Introduction for Ashtanga Yoga
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga is a dynamic method of Theta yoga, emphasizing the combination of Yoga Asanas (body posture), breathing, inner strength, and concentration of consciousness.
This method focuses primarily on the physical body, but as practice progresses, the focus moves inward into deeper and more delicate planes. Although this method has been published only in recent decades, its origins are very ancient, and in fact, it is based on the method passed by Vamana Rishi in the Yoga Korunta.
This ancient script, written on Palm tree leaves, contained knowledge that combined the teachings of Patanjali, a teacher and philosopher who is considered the historical father of all the methods of yoga, and the instructions of the practice.
Ashtanga Yoga Journey to the Western World
The main exercises are Asana (body posture), Pranayama (control of life force by controlling breathing), use of Vinyasa (a combination of breathing and movement), Drishti (point of view), and Bandhas (energy locks).
The Yoga Korunta was transferred to Tirumalai Krishnamacharya in the early years of the 20th century by his teacher Ramamohana Brahmachari and later researched and disseminated throughout the world by Pattabhi Jois, Krishnamacharya’s devoted disciple.
Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya (1888-1989) was a Master of Yoga who also held seven academic degrees, including Ayurveda, Law, and Philosophy.
In 1915, Krishnamacharya heard about Ramamohana Brahmachari, a Tibetan yogi, who lived in a cave at the foot of Mount Kailash with his family and decided to go looking for him. When he found him, the yogi saw that Krishnamacharya was genuinely thirsty for knowledge, and he agreed to accept it as a student.
For seven years, Krishnamacharya studied Brahmachari’s secrets of yoga, among them various ancient writings. One of the writings was Yoga Korunta by Vamana Rishi. In 1927, Krishnamacharya met his future student Pattabhi Jois.
Sri Krishna Pattabhi Jois (1915-2009) was born in 1915 in a small village in southern India. When he was twelve years old, he heard from his friend about a lecture about yoga that was going to take place in his school hall.
Jois came to hear the lecture and fell in love with the amazing abilities of the yogi. The next morning, Jois arrived at the house where the yogi had been staying and asked him to learn the secrets of knowledge. The Yogi, Krishnamacharya, answered in the affirmative, and from that day on, and for the next 25 years, Jois was a devoted student of Krishnamacharya.
Jois was trained under his teacher’s guidance to teach the unusual method cited in the writings of the Yoga Korunta. In time, Jois coined the name “Ashtanga Yoga” or “Eight Branches” based on Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga.
Patanjali was a philosopher, a Yogi, and a teacher who apparently lived two hundred years before Christ and was the first to write down the philosophical and practical basis of Yoga. His work “Yoga Sutra” has become one of the schools of Indian philosophy.
Explaining Ashtanga Yoga
The practical part of Patanjali’s sutras is called Ashtanga Yoga. The Ashtanga Yoga definition is: Ashta is Eight and Angha is Branches. His purpose is to remove the agony of ignorance, which causes a person to identify himself with his body and not perceive the soul as separate from matter. The eight branches of Ashtanga Yoga are Yama, Nyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratihara, Dharana, Dhyan, and Samadhi.
1. Yama – A work on the inner dimensions through five different guidelines:
- Ahimsa – Non-violence or non-infringement. Avoiding harm to living creatures. Thought, speech, and action.
- Satya – Truths. Developing a quality of honesty and keeping the truth towards ourselves and others.
- Astia – Non-accumulation: limiting desires according to needs.
- Brahmacharya – Control of desires: control of the power that draws consciousness towards sexuality and food.
- Aparigraha – Lack of greed: lack of jealousy of the property or success of others. A situation in which the senses can be diverted from their objects and brought under control.
2. Niyama – A work on external measurements through five different guidelines:
- Suche – purity/cleanliness of the external and internal: keep the body and environment clean, healthy diet, earn your bread honestly. Also, the cleanliness of thoughts, maintaining positive recognition.
- Santosha – Satisfaction, contentment: Accepting changing situations in life with equanimity and joy on your part.
- Tapas – A state in which consciousness and senses are trained by the different disciplines, against their basic nature and experiencing difficulty and suffering.
- Samadhi – reading and observing the instructions of the holy scriptures.
- Ishvarahpernandiyam – Submission to God.
On Yama and Nayama, Pattabhi Jois said in an interview with him that they are challenging. “If you have a weak mind and a weak body, you have weak principles,” he said.
Thus, a weak brain means a weak body. To do this, you build a good foundation with Asana and Pranayama. “(Ptabby Jois, in an interview with Sandra Anderson, Yoga International, 1994)
3. Āsana – body posture in practice. The posture should be stable, pleasant, and comfortable. Through stability in the body, you can create quiet and conscious stability.
4. Prānāyāma – the development of control over the energy of life, by the ability to control breathing. “The sources say that Prana and Apana (two out of five currents of the life force moving within the body) are made equal by maintaining a ratio of equal inhalation and exhalation and by tracking the breath through the nostrils with the mind. If you do so gradually, the mind will be under control.” (there)
5. Pratyāhāra – control of the senses. The gathering of the senses inside and the ability to divert them from the external objects. According to Pattabhi Jois, the meaning of Pratihara is that wherever you look, you see God.
6. Dhāraṇā – Concentration. Focusing the recognition on an internal or external object.
7. Dhyāna – Meditation. The ability to pause the consciousness on the object of concentration. According to Pattabhi Jois: “For Dhyāna, you have to sit with your back straight with your eyes closed and focus on the bridge of the nostrils, and if you do not do that, you are distracted. (there).
8. Samādhi – A supreme state in which consciousness unites with God.
Ashtanga Yoga Benefits
The Ashtanga taught by Pattabhi Jois is a form of Hatha Yoga and focuses on the first four branches: Yum, Nyam, Asana, and Pranayama. This is based on the belief that only after these concepts can one reach the fifth stage, Pratihara (control of the senses), followed by the last stages.
“After the perfect Asana and Pranayama, Pratyahara, the stage of control of the senses comes in. The first four limbs are external exercises… The last four are internal exercises, and they come automatically when the first four are in control.”
According to Ashtanga, we are merely a reflection of our nervous system, and therefore this state dictates how we experience the world. If our nervous system is relaxed and fresh, the body will be healthy and the consciousness alert and responsive. As a result, our thinking will be powerful and clear, and our actions will be successful and rewarding. Separation causes suffering – the union creates freedom.
The philosophy of Ashtanga Yoga also argues that the cause of chaos and the disquiet that characterizes modern times is our separation and separation from ourselves, from others, from nature, and God.
Yoga connects us with inner wisdom, in which no doubts arise about our connection with the world around us.
According to Pattabhi Jois, the daily practice of Ashtanga yoga rejuvenates the entire nervous system, contributes to the body’s health, fills the practitioner with energy, calms consciousness, and frees us from endlessly disturbing thoughts about the future and the past and misconceptions about reality.
The aspects that Pattabhi Jois emphasizes as the main components of Ashtanga Yoga are: Vinyasa – Vinyasa means a system of breathing and movement. Every movement has a breath.
Every Asana has a certain number of Vinyas. The purpose of Vinyasa is internal purification. When you breathe and move along with the asanas, it makes the blood warm or, as Pattabhi Jois says, infuriating the blood. Thick blood is full of dirt and causes diseases in the body. The heat generated by the practice cleanses the blood and dilutes it so that it flows easily and reaches all organs.
The combination of Asanas with movement and breathing causes the bloodstream to circulate freely in the joints, relieving pain from the body. The heated blood moves through all the internal organs, purify them and remove the diseased by sweating that appears during exercise.
By burning this inner fire, it is possible to purify the nervous system and the senses’ organs. These initial stages are challenging and require many years of practice, but they can be achieved by constant and determined practice.
Once these are understood, the control of consciousness comes automatically. We can say that vinyasa builds the foundation for the ability to control consciousness.
Ashtanga Yoga Series
Tristana – refers to the three places to which the attention, or action, moves: the posture, the respiratory system, and the concentration point. These three are very important for yoga practice and cover three purification levels – the body, nervous system, and consciousness. They always appear in combination with each other.
The Asana – The Asana cleanses, strengthens, and softens the body. In Ashtanga yoga, there are six sequences of asanas:
1. Yoga Chikitsa – the first series. Basic and essential series. The word Chikitsa means therapy; the series contains sequences of asanas to strengthen the back, balance, and purify the physical body, works on building strength and flexibility, and is essential to advance to the next series.
2. Nadi Shodhana – the second series. Its purpose is to purify the nervous system by opening and cleaning the energy channels.
3. Sthira Bhaga – The advanced series A-B C D – advanced and difficult to perform these series require a very high level of flexibility and humility. They are based on a continuous practice of the previous series.
Drishti – the point on which she concentrates her gaze in the asana. There are nine concentration points: nose, between the eyebrows, navel, toes, palms, feet, up, right, and left sides.
The theory purifies and stabilizes the function of cognition and helps to strengthen internal concentration.
According to Ashtanga, the respiratory system to clean the body from the inside, two components are necessary – air and fire. The place of fire in our bodies is slightly below the navel. There is our life force.
For the fire to burn, we need the air, which explains the necessity of breathing. As when blowing on a fire, one must keep on the one hand that the fire will not burn out and on the other hand it will not get out of control – this is done by a uniform and controlled exhalation.
The same applies to our breathing – long and equal breathing will strengthen our internal fire, creating heat in the body that will then warm the blood to purify it and purify the nervous system as well.
Pattabhi Jois teaches that the desire to be the exhalation length; this breath purifies the nervous system. When the fire inside is strong, our digestive system, health, and life force are increased. Excessive inhalation and exhalation, or rapid breathing, will reduce the heart palpitations rate from balance and damage the physical body, and automatically, the nervous system.
Another important component of the respiratory system is the pandemonium in Andha and the Indian Bandha. These are the rectum locks and the lower abdomen, which seal energy, give lightness, strength, and health to the body, and help build a strong inner fire.
Without the bandages, the breathing will not be correct, and the asanas will bear no fruit. When the Andhra clamor reaches a perfect state, the control of consciousness is automatic.
The Six Poisons – Another aspect of the inner cleansing, taught Pattabhi Jois, was the six poisons surrounding the spiritual heart. Yoga Sutra says that God is in our hearts in the form of light, but this light is covered with six toxins:
Sex and desire (Kam-kamana), anger (krod), greed (lobh), clinging (moh), pride (mah), and the combination of ego and passion. As the practice of yoga is done consistently and with deep devotion, over a long period of time, the heat produced burns these toxins, and the light of our inner nature shines through them.
Beyond studying these aspects, Pattabhi Jois reiterates that theoretical study is only a fraction of the way. Without practice, nothing will happen. According to him, yoga is a practical theory, and determined and persistent practice is the only key to success.
The Ashtanga Yoga method is universal; it is not mine or yours, this method is complete and perfect Ashtanga Yoga is Yama, Nyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratihara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi – these are the eight stages of the Ashtanga Yoga method. Take control of the Asana.
The final prayer after practicing Ashtanga Yoga
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