AshtangaNews Ashtanga Yoga Matters (as taught by Sri K Pattabhi Jois)

I asked Dominic Corigliano if he could give us more details on how the Sharath Primary Series DVD was made (buy it here or see my review), and he kindly obliged:

The DVD’s back cover

“Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series with R Sharath was created with the intention of showing an actual Yoga Practice, not a staged or edited event. When Sharath and I originally discussed the concept of an Ashtanga Yoga Video our intention was to convey the essence of Pattabhi Jois’s Ashtanga Yoga, continuous movement and the breath driving a ‘no-nonsense’ practice. We wanted to show the strengths of the practice rather than the individual.

Ashtanga Yoga primary series with R. Sharath is a continuously filmed, three camera, practice DVD. Mary Wigmore and Caroline Laskow (Set Direction), and Ku-Ling (Cinematography), all of whom also made Ashtanga NY (see the AshtangaNews review), did an incredible job with camera setup and lighting. I love the colors, rich and beautiful. I brought along my Sony 900 Series for the side sequences and a Canon for the stills. You can see all three cameras in the three scene sequences. I edited the video and created the DVD menu in Mysore with graphic art assistance from Saskia Vidler. Saisha (my partner) and I rented a top floor, four story, light-filled condo in Gokulam. There are a few extra shots, like an overhead and a few close ups, to flesh out the content. I also designed the DVD menu so you can view each asana individually. This DVD took four years of effort. Sharath was patient through it all.

Sharath could have easily done handstands throughout this DVD. He also has an extremely flexible lower back (great backbends). Yet he chose to simply, elegantly, and honestly do the Primary Series. It is a refreshing video that truly represents the practice of Pattabhi Jois’s Ashtanga Yoga. Here there is no ‘glorification’ based on an individual’s physical strengths.

Yoga videos are often formulaic, outside sets like a travel video, Yogis showing their best “take” at each Asana, makeup, often times a coach standing nearby correcting out of camera, on set. That is one style, yet it deviates from Ashtanga Yoga’s most important strengths. Breaking down Ashtanga, detailing it, takes away from the continuity of movement that is Ashtanga. Pattabhi Jois doesn’t talk much in his practice room in Mysore. Ashtanga is not talking, it is doing!

Sharath insisted on a minimum of edits throughout the editing process…”

Copyright 2006 by R. Sharath and Dominic Corigliano

In a prior post, we highlighted Flickr user, milopeng’s beautiful photos of Ashtanga yoga. Using super useful RSS feeds, we’ve discovered that another user has posted more photos by milopeng.

Enjoy!

Lightness of Being

Squash

The room where it all takes place
a Mysore-style class at Moksha Yoga Center in Chicago

Anybody can practice yoga…

Ashtanga, NY

Except lazy people. Lazy people can’t practice yoga.

That quote was from R. Sharath Rangaswamy, Sri K. Pattabhis Jois’ grandson, in the documentary, Ashtanga, NY.

This 60-minute documentary about Ashtanga yoga is a must-see for Ashtangis. It’s not a practice DVD. Rather, Ashtanga, NY presents the story of the Ashtanga practice and Sri K. Pattabhis Jois along with a handful of New York Ashtangis, including some quite famous ones, describing what the practice is and what they get out of it.

Mike D from the Beastie Boys
my favorite talking head

I was not too impressed with the talking New York heads’ take on Ashtanga. After all, what Pattabhis Jois always says is “practice and all is coming.” We don’t talk about Ashtanga; we do it. (Plus, I’d like to know who those people are.)

For me, the value of this film is in the tangible and direct — footage of Pattabhis Jois, Sharath Rangaswamy and their families, the light in the practice room during the World Tour and the juxtaposition of scenes from 9-11 versus the gathering of Ashtangis in the Puck Building.

Ashtanga, NY also provides some excellent footage of R. Sharath Rangaswamy practicing. This is truly special (as Philippe describes in his review of Sharath’s new Primary Series DVD).

Guruji assists an Ashtangi in Ashtanga, NY

Three times while watching this film, I wrote in my notes: smile. If practicing Ashtanga can make me smile with the authenticity and warmth of Guruji, Saraswati and Sharath’s smiles, then I want to practice and help spread that smile all over the place (my thinking being that if it makes me feel this happy, then it must make everyone else feel that happy, too).

The scenes of World Tour practice starting with the dark room and then the sun rising higher in and Guruji’s calling out the postures really brought back memories of the World Tour for me. I could really feel the sun rising in those scenes. I wonder if other Ashtangis feel the same?

The beautiful Ashtangis of NY

But the really big impact of this film —which surprisingly felt even bigger on my second viewing — was the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, right in the middle of this month-long stop in the World Tour and on Saraswati’s birthday. The juxtaposition of scenes from Saraswati’s birthday, the bombing and the practice was really powerful. Despite the tragedy, Guruji carried on with the World Tour.

But the Tour was changed and it’s this part of the film — including talk from the New York Ashtangis — that really makes the film.

“Fierce and compassionate”
Sri K. Pattabhis Jois in Ashtanga, NY

One other lovely bit about this movie is the music. A great score performed by guitarist, Chris Cunningham, and percussionist, George Javori. The music really adds to the experience!

Ashtanga, NY is widely available. You can even rent it at Netflix. So, take a look and let us know what you think!

Namarupa Issue 3 Fall ‘04

Namarupa magazine recently made its wonderful article — 3 Gurus, 48 Questions: Matching Interviews with Sri T.K.V. Desikachar, Sri B.K.S. Iyengar & Sri K. Pattabhi Jois — free for all to download. The article is an in-depth interview of the three living yoga masters conducted by Alexander Medin over a period of months in Madras, Mysore and Pune.

Alexander asked the same questions of all three gurus, but their answers were wildly different. These differences highlight each guru’s unique approach to yoga and teaching.

The connection between the three gurus is Krishnamacharya, their legendary teacher. Each has a very different relationship to him:

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya

• Desikachar is his son
• BKS Iyengar is his brother-in-law
• Pattabhi Jois is his disciple

It is often striking how each has a totally different take on Krishnamacharya’s teachings:

Did Krishnamacharya teach everybody the same way?
Iyengar: “No”
Pattabhi Jois: “Yes”

What was the most important thing Krishnamacharya taught you?
Desikachar: “Humility.”
Iyengar: “What he taught me was only a few asanas. That seed was what he gave me and I developed it as well as I could.”
Pattabhi Jois: “When he left for Madras he told me, Make this yoga method the work of your life.”

Krishnamacharya later in life

What are the criteria to become a good yoga teacher?
Desikachar: “Faith in God.”
Iyengar: “One has to work really hard and show the qualities of sincerity, honesty, and virtue.”
Pattabhi Jois: “Be a dedicated student for many years before you even start to think about teaching.”

What is your personal yoga practice like these days?
Desikachar: “Next question, please.”
Iyengar: “I will not boast. Everybody will tell you that I am still practicing. I do my sadhana [meditational practice] and still do the postures. I do all the postures you see in Light on Yoga and do them every day.”
Pattabhi Jois: “I continue to practice pranayama and recite the Vedas for an hour and a half to two hours every day.”

TKV Desikachar

BKS Iyengar’s opinion of Ashtanga Vinyasa also emerges out of the interviews:

I had to question the jumping and vinyasas [synchronized movements and breath] and see what they were…What Pattabhi Jois was taught in 1934, he is still teaching now. I’m not saying this is wrong—I also taught it—but the people I talked to said it was nothing but physical movement, callisthenic-style. But now, today, the very same method is spiritual, according to some people. I don’t understand the mentality of humans.

BKS Iyengar and Pattabhi Jois

But as you can see from the photo, he’s made up with Pattabhi Jois since.

This article is such a rich and valuable record that I cannot possibly do it justice here. If you want to find about more about how yoga came to the West and what its foremost teachers think of it, 3 Gurus, 48 Questions is a must-read.

So much material came out of these interviews that the work is being expanded into a book. We’re looking forward it!

Normally we like to talk about, well, Ashtanga. Ashtanga Vinyasa yoga to be precise.

Sometimes, it’s nice to look at the bigger picture, and in this post, we invite you to look at an India that’s maybe a little different from the one that many foreigners – and possibly because of the practice, Ashtangis moreso than others - usually think of when they think India.

As an example, as of today, Flickr had 244,575 photos tagged India, and the photos on the first several pages of those deemed Most Interesting, depict that ancient, sometimes decrepit, thoroughly unmodern, yet warm and colorful world that is stereotypical India.

A few of the 244,575 photos tagged “India” on Flickr

India, however, is a lot more like the U.S. than you might think. Fareed Zakaria wrote that about India in India Rising in the March 6, 2006 issue of Newsweek:

…India, one of the poorest countries in the world, looks strikingly similar to the world’s wealthiest country, the United States of America. In both places, society has triumphed over the state.

The country might have several Silicon Valleys, but it also has three Nigerias within it, more than 300 million people living on less than a dollar a day. India is home to 40 percent of the world’s poor…

But that is the familiar India, the India of poverty and disease. The India of the future contains all this but also something new. You can feel the change even in the midst of the slums.

Definitely take a look at the full article, and take a look at some photos of India that are a little different from the usual fare at AshtangaNews. (Thank you to Bala for pointing out this story to us.)

Traffic in Rajasthan

Traffic in Mumbai

India is, by all accounts, the most pro-American country in the world. The Pew Global Attitudes Survey, released in June 2005, asked people in 6 countries whether they had a favorable impression of the United States. A stunning 71 percent of Indians said yes. Only Americans had a more favorable view of America (83 percent).

Webodrome in Mumbai
courtesy of Katherine Mieszowksi of Salon.com

Google Code Jam in Bangalore

Traffic in Chennai

A Shopping Mall in India

Shradda and her father

Sri K. Pattabhis Jois turned 90 on July 21, 2005.

This was a big deal. We’ve highlighted photos from Guruji’s birthday in the review of Mysore Style and in the 2006 Prana catalog posts.

We’ve saved the best for last: the site with the most photos is Govinda Kai’s Flickr stream of Guruji’s 90th Birthday celebration.

What I really like about Govinda’s photos is that he captures a wide variety of guests and truly shows us how big an event this was.

Extra special thanks to Govinda Kai, an Ashtanga yoga teacher in Japan, for this great photo set.

Govinda also wrote a great essay on his experience teaching Ashtanga in Japan for AshtangaNews and created some exciting and intimate sets of photos from the 2006 World Tour in San Francisco.

Here are just a few of Govinda’s pictures from Guruji’s 90th birthday celebration. The captions are his.

Sharath and Guruji Cut the Cake

Over a 1,000 Gathered

A Very Special Family

Meal on a Leaf

Sri K. Pattabhis Jois’ birthday celebration is also shown on film with Guru, the Movie. Robert Wilkins, the film maker, includes the event in his documentary on Ashtanga Yoga.

DVD cover

AshtangaProductions released a DVD of R. Sharath Rangaswamy practicing the Ashtanga Primary Series in March 2006 (you can buy it here online). [Also, dont' miss Philippe's interview with Dominic, the DVD's producer. -Ed.]

Sharath is described on the cover as “the foremost teacher of Ashtanga yoga today” and “the grandson of the founder of Ashtanga yoga, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois”.

The production value of this film is very high - it was shot at Eddie Stern’s New York Shala, in a simple yet soothing space. The editing by Dominic Corigliano is flawless, with multiple cameras displayed only when necessary and smooth transitions between postures. The menu to navigate to a particular posture is intuitive and highly practical. Sharath did the voice over, counting vinyasas and calling out asanas.

Sample menu screen

However, the real value of this DVD lies in the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the most advanced Ashtanga Yoga practitioner in the world practicing the Primary Series. I have practiced the Primary Series probably more than a thousand times, and have seen others, from beginners to 20-year senior teachers practice it countless times. And yet Sharath’s practice had a quality to it that I had not seen before.

It took me a while to pin this down and express in in words. Needless to say, outwardly Sharath’s practice feels weightless, as if gravity was an afterthought. But I had seen this before - John Scott’s DVD comes to mind, embodied in the slow-motion jumpbacks. Was it the complete control of the bandhas (internal locks)? Lino Miele’s video is also a masterful aspect of this. Perhaps the way in which very difficult asanas seem totally effortless? David Swenson’s Advanced Series DVD is a perfect example.

Finally it came to me - the sense of presence. Even after having done this practice a few thousand times, and repeating asanas which for him must be child’s play, it feels as if Sharath is completely present in the moment, as if he is practicing for the first time. He is fully aware without being self-aware.

More remarkably, this awareness is constant from asana to asana, from the simplest to the most challenging. There is no trace of self-consciousness in Sharath’s practice, no ego, no analyzing rational mind. There is only the practice. Surely, this is the essence of yoga, something we are all aspiring to.

Baddha Konasana

There are a few welcome and intimate glimpses that Sharath is also human - his fiddling with his shorts, or readjusting his hand grip after rolling up from Urdhva Mukha Paschimottanasana, or even grabbing his feet after lifting them in Upavistha Konasana (instead of floating the feet up while still holding onto them).

Catching details like these is oddly reassuring.

[Dominic kindly shared some additional insight on the making of the DVD with us, too. -Ed.]

Hanuman outside AYRI

Russell, an Ashtangi who’s been living and practicing in Mysore since January 2004, writes an informative blog, mysore musings where he talks not only about his practice at AYRI and living in Mysore, but also about setting up a law business there.

The blog is well written and a joy to follow. Many Ashtangis write about their struggle with setbacks in their practice. Russell gives a refreshing perspective on that:

A few months from now, my practice might fall apart again, requiring me to start over. So what? Would I complain because after a CD is finished playing, and I put it in later to listen to it again, it is the same music?

Recently, Russell opened an office of his law firm in the United States in Mysore. I really like this post (more like an article, really, dated February 5, 2006) which describes the process in great detail. Russell has found a way to help some people in Mysore, without hurting his colleagues in the U.S. Russell writes:

On the subject of this new Mysore company, I’m realizing that at least there is service that can be done. For one thing, rather than splitting up families, we’re reuniting them…

We’ll also be helping to raise the local wage rates and standard of living, as we hire away people from other companies who don’t pay as well… Although some locals have told us we are crazy to do the following, we are also going to be giving employees shares in the company. Not a radical concept in the West these days, but here it seems unheard of.

Russell has also posted a LOT of photos - of AYRI, Mysore and his home there. Just a few of his photos follow.

Thank you, Russell!

Mukta Hasta Sirsasana B, AYRI

After Sirsasana at AYRI

Good Morning!
Students wait outside AYRI

An assistant at
Astanga Helsinki

The conclusion (according to Nancy): It’s okay for kids up to 12 years old as long as they don’t do headstands.

Nancy Gilgoff, one of the first American Ashtangis based on Maui, shared her thoughts in a workshop in Munich (October 2002)

Fine for small kids to play with asanas - although no headstands before the age of 12 as the bones of the skull aren’t completely fused yet.

Not so good for adolescents circa 14 to 17 - the bones are growing faster than the muscles, joints are unstable, stretching can be very uncomfortable & unpleasant.

Nancy has no problem with parents bringing small children into class – good opportunity for the childless students to learn to chill out and let go of their beliefs about how a yoga class “should” be…

Her daughter (now 19) does yoga but normally chooses to go to another teacher.

Alan Little generously wrote out his notes from this workshop, and they are full of nuggets not related to kids as well, a great resource for all of us. Thank you, Alan! Alan’s thoughts:

Having gone through the finishing sequence at one of Lino’s workshops with Lino’s six year old son Oliver and my friend Günther’s nine year old son Alex playing next to me, I completely agree.

We like Navasana!
Kids in Japan courtesy of Jumex on Flickr

An additional resource on Ashtanga and kids is an extensive discussion that took place starting in January 2006 on the AshtangaYoga Yahoo Group. The discussion was started with this message:

Looks like I’ll have the opportunity to create a class for kids - grade school. I’m SO excited about sharing yoga with them. Does anyone have any advice and experience to share? Diane

There were dozens of replies, ranging “kids should not do yoga” to “yoga is the best thing for kids”. If you have a Yahoo login, you can follow the whole discussion which starts here.

Nancy Gilgoff at Purple Valley

Purple Valley Yoga Centre in Goa, India publishes a regular and essential email newsletter, the famous Noticeboard. It typically consists of more than 50 announcements (not all of them are related to Ashtanga yoga).

[Purple Valley has changed its website and the Noticeboard is no longer there, though you can sign up for an email newsletter. The photos on the new site are good. - Ed.]

Here are examples of some of the notices in the latest Noticeboard (no. 61):

NOTICE 9
Featured Pose: Savasana (Corpse Pose) Savasana is a pose of total relaxation making it one of the most challenging asanas.

NOTICE 62
New Ashtanga Yoga Classes in London with Robin Catto - please email robin@breatheonline.com for details or visit BreatheOnline

It’s always fun to read the Noticeboard and to find the gems hidden within it. I wonder when AshtangaNews.com will be announced?

We highlighted Purple Valley, the many Ashtanga teachers who conduct workshops there and Goa in another post here.

The beach near Purple Valley