February Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

Dear Friends:

I hope January 2009 was a happy month. I was away in India for the
last two months and returned to USA on the 26th of January. I was
mostly in Chennai, where I have been living almost my entire life in
my father’s house which is almost as old as I am. I went to Hyderabad
and also New Delhi where I did a five day yoga program. It was a good
feeling to teach in India again after a lapse of few years.

I have quite a few programs lined up for the coming months.

Thanks to our friend Steve Brandon, who himself came all the way from
the UK to LMU last year for the Teacher Training Program, I am going
to the UK for about ten days at the end of February, to do an
intensive Vinyasakrama program and several weekend workshops.

In March, I am scheduled to do an intensive Vinyasakrama program,
workshops on Sanskrit Chanting for Yoga students, Sanskrit for Yoga
students and also Taittiriya Upanishad. I understand the response to
these programs to be done at LMU in LA has been rather lukewarm. If
you, or some of your friends would be interested, think of registering
for the programs.

In April, I am doing several programs in New York.

In May, I am going to Portland for a few days.

Then I do a weeklong Practicum on Hatha and Raja Yoga at Esalen
Institute in Big Sur, CA.

In June/July, I am planning to return to LMU for a repeat of the 200-
hour Teacher Training Program on Vinyasakrama Yoga, which is
registered with Yoga Alliance. The syllabus can be viewed at
http://www.vinyasakrama.com/Syllabus_Teacher_Training_200_Hr

In August, I am planning to go to the UK again to teach
Hathayogapradeepika.

In September, I will be in Chicago for 10 days to do various programs
on Yoga.

For more details on all of these programs, please visit
http://www.vinyasakrama.com/Events.

I hope you will find one or another of the programs of interest to you
or some of your friends.

*****************

The epic Ramayana is read, recited, played, discoursed, and discussed
by thousands in India every day, even today. The most popular version
of the Ramayana is the one written by sage Valmiki in Sanskrit. It
consists of 24,000 verses. And one of the chapters is known as Sundara
Kanda and is made up of about 2,800 plus slokas. It is an important
chapter of the Ramayana in which Hanuman travels to Lanka in the South
and finds the imprisoned Seeta. Many people recite it, hear it or read
it on different occasions, and it is said to remove obstacles and save
believers from utter despair. It takes about 9 to 10 hours to recite
the entire chapter. I recorded it a few years back for my recording
company, but they could not release it because at that time it
required 10 CDs and marketing the highly expensive album of 10 CDs was
a problem. In 2008, however my recording company released it on 2 CDs
in MP3 format and I have brought a few copies of it with me when I
left India.

My book “The Complete Book of Vinyasa Yoga”, went out of stock last
October. The publisher will be publishing a 4th reprint, and they
expect it will be available in about a month’s time.

*************************

In the last newsletter, I had written about the three Gunas and the
Four Human Goals (purusharthas), looking from the point of a
consummate yogi, whose goal is the fourth purushartha which is Moksha
or Kaivalya or absolute spiritual freedom. But for ordinary mortals
like us, the sense pleasures (kama) and possessions (artha) are
appropriate human goals provided they are pursued within the ambit of
the third purusharta which is Dharma. Pleasures and acquisitions
without transgressing the laws of dharma, laws of piety and the laws
of the land are all permissible.

There is another interesting aspect to the Satwa Guna. Those who by
birth, or by proper practice of Yoga, and other yama / niyamas, become
highly Satwic, follow four different directions. First is the group
who follow dharma, the law of piety, compassion, charity etc. They
find happiness by leading a pious life, doing charity, and as the word
dharma indicates, work to uplift themselves and others. There are
other Satwic persons who follow the jnana path and become wise men and
women, like the great Patanjali and other Yogis. They use their highly
Satwic mind to transcend all the three gunas and attain Kaivalya. Then
there are those sensitive souls who become recluses or Bairagis and
then there are those who by their capacity for intense concentration
become Sidhhas, or those who exhibit supernatural powers. But the
Samkhyas point out that of all the Satwic people only the jnani or the
Raja Yogi reaches Kaivalya while the rest do not transcend the Samsara
cycle, even as they reach higher and higher abodes.

With best wishes

Sincerely

Srivatsa Ramaswami

[Srivatsa Ramaswami]

Dear Tony Pena: Thank you for your e mail. I used to read the
translations of great Sanskrit works like the Ramayana and Mahabharata
in Tamil, which is my mother tongue. I wonder if you may want to read
the Ramayana book written in English by C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), a
freedom fighter, a former Governor General of India, a Statesman and
a well known literary figure. It is good book. If you want verse by
verse translation of Valmiki Ramayana,, it is available on line
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/
The translation is a bit terse. I am sure there are many many good
translations available.
I think I have enough material regarding the Internal Organ book and I
am finding it challenging to organize and present the material in a
user friendly way. I am working on it. Thank you for your letter.

With best wishes Sincerely Srivatsa Ramaswami

Dear Tony Pena: Thank you for your e mail. I used to read the
translations of great Sanskrit works like the Ramayana and Mahabharata
in Tamil, which is my mother tongue. I wonder if you may want to read
the Ramayana book written by C Rajagopalachari (Rajaji), a freedom
fighter, a former Governor General of India, a Statesman and a well
known literary figure. It is good book. If you want verse by verse
translation of Valmiki Ramayana,, it is available on line
http://www.valmikiramayan.net/
The translation is a bit terse. I am sure there are many many good
translations available. There are also DVDs in Hindi available of the
whole Ramayana with English subtitles
I think I have enough material regarding the Internal Organ book and I
am finding it challenging to organize and present the material in a
user friendly way. I am working on it. Thank you for your letter.