Learning Support for Chanting the Sūryanamaskāra Mantraḥ

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Learning Support for Chanting the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.7.6 – Sūryanamaskāra Mantraḥ
– Om Hrām Udyannadya.
From my personal library of recordings from my studies with my teacher TKV Desikachar.
To Download or Listen
To Download the Chant Sheet with Romanised Saṃskṛta and Notations

Learning Support for Chanting the Āyurdhehi Mantra.

Learning Support for Chanting the Taittirīya Āraṇyaka 4.2 – Āyurdhehi Mantra.
From my personal library of recordings from my studies with my teacher TKV Desikachar.
This particular recording is with one of my learning support Chant teachers Sujaya Sridhar.
To Download or Listen
To Download the Chant Sheet with Notations and translation

Learning Support for Chanting the Mṛtyuñjaya Mantra – Om Tryambakam

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Learning Support for Chanting the Taittirīya Saṃhitā 5.4.12 – Mṛtyuñjaya Mantra – Om Tryambakam Saṃhitā Pāṭhaḥ
From my personal library of recordings of my teacher.
To Download or Listen
To Download the Chant Sheet in Romanised Saṃskṛta with Notations
View or Download a Translation of this Mantra as a PDF

Learning Support for Chanting the Gaṇapati Prārthanā Jaṭā Pāṭhaḥ

Learning Support for Chanting the Taittirīya Saṃhitā 2.3.14 – Gaṇapati Prārthanā Jaṭā Pāṭhaḥ.
From my personal library of recordings of my teacher.
To Download or Listen
To Download the Chant Sheet in Romanised Saṃskṛta with Notations

Learning Support for Chanting the Gaṇapati Prārthanā Krama Pāṭhaḥ

Learning Support for Chanting the Taittirīya Saṃhitā 2.3.14 – Gaṇapati Prārthanā Krama Pāṭhaḥ.
From my personal library of recordings of my teacher.
To Download or Listen
To Download the Chant Sheet in Romanised Saṃskṛta with Notations

What is Yoga? – An interview with Paul Harvey on BBC Radio Bristol 1986.

What is Yoga?

– An interview with Paul Harvey on BBC Radio Bristol Feb 1986.

I. Yoga is often portrayed as sitting still perhaps in rather bizarre positions communicating with the depths of human relaxation and comprehension. How accurate a picture is that?

I am delighted to welcome to the Programme this afternoon Paul Harvey who among other things teaches Yoga at the Centre for Yoga Studies in Bath and at the Whiteladies Natural Health Clinic. You also, I think, have a couple of diplomas haven’t you?

PH. Yes I have though I feel that my main training has come not from diploma work but from the closer experience of studying and practising Yoga in India.

I. You’ve only recently come back from India I know and you spent what two years or so in India in the late seventies or early eighties?

PH. Yes that’s right.

I. Where did your own interest in Yoga come from then Paul?

PH. My own interest in Yoga came from a vague understanding of Indian thought and Indian philosophy in the late sixties and early seventies and from looking at the idea of meditation and at what meditation was.

One of the first things I found was that I couldn’t sit still. It was impossible to sit because of the stiffness in my back and the discomfort in my legs and it was my wife who saw an advert for a Yoga class. This was in 1972.

I. But…..A Yoga class? One imagines them all sitting with their legs behind their neck in rather odd positions as I mentioned before. Was that the picture you had in your own mind of Yoga at that time?

PH. I’m sorry to say that the first class I went to was like that. The teacher stood on his head and waved his stomach in and out. He had a rather large stomach so it was quite an extraordinary sight and when we finished the class we all went down to the pub afterwards.

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Legend of Patañjali – Dhyānaṃ Ślokam for Yoga Sūtra as MP3 Sound file…

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Legend of Patañjali
– Dhyānaṃ Ślokam for Yoga Sūtra as MP3 Sound file

It was learnt by heart as a Bhāvana for Dhyānam,
to create a meditational mood linked to Patañjali
prior to commencing, either Chanting practice
or textual study of the Yoga Sūtra.
As taught to TKV Desikachar by T Krishnamacharya.
From Paul’s chant study recordings of TKV Desikachar

Yoga Sūtra Chanting Practice – PDF and MP3 Support Resources

Prārthanā Ślokam – Patañjali Opening Dhyānaṃ Ślokam with Translation

This is a translation of part of the Opening Prayers as taught to TKV Desikachar by T Krishnamacharya and taught by TKV Desikachar to his personal students.

View or Download the Prārthanā Ślokam (Request Prayer) – Dhyānaṃ Ślokam relative to Patañjali.

योगेन चित्तस्य पदेन वाचां मलं शरीरस्य च वैद्यकेन ।
योऽपाकरोत् तं प्रवरं मुनीनां पतञ्जलिं प्राञ्जलिरानतोऽस्मि ॥

yogena cittasya padena vācāṃ malaṃ śarīrasya ca vaidyakena |
yo’pākarot taṃ pravaraṃ munīnāṃ patañjaliṃ prāñjalirānato’smi ||

  ‘Yoga for the psyche,
 grammar for speech and medicine for impurities of the body.
Coming from the lineage of teachers, to Patañjali I salute.’

आबाहु पुरुषाकारं शङ्खचक्रासि धारिणम् ।
सहस्र शिरसं श्वेतं प्रणमामि पतञ्जलिम् ॥

ābāhu puruṣākāraṃ śaṅkhacakrāsi dhāriṇam |
sahasra śirasaṃ śvetaṃ praṇamāmi patañjalim ||

 ‘Up to the shoulders human form, holding conch, disc, sword.
One thousand heads white to Patañjali I salute.’

श्रीमते अनन्ताय नागराय नमो नमः ॥

śrīmate anantāya nāgarājāya namo namaḥ ||

 ‘To venerable, eternal serpent king, Nāga, my reverences.’

It was learnt by heart as a Bhāvanam for Dhyānaṃ, to create a meditational mood linked to Patañjali prior to commencing either chanting practice or textual study of the Yoga Sūtra.

View or Download the Prārthanā Ślokam (Request Prayer) – Dhyānaṃ Ślokam for Patañjali with translation.

View or Download the Yoga Sūtra Full Opening Prayers with Chant Notations (without translation)

View or Download the Prārthanā Ślokam (Request Prayer) – Śuklām Opening Verse with Translation

View or Download the Prārthanā Ślokam (Request Prayer) – Gurubhyastad Opening Verse with Translation

Listen or Download the Yoga Sūtra Full Dhyānaṃ Ślokam for Patañjali by TKV Desikachar as a sound file.

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Āyurveda & Yoga – Dravya and Rasa, Substance and Taste within Food – Part 9 of 12

ĀYURVEDA & YOGA

“All food is medicine, all medicine is food.”

Āyurveda was the one of the first medical systems to realise the crucial importance of the kind of food we eat and to appreciate the interaction between health and disease, disease and food, and food and health. It will be from this point that this article will explore the question of diet by examining the concepts of elements and taste in food.

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Gāyatrī Mantra as taught by T Krishnamacharya – with translation

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tat savitur vareṇiyaṃ
That sun most excellent

bhargo devasya dhīmahi |
on the radiance of the Divine I meditate |

dhiyo yo naḥ pracodayāt ||
wisdom may (that radiance) our impel |

“I meditate on the divine radiance

of the most excellent sun.

May it impel my wisdom.”

Note:
Gāyatrī is a particular ancient metre or rhythmic pattern of twenty-four syllables generally composed as a triplet of three lines with eight syllables in each line.
Hence T Krishnamacharya’s view that Om is not a component part of this Mantra, though it may be added as an accompaniment if appropriate, according to the students background, interest and understanding.

View or Download this post in Romanised Saṃskṛta with a translation and traditional chanting notations.

Laghu Nyāsa – Agnir Me Prayer for Health with Translation

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This mantra is asking for health and long life to link body, senses, energy, mind and awareness.

Learning Support for Chanting the Laghu Nyāsa – Agnir Me
– From the Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa 3.10.8
From my personal library of recordings from my studies with my teacher TKV Desikachar.
View or download this post as a PDF with chanting notations without translation.
To Download or Listen to a recording by TKV Desikachar
To Download the Chant Sheet as a PDF with Romanised Saṃskṛta, Chant Notations and English Translation

Yogena Yogo – Opening Yoga Prayer for Yoga Practice with Translation

CHANT IN PRAISE OF YOGA

Chant from Vyāsa’s commentary to Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 6.

yogena yogo jñātavyo
yogo yogāt pravartate  |

yo’pramattastu yogena
sa yoge ramate ciram  | |

“Only through Yoga Yoga is known,
Only through Yoga Yoga arises.

One who is diligent with Yoga,
Enjoys Yoga for a long time.”

 View or download this post as a PDF with chant notations.

View or Download the Prārthanā Ślokam (Request Prayer) – Dhyānaṃ Ślokam relative to Patañjali.

Āyurveda & Yoga – Dhātu & Mala, Body Tissues and Means of Elimination – Part 8 of 12

ĀYURVEDA & YOGA

Previous articles have presented some ideas of Prāṇa so we can now move towards presenting a more complete picture of how Āyurveda sees the human body. This article looks at how Ayurveda sees the types of bodily tissues and waste products as vital to the effective construction and working of the body.

YOGA AND INDIAN THOUGHT

Yoga is a word that has, within Indian thought, many meanings. To define the word Yoga is very difficult as the word is so adaptable.

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Mahānārāyaṇa Upaniṣad – Ṛtaṃ Tapas as Mantra Practice with translation

Mantra on tapāṣtāṅga or the eight limbs of tapas.

Tapas is an activity of mind, body or speech which demands a keen concentration of thought or requiring unusual and continuous physical effort.
View or download this Mantra complete with Chant notations as a PDF
View or download other Mantra from this Upaniṣad complete with Chant notations as PDF files

Āyurveda & Yoga – Prāṇa and its links within Āyurveda – Part 7 of 12

ĀYURVEDA & YOGA

This article intended to introduce Prāṇa, its origin, function and malfunction. However, Prāṇa is such an important part of Yoga and Āyurveda that I have concentrated on presenting some basic ideas on its relationship to the individual, to Yoga and to the understanding of life known as Āyurveda.

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Āyurveda & Yoga – Prāṇa & The Five Aspects of Each of the Tridoṣa – Part 6 of 12

ĀYURVEDA & YOGA


This article introduces the concept of Prāṇa and its place in Āyurveda within the three principles or Tridoṣa.

YOGA AND INDIAN THOUGHT

Generally the purpose of Yoga is to bring about a change within the prominence of awareness and its subsequent impact on the attitude and function of the individual.

Whether this change is a yoking of opposites or an unyoking of two aspects, seemingly inseparable, time and a process are involved. Also this notion of change may be initiated within an individual’s physical body or emotional responses and mental attitude.

However, within Indian thought there is a concept that is common to the different philosophies and to the different aspects of the individual. This concept is the presence and action of Prāṇa.

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