January 2024 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami==Resources
Srivatsa Ramaswami
January 2024 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami–Resources
WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR
January 2024 program in canada (on line)
I will be teaching a three day (6hrs) on line program on the following subjects. The program is hosted by my friends Ryan Leier from Canada. The topics are as follows
Day 1 The scope of Sri Krishnamacharya's teachings, according to Sri Ramaswami
Day 2 Theory, practice and benefits of vinyasakrama yoga
Day 3 Catussutri- the essence of patanjala yoga sutras (first 4 sutras)
Here is the link to register
Newsletters
I have been sending monthly newsletters since January 2009. I thought I could keep posting information and also yoga related articles for those who had participated in my programs. About 600 people had attended my 100 hr and 200 hr Vinysakrama teacher training programs. Additionally there were hundreds of yoga practitioners for my shorter programs on and off line. So these newsletters with articles of interest would reach more than 2000 of my yoga friends. In these monthly newsletters there are about 180+ yoga and yoga related articles inspired by my studies with my Guru Sri Krishnamacharya. The articles contain stories like the story of Dadhichi (Vajrasana), Patanjali, Viswamitra and and others. Other articles of use would be on Yoga for the Heart, Yoga for bronchial asthma, yoga for the spine and others. Other yoga related articles include samantraka pranayama, yama niyamas and others. There are many articles on yoga philosophy like citta vritti, the three gunas and more.. Related articles on vedanta and samkhya also can be found in these sets of articles sent every month. These may be accessed. Visit my website (link below) and click on ‘Monthly newsletter to access all the newsletters and articles
Sanskrit chants link for about 140 subjects/chants.
Svadhyaya is a niyama and part of kriya yoga. Svadhyaya traditionally means study of the vedas. Sri Krishnamacharya spent hundreds of hours teaching me to chant several chapters of yajur veda, actually the entire Taitiriya aranyaka (except ch 6) and Taitiriya kataka. As I had said several times I was able to have many of my Sanskrit chants recorded during the 1980s and early 1990s. Here is the link for most of my recorded chants. There are about 140 chants including close to 70 from Sundara kanda of the epic Ramayana. There are about 30 hours of Sanskrit chants. Some are available on Spotify also. Here is the link from jiosaavn
https://www.jiosaavn.com/artist/srivatsa-ramaswami-songs/PJeIGAtd-T4_
My You tube page
My you tube page contains videos of asana vinyasas, lecture series playlists and also some chants and chant tutorials. Specifically it contains complete chanting of suryanamaskara from yajurveda interspersed with samantraka savinyasa suryanamaskara performed at the end of each of the 32 anuvakas. It also contains a video of dingnamaskara or salutations to the devatas of the7 directions. Tutorials for chanting all the four chapters of the yoga sutra can also be found. Complete chanting of yoga sutras, rudran chamakam, atmasudhimantras pranayama mantras aditya hrudayam yoga taravali chanting and a few others can be found in the page.Complete lecture videos on Iswarakrsihna’s samkhya karika, several chapters on the gita can also be found in it. A lecture of what yoga is may be of interest. Here is the link for my youtube page
https://www.youtube.com/user/srivatsaramaswami
Books
Based on my studies with my Guru I wrote a few books. In 2000 my book “Yoga for Three Stages of Life'' was published. In it I followed the thought process of Patanjali and included several unique aspects of Sri Krishnamacharya’s teachings like Yoga for women, Mantra yoga and a number of vinyasakrama sequences. It contains a chapter on my studies with Sri Krishnamacharya, Story of Patanjali, the unique definitions of yoga and others. It is about a hundred thousand words with photographs and sketches/illustrations. This book also has a Spanish edition. This is still available like in Amazon USA and Amazon India. Here are the links
Here is the link for Amazon link in India. The book is relatively inexpensive in India
My book “Complete Book of Vinysa yoga” published in 2006 contains about 1000 pictures of about 700 vinyasas in more than a 100 well known asanas in a 10 sequence format. This is how I learnt vinyasakrama yoga from my Guru. It would be a good teacher’s manual as it gives a very broad base for yoga teachers to teach and adapt to individual requirements. I used this book for my 100 and 200 hour Teacher Training programs. There was a very well published Spanish edition but it is now out of print. The English edition has been revived after a short break. Here is the link from Amazon USA for this book
Here is the link for the book in amazon india
https://www.amazon.in/COMPLETE-BOOK-VINYASA-YOGA/dp/1569244022?ref_=ast_author_dp
My other book with my friend David Hurwitz titled “Yoga Beneath the Service” was published around 2007. It is in question and answer format. There are about 200 questions and answers to them. An Italian edition was also published. Here is the Amazon link
Here is the link for amazon india to obtain this book
https://www.amazon.in/Yoga-Beneath-Surface-American-Philosophy/dp/1569242941?ref_=ast_author_dp
My friend Paul Harvey published my booklet “Basic Tenets of Patanjala Yoga” in 1989 or so. Here is the link for the book from Paul Harvey’s website. This book was translated into French as well
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://yogastudies.org/wp-content/uploads/Basic_Tenets_of_Patanjala_Yoga_Ramaswami.pdf
In the late 1970s I wrote a series of articles on yoga at the instance of my Guru and Sri Desikachar for an Indian journal “Indian Review. At that time for a few months I was a trustee of Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (a founder trustee for a very short period). It was a monthly publication and, my articles appeared for about three years. Again my friend Paul Harvey has uploaded the collection in his website
https://yogastudies.org/2015/02/a-collation-of-articles-by-srivatsa-ramaswami/
I have been posting stray thoughts on Yoga and related topics in my facebook page for a number of years quite regularly. I understand these can also be accessed.
I just now wrote a book tentatively titled “Samkhya Karika for Yoga Students”. Inner Traditions have agreed to publish it and it is expected to be published perhaps by the end of 2024. While there are many Samkhya karika books, in this book I have made attempts to relate the samkhya teachings to be in line with the thought process of Patanjali in Yoga Sutras.
When I started teaching I found that though my Guru was well known his range and depth of knowledge and teaching was not well known. I thought I should try to bring out whatever I learnt from him to the best of my ability and understanding. He had a knack of understanding the needs of a particular student and teaching accordingly. One could get what one needs from him and not necessarily what one wants. I hope there may be one or two friends who may feel the same way I felt when I studied with my Guru.
Happy 2024