14) Questions regarding the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Practice

I am writing this post after going through the blog post of another blogger Claudia who had written about a similar topic in her blog titled "New Changes in the Primary Series of Ashtanga" . If one looks at the Ashtanaga Vinyasa Yoga format one can see to it that it was never a static one and had been evolving over the times . These days there is lot of confusion in Ashtanga Circles regarding the following questions :

1) When to start secondary series ? Should one wait till the primary series is over and then start secondary or should one start practicing secondary along with primary ?

2) How many times Surya Namaskar A,B ? Is it :5,5, 3,3,5,3 ?

3) Should one practice Vinaysa between the sides or just between the postures ?

4) Some postures that were in the past in Primary series is not here now and some that were not in past are included now in the series and which is the right approach ?

5) Should one practice a mini series as given by David Swenson in case there is less time or should one strictly stick to the classical ashtanga sequence without changing the Order ?

6) Should one wait for mastering a posture before going to the next one or should one just continue to practice a set sequence without bothering about whether one masters a particular posture or not ?

7) Should one use props or modified positions as given by David Swenson or should one avoid props of any kind ?

8) When should one start Pranayama?

and like this I can go on and on regarding the type of questions that exist with regard to the Ashtanga Vinaysa Sequence and every senior teacher of Ashtanga Vinyasa will have their own answers to these questions and no 2 teachers may speak in the same way .This is because each teacher had his or her own back ground before coming to Guruji  ( some totally new to Yoga , some had been through other styles like Sivananda , Iyengar etc ) and some came in 70s when there were very few foreigners , some came in 80s when little more foreigners came and some in 90s when Ashtanga was getting more popular and the classes at Mysore become more crowded and for each person Guruji's approach differed  .My own Ashtanga Yoga Teacher Louise Ellis said to me that  when she started Ashtanga in 1990s said that Guruji after starting   primary  with her quickly put her in to  secondary as she had previously 20 years experience in Sivananda as well as Iyengar Yoga .So there is no standard answer to any of the questions listed above .It all depends upon one's previous yoga back ground , one's  flexibility and fitness levels and one's own commitment to the path of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga .

My feeling is that one should not go to either extremes while practicing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga  i.e never be too fanatical about the tradition  that you blindly do the practice without applying common sense and also never disrespect the tradition by doing things as per your own whims and wishes in the name of creativity(i.e mixing various styles in to Ashtanga )  or so called listening to one's body ( not everyone is competent to do this ) . Either extreme approach is dangerous and will lead to either injury or frustration later .

Ashtanga Vinayasa Yoga is a form of serious yoga practice and one will not get answers to all the questions by few days or few weeks of practice or by attending various workshops  and one must have a minimum commitment of 10 years of daily dedicated practice to understand all its subtle aspects .

So to start with it does not matter whether one follows the David Swenson's approach , Sharath's approach , Richar Freeman's Approach , John Scott's approach etc etc as long as one keeps a daily commitment to the Ashtanga practice and go slowly and steadily , use the modifications/props when required and later drop  it all together when you reach a stage where you can do the entire  practice on your own effortlessly using the proper co-ordination of breath , drishtis , bandhas and movement .

So that should be the goal : i.e an effortless practice of the entire series with the proper co-ordination of breath , drishtis , bandhas and to achieve this goal one must go slowly but steadily keeping the above points (i.e breath , drishtis , bandhas ) in focus during the practice without getting side tracked on other asana related issues which I feel is minor in nature and of not any serious importance . Many people in an eagerness to master the series go about practicing the series with the focus on asanas and on the jumps more( where there is lot of  counter opinions )   without giving importance to the other aspects of the practice : breath , drishtis , bandhas ( where there is very less controversy )which are  very much vital to the understanding of the complete Ashtanga Vinaysa Yoga practice as a whole .

So while the outer forms of the Ashtanga Vinyasa Practice may vary with time but its essence i.e co-ordinated practice with  breath , drishtis and bandhas will always remain same and hence one should  not get side tracked with these minor issues regarding asanas and jumps  and learn to focus on the broader integrated practice and reap the benefits of the Complete Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga practice . This is the essence of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Practice according to all leading Ashtanga Teachers right from Krishnamacharya ,Guruji up to Sharath  now .

13) My First Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga Teacher - Louise Ellis

Today i.e 4th April is the birthday of Louise Ellis my first Ashtanga Vinayasa Yoga Teacher and I dedicate this blog post to her .Kindly go through my blog post "No:10) My first Mysore Ashtanga Yoga Class experience " regarding how I started my Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey with Louise Ellis .
Though my training with Louise Ellis was a short one but I consider it very valuable and treat it as a form of formal initiation for me for my Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey . I wanted to get initiated in to my Ashtanga practice only through Louise Ellis because I was  from a Sivananda Background and she also started her Yoga journey first with  the Sivananda system and Rishikesh being the place where Swami Sivanananda( my first Yoga Guru )  started his spiritual mission , I wanted my formal Ashtanga Inititaion to be at Rishikesh instead of at Mysore .
I am right now maintaining my own personal Ashtanga Vinyasa Practice at my own home and happy doing that .If time and situation permits I may go for further studies with Louise Ellis at Rishikesh or go to Mysore to study under Sharath or Saraswathi .The beauty of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga  is that it teaches you to be self reliant and develop your own inner discipline and that is what I am doing right now i.e focusing on developing my own daily dedicated Ashtanga Vinyasa practice .Since I come from a different yogic background ( i.e Sivananda Style ) , I am finding it quite challenging to adapt to the  Ashtanga Vinyasa style and hence going bit slow but steady in my Ashtanga Vinaysa practice and do not want to rush through as I believe that rushing through will result in injury and moreover we have the time tested saying "Slow and steady wins the race " and I follow that  principle for my own Ashtanga practice.
I am very much thankful to Louise Ellis for being the first  teacher  to formally initiate me in to the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga  practice and pray the almighty to bless her with long life , good health and abundant prosperity to keep inspiring many people around the world to take up the practice of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and in the process help heal the world.

More about Louise Ellis :
Louise Ellis has been a practitioner of yoga for 40 years and has been teaching for 35. She began studying in Mysore with her Guru Sri K Pattabhi Jois in 1993 and is one of the few women to have been certified by him to teach the Ashtanga Vinyasa system. Having started out with the study of traditional hatha yoga, pranayama and philosophy under Swami Vishnudevanda in 1971, her background includes several diverse yoga systems in which she has both practiced and taught. Her individualized approach to teaching centers on the development of pratyahara and ease in daily practice through the use of breath, dristhi and an attitude of surrender and bhakti. She maintains a dedicated daily practice and continues to travel  extensively in India and around the world to teach. American by birth she is currently based in Rishikesh, India, where she  offers an ongoing Mysore program.

For more details about Louise Ellis and her classes refer her website :
http://www.ashtangacenter.com/index.html

10) My first Mysore Ashtanga Yoga Class experience

When I first started to investigate about Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga after completing my Sivananda Advanced Yoga Teachers Training Course ( ATTC ) in 2004 , I came across Louise Ellis through the net .It was quite an accident that I came across her name at the ashtanga.com site and when I went through her website I was thrilled that she too had a back ground at the Sivananda System and had done the Sivananda Yoga Teachers Training Course (TTC ) in 1971 directly under its founder Swami Vishnu devananda .Soon I was in touch with her through emails /chats but could never meet her directly until September 2010 . As my interest in Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga was not very great in 2004 I dropped it and started to focus on the Sivananda System of Classical Hatha Yoga itself .  But in 2010 after I completed the Sivananda Sadhana Intensive Course ( SI) in Jan 2010 for the second time ( I did the first one in Jan 2009 ) ,I decided that it is time to move ahead of the Sivananda System and came across Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in Summer of 2010 .I have detailed in my earlier blog post  titled "2 How my Ashtanga Vinayasa Yoga practice began " about this journey .

So in the summer of 2010 when I started seriously getting interested in the Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga I decided to learn it myself using Books , DVD's as there was  no proper Ashtanga Shala in my City ,Chennai .In fact in India itself there is no proper Ashtanga Shala except the one of Pattabhi Joise  in Mysore run now by Sharath and Saraswathi .Of course there are few others in Mysore and other places but those are being run by people not directly Certified by Pattabhi Joise . So as a first step I got the relevant books related Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga like David Swenson's Ashtanga Yoga Manual ,Gregor Maehle's Ashtanga Yoga books ( both Primary as well as Intermediate series ) , downloaded the Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A,B Charts as well the entire Primary series Charts from the internet , downloaded David Swenson's Primary series videos from you tube and started learning on my own and practicing the same . As there is a wonderful online ashtanga community on the net  ( and some even maintaining detailed blogs of their practice right from the start ) I could very much connect with the way many people have started their ashtanga journey ,the challenges they faced etc etc .

Once I got bit familiar with the Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A,B and the standing poses I felt the need for a guided audio practice and got hold of Sharath's Ashtanga Primary Audio CD (Available from the site ashtanga.com ) and started to practice the same . It felt as though Sharath was personally instructing me . Though my practice was only up to the completion of the standing sequences ,I felt that I have got a good start as far as my ashtanga vinyasa practice was concerned .It took me a while to get used to this Ashtanga Vinyasa Practice as I come from a different style whose sequence and method are very much different from that of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga and whose style I have been practicing for more than  10 years . Even though I was happy with my personal  Ashtanga Vinaysa practice I felt the need for a direct initiation of the practice under a proper certified ashtanga vinyasa teacher  as I felt that while books , DVDs ,CDs can give you knowledge , inspiration and instructions they cant give you the energy of a live teacher . So while I was probing over how to solve this problem of finding a proper live ashtanga teacher to initiate my Ashtanga Journey I came across again Louise Ellis and got to know from her website that she is giving her Mysore style ashtanga classes in Rishikesh from September - December 2010 . This was like a spiritual call to me as Rishikesh in the land of Yoga where my first spiritual Guru Swami Sivananda started his Global spiritual mission and since Louise Ellis also started her Yoga journey with Sivananda Tradition in 1971 ,I felt that nothing better can be than having my first proper ashtanga initiation at Rishikesh ,the land of Yoga under a senior Ashtanga Vinyasa Teacher  who also has a Sivananda background .So I immediately booked my ticket as well as the hotel reservations to Rishikesh for end of september 2010 and luckily a friend of mine also wanted to join me ( though he was not interested in practicing ashtyanga yoga and  he wanted to just have a spiritual break in Rishikesh ) .Luckily for me the flight was available at very cheap rates and the hotel was also not expensive( I stayed at Hotel Narayan Kunj , Swarg Ashram , near Ram Jhula Rishikesh ) and  since it was being shared by my friend  I have to pay only half the rate and I felt like things were all falling in place . As I was visiting North India itself after a gap of 14 years and Rishikesh after 19 years and I was full of excitement .I sent an email to Louise Ellis informing my confirmation of my trip to Rishikesh to take her classes .

Once I landed in Rishikesh on Mon 27 September 2010 evening ,the first thing that I did was to  visit the Holy Ganges river and wash my hands ,legs and sprinkle few drops of the holy ganges water  on my head as a symbolic holy bath and then  visited  the Samadhi Shrine of my spiritual Guru Swami Sivananda at Divine Life Society to receive his blessings before starting my Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey . When I came back to the hotel I got in touch with Louise Ellis over her cell and informed her of my arrival and she told me to come for class the next day at 7 a.m at the Yoga Hall at  the Divine  Ganga Cottage near Laxman Jhula in Rishikesh .

I went half an hour early and when Louise Ellis came I informed her about my lack of real life  training in Ashtanga and she told me not to be worried about the same and just relax as this was a Mysore class and there is absolutely no pressure on me to be intimidated by other's performance .She handed out to me a photo copy of Ashtanga Primary series sheet as well as the copy of Ashtanga Prayer sheet .

The class started it at 7 a.m ( Tue 28 September 2010 ) with the Ashtanga Prayer and after that everyone started to do their own self practice and I started doing on my own Ashtanga Surya Namaskar A-5 rounds and B - 5 rounds and Louise Ellis was watching me over and she said they were correct and after that she demonstrated one by one each of the Standing Sequence and asked me to do the same . I had no problem in doing most of them except  Utthita Hast Padangushtasana ( Upright Hand to Big Toe Posture )  .After the standing poses were over , she introduced  to me one by one  the basic sitting poses  along with the Vinyasyas between the sides as well as between the postures up  to Navasan and said  that for any beginner to Ashtanga Vinyasa practice Navasan is the stopping point and after that one can continue with the concluding postures.For me the sitting postures some were easy and some were challenging  and it was quite a new challenging experience for me doing the Vinyasas between the sides as well as between  the postures  and finally  and I did the concluding postures on my own  and I got wonderful adjustments from Louise Ellis for Paschimottasana( Intense Western Stretch )  and Urdhva Padmasana ( Upwards Lotus Posture ) .The concluding postures were not a great difficulty for me as I am used to head stand , shoulder stand , halasan etc as part of the Sivananda Asana routine .Then I had a very good final relaxation for  10 mts .The entire session lasted 90 mts and I concluded around 8.30 a.m and she told me that this will up my regular practice for the next few months and I need to master all the postures up to Navsan before proceeding to the other postures in the primary series .
So this was my first ever real life Mysore Ashtanga practice in a Shala under a real life teacher and happy that I got my formal Ashtanga Initiation under Louise Ellis and I can never forget this first ever Mysore Ashtanga Class experience  on Tue 28 September 2010 at Rishikesh  under Louise Ellis and I consider that date to be my date of formal initiation in to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga .

8)Best Introductory books for Practising Ashtanga Vinayasa Yoga

When I started on my Ashtanga Journey first in 2004 I had Pattabhi Joise book "Yoga Mala" but I found it difficult to use that book for my personal practice as the book had lots of instructions and only few pictures and moreover the instructions and pictures were in different places and I had to keep turning back and forth the pages to know which instruction is for which pose . Since I was fully immersed in the Sivananada System of Classical Hatha Yoga at that time I was not motivated much by Ashtanga Yoga and though "Yoga Mala "was rich in content but  the way in which the instructions and pictures were laid out put me off in seriously pursing Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga . When I restarted my Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey in Mid 2010 ( I consider 2010 to be the real starting point of my Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey ) I was on lookout for a good Introductory Ashtanga Instruction Manual to follow and found the following 2 books to be very excellent books for any student beginning their Ashtanga Vinyasa Journey and the books are :

                                  1)Total Ashtanga by Tara Fraser

                                  2) Ashtanga Yoga the Practice Manual by David Swenson .

While David Swenson's Ashtanga Yoga Practice Manual is quite popular and famous among the Ashtanga Community , Tara Fraser's book "Total Ashtanga" is not that much popular but it is equally an excellent book for beginners . This book by Tara Fraser was never in my list of Ashtanga Books as no one in the Ashtanga Community talked about it ( except for one serious Ashtanga blogger ) and every one were talking more about David Swenson's Ashtanga Practice Manual followed by John Scott's book on Ashtanga Yoga and Gregor Maehle's books on Ashtanga Primary and Secondary series . I came to know of Tara Fraser's book while I was on a Trip to Rishikesh in the end of Sept 2010 to learn formally Ashtanga Vinaysa Yoga under Louise Ellis . As I was going through a book shop in Rishikesh I was surprised to find this excellent introductory book on AsIhtanga Vinyasa Yoga by Tara Fraser and immediately bought it and since then have started using  it more often   as reference for my Ashtanga Vinyasa Practice . I  would say that John Scott and Gregor Maehle's books would suit more for a person who has had a quite an in depth practice  and for a beginner it is better they choose either Tara Fraser or David Swenson's book on Ashtanga Yoga .The reason why I am suggesting these 2 books are :

 1) They are like a ready reference manual with each page having a picture of the posture and its basic instructions .

2) Modifications are given for difficult postures .( While Hard Core Ashtangis refuse to use props , these books make use of basic props to attempt the difficult postures ) .

3) The layout of the book is that there is a perfect balance between pictures and instructions and makes it easy for a beginner to follow the instructions looking at the picture .

 4) The instructions are also quite simple and not too technical and easy to follow .

5) David Swenson's book covers both the primary as well as secondary sequence and if a person is keen on learning both these sequence it is better to get David Swenson's book . Tara Fraser's book covers only the primary sequence .

5) Both these books at the end give a complete Ashtanga Primary Sequence in Picture format .David Swenson's book also has the Secondary series sequence .So even if u do not have an Ashtanga Vinayas  Poster , this picture sequence can help guide you properly . In fact I keep Tara Fraser book by my side when I practice my Ashtanga sequence .

 6) Both these books give a short primary sequence and while  I have not tried them ,it would be very helpful for those who want to have a short primary practice .

So in  conclusion I would say that if you serious in learning both the primary and secondary ashtanga vinyasa sequence then it is better get David Swenson's book but if you are unsure about your own commitment to Ashtanga Vinaysa Practice then better get Tara Fraser's book as it is a simple one  and deals with just the  primary series .

Note : No book can substitute for the instructions received from a qualified real life  teacher but in the absence of a proper Ashtanga Teacher these 2 books are the best guides for you as a beginner to Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga .