Links to Related Resources & Longer Articles:

• Compendium of Quotes from TKV Desikachar on the Yoga of T Krishnamacharya……
• Question to Krishnamacharya – “Can you explain the concept of Vinyāsa and Pratikriyā Āsana?”

Collated Related Short Posts & Quotes:

“Can these four Yoga Aṅga – Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prāṇāyāma
– be practiced by everyone at every stage of life?
How often and how long should one practice?
How can we adapt our practice to changing circumstances?
These questions and others like them must be answered by a competent teacher,
according to each student’s individual circumstances.”
– T Krishnamacharya on Yoga Sūtra Chapter One verse 30

“According to Patañjali, we firstly need to appreciate
how we choose to inhabit our inner space, within our
personal world, as in the Niyama within Kriyā Yoga.
Only from there can we more fully appreciate how we
can choose how we inhabit our outer space, within our
interpersonal world, as in the Yama within Aṣṭāṅga Yoga.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two

“Can reflection on the relationship
between Svadharma and Dharma
be deepened through the lens of
viewing Niyama within Kriya Yoga,
and Yama as within Aṣṭāṅga Yoga?
This viewpoint, offered by Patañjali, is
one that suggests a preliminary Personal
Svadharma Sādhana, in terms of the three
Niyama introduced as Kriya Yoga in the
opening section in the Sādhana Pādaḥ.
Here, this foundational relationship
offers a Vinyāsa Krama towards how
we can intelligently embrace the more
complex Universal Dharma Sādhana,
in terms of the five Yama within the
Aṣṭāṅga Yoga, that follows later in
the Sādhana Pādaḥ of the Yoga Sūtra.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two

“Yama – How we relate, how we face the society we are part of.
How we link ourselves to others in speech, action, confidence.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 30

“When approaching  the Bāhya Aṅga
aspects inherent in Aṣṭāṅga Yoga,
we could start by looking at the social
and private indicators  of Yama and
Niyama from a personal starting point,
rather than a universal aspiration point.
This is a concept that can appear to be
contrary to more usual expectations
within the Yoga world whereby we are
often given a set of universal standardised
principles which we are urged to constantly
aspire to and strive towards realising.
A concept, by its very nature, prone to
triggering additional factors such as
personalised self-esteem conflicts, both
overly positive, as well as overly negative,
let alone being, self or other ‘Yoga Judged’,
as the bar that we are often presented
with is seemingly set extremely high.
This can be further blurred by the
issues of judgement from others formed
from inherent expectations based on a
personalised perception of how near to,
and especially how far from, we are to some
internalised judgement of a universal ‘goal’.
Rather than one based on an understanding
of the ‘others’ situation in terms of how far
we have moved from our starting point
relative to our inherent Karma, given our
early life patterns and social upbringing.
This shift of reference point of view was
commented on by Desikachar in 1976:
“Progress must be seen as the
distance from the starting point,
rather than the more usual reference of
the distance from the finishing point.”
– Paul Harvey on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Two verse 30

“Saṃyama is an evolved practice,
especially compared to the earlier limbs,
from Yama to Pratyāhāra.”
– TKV Desikachar on Yoga Sūtra Chapter Three verse 7

“Regarding Yama and Niyama, these days, he believes, they have no validity except for two of them.
First, what is called Satya Niyama, or what to speak, what not to speak, to whom to speak, how to write, what not to write. These are Satya Niyama.
Another Niyama that should be followed is Āhāra Niyama. That is, how much to eat and what to eat, according to age, profession, etc. You see, the ancient people believed that a young boy could eat as much as he liked. But a Saṃnyāsi should only eat eight handfuls of rice, no more, per day.”
– TKV Desikachar from lectures on ‘The Yoga of T Krishnamacharya’, given at Zinal, Switzerland 1981.

Question to TKV Desikachar on Yama and Niyama:
“The idea behind Yama and Niyama is the attitude we have to the inside and outside.
If I don’t know what is true there is no question of telling the truth.
However there is the intention, because one day it may become a reality.
Even though some of these things are not there in the beginning, if the intention is sincere then one day it will become an action if conditions and our psychological state change.
Yama as telling the truth also means discretion.”
– TKV Desikachar France 1983

“In other situations,
I may use teachings from the Upaniṣad
to define certain aspects of a human being,
like the one about the five aspects of a human being, Maya.
This proves very useful to highlight specific aspects of Yoga
like the Yama and Niyama, etc.
When I must explain the Guṇa,
I cannot avoid referring to the teachings of Sāṃkhya,
which first mentioned this subject.
I often use ideas derived from the Bhagavad Gītā,
but I am not mistaking this teaching with Patañjali‘s.
In short,
I don’t hesitate to make use of any valid source
which helps me to explain, or to clarify a Yoga teaching,
provided I know where it comes from and of which system it is part.”
– Extract from an interview with TKV Desikachar on Vedic Chanting

“Prāṇāyāma is where the
breath controls the mind,
rather than the mind
controlling the breath.”
– 108 Prāṇāyāma Practice Pointers