A Summary of The Heart of Yoga, by TKV Desikachar

The first section of The Heart of Yoga details a short biography of TKV Desikachar’s father, Sri T Krishnamacharya. He shares some anecdotal stories of his teaching and his relationship with him as his teacher as well as a son.

What particularly comes across, is that Krishnamacharya was wide-ranging (or, perhaps, even, divided) in his teaching concerns. He was an expert on applying yoga asana as therapy, as well as a devoted and traditional Brahmin (of the Vaishnite tradition of Ramanuja) most concerned in the end with Bhakti yoga and God.

‘My father never saw yoga simply as a physical practice. Yoga was much more about reaching the highest, which for him was God.’

It is made explicitly clear in the book that Krishnamacharya’s fundamental approach to asana was guided by the individual application of general principles to a unique person’s circumstances:

‘The essence of my father’s teachings is this: it is not that the person needs to accommodate him- or herself to yoga, but rather the yoga practice must be tailored to fit each person.’

Another aspect of Krishnamacharya’s teaching, reiterated by Desikachar, is his emphasis on the Classical yoga approach of The Yoga Sutras:

‘The most important yoga text as far as my father was concerned was always Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra.’

‘[yoga] as defined in the Yoga Sūtra, is the ability to direct the mind without distraction or interruption.’

‘The Yoga Sūtra suggests the practice of āsanas and prāṇāyāma as preparation for dhāraṇā.’

This is not to say, however, that Desikachar doesn’t also point to the energetic aspect of asana as Krishnamacharya would also, blending the tantric and classical approach:

‘There is a common misconception that āsanas are only positions for meditation. If we look at Vyasa’s commentary on the Yoga Sūtra though, we see that most of the āsanas he lists there are so complicated that with the best will in the world, we could not attain a state of dhyāna in them.’

What comes across in Desikachar’s book is how pragmatic and down-to-earth he is in his approach to yoga:

‘If we want to make this principle of āsana practice a reality, we must accept ourselves just as we are.’

Desikachar’s practical instructions on asana are extremely valuable. They pretty much mirror exactly his father’s instructions (those in The Yoga Makaranda). Here, we find a primary emphasis on breath, and, again, the emphasis on the holding of the breath in asana that we don’t hear much of today:

‘The breath has a very important role in āsana practice. We should not compromise the easy flow of the breath to achieve the āsana.’

‘By deliberately combining the backward bend with an inhalation, you make the movement easier and more effective. (In contrast with forward bends, which are only done on the exhalation.’

‘Another technique for invigorating and deepening our practice is to lengthen the natural pause between the exhalation and inhalation and between the inhalation and exhalation.’

‘Holding the breath after exhalation intensifies the effects of the āsana on the abdominal region. Conversely, holding the breath after inhalation in certain āsanas intensifies the effects in the chest region. As a working rule, the following principles.’

Another principle Desikachar mentions which was fundamental in the teaching of his father but we don’t hear much of today is posture-counter posture:

‘We use postures to balance the possibly negative effects of certain strenuous āsanas. We call these neutralizing postures counterpose or pratikriyāsana.’

I also couldn’t help but include this quote on ‘forward folding’ which is still a matter of great confusion in modern asana:

‘Paścimatānāsana translates as “the stretching of the west,” because in India we traditionally face the east when we pray or practice āsanas; in that position our back is facing west. So the real purpose of the āsana is to facilitate the movement of the breath in the back.’

And, also this one on downward dog – given that we stay here in Ashtanga Yoga for several breaths, this is a better explanation why than simply stretching the hamstrings;

‘Another simple position for practising the bandhas is adhomukha śvanāsana, the downward-facing dog pose.’

It is also worth singling out this particular quote as important for the modern student of pranayama;

‘Do not become interested only in holding the breath; many people think they can progress quickly along the yoga path by practising breath-retention techniques, but problems often arise with this emphasis.’

Here, I return to what I see as a dynamic tension of the book; that between pragmatism and the acknowledgement that we are working with an unprovable energy (something that qualifies yoga as such). Accordingly, we find him talking about prana:

‘What we are trying to do when we practice prāṇāyāma is nothing more than reduce this rubbish and so concentrate more and more prāṇa within the body.’

‘The more disturbed a person is, the more prāṇa is dissipated and lost. One definition of the word yogi is “one whose prāṇa is all within his body.”

‘Prāṇāyāma is the movement of the prāṇa toward the apāna and the movement of the apāna toward the prāṇa.’

He also views kundalini as an obstruction to prana as Krishnamacharya famously did:

‘if we are successful in our practice, the kuṇḍalinī is burned up, making the way clear for prāṇa.’

Yet, having said all this, the below esoteric statement (more or less the only one on asana in The Yoga Sutras), is qualified most pragmatically by Desikichar in the book as better handling of situations as they arise:

‘In the Yoga Sūtra there is another very interesting claim made about the effects of āsanas. It says that when we master āsanas we can handle opposites.’

Accordingly, it can be hard in the end to know exactly where Desikachar comes down in his treatment of yoga, as a pragmatist or traditionalist;

‘Following the Yoga Sūtra, we can say that prāṇāyāma is first and foremost awareness of the breath’

Finally, to end, I thought Desikachar’s way of describing the famous citta vritti nirodha worthy of note (again, illustrating his blended way of looking at modern yoga);

‘The syllable rodha is derived from the root rudh, “to be wrapped in”; ni-is a prefix that indicates great internal intensity. Nirodha describes a state in which the mind focuses exclusively on one thing without being disturbed by other thoughts or external distractions.’