Shiam Mehta - Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Part II

Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Part II

What my mother told you What she did not say The system of Lord Shiva

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Shyam Mehta, 1952 − 2009 Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Part II

Volume 34 of The Loving Heart Centre Collection

ISBN: 978-1-4092-9089-6

© Shyam Mehta. © Cover page Shyam Mehta.

All Rights Reserved

2

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Bibliography I have written the following 42 books. Each and every word in all the books came directly from God, Shri Krishna. But the books are often unpalatable to the prejudiced modern western mind. Sometimes what has been said seems humorous. Sometimes absurd. But each and every sentence can be re-examined carefully with a meditative mind to garner snippets of truth which will help you in your life. For example, with my book ‘Perfecting Your Emotional Energy Sphere’, merely looking at my cover painting for 3 minutes will enable your disturbed emotional energy (after an upset, rudeness, anger and so forth) to be cured. I do not believe that I have made any mistakes in transcribing for you what my Lord has said. What is western nowadays? The whole world is western now. Hence when I say ‘prejudiced western mind’, I risk alienating the whole world. Such is my inner nature or that of God. He seems to be doing a good job at this project though.

A Book of Jokes, ISBN: 978-1-4092Nice non sexual non racist jokes.

A Man's Guide to Developing Love and Happiness, ISBN: 1-4121-5210-0 I show both men and women that you can lead a happier life more peacefully than you think.

Astrology and Dream Analysis, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9024-7 Your astrological number. The messages from your dreams. The system of Allah.

Autobiography of me, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8654-7 Who I really am.

Christianity, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9112-1 Why all the evils of the world start from this. Why it is now history.

Economics, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9137-4 An original practical view of this old ‘science’.

Final Thoughts, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8953-1 This sums up the most practical of all wisdoms that you need to develop a healthy, happy, loving fun-filled life.

Future World, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9058-2 What is a reasonable view on the main factors impacting you over the next 20 years?

God, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8918-0 Predictions. You need to decide.

Health, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9052-0 What a to do. What to do. What not to do.

How to Teach Your Child English, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9135-0 A better method.

3

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

How to Teach Your Child General Knowledge, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9104-6 Most of what it learns it does not need. Here is what it does need.

How to Teach Your Child Maths, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9103-9 Maths made simple and complete for very young people, by a mathematician.

Human Being Self Analysis Kit, ISBN: 1-4121-5380-8 Exactly how well do your sex organs, your body, your emotional centre and your mind function?

Indian Marriage, ISBN: 1-4121-5321-2 How can you achieve a long lasting happy marriage?

Indian Philosophy and Religion, ISBN: 1-4121-5211-9 Indian philosophy is to do with helping you achieve your purpose in life.

Lessons from Animals, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8897-8 Your immune system is badly damaged. Why is this not true for wild animals?

Natural Medicine, ISBN: 1-4121-4384-0 What will help you and what will not.

Oxford University, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9098-8 In this world, only Swiss Universities are worse. Why knowing this is important to you.

People with no Clothes, ISBN: 1-4121-5365-4 Why Bangalore, India, was the place to be 50,000 years ago. How many babies did they have? Where are people with no clothes today?

Perfecting Your Emotional Energy Sphere, ISBN: 1-4121-5164-3 You need to tackle the root cause, the single emotional disease that is adversely impacting you.

Perfecting Your Love Energy Sphere, ISBN: 1-4121-5169-4 You need to search for love. It does not in this age fall on your lap. It takes time and effort.

Perfecting Your Mental Energy Sphere, ISBN: 1-4121-5165-1 The perfect mind absorbs the information you need, analyzes it with dispassion, and then decides.

Perfecting Your Physical Energy Sphere, ISBN: 1-4121-5167-8 Is your body fit and strong, healthy? Are you happy with it the way it is?

Perfecting Your Sexual Energy Sphere, ISBN: 1-4121-5163-5 Your need an active sex life with your marital partner. What steps are needed to achieve this?

Poems and Songs, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8831-2 Poetry is prose that rhymes. Here are some beautiful poems and songs.

Physics, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8758-2 The absurdities in modern physics. The true laws of physics.

Science, ISBN: 1-4121-5235-6 New sciences to help the world.

Shrîmad Bhagavad Gîtå and Commentary, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8758-2 Forget the other translations and commentaries. This is the one for you.

4

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Spiritual and Religious Journey, ISBN: 1-4121-5206-2 All of your energy spheres need to be satisfied. You need to start with your sexual energy.

Stories for Children, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8990-6 Lovely stories to make them forget about TV, computers and other modern horrors.

The 108 Heads of Lord Patanjali, ISBN: 1-4121-5160-0 I use simple mathematical logic to show that the Yoga Sutras are a trap for scholars.

The Eight Sacred Texts of India, ISBN: 1-4121-5162-7 I show that these were constructed carefully to impress and influence India’s Persian rulers.

The History of the World, ISBN: 1-4121-5166-X There is a single reason for the whole of the history of the universe, from its beginning.

The Psychology of the Mind, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9042-1 Mr. Western Psychologist, is the fundamental make-up of my mind like that of Einstein or Stalin? He has no idea. In this book I present original thoughts on how you can understand yourself.

Western Philosophy, ISBN: 1-4121-5207-0 I summarise what it is.

What Men Should Know about Christian Women, ISBN: 1-4121-5450-2 Two types of women. They both need love. This book tells you how to love one of them.

What to do about Swine Flu and Other Matters, ISBN: 978-1-4092-90773 I have the antidote.

Women laid bare, ISBN: 978-1-4092-8960-9 Their purpose. Their functionality. Their design (s).

Yoga, ISBN: 1-4121-5161-9 There are many adverse effects from doing yoga exercises, breathing techniques and meditation.

Yoga: The Iyengar Way, Part II, ISBN: 978-1-4092-9089-6 What the postures are for and when to do them.

Your Self and Mind, ISBN: 1-4121-5208-9 Today, the mind itself, the self itself, is going wrong. I explain what you can do to help yourself.

The books can be purchased from most book sellers. The books are available in English and are becoming available in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese Mandarin, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many of my paintings can be viewed on my web site page: www.lovingheartcentre.net/MyPaintings.htm

5

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

6

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Preface Back in the late 1980’s, my mother wrote the main text for Yoga: The Iyengar Way, on one plane journey (eight hours’ work) to India. But, it was a family venture: I earned the money so my mother, sister and I could each year afford to go to India and study yoga with Mr Iyengar, our then (now ex) guru. I was adept at the yoga postures but did not have time to do much to the text other than look over it and make suggestions for improvement which my mother then thought about and incorporated. The philosophy section was contributed by my sister and the pictures in the book were again a co-operative venture. Although they were only of me and my sister, my mother had a sharp eye for what was good and ‘bad’ posture and made numerous suggestions as did my sister and I. Now my mother is no more and my sister suffers from mental ill-health. Hence I am the only author of this book! Yoga: The Iyengar Way was immensely popular amongst all yoga students across the world. It was the first book to in an attractive way set out how to do the yoga asanas in a considered and reflective fashion, with enormous attention to detail that the postures warrant. Indeed, later photographs from the book were sent to the Indian Postal Service for a competition as to what would be the best yoga-related art work for stamps and my and my sister’s photographs won. So, one year, all 2.50, 4.00, 6.50 and 8.00 rupee stamps made in India carried photographs of me and my sister performing yoga asanas. But, my ex-guru Mr Iyengar became jealous and all the yoga teachers from other sects of yoga practice also did not like to promote the best book when their own teachings in asana practice were so deficient. Hence sales of Yoga: The Iyengar Way fell off. This is one of the side effects of incorrect yoga practice: the development of pride. I discuss many of the other often truly tragic side effects of yoga practice in my other books, including my book ‘Yoga’. Well, Yoga: The Iyengar Way remains the best book in terms of what my mother wrote about: the detailed reflective and accurate way of doing the yoga postures that Lord Shiva has given to mankind.

7

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

The nature of Lord Shiva needs to be studied carefully before practising yoga postures. If you disturb His yoga practice in any way you get hurt. In extreme cases, He opens one eye and you get spiritually burnt for all time. Even His own son, He chopped His head off (the story of Lord Ganesh). What will Lord Shiva do to you if you misuse His sacred asanas, disclosed to mankind for their religious progress towards loving Him, only? Misuse consists of: • •

Doing asanas for your health or for any purpose other than to develop your love for God Teaching asanas for monetary gain or to ‘make’ disciples or to gain pride and students: any purpose other than to develop your love for God which of course includes developing the love for God that your students have.

Well in the coming years, many will have this desire to love God. Hence I write this book. Shyam Mehta The Loving Heart Centre www.lovingheartcentre.net 5 July 2009

8

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Contents Bibliography ........................................................................................... 3 Preface..................................................................................................... 7 Contents .................................................................................................. 9 Chapter 1: Standing Poses .................................................................... 11 Chapter 2: Sitting Poses ........................................................................ 13 Chapter 3: Sirsasana.............................................................................. 15 Chapter 4: Sons of Sirsasana................................................................. 17 Chapter 5: Sarvangasana....................................................................... 19 Chapter 6: My Experiences with Twists............................................... 21 Chapter 7: Jumpings ............................................................................. 23 Chapter 8: Rope work ........................................................................... 25 Chapter 9: Arm Balances ...................................................................... 27 Chapter 10: Savasana............................................................................ 29 Chapter 11: Net Beneficial Effect Zero? .............................................. 31 Chapter 12: Pranayama ......................................................................... 33 Chapter 13: Yogic Meditation .............................................................. 35 Recommended reading list.................................................................... 37

9

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

10

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 1: Standing Poses Well they give you strength and stamina but is that all? No. They also destroy your ligaments. The constant stress cannot be noticed in the ordinary way. But, ligaments are not meant to be stressed with strange postures day-in day-out. In the normal course of events you may stretch your ligaments one way or another, for example if you always sit with your legs crossed. But, with yoga, you train yourself to be able to stretch and stay in every direction imaginable. Constant tension is one thing that the ligaments can adjust to, they can adapt in shape and direction to always sitting with your legs crossed. But constant random tension in all directions is fatal for them. But, it takes time to destroy ligaments. It does not happen overnight. They wear out gradually. If you do 1 hour of standing postures per day it will take about 25 years before you need a knee operation or a hip replacement. This is if you have a good milk based diet. 11

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net Another issue with standing postures is the tension they cause in the brain. Again, as a beginner you may not notice it. Instead of tennis elbow the repetitive strain is to your brain. The brain becomes inflamed, you get easily upset and angry. Becoming angry one tends to lose self control and memory. A permanent cycle of mental ill health sets in.

12

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 2: Sitting Poses The main problems here are with your knees and with your lower spine. The lower spine is not built to have such an extreme bend day-in day-out. It is just a question of time before you slip a disk. Similarly, your knees are not built to have such extreme bends as in Virasana and Padmasana and Janu Sirsasana (and all bent leg sitting poses) with strain as you bend forward. This time it is the cartilage that is being damaged. At the same time, it should be said that the sitting poses are a counter pose to the strain on the brain caused by standing poses. They relax the brain. This is the main benefit of sitting poses. They do not as commonly believed tone up other muscles and ligaments.

13

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

14

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 3: Sirsasana This is known as the king of all postures: standing on your head. It has enormous benefits as we all know, and as discussed in Yoga: The Iyengar Way. I need not describe these more. Your whole body is toned. But, for every benefit in yoga there is an equal and opposite harm. Your arms get toned but your brain gets strained. And so forth. Good blood flushes the brain but so does ‘bad’ blood. The negative effects take time to build up into disability. For example, if you do 10 minutes per day for 30 years, it will cause you to become insane. In the mean time you get some benefit. Which do you want more?

15

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

16

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 4: Sons of Sirsasana These are known as backbends, with the head lower than the chest. They have similar effects to Sirsasana, but they also weaken the spine. They put constant strain on the heart. A strong spine is useful if you need to carry things but otherwise does not matter much. With the world changing, in the future I believe that a strong spine will be rather useful. The strain on the heart is good for you, it helps you live longer. But, it also weakens the heart in other ways so that you become more susceptible to heart attack. Which do you want more?

17

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

18

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 5: Sarvangasana This posture is also known as neck or shoulder balance. It is the queen of all yoga postures. There are two varieties, one with a support under the shoulders but not the head and the other with effectively no support. In Iyengar Yoga, we always use a support and then the posture has similar effects to Sirsasana. But not as intense. With other systems there is no support. There is more pressure in the head and hence the blood flows less to the head and there is less beneficial effects and ‘bad’ effects also. Overall, the net bad/good effect as with all yoga postures is zero. With the lack of support, the chest is caved in and hence has less strain. But the other parts of the body do not get toned much.

19

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

20

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 6: My Experiences with Twists Well, they are not as bad as they seem. If you do not put in much effort and with most twists it is difficult to put in much effort, you do not get much good or bad effect. Done correctly, they are like pushing a wall: you can do it with lots of puffing and huffing or with none. With lots all that happens is later you rest so net effect is nil. Done incorrectly they are incredibly damaging to the hips and lower spine particularly (besides the knees). On the other hand this gives spine flexibility: useful if you need to climb trees in the future, for example.

21

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

22

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 7: Jumpings There are advantages to a sedentary life which the jumpings help you overcome. God gave 20th century mankind a sedentary life style (with washing machines, cars and so forth) for a reason. This is so that one can sit and think, specifically about right and wrong, about one’s direction in life and so forth. Before that one was always too busy with work related activities or with sex. With so much sex on TV and in magazines etc., interest in sex has died out a lot. Sedentary life style also makes performance poor. So, doing jumpings makes you unable to sit and think. It makes you ‘hyper’ for 24 hours. But your performance improves (unlike with doing all the other postures).

23

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

24

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 8: Rope work These are like supported jumpings, milder in effect.

25

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

26

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 9: Arm Balances There are two types, one with the head on a level with the chest and one with the head below chest level (balancings versus Adho Mukha Vrkshasana, for example). There is nothing new to add for these postures. If the head is below they are like Sirsasana, otherwise their effects are much diluted (like pushing against a wall). As with all yoga postures they give one pride (before a fall...).

27

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

28

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 10: Savasana Here one simply tries to relax when one is not sleepy. It is not possible. You can only pretend. And pretence is the main adverse effect of postures like Savasana. One gets into a habit of pretending and increases what I call in my other books ‘Guna Measure’, distance from God. One becomes tamasic in nature. Of course it cannot be denied that Savasana also has a beneficial effect in yoga: it relaxes one and de-stresses one from a hard day’s night or work or yoga work-out.

29

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

30

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 11: Net Beneficial Effect Zero? Well this is not the case. I give you an example of what I mean. I gained the benefit of doing a modest yoga practice (averaging three hours per week) over many years. But my knee ligaments are severely damaged and my spine is weak as a result. Will this damage me? Will my knees give me severe or even modest problems before I die? I think not. It all depends on whether you are on a path towards God or not. When you think of Him do you cry?

31

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

32

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 12: Pranayama This is yoga breathing technique. It is described in the ancient texts as ‘like taming a lion’. I discuss it extensively in my book on ‘Yoga’ and in some of my other books.

33

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

34

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Chapter 13: Yogic Meditation Well this is a much more advanced practice than is breathing exercise. It directly impacts the brain rather than only the lungs and vital energy required for your body (as in Pranayama). So with Meditation, you need to turn to God for assistance if you wish to try it. But I do not recommend it. I discuss the old age effects of dementia in my other books.

35

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

36

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

Recommended reading list If you find the need to read this book, then you will also benefit from reading: 1. Yoga 2. Indian Philosophy and Religion 3. Christianity 4. Shrîmad Bhagavad Gîtå and Commentary 5. Spiritual and Religious Journey 6. The 108 Heads of Lord Patanjali

37

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

38

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

39

The Loving Heart Centre, www.lovingheartcentre.net

40