/she would develop the samadhi samskaras and would then be on par with the born yogi. Thus, my Guru would say that yoga sutra is a complete yoga text meeting the requirement of beginners, commited life long full time yoga practitioners and the born yogi who has the innate samadhi capability and with Patanjali's instructions could achiev the yogic goal of kaivalya. This ability of Krishnamacharya to explain the reasoning behind the whole text was a great help to non scholarly students who came to study yogasanas but were slowly attracted by his enormous insightful capabilty to explain the complex text in simple understandable logical terms.

Another important aspect of his teaching of asanas was the vinyasakrama. It was not a mere fad, using breath orientation in asana practice, It is due to his undetanding of the terms prayatna and saitilya explained as the necessary parameters (vinyasa) for successful yogasana practice. By quoting Vachaspati Misra's commentry of vyasabashya of the sutras, he would explain that pryatna and saitilya are th parameters (vinyasa) for successful yoga practice which is the cornerstone of Sri Krishnamacharya's Vinyasakrama. The word prayatna as I have mentioned on several occasions, refers not to ordinary effort but here it refers to jivanaprayatna or effort of life which prana/ breathing. And here Patanjali uses the term saitilya (sitila bhava).That is, the breath while doing asanas should be sithila, Our breathing is both involuntary and also volunatary. In pranayama or yogic breathing the breathing is controlled or  is in voluntary control. This Patanjali explains and saitily or sitila bhava or smooth breathing. Smooth breathing is possible when it is controlled breathing. Vachaspati Misra refers to involunatary breathing as svabhavika prayatna or natural breathing or involuntary breathing. So it amounts to saying (prayatna saitilaya) is that the breathing while doing asanas should be under voluntary or deliberate control and not involuntary or without control, Sri Krishnamacharya's vinyasakrama system takes this Patanjali's instruction into vinyasakrama method of asana practice wherein one woul do asanas and movements with controlled breathing. When the breath gets out of control Sri Krishnamacharya would ask te student to take rest when the breath while practising yoga gets short andis  out of control

These ancient texts are books that teach the truth. Unfortunately due to archaic nature of the language and way of expresion, all these texts appear daunting. But great insightful yogis like Sri Krishnamacharya are able to explain these in terms accessible to ordinary non scholarly mortals like us. One is in awe with Sri Krishnamacharya and the ancient texts he taught.