Links to Related Resources & Longer Articles:

• 108 Chanting Practice Pointers
• Veda Mantra Chanting Practice – PDF’s & MP3 Sound Files Support Resources
• Yoga Sūtra Chanting Practice – PDF’s and MP3 Sound Files Support Resources
• A Sūtra Class began with a dedication, it had the effect of orienting…
• Learning to Chant the Four Chapters of the Yoga Sūtra……
• Making a start in learning to Chant the Yoga Sūtra……
• Reflections on TKV Desikachar’s Teaching and Svatantra……
• The concept of Bhāva and Abhāva in Yoga Practice……
• TKV Desikachar Yoga Sūtra Collated Quotes Chapter One verses 1-4

Collated Related Short Posts & Quotes:

“Yoga is Anu–Śāsana Śastra.
It is experiential, not speculative,
it is ancient, with its origin in the Veda.
Sages followed the Vedic teachings and
transmitted their experience to their students.
The students, in turn, learned and experienced the teachings
in their own lives, and thus became competent to teach.
In this way the lineage of Yoga teachers is established.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 1

“Yoga is about learning how to
get out of the way of the Way.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 43

“Can we unlearn as quickly as we learn?
In other words, how to cultivate and refine
the Samskara of learning to unlearn.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 50

“Pratyāhāra is a process that encourages us
to explore the means by which we can learn
to step out of the flow of the river of the senses.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 54

“Meditation can’t be taught,
but can be learnt.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 2

“The learning process is
only possible with Pariṇāma.
Remembering what you
have learnt is only
possible with Saṃskāra.”
– TKV Desikachar on Sāṃkhya and Yoga

“I told this person that I had learnt something like 380 postures in six months,
my daughter could do the same thing in three months,
but this was when I did not know Yoga.
It has taken me years to know how to behave with somebody,
and that is probably more Yoga.”
– TKV Desikachar from an interview in the Journal Viniyoga Italia on Yoga and Well Being.

“People come to study Yoga for many reasons,
however they fall into two groups.
They come to learn or study, or they come
to us for support rather than to study.
So the Yoga we offer to the person
who is inquiring is not the Yoga we
offer to the person seeking protection.
Therefore one can give the wrong advice
to the right person and vice versa.
This can do more harm than if the
person had not come. The intention
must be right, as must be the execution.”
– TKV Desikachar Switzerland 1978

“The original essence of the Yoga Sūtra
was passed on by oral tradition.
First you learn the rhythm of the Sūtra.
This was in Saṃskṛta,
first learning the words or Sūtra, then the meanings.
By learning to recite the Sūtra perfectly it was clear
that you were earnest in wanting to learn their meanings.
The scheme would be to repeat it twice,
in exactly the same tone used by the teacher.
This would take many years.
Thus these days it’s difficult to expect to
understand the Sūtra from a book or a course.”
– TKV Desikachar 1979

“Āsana practice is the beginning that will confirm the importance of observation.
Through observation in Āsana practice we can learn a lot about ourselves
and even probably meet ‘that‘ which is observing inside us.”
– TKV Desikachar 1981

“The request for learning must come from the aspirant.
Only then can be the process be step by step.
First one question which is understood, then the next.
For example Annam is Brahma,
then Prāṇa is Brahma.
This was the traditional approach by the aspirant.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

“In terms of a Śikṣaṇa Krama approach,
Desikachar taught how to cultivate a
skill in actively employing a passive
observation whilst practicing Āsana.
Furthermore, this was a focus cultivated
within all the various categories of Āsana.
Therefore this quality of quiet observation
remained a priority whether in Uttānāsana,
Sarvāṅgāsana, Apānāsana, or even Śavāsana.
Within this, one could also suggest that the
less demanding the Āsana, the more there
is scope for sensory or psychic dissipation.
Hence here, the more there is a need for us
to actively employ a passive observation.”
– 108 Postural Practice Pointers

“Learning how to hold the breath
can lead one to the experience
of being held by the breath.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers

“From this, the role of Prāṇāyāma is to embrace all the
learned qualities of the breath in Āsana and Mudrā,
both in intensifying its energetic potentials, as well
as cultivating its inherent psychological qualities.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers

“Prāṇāyāma can both convert and
refine all the practice techniques of
breath control that can be learnt and
applied within all the different Āsana.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers

“Kapālabhāti is a technique emphasising
a rapid, upper abdominal breathing,
with equal pressure on both the inhale
and the exhale through both nostrils.
It is generally classified as a Kriyā.
So it is applied on its own as a Kriyā,
either before the practice of Āsana,
or, as a Kriyā added to specific Āsana,
or within the practice of Mahāmudrā,
or a seated preliminary before Prāṇāyāma,
or as a learning step towards Bhastrikā.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers

“What you learn from Āsana takes you towards Prāṇāyāma.
What you learn from Prāṇāyāma takes you back to Āsana.
Albeit, to look again at what you thought Āsana was about.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers

“Learning Chanting just from a recording,
is like learning Āsana just from a video.
In other words you can hear the recording,
but the recording cannot hear you.
Equally you can see the video, but…..”
– 108 Chanting Practice Pointers

“As with any skill in the application
of learning, it is only through
personal transmission that the
student’s individually unique
chanting needs can be truly met,
in terms of access to and process
with all of the six phonetic crafts,
namely:
1. Varṇa – Saṃskṛta Pronouncing
2. Svara –  Musical Pitch
3. Mātrā –  Saṃskṛta Timing
4. Bala – Vocal Strength
5. Sāma – Ability to Sustain a Note
6. Saṃtāna – Continuity of Breath and Sound”
– 108 Chanting Practice Pointers

“Better not to confuse what are
merely meditational practices,
with the practice of meditation.
The former may be taught as a
learning step towards the latter.
The latter is something that really
can’t be taught, but can be learnt.”
– 108 Dhāraṇā Practice Pointers

“According to the teaching priorities of both
T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar,
meditation could only be learnt within a 121
relationship, where a practice is sculptured
and fired according to the clay of the student.”
– 108 Dhāraṇā Practice Pointers

“The place of learning is in the space between the Āsana.
In that Āsana practice is a movie, not a series of pictures.
A marker towards Nirodha is not leaking between Āsana.
Thus containing energetic itches on coming back to stillness.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

“Then there are those Āsana that you learn
solely for practices other than Āsana.
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

“Initiating movement of the trunk,
does not automatically guarantee
initiating movement in the spine.
We need to appreciate the difference
and learn how to prioritise the latter.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

“I feel it is important that we don’t view Śikṣaṇa
merely as the ability or desire to accomplish
challenging or technically difficult Āsana, Mudrā,
or Prāṇāyāma under the setting of a Yoga practice.
Why? Because at the heart of the word Śikṣaṇa
lies the attitude that I am here and ready to learn,
to understand and to apply that learning as a skill.
In other words, I am ready to be a student of Yoga.
This appreciation implies that the attitude that is
Śikṣaṇa stimulates the intention to learn what is
Yoga rather then a consuming of experiences amidst
the ever-changing ‘plat du jour’ in today’s Yoga Place.
Thus, Śikṣaṇa is a quality that can be present within
the attitude of a person with limited practice abilities,
or absent in another, in spite of there being a capacity
for using a challenging or technically difficult practice.”
– 108 Yoga Practice Pointers

“Although the inhale is the
exploratory means to learn
more about the Prāṇa Sthāna,
it is initially the exhale that will
teach us about the Apāna Sthāna,
and here is a primary means in the
application of Āsana as a therapy.”
– 108 Yoga Teaching Path Pointers

“Sat viniyoga
is about learning to do more with less.
Asat viniyoga
is about learning to do less with more.
Whether Āsana or Students!!”
– 108 Teaching Path Pointers

“The Viniyoga of Yoga
is the art of learning
how to practice,
rather than
what to practice.”
– 108 Teaching Path Pointers

“Initially, if teaching breath work in group situations,
we don’t need to worry about people using Ujjāyī
or not. Because, even if you are not using Ujjāyī
and you want the student to learn to make the
exhale longer, they must learn how to initiate the
exhalation by contracting the abdominal muscles.
So, making the exhalation longer is something
you can learn and refine independently of Ujjāyī.
Sometimes, even within the very act of making the
exhalation longer people will naturally shift to Ujjāyī.
If teaching individually, we can start with introducing
the student to the process of activating the exhalation.
However, given the uniqueness of the personal dynamic,
initiation into the art of Ujjāyī can usually be presented
within the first lesson, along with accommodating the
structural and the performance differences between the
characteristics of the exhalation and of the inhalation.”
– 108 Yoga Teaching Path Pointers