The First Yoga Sutra "atha yogānuśāsanam" & Love

Hi,

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Welcome to Fightmaster Yoga blog on this year, 2022, the 2nd year of living with the pandemic. I am reminded of the title of the novel “Love in the Time of Cholera” by Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. We could all use more love anytime, and especially during this period of challenging changes.

Since the last blog in 2017, it is fitting to follow with the theme of “Love” as Lesley Fightmaster exuded so much love for the practice of yoga and wanted to share the beauty and benefits of the practice with the world.

The first yoga sutra “Now is the time for yoga” (maybe we can also add, “Now is the time for love”.)

Now, begins the blog…<by Analyn Revilla>

I have been thinking about revisiting the Yoga Sutras.  My first introduction to it was doing my YTT, and the translation version for the class was “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” by Sri Swami Satchidananda.

My experience then was absorbing the sacred text with a rote mind.  I was a student interested in taking the course, passing the exam and getting my certificate.  I was already in love with the practice of yoga in its asanas.  After practicing in a group setting in a studio, I felt a deep sense of wellbeing, without going beyond the benefits of physical exercise.  It was a sense of accomplishment, like ticking off a checklist that I’ve done my tapas so I can give myself permission to enjoy my favorite food and wine.

Among my aspirations of broadening and deepening my yoga journey is to absorb The Yoga Sutras with the lens of reverence.  The logical starting point is the the first sutra.  One of its translations as I’ve heard Lesley Fightmaster say in a class “Now is the time for yoga.” (That class is the headstand day in the Shine program).

atha yogānuśāsanam

atha - now; yoga - of yoga; ānuśāsanam - exposition, instruction

A question posed to TKV Desikachar, author of “The Heart of Yoga” was “Can anyone practice yoga?”  His response was, “Anybody who want to can practice yoga.  Anybody can breathe; therefore anybody can practice yoga.  But no one can practice every kind of yoga.  It has to be the right yoga for the person.  The student and teacher meet and decide on a program that is acceptable and suitable to the person."

A yoga practice is coming home to the breath, as in the expression “Home is where the heart is”.  When I come back to my breath, I am home again.

Ahhhhhh…. Pranaaaaahhhhhh.

Thich Nhat Hahns’ guiding words to being mindful of the present moment is a mantra during breath work. 

“Breathing in, I am breathing in”

“Breathing out, I am breathing out”

Its essence speaks of just being.  These days, some of us are working from home, or we could be on the floor at some commercial space, or in an office, or a studio.   We are in our minds and personifying a role, but we can choose to pause and be in the moment of being by connecting with our breath, remembering who we really are.

What more could be visceral in absorbing and putting to practice the first yoga sutra than being with the breath now.

The website noted above and again here (https://sanskritdocuments.org/sites/athayoga/sutra_ch1n.html)  is an excellent study on the Sutras.  The work was done by Margo von Ronberg who was a yoga teacher in the Viniyoga tradition.  Her collected works are hosted in the website sanskritdocuments.org 

“The word "atha" indicates a commitment on the part of the student, and on the part of the teacher. It makes it clear that the study of yoga is going to start NOW. This isn't just intellectual study - it includes practice as well. It is also study in which the teacher passes on what he himself learned from his teacher; so the tradition is very old.” - Margo von Ronberg

Now is set forth authoritative teaching on yoga. 

- Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga

Here begins the authoritative instruction on yoga.  

- Patanjali's Yoga sutras, translated by TKV Desikachar

Now then yoga is being explained. 

- Swami Hariharananda Aranya, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali (translated by P.N. Mukerji)

Now the exposition of yoga is being made. 

- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Now, an exposition of yoga [is to be made] 

- IK Taimni, The Science of Yoga

February is the month generally associated with Love.  Open your heart!  Another breath attention practice with a mantra taught by Thich Nhat Hahn is putting attention on your heart:

“Inhaling I smile."

“Exhaling my heart gently opens.”

The “Shine” program has a heart opening practice.  It’s one of my favorites, and truly enervates the heart chakra.  Try it!

Below are images of Lesley doing heart opening asanas from that session.  By a happy coincidence the “Wheel Pose” melded with the “Royal Dancer” pose.  

Bow Pose

Wheel Pose and Royal Dancer

Camel pose