Yoga for the Three Stages of Life: Developing Your Practice As an Art Form, a Physical Therapy, and a Guiding Philosophy

217 Pages·2001·2.7 MB·English

OM
Śrῑ Rāma Jayam
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO the memory of my mother, who
said early in my life “There is more to life than making a
living”; to my father, who encouraged me in all my endeavors;
to my guru, who had so much to give, and from which I could
take so little; and to Lord Almighty—Śrī Kriṣṇārpaṇamastu.
Acknowledgments
I WISH TO THANK my wife, Dr. Umā Rāmaswāmī, for her
encouragement and her help, especially with the technical
details of writing this book.
I also wish to state my sincere appreciation and thanks to
several people who have directly or indirectly helped me to
teach yoga and write this book. To my sons Prasanna and
Badri, who encouraged me, sometimes like buddies, in the
writing of this book and in other yoga activities. They have
been a great source of joy.
To the late Rukmini Devī and Śankara Menon, former
directors of Kalākṣetra Institute, and Mr. Rajaraman, its
present director, for the opportunity afforded me to teach there
for two decades. To the late M. C. Subramanian of the Public
Health Centre for the opportunity to introduce yoga in the
hospital. My thanks are due to C. S. Sampath of Public Health
Centre Hospital, Professor Janardhanan of Kalākṣetra, S. Chitra
of Padma Seshadri Schools, and K. Gopalakrishnan for studying
this system and teaching for more than twenty years. To John
Coon, the dynamic director, and other senior students and
teachers of Yoga Center of Houston, Texas, for studying the
vinyāsakrama in depth and teaching in Houston and elsewhere
in the United States, I am grateful. Many students and their
students have helped in the development of the book by
contributing several of their yoga pictures. They ranged in age
from ten to seventy-five and comprised schoolchildren, medical
students, physiotherapists, a renowned artist/painter, an
athlete, classical Bharatnatyam dancers, teachers, corporate
executives, and, of course, a couple of yoga teachers. Girija
Menon has done exquisite but difficult postures for the chapter
on women and yoga. Pam Johnson, Hilary Nixon, and John Coon
have portrayed several āsana sequences artistically and with
vigor. R. Soundrarajan, M. Parvati, and S. Ramya have done
several other yoga sequences beautifully. Others whose
pictures appear in the book are C. S. Sampath, Jaya Reddy,
Jayashree Soundararajan, R. Sowmya, C. Vidya, Maanasaa, A.
Yamini, and Prentis Fatherree. Śrīmān Srinivasan of Krishna
Photos shot all the pictures done in Chennai and made special
prints of all pictures in this book. To them all, my sincere
thanks. To the late Śrī Harigopal Agarwal for the tremendous
enthusiasm, encouragement, and opportunities given to me to
teach in the huge free yoga camps conducted for nearly ten
years at the yoga brotherhood; to Mr. H. M. Mahesh of
Sangeetha and Mr. Murali of HMV for producing and
marketing my audiocassettes; and to M. Gopalakrishnan, my
always optimistic and cheerful cousin, for all his work and
support.
To the respected paṇḍit Śrī Rājamaṇiji for the opportunity to
give introductory lectures on yoga and workshops and classes
at the Himalayan Institute at Hones-dale, and also for the great
support; to Sandy Anderson, Mary Gail, and Rolf Sovik, and to
Nishit Patel and Virat Xavier for offering introductory
programs and workshops and classes in yoga at the Himalayan
Institutes in Buffalo, New York, and Chicago; to my cousin Dr.
Ambujam, my niece Chitra, and other cousins; to Dr. M.
Subramaniam and Mr. M. Hariharan; and to Dr. Sundara
Gandhi, Dr. Senthamarai Gandhi, Dr. Sundaraman, Dr. J. L.
Sarma, and Dr. Sethuraman, many thanks for hosting and
helping me talk about this system of yoga to selected groups.
To Professor T. K. Parthasarathy, vice chancellor, and
Professor S. Rangaswamy, head of the Holistic Health Center,
Śrī Ramachandra Medical University, Chennai, for their efforts
to introduce yoga as a program of optional study for both
faculty and students of the university, and for the opportunity
afforded me to teach there.
My sincere thanks are due also to Kala for the beautiful line
sketches she prepared; to Sujayā, a senior teacher of the
Kriṣṇamācārya method of yoga, for her critical input in the
writing of this book; to my nephews Dinesh, my Internet
provider, and Kartik, my software consultant, for their ready
and sustained assistance; and to Professional Touch for their
services in having the whole manuscript typed.
My sincere thanks are due to Dr. Nagalakshmi Narayanan of
Osmania University, India, for reading through the manuscript
and making valuable suggestions, especially in the chapter on
Patañjali. My thanks are also due to Dr. Laurel Smith for her
help and suggestions in making useful changes to the
manuscript. Again my thanks are due to Ehud Sperling,
president, and Rowan Jacobsen, managing editor, Inner
Traditions, for their efforts in publishing the book. I am much
beholden to Cannon Labrie for bringing his vast experience and
knowledge of Indology and Sanskrit to bear on the editing of
the book.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART ONE: Yoga Siddhānta, or Theory
1 My Studies with Śrī T. Kriṣṇamācārya and Others
2 The Story of Patañjali
3 What Is Yoga?
4 Advanced Yoga
5 Mantrayoga
6 The Eight-Part Yoga and Its Ten Commandments
PART TWO: Yoga Sādhana, or Practice
7 Standing Postures
8 Supine Postures
9 Sarvāṅgāsana and Śīrṣāsana
10 Prone Postures and the Spine
11 Paścimatānam
12 Padmāsana and Other Postures for Yoga Sādhana
13 Yogic Breathing Exercises and Their Health Benefits
14 Yoga for Women
15 Yoga Texts
16 Antaraṅga Sādhana
17 Freedom
Glossary
Index
About the Author
About Inner Traditions
Copyright
Introduction
MORE BOOKS ON YOGA HAVE BEEN WRITTEN in the past
twenty years than ever before, perhaps since Vedic times. It
might seem that there would be no need for yet another book
on the subject, but I felt that I had something to add to the
discussion. My goal is to portray the three aspects of yoga—as
art, physical therapy, and philosophy—that are appropriate for
the young, for the middle-aged, and for retirees, in that order.
The physical therapy aspects are not discussed separately from
various āsanas, vinyāsas, prāṇāyāma, and chants. It should be
mentioned that this book is not a substitute for a teacher or a
physical therapist; it is written for general information.
In Yoga Rahasya, Nāthamuni refers to the need to take into
consideration the individual’s stage in life while practicing
yoga. The general rule is to follow vṛddhi, sthiti, and laya
kramas (methods) during, respectively, youth, midlife, and old
age. When one is young, the body is known as deha, because it
grows. At that stage of life, practicing āsanas as an art
(vinyāsa) is appropriate. The various āsanas and the myriad
vinyāsas, with proper breathing, help the young person grow
(vṛddhi) with good physical and mental health. This aspect is
dealt with extensively in several chapters in this book.
During midlife, when there is neither growth nor decay
(sthiti), the yoga practice would include important āsanas with
a few vinyāsas, good yogic breathing exercises and bandhas
(locks), meditation, mantra chants, and so on. These aspects
also are covered in this book. In midlife the main requirement
is to maintain mental and physical health and ward off
diseases. This is the stage when one has to achieve results,
discharge heavy responsibilities, and make progress in life. As
one gets old, when the body is called śarīra because it decays,
yoga practice will be directed to maintain reasonable mobility,
through āsana and prāṇāyāma practice. The laya krama will
consist primarily of intense meditation, along with study of, and
reflection upon, the philosophy of Yoga. These aspects, too, are
given extensive treatment.
But the yogi’s life is a long journey to kaivalya, or liberation,
and could take several life cycles to achieve. While ordinary
mortals would cherish the desire to defy death, the yogi wants
to defy rebirth. Classical Yoga defines a yogi’s spiritual
evolution as comprising three stages, or levels, and this book is
structured accordingly.
This book follows the thought progression of Patañjali, author
of the Yogasūtras, but it adds material gathered from my guru
and from other authentic yoga texts, as well as from my own
understanding of the subject. Chapter 1 is about my studies
with my teacher, Paṇḍit Śrī T. Kriṣṇamācārya, and a few other
elders. This chapter may be read first to get a better
appreciation of my treatment of the subject. Chapter 2 tells the
story of Patañjali from folkloric sources, compiled by a Sanskrit
scholar some three hundred years ago. Chapter 3 discusses the
definitions of the word yoga and gives the essentials of some
ancient yoga systems. This chapter may provide a good
introduction for those with a general interest in Indian
philosophies, and also for those who have been studying yoga,
especially haṭhayoga, for a long time and who would like to
now move on to other aspects of yoga. Mantrayoga is the
subject of chapter 4, and it is treated as part of the kriyāyoga
of Patañjali. My teacher placed considerable emphasis on
chants (pārāyaṇa of the mūla granthas) and on the study of
scripture, and hence I would recommend this to all students of
yoga. Part 1 concludes with chapter 6, which gives all the dos
and don’ts for practicing aṣṭāṅgayoga and is universally
applicable to all forms of yoga. In part 2, chapters 7 to 13,
different important groups of āsanas, along with their
variations or vinyāsas and health benefits, are presented in
detail.