My Studies with Úrå Krishnamacharya Srivatsa Ramaswami
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MY STUDIES WITH úRÅ KRISHNAMACHARYA SRIVATSA RAMASWAMI úrà Krishnamacharya during class at his residence in R.K. Puram. Photograph by Dr. Radhakrishnan. SPRING 2007 13 for ásana practice in the morning and for chanting or the study of texts in the evening. I never got bored. Every class was unique; there was always something interesting, something profound. My studies with Krishnamacharya can be broadly classified into three groups. There was a longish study of Haôha Yoga, following his now famous Vinyása Krama, including individual and specific therapeutic applications. I learned several hundred vinyásas built around very important classic poses. There were preparatory vinyásas, then movements within the ásana itself, and pratikriyás or counter poses. My first few years of study were focused on general ásana practice. I studied in a small group made up of the members of my family gathered in a large room in our house. úrà Krishnamacharya came to our house in the morning almost daily to teach. He taught different ásanas to different Srivatsa Ramaswami, Chennai, January 2007. members of our family, depending upon HENEVER úRÅ KRISHNAMACHARYA The arms should be close to the body the age and condition of each individual. Wtaught me, prayer came first. but not touching the body, and the There was my eight-year-old kid sister, Classes started with a meditative folded hands, inclined by about thirty energetic and supple. I was about prayer (dhyána ùloka) to Lord Viüóu degrees, should be held in front of the sixteen. My brother was around twenty for the success of the session, followed heart or the sternum. With a straight and, at that time, in need of particular by prayers to Lord Hayagràva, the back and head slightly bowed, úrà attention. úrà Krishnamacharya gave repository of all Vedic knowledge, and Krishnamacharya would be a dignified him special assistance. Then there were to Lord Käüóa. Next would be a prayer picture of peace and devotion. my thirty-five-year-old mother and my appropriate to the topic at hand—to In this article I would like to focus forty-five-year-old father to complete Patañjali if it was a yoga program, to on what I studied with my guru, úrà the group. While there were some Bádaráyaóa for a program on Brahma Krishnamacharya, rather than writing ásanas and movements that all of us Sâtras, to Kapila for a Sáêkhya class, a historical account of him. Enough practiced, there were many that were or the appropriate peace chant (ùánti articles and books have been written different—particular and appropriate to páôha) for upaniüadic vidyás and Vedic about his greatness; I think it is each individual. úrà Krishnamacharya chanting programs. There would always important to know what he taught. It is had great skills of observation. He had be a Pârva-ùánti (beginning peace clear that he taught different subjects to a booming voice and a certain firmness invocation), and following tradition, different people differently at different and authority in his instructions. It was class would always end with a peace times. Here is an account of what I always fascinating to see him teach so chant called Uttara-ùánti, normally learned from him. many people differently at the same the surrender ùloka to Lord Náráyaóa I studied with Pandit Krishnamacharya time, a feat in itself. found in Viüóu-sahasranáma, and the (as he was known in Madras at that time) My father had my upanáyanam, forgiveness or küamápana-stotra, if it from 1955 to 1988. Of course there a ceremony for initiation into Vedic was Vedic chanting class. The way my were a few breaks, many times brief, studies, performed when I was ten. guru maintained añjali-mudrá while sometimes longer, but on the whole my At that age, I learned some ásanas at saying the prayer was a point of study. study with him was nearly continuous school, well-known postures such as He said that in this mudrá the palms for that entire time. After every break sarváïgásana, padmásana, matsyásana, should be slightly cupped while keeping I would go back to him and, without and a few others. But on the very first day the hands together. There should be a hesitation, he would give me time to of my study with úrà Krishnamacharya, I hollow between the palms sufficient to continue with the studies. Normally, I learned a yoga practice so different from hold an imaginary lotus or your heart had two to three sessions per week, but what I had been taught and how I had in a gesture of loving offering to the there were occasions when I had the seen others in India do yoga. He asked dhyeya, the object of your meditation. privilege of going to him twice a day— us to stand in tadásana—standing with 14 ISSUE No. 6 both feet together. After some wait in normal fifteen to sixteen breaths per the pose, he asked us to keep our heads minute. My father used to like talking down and slowly raise our arms, inhaling to Srinivasan; one day, after conversing slowly with a “rubbing sensation” in with him, my father mentioned that he the throat. “Inhaaaaaaaaaaaaale,” he was a worthy son of the great yogà úrà said, “raise your arms slowly overhead; Krishnamacharya. interlock your fingers and turn them outward.” To this day, that is how I COMPLETED MY UNDERGRADUATE start my ásana practice and how I teach I work in electrical engineering a class. It was the first time I had ever in 1960. By then I had been úrà heard someone instructing to move the Krishnamacharya’s student for about limbs with the breath. “Exhaaaaaaaaale,” five years. I had learned many of the Krishnamacharya. Photograph byPhotograph Srivatsa Ramaswami. he said, “lower the arms with a hissing important poses such as sarváïgásana, úrà sound in the throat. The hands should padmásana, vajrásana, and dhanurásana touch the sides as you complete your plus several práóáyáma methods. But it teaching—the vinyásas, the breathing, exhalation.” It was so new and exciting. was time to take a job. As an electrical the counter poses, and rest pauses—he The seeds of Vinyása Krama were sown engineer, I got offers to work as a trainee was more accessible and communicative. in me on that day with that movement. in a government-owned, lignite-based It was a great experience studying ásanas Learning the various vinyásas was electric-generation company about 150 with him. Soon he added several ásanas a lot of fun. Because I had done ásana miles from Madras or in a hydroelectric and vinyásas and práóáyámas to my practice when I was even younger, the plant in the hilly regions of Nilgiris, practice. learning was smooth. Integrating the about 350 miles from where I lived. After a while, another dramatic change breath with movements and keeping the One day as my teacher was leaving took place. Desikachar asked me if I was mind closely following the breath made for home after teaching classes in our interested in learning Vedic chanting a profound impact on the practice. house, I told him that I was leaving from his father, as he was going to start If yoga meant union, then the union Madras to take a job. He immediately studying with him. Before meeting úrà of mind and body was easily achieved turned to my father and asked if he Krishnamacharya, I had studied Sanskrit by using the breath as the harness to would find a job for me in Madras itself. and Vedic chanting for almost four years unite them. In addition, this initial He indicated that his son Desikachar with a Vedic scholar in my house. With training got one comfortable with the had also graduated in engineering and this scholar I used to learn chanting breath in preparation for more involved would probably find a job in Madras. with my father almost every morning práóáyáma and sowed the seeds of My father, who was a founding partner before dawn. We learned to chant the dháraóá, or meditation, with the breath in a leading stock brokerage firm, talked entire Sârya-namaskára, taking about spot (práóa-sthána) as the focus of to some of his friends and arranged a an hour, and the Rudram Camakam, the attention. few interviews for me. I took a job in a Vedic prayer to úiva. And there were the In the summer of 1958 or so, I went motorcycle company. But for my guru’s Sârya-namaskára, Taittiràya Upaniüad, with my parents to úrà Krishnamacharya’s timely intervention, I would have missed and Mahánáráyaóa Upaniüad. Yes, I was house in Gopalapuram. My guru’s a lifetime opportunity of studying with interested in chanting with my guru, family had just moved to Madras from a great soul. but I was surprised. How could a yoga Mysore. We met his gracious wife, his úrà Desikachar’s arrival in Madras teacher teach Vedic chanting? I had eldest son, Srinivasan, his younger son brought about a few momentous always found that Haôha Yoga teachers Sribhashyam, and the last daughter, changes. He soon started teaching, had no background at all in chanting or Shobha. His second son, úrà Desikachar, still working as an engineer in his old texts, but had expertise only in the had come for summer holidays outside job. One day, in a dramatic physical aspects of yoga. Anyway, I said from Mysore, where he was doing development, úrà Krishnamacharya told that I was interested, and the next day undergraduate study in engineering. my father and me that he was stopping Desikachar told me I could join him on His father introduced me to him.