The Ocean of Yoga

TKV Desikachar and his son, Kausthub, held a 3 day seminar entitled 'The Ocean of Yoga' in Barcelona last week (4th to 6th September 2009). On the evening before the course, they were at a short conference of the same name, which I had the good fortune to attend. Their theme was 'function over form'. Desikachar stressed the importance of doing the right asana practice each day based on a realistic self-examination. He said that any practice which left you feeling heavy or agitated instead of light and calm was not worth doing. Desikachar's father, T Krishnamacharya, had told him to rest for 2 minutes and then take his pulse for 1 minute before and after asana practice. If the pulse had increased or become irregular afterwards, he would know that there was something wrong with his practice. He gave some examples of people who'd suffered problems through adhering to a set practice without changing as appropriate. For adults, he suggested 20 minutes asana practice and 20 minutes simple pranayama each day, as well as 20 minutes meditation for those so inclined. As regards meditation, he stressed the importance of choosing objects in accordance with your cultural and religious background and tendencies. He said that practice should benefit all parts of the body 'sarva anga sadhana' and that we should always remember Patanjali's advice 'heyam dukham anagatam'.

Kausthub enlarged on the 'function over form' theme by giving several allegories such as choosing the appropriate equipment for various activities. He said that anyone could do yoga, whatever their state of physical and mental health, but everyone should practice according to their own capabilities. As most people had taken up yoga as adults, a lot of classical asanas would be beyond them at first. If we try to do these classical postures straight away, we are worrying more about the form than the function. He gave an example of people who buy clothes a size too small because they don't want to admit that they have put on weight, and suffer while wearing them as a result. Another example he gave was of his trip the previous day to the monastery of Montserrat, where you could go up by car, train or cable car - three different methods of reaching the same destination. Perhaps his most striking example was about cooling the system with sithali. Some people could not curl their tongues to do this, but nobody would suggest putting a pin through the tongue to keep it in that shape so that they could do the exercise. Instead, other ways of achieving the same result had to be used according to the student's ability.