Spyros Kapnias - Garudananda

In Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga new practitioners have lot of times the question: “Can a beginner practice pranayama?”  What lot of people call pranayama is just breath practices and breath practices is essential to practice everyone from the beginning of Ashtanga Vinyasa practice. So the answer for breath practices is, yes. But traditionaly when we speak about Pranayama we speak about: Inhalation, Puraka - Holding the breath, Kumbhaka - Exhalation, Rechaka. Holding the breath for long periods is dangerous before mastering the asanas.  Yoga Sutra of Patanjali 2.49 Once that perfected posture has been achieved, the slowing or braking of the force behind, and of unregulated movement of inhalation and exhalation is called breath control and expansion of prana (pranayama), which leads to the absence of the awareness of both, and is the fourth of the eight rungs. 2.50 That pranayama has three aspects of external or outward flow (exhalation), internal or inward fl...

When you practice Astanga Vinyasa Yoga and reading books about this Tradition, lot of times you can listen or found words like: dakshina, vama, paschima, poorva etc. What are exactly the meaning of these words? Sometimes we hear explanations like right side, left side, front side, back side and these are not wrong but we can search deeper explanations to their meanings.                                                   Directions in Kannada Language English Transliteration Kannada Directions dikkagalu ದಿಕ್ಕುಗಳು East poorva, mooDaNa ಪೂರ್ವ, ಮೂಡಣ West paschima, paDuvaNa ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ, ಪಡುವಣ North uttara, baDagaNa ಉತ್ತರ, ಬಡಗಣ South dakshina, tenkaNa ದಕ್ಷಿಣ, ತೆ೦ಕಣ Names of Directions in Ramayana and Mahabharata "In the begin...

What is really Patanjali said about asana? Here the explanation of Krishnamacharya and from other scholars and Gurus of Yoga. प्रयत्नशैथिल्यानन्तसमापत्तिभ्याम् ॥४७॥ prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpatti-bhyām ॥ 47 ॥ prayatna = tension or effort (related to trying to do the posture) shaithilya = by relaxing, loosening, lessening, slackening ananta = infinite, endlessness samapattibhyam = by focusing attention on, meditation, by coalescence, coincidence, merging The key to success in this regard is practice with effort, which becomes progressively easier, combined with deep contemplation (samapatti). ||47|| By lessening the natural tendency for restlessness and by meditating on the infinite, posture is mastered. – Sri Swami Satchidananda These qualities can be achieved by recognizing and observing the reactions of the body and the breath to the various postures that comprise asana practice. Once known, these reactions can be controlled step-by-step. – T.K....

There is a question in the Sacred Texts: If are in front of you the God and the Guru, who you prostrating first? And the answer is the Guru, because He saws me the God. I like this tradition, but I like to put another question: If in front of you are the God, the Guru and the Agni (Surya, Fire, Tapas, Practice), who you prostrating first? And here the answer is Agni.  The Tapas, the Practice, the Fire. Our Practice is our refuge. Everything may make us sad, disappointed, angry, but our Practice is there as our Father, our Mother, our Teacher, our Lover, and always is ready to hung us with Fire, to heat our heart, to burn our anger, to saw us our Guru and God.

When OM is chanted as a Pranayama, it is called the Udgitha Pranayama ( उद्गीथ   प्राणायाम ). Udgitha, means the chanting in a vedic ritual, a division of the samaveda, a name of the mystical syllable aum, a name of recommendation that “let a man meditate on om”. We call the Sacred syllable OM as Udgitha ( उद्गीथ , Divine Song). This word has been discussed in depth in the ancient scripture Chhandogya Upanishad. If you have attended an Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga class, the mantra OM was chanted at the beginning and at the end of the yoga class, with the mantra of opening or closing. In the Mandukya Upanishad it was mentioned that OM is in fact a composite of three letters A, U and M. A represents our experiences in the waking state, U represents our experiences in the dream state and M those in the deep sleep state. The syllable OM is called by the term udgitha since a priest designated as Udgātṛ starts his singing of Sama Veda with OM in Vedic yajnas. The three...

Reading books about Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and the Krishnamacharya’s Tradition generally, I observing that to understand deeply what they referring for, you must have a good knowledge of Ayurveda, Kundalini, Prana, and at least you must have read the most important Sacred Text of Yoga Tradition. Yoga Kundalini Upanishad is a very interested Sacred Text to give to you a good knowledge about the Prana, Pranic Anatomy, Chakras and Kundalini.  About Ashtanga Yoga Ashtanga Yoga is a perfect practical system of self-culture. Yoga is an exact science. It aims at the harmonious development of the body, the mind and the soul. Yoga is the turning away of the senses from the objective universe and the concentration of the mind within. Yoga is eternal life in the soul or spirit.  Ashtanga Yoga  aims at controlling the mind and its modifications. The path of Yoga is an inner path whose gateway is your heart. Ashtanga Yoga  is the discipline of the mind, sens...