3. On Yoga Sangraha

The Sanskrit word sangraha means “collection” or compendium.” It can also indicate a gathering or an assembly. The word is also associated with many texts that are collections of teachings. For example, there is:

Tarka-Sangraha: A treatise on Indian logic and reasoning authored in the 17th century CE.

Dharma-Sangraha: A Buddhist text that collects and categorizes various Buddhist teachings and concepts.

Tattvasangraha: An important text discussing fundamental principles of Hinduism.

Yoga-Sutra-Sangraha: A compilation and commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Vedanta-Sangraha: A summary of Vedantic teachings.

Ayurveda-Sangraha: A compendium of Ayurvedic medical knowledge.

Sangraha is used in philosophical, religious, and scholarly works to denote a comprehensive treatment or gathering of ideas on a specific topic. I chose the word sangraha because there are many traditions of asanas in India that I draw inspiration from and that have useful and unique aspects. So, Yoga Sangraha is a collection of asanas from the vast Indian tradition of Yoga.

Here are is a list of some of my inspirations:

The Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, Swami Hariharananda Aranya.

Yoga Makaranda, Sri TK Krishnamacharya.

Yoga Therapy, A Guide to the Therapeutic Use of Yoga and Ayurveda for Health and Fitness, AG and Indra Mohan.

Classical Hatha Yoga, Swami Rajarshi Muni.

Kundalini Yoga Parampara: The Living Tradition of Kundalini Yoga, Reinhard Gammanthaler.

Kumbhaka Paddati of Raghuvira, The Science of Pranayama, Dr. M.L. Gharote and Parimal Devnath

Back Rx, Dr. Vijay Vad

Yoga: Breathing Practices, Pranayama, Sithilikarana & Asanas, Kriyas, Mudras, Bandhas, Om & Cyclic Meditations & Yoga Counselling, Dr. R. Nagarathna and Dr. HR Nagendra.

Emergence of Yoga, TK Sribhashyam (this is an excellent and unique book).

Reading, studying, and practicing the different techniques in each of these books expanded my movement and breath vocabulary, and tuned me into the asanas and pranayamas that I needed to be doing to achieve the outcomes I was looking for. Ultimately, the Yoga Sangraha classes have emerged from this experimentation. There are some postures that I spontaneously did during my morning practices that I would later see in a book—for example, some of the poses that you find in sukshma vyayama, popularized and created by Dhirendra Brahmachari—and others. By paying attention, and remaining quiet and receptive, we are following in the footsteps of the Rishis and Yogis who heard and received all of the various Yogic practices by doing that same thing.

Several of these books came to me from my old friend, who was one of my first Yoga teachers, Robert Moses, with whom I started Namarupa Magazine (as well as the Yoga Education Collective, along with Harshvardan Jhaveri). We have maintained an ongoing dialogue about Yoga and Vedanta for over 30 years. As Father Adam Bucko has said, spirituality is a community endeavor. We can learn a lot in isolation, but we grow with spiritual friends through sharing and dialogue.

Personally, I wanted to create a format for sequences to address some of the problems that I was having with Ashtanga Yoga, which I had been practicing for 30 years but that was no longer nourishing me on a physical or spiritual level. I struggled with consistency of quality of practice and consistency of energy. I also wanted to be careful that I addressed how my nervous system and body communicated to create balance and a sense of relaxation that wasn’t due to fatigue but was a clear and deep relaxation. I wanted the sequence and postures to follow a slow ramp up, and a gradual ramping down—imagine the shape of a bell curve but without the statistical meaning (normal probability distribution)—and a neutral enough start that even if I was tired, or had been working or traveling a lot, I could begin easy and allow my energy to either pick up or have a good place to stop. I also wanted it to be something that I could teach to people as a blueprint for developing nervous system calm and balance.

I believe that the format that has arisen addresses many of these aspects, and I’ll describe the reasoning for them in the next post.


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