The Viniyoga of Āsana Modular Workshop and Courses
– Empower your Practice Exploring how to Customise your Personal Āsana Practice

This Post introduces the Art of the Application of Āsana Modular Workshop and Courses Student Study Programme. As the student progresses through the interlinked and developmental Modules they will experience an in-depth learning in all areas of Āsana practice techniques and Āsana study theory.

Together these Modules will initiate and empower the student into the arts of learning to skilfully work with the principles that underpin creating and sustaining a personalised Āsana practice. The outcome will be the ability, through skilful practice planning, to independently and intelligently choose, adapt and ultimately self-develop and self-refine our personal Āsana Sādhana.

“Another important aspect is that the masters taught us to move from a deeper source,
not just from muscles and joints.”
– TKV Desikachar

The Viniyoga of Āsana Modular Programme is offered as a:

Follow this link for details of Online Personalised Learning Art of Gītā Scripture Study options

The Art of Gītā Scripture Workshop Module One
Search your Heart in The Quest for Relationship with the Beyond

The Art of Gītā Scripture – Module One Personal Sādhana Workshop is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student to a weekend workshop on the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the Bhagavad Gītā.

Based in the Cotswolds, it is a 2 day workshop open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for a student from any Yoga background or style to have an in-depth introduction to the Bhagavad Gītā, either for personal development or, if relevant, professional skills.

Module One Art of Sounding and Chanting Workshop
– Free your Voice as a Way to Experience the Source of Vibration

The Art of Sounding and Chanting – Module One Sacred Sādhana Workshop is limited to around five students to allow for a personalised approach, interactive teaching and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. The 2 day workshop introduces the student to the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the Art of Sounding and Chanting.

It is for a small group of around five students and offers a two day opportunity for a student from any Yoga background or style to have an in-depth introduction to the essential principles, practices and teachings that underpin the practice and teaching of Sound, Yoga Sūtra and Veda Mantra Chanting practice and how they can inspire and guide our personal Yoga practice and study Sādhana, either for personal development or, if relevant, professional skills.

I was privileged to be able to study the Yoga Sūtra in its entirety over three times, word by word, Sūtra by Sūtra along with the commentaries of Krishnamacharya and Desikachar, within the intimacy and vitality of private lessons over 23 years of visits to Chennai.

“The beauty of the Sūtra is that they are only related to the mind.
Thus they stand above various religions and can be studied and
related to by all types of persons from all types of religions.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 1

Rooted through this traditional method of transmission the Yoga Sūtra have long been a support for my personal Yoga practice and study Sādhana. With this in mind I designed a range of Workshop and Course Modules with detailed Yoga Sūtra Workbooks to facilitate being able to offer these teachings to individuals and small study groups of five students for both a personal and professional pursuit.

The Art of Sūtra Psychology Module One Workshops

Offer a 2 day Module as an opportunity for a student from any Yoga background or style to have an in-depth introduction to the primary principles and teachings introducing and underpinning the Yoga Sūtra and how they can inspire and guide our personal Yoga practice and study Sādhana, either for personal development or, if relevant, professional skills.

• Module One – Yoga Sūtra Overview Chapters 1-4

Upcoming Dates for 2021 Module One Workshops – for groups of five students:

Module One Art of Sāṃkhya Philosophy
– Exploring the Primary Principles of Sāṃkhya and its relationship to Yoga

The Art of Sāṃkhya Philosophy Module One Workshop offers a weekend opportunity for a student from any Yoga background or style to have an in-depth introduction to the primary principles and teachings from the Sāṃkhya Kārikā and how they can inspire and guide our personal Yoga practice and study Sādhana, either for personal development or, if relevant, professional skills.

“Sāṃkhya has been fundamental in its influence on the philosophical foundations
underpinning such as Yoga, Buddhism and Āyurveda.”

Based in the Cotswolds, it is open to all except complete beginners and is limited to around five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student.

The Online Art of Sūtra Psychology – 121 eStudy Module One
Clear your Flow Exploring Awareness within Mind and Emotions

This particular eStudy Module One consists of nine 121 live video meetings to facilitate a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student, through an online teaching dialogue, to the primary principles and essential teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar within the Yoga Sūtra.

It is open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for any Yoga Student, teacher or trainee teacher from any Yoga background to develop and deepen their personal Yoga Sādhana.

Exploring Chapter Three of the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali

The Art of Sūtra Psychology Course Module Four
Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three – Vibhūti Pādaḥ
March 27/28th and June 26/27th 2021

This Art of Sūtra Psychology Modular Course is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It is offered as a 4 day course module, comprising two 2 day meetings over 3-4 months.

Based in the Cotswolds, it offers an in-depth study of Chapter Three of the Yoga Sūtra. It is presented with the aim of reflecting the fundamentals of Śrī T Krishnamacharya’s teaching, namely, transmission occurs through the direct experience of the teacher with the students personal practice and study Sādhana.

It is an opportunity for a Yoga student from any Yoga background or style to experience an in-depth exploration of Chapter Three of the Yoga Sūtra of Patāñjali over a 4 day module.

Clear your Flow Exploring Awareness
within Mind and Emotions

The Art of Sūtra Psychology – Module One Personal Sādhana Workshop is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student to a weekend workshop on the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the Art of Yoga as a Psychology.

“Patañjali
 was 
very 
prophetic, because 
he spoke
 not 
only
 of 
yesterday’s 
mind,
but 
also
 of
 tomorrow’s. His 
message 
concerns 
clarity,
and it 
will 
become 
more 
and 
more 
pertinent
 as
 time 
goes 
by,
because 
people 
are 
now
 questioning 
much 
more 
than
 before.”
– TKV Desikachar

Based in the Cotswolds, it is open to all except complete beginners. It offers an opportunity for a student to have an in-depth introduction to Yoga Sūtra study.

Follow this link for details of Online Personalised Learning Art of Āyurveda Lifestyle Study options

The Art of  Āyurveda Lifestyle Workshop Module One
Know your Patterns within The Ebb and Flow of Seasons, Food and Life

The Art of Āyurveda Lifestyle – Module One Personal Sādhana Workshop is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. This weekend workshop introduces the student to the primary principles and essential teachings from Āyurveda and how they were applied by T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar.

Based in the Cotswolds, it is open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for any Yoga Student, teacher or trainee teacher from any Yoga background to develop and deepen their personal Yoga practice and study.

It is presented with the aim of reflecting the fundamentals of Śrī T Krishnamacharya’s teaching, namely, transmission occurs through the direct experience of the teacher with the students personal practice and study Sādhana.

It offers an in-depth approach to Āyurveda texts, through an experiential appreciation of the core teachings that underpin the Art of Āyurveda Lifestyle, either for personal development or, if relevant, to enhance professional skills. It is also a prerequisite to further work in the The Art of Āyurveda Lifestyle – Module Two Course.

Online Live Video Yoga Forum Group eStudy Sessions for your Questions

Another medium I have been exploring options around is the notion of online video based learning groups. As it stands, I am clear that I have no wish to engage in pre-recorded mediums through posting online ‘teaching videos’ or ‘podcasts’, or setting up remote viewing video subscription processes for online webcasts, where there is no live interaction or possibilities for a two way multi-face dialogue.

Personally I feel that pre-recorded remote learning or catch-up Webcasts, or learning at leisure facilities that increasingly abound today are not really comparable to a two-way live learning interaction, even if it is online. I am a Yoga teacher who likes to meet and chat directly with students interested in my Yoga studentship with TKV Desikachar and thus want to offer a resource that can share directly and respond immediately to questions around personal Yoga practice, practice theory, textual study or Yoga teaching.

The Art of Sūtra Psychology Course Module Three
Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two – Sādhana Pādaḥ

The Art of Sūtra Psychology Module Course Three is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student.

“The study that helps us to know where we are from
and what progress we have achieved.
In short, our journey to our roots is Svādhyāya.”
– T Krishnamacharya

Based in the Cotswolds, they are intended for those Yoga students who, having completed 
a Sūtra Psychology Module One Workshop, wish to explore, through a series of 4 day courses, the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two and how they inspire and guide our Yoga either for personal development or, if relevant, to enhance professional skills.

“The Cakra are points of concentration for the mind.”
– TKV Desikachar ‘Concering the Cakra’

The Art of Haṭha Energetics Module One
– Vitalize your Energy Understanding Nāḍī Prāṇa Agni Cakra Bhūta

The Art of Haṭha Energetics – Module One Personal Sādhana Workshop is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student, through a 2 day workshop, to the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar on the Art of Haṭha Energetics.

Based in the Cotswolds, it is open to all except complete beginners. It offers an opportunity for a student to have an in-depth introduction to the primary principles and teachings from the major Haṭha Yoga texts.

The Online Art of Gītā Scripture – 121 eStudy Module One
Search your Heart in The Quest for Relationship with the Beyond

This particular eStudy Module One consists of nine 121 live video meetings to facilitate a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student, through an online teaching dialogue, to the primary principles and essential teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar within the Bhagavad Gītā.

“Jñānam is the wisdom of ‘I am that’.
Vijñānam is the discernment of ‘I am not this’ ‘I am not that’.”
– Bhagavad Gītā Chapter Seven verse 2

It is open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for any Yoga Student, teacher or trainee teacher from any Yoga background to develop and deepen their personal Yoga practice and study.

The Online Art of Haṭha Energetics – 121 eStudy Module One
Vitalize your Energy Understanding Nāḍī Prāṇa Agni Cakra Bhūta

This particular eStudy Module One consists of nine 121 live video meetings to facilitate a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student. It introduces the student, through an online teaching dialogue, to the primary principles and essential teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar within the Haṭha texts.

These Primary principles will be drawn from early formative texts such as the:

• Gorakṣa Śataka composed around the 13/14th Century
• Yoga Yājñavalkhya composed around the 14th Century
• Śiva Saṃhitā composed around the 15th Century
• Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā composed around the 15th Century
• Yoga Tārāvali composed around the 15/16th Century
• Yoga Upaniṣat composed around the 16/17th Century
• Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā composed around the 17/18th Century

We will explore how they inspire and guide our personal Yoga Sādhana, as well as our Yoga teaching. The module is complete in itself and offers a sound overview of the core principles of Haṭha Yoga as a Sādhana.

“Whilst Prāṇa circulates in us, we live, and when it goes, we die.
Prāṇa is responsible for different functions in the body.
Prāṇa expresses itself in everything that concerns life.
there is an important question to be answered.
How does Prāṇa penetrate the different areas of the body?”
– Quote from ‘Concering the Cakra’ by TKV Desikachar

It is open to all except complete beginners and offers an opportunity for any Yoga Student, teacher or trainee teacher from any Yoga background to develop and deepen their personal Yoga practice and study.

The aim is to reflect the fundamentals of Śrī Krishnamacharya’s teaching, namely, transmission occurs through the direct experience of the teacher with the students personal practice and study Sādhana.

Online Individualised Learning within a Personal Dialogue

Over the past decade, with the advent of online video technologies, I have found myself increasingly involved in virtual teaching situations with Yoga students and Yoga teachers. Here I have offered 121 video meetings to facilitate a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student.

Full 2020-2023 Modular Based Workshops & Courses
Programme Diary in Date Order

Please note that all Module Two and onward Course Dates are arranged according to demand from groups of interested students completing Module One Workshops for that particular topic.
All Modular Workshops and Courses are limited to a maximum of five students

The Art of Yoga Sūtra Chanting Course Module Two
Yoga Sūtra Chanting Intensive over Two Weekends

The 2021 Art of Yoga Sūtra Chanting Module Two Course is limited to a maximum of five students to allow for a personalised approach and in-depth transmission between teacher and student.

Based in the Cotswolds, it is intended for those students, having completed 
a Sounding and Chanting Module One Workshop, wish to explore in-depth the primary principles and teachings from T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar teachings on Yoga Sūtra Chanting and how it can inspire and guide our personal Chanting Sādhana or where relevant, our professional work in these areas for others.

Comprising two weekend workshops over three months, each meeting offers in-depth intensive Yoga Sūtra Chanting practice, building on the theory and practice principles taught within the Sounding and Chanting Module One Workshop.

Just putting the finishing touches to the Application of Āsana Module Two manual as I prepare to teach its contents for the four day Course for a small group starting this weekend. Currently running to 90 pages it complements the 60 page Application of Āsana Module One two day workshop manual.

These 150 pages of student training manuals sit within the Āsana section of the Arts of Yoga and Chant Practice Modular Programmes. The Āsana module sits within the five linked aspects of practice which, taken as a whole aim to reflect the Yoga practice and theory teachings of Krishnamacharya and Desikachar.

These five aspects of practice are the arts of Āsana, Mudrā, Prāṇāyāma, Dhyāna, and Adhyayanam or Chanting. This approach to transmitting the teachings of Desikachar as individual threads arose from the choice to make a complete restructuring of all my training programmes, the first major overhaul in 25 years of teaching courses to students and especially training teachers within group class situations.

I am receiving an increasing number of emails from around the globe regarding questions and requests for clarification around Yoga practice, theory and philosophy.

I talk more easily than I type and I also feel direct contact and dialogue is much more preferable to a keyboard based to’ing and fro’ing of views, opinions or questions.

Also we live increasingly in an age where direct face to face, albeit via screen and speaker, contact is possible through media such as Skype, FaceTime, WebEx, etc.

Hence I am proposing an offering of time and space using modern media to engage in a direct dialogue with your questions or requests for clarification with those interested.

Personal Yoga Lessons can be offered whether for Fitness, Well Being or Recovery

Private lessons can be for anybody in any situation or life phase, though those with specific interests or needs 
will find the advantages of working individually more beneficial than group classes.

Furthermore certain situations may better suited to individual Yoga Lessons and require practices and advice customised and developed for home use within the privacy of a personal context.

Thus whatever your situation 121 lessons mean Yoga can be customised to meet your needs as a:

• Developmental Practice for Personal Pursuits of body, breath or mind, or

• Constitutional Practice for Lifestyle Support in sustaining health, energy and vitality, or

• Therapeutic Practice within Recovery from illness, disease or unhelpful lifestyle consequences

with Paul Harvey in the Cotswolds

Paul was taught Mantra and Vedic Chanting privately within 121 lessons by his teacher TKV Desikachar over 20 years. As well as studying Chanting, he also studied Indian singing through 121 lessons in Chennai within both the traditional Indian Carnatic and Hindustani music systems.

Paul also explored the application of Indian voice work in the West with some of the leading proponents of Indian Rāga singing and movement fusion workshops and Indian Rāga 121 vocal skills lessons.

Originally it was during Pauls continuing visits to study the Arts and Practices of Yoga from 1979 with Desikachar in India that he became exposed to the Art of Mantra, Veda and Yoga Chanting. It was taught by his teacher both as a method of transmission for sacred texts and teachings and as a personalised Sādhana through which one became deeply focused as well as facilitating access to the profundity of an experience of the Sacred.

This experience and the other benefits such as a deepening confidence in the message of the heart, improvements in memory through the teaching and learning processes, confidence and power arising in the sound of our own voice, led Paul in 1985 to begin nearly 20 years of formal study with his teacher.

Today marks the launching of a new website for offering Yoga Studies.

For me an exciting and welcome move as it pulls together a number of Yoga teaching, news and research strands into one web site. From this new home I will be more able to weave together the various dimensions of my Yoga communications without having to disperse my energies across numerous mediums.

The new Yoga Studies site will offer all visitors the possibility of easily accessing the various threads that currently live in my web world all from one site. The new venture also means that I now have the means to instantly publish news, blog and Sūtra updates to the web, or to my Facebook and Twitter pages or, if you use the RSS link on the page, to your own computer via your news reader, or via email subscription to your mail box.

I look forward to finally being able to develop my Yoga blog contributions, as well as the Yoga Sūtra Freenotes project in a way that will reach out more skilfully to the Yoga Community and even allow for return contributions to the various posts.

For this new project I am very grateful to my Yoga friend, web mentor and designer Ronen Hirsh for drawing me into the world of WordPress as a vehicle to help me actualise what I need to realise this aspect of my teaching Dharma.