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

Drew, an Ashtanga yoga student at Yoga Is Youthfulness in the San Francisco Bay Area, published a photo essay of his trip to Kovalam, India to practice with Lino Miele.

Kovalam - a very, very nice place

Drew’s photos are entirely of the sites and people of Kovalam and not at all about the yoga practice (how can you take pictures when you are practicing anyway?). It’s wonderful to see what the actual city looks like, and the snapshots of daily life.

Soccer on Kovalam beach at sunset

And apparently, Kerala - the Indian state where Kovalam is located - is getting more and more popular, as mentioned in this New York Times article:

Not long ago, India, a country of one billion people and more than 100 languages, seemed to have just three tourist destinations: Delhi, Mumbai and the Rajasthan-Taj Mahal circuit. Then, almost out of nowhere, Americans got adventurous and discovered Kerala, a lush southwestern state full of rivers, jungles, ayurvedic medicine and rich, spicy cuisine.

Maybe Lino’s annual retreats had something to do with this.

Here are Lino’s upcoming workshops. And thank you, Drew!

People of Kovalam

The India Department of Tourism has launched a microsite promoting India as a yoga destination:

Stand on your head. Breathe in deep.
And let 50 centuries of science, spirituality
and civilization cleanse your stress away.
Get a dose of Yoga.
It’s as amazing as the land that invented it.

It’s targeting the 15 million people (at the last count - 5% of the population!) who say they practice yoga in the US.

By digging around the Internet, I found out that there were about 550,000 US tourist arrivals to India last year (as opposed to 270,000 Indian arrivals to the US). So that leaves room for a lot of growth in the future.

Billboard in Manhattan,
January 2006

The microsite has a Yoga School listing page with 9 schools on it. Pattabhis Jois’ shala in Mysore is the first one listed, despite the fact that they are not listed alphabetically nor by size. Could the webmaster be an ashtangi?

Also on the site is a Find Your Yoga Style page with a series of multiple choice questions which will help you find a suitable yoga style. Here’s a good one:

4. What would you do if a rampaging rhino were to come at you?

a. Grasp its horn and flip over its back
b. Dodge it and run
c. Fend it off with my crutch
d. Reconcile myself to fate

Perhaps needless to say, those who choose (a) are directed towards Ashtanga…

Thanks to Marc E. Babej of Being Reasonable for pointing out this nicely written and well informed site.

“99% Practice ~ 1% Theory” - K. Pattabhis Jois

That pretty much sums up what I like so much about Ashtanga Yoga, The Practice Manual by David Swenson, an Ashtanga yoga teacher from Texas.

David’s book was the first one published back in 1999 and it is still one of the best in a crowded field of books about the Ashtanga Primary Series.

This book is perfect for a little help when I practice at home. With over over 650 photos, it’s no wonder that people call it “The Most User-Friendly Yoga Book Ever Produced”.

David devotes two facing pages to each posture in Surya Namaskara A & B, the Standing Sequence, Primary Series, Intermediate (Second) Series and the Finishing Sequence. Each page has a little verbage about how-to-do-it, including drishti (the point of gaze) and crucially, photos of variations.

Virabhadrasana B
Note the directions regarding what page comes next at the bottom right.

What’s especially nice is the spiral binding, which means that the book stays open flat while I practice.

The Practice Manual staying
put on my living room floor

Plus, this practice manual has “cheat sheets” for each section of the practice, so I don’t have to turn a page after each posture (I almost always forget some part of the sequence). I’ve even photocopied these pages for travel.

Ashtanga Yoga, The Practice Manual also has a hard cover, so it should hold up well through years of daily practice.

Everyone’s favorite, Marichyasana D

Finally, I should mention that in the Full Flow section of Ashtanga Yoga, David also includes three short Ashtanga yoga sequences for the “time-challenged” (15, 30 and 45 minutes).

Our rain here in the San Francisco Bay Area is nothing compared to a really rainy day in places like Bangalore, a city near Mysore, India, the location of Pattabhis Jois’ yoga shala.

When it rains in the tropics, it really rains.

Mysore Highway, October 2005

Our friend, Bala, a student at Yoga is Youthfulness in the San Francisco Bay Area, sent us these photos of the heaviest rain in decades (PowerPoint presentation) taken in October 2005, which includes a few photos from Mysore. It rained 9 inches in one day. Thank you, Bala.

(If you don’t have PowerPoint, you can view these photos with a PowerPoint viewer. It’s free.)

The AshtangaNews official recommendation regarding rain is: Teva-style sandals are better than flip flops, which can fall off your feet and float away or get stuck in mud.

Teva sandal

Flip flop

R. Sharath Rangaswamy, Pattabhis Jois’ grandson, usually teaches with Guruji at his shala in Mysore as well as in workshops around the world (apart from the World Tour, he’ll be in Australia at the end of 2006). He is Guruji’s co-director of the AYRI school.

Did you know that Sharath also teaches his own class in Mysore?

Sharath in Tokyo 2005.

Sharath’s website lists his workshop schedule, bio and contact information in India, along with some nice photos and some cool design. The photo galleries are still under construction.

It’s a sparse and really beautiful website.

I met Sharath briefly during Guruji’s 2002 World Tour in San Francisco, and I still feel all warm and happy when I see pictures or videos of Sharath - that’s just how he is. If I went to Mysore, I’d definitely want to visit his shala.

Any thoughts from Ashtangis who’ve been there?

Mysore

As you start to practice ashtanga regularly, sooner or later you’ll hear the calling to go to practice in Mysore. That is the source of the yoga, that is where Guruji and Sharath teach.

Since there is a one month minimum stay at the AYRI and a lot of students have to travel half way around the world to get there, the trip is a big deal.

So the question arises: what is the best time of year to go to Mysore?

The answer is further complicated by the fact that it is often difficult to pin down Guruji and Sharath’s teaching schedules. For example, there is an announcement on the homepage of Ashtanga.com in bright orange that SHARATH WILL NOT BE TEACHING IN MYSORE FROM MAY - JULY 2006. I wonder how many planned trips have been affected by this.

But if we’re simply talking weather, the consensus from Mysore veterans is that the best time to travel there is from September to November. It’s not too hot at that time and there are fewer days off at Guruji’s shala.

Any thoughts?

Thank you to babasteve, aka Steve Evans, for these great photos of Mysore.

One of the Royal elephants of the Maharaja of Mysore, India. The foot of its mahout sticks out from beneath its ear as the caretaker guides it on a stroll.
- babasteve

Mysore Palace