Vesatile Mudras

Four years ago, New York Times, the most haloed newspaper on the other side of he Atlantic, came out with an article that yoga is a six-billion dollar industry in that country. It further stated, “If you were annoyed that your local gas station is now a yoga studio, you might blame Vivekananda for having introduced it in national conversation.” Such is the following and popularity that yoga enjoys the world over. Going by current understanding, it is without doubt that yoga is considered as a regimen of physical exercises and breathing practices to keep the body fit. Indeed, the same NY Times article mentions, “Yoga in the US is an exercise cult.”

On the other hand, there are many references in the Vedas and the Upanishads that not only firmly establish the ancient origin of yoga, but also underline what it essentially is. The very first mandala (canto) of the Rigveda speaks of “being mindful in actions (which is yoga) to attain the desired benefits.” The Kathopanishad says, “Firm control over the senses is stated as yoga.” Elsewhere, the same Upanishad proclaims, “An intelligent person realises the innermost self with yoga as concentration of the mind, and overcomes happiness and despair.” Further in Bhagavad Gita, Krishna glorifies yoga with a host of memorable definitions, such as, “Yoga is balance of mind,” “Yoga is the disjunction of of the connection with suffering,” and the most famous of them all, Yogah karmasu kaushalam (yoga is dexterity of work).

In Yog Parv: Festival of Yoga — in the context of performing and visual arts, workshops and interactive sessions — organised by Sangeet Natak Akademi in conjunction with the other two Akademis and several more national cultural organisations, the above and many other gems came out from an evening presentation by M Jayaraman, spearheading  the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandalam in Chennai. He confirmed, “Originally, yoga was considered as one among the six major Vedic schools of philosophy, the other five being the well-known nyaya, vaishesika, sankhya, mimamsa and vedanta.” On how these philosophies compared to the West, he responded pithily, “Based on the experience of Western systems, the term ‘philosophy’ gives us an impression that it’s intellectual jugglery, armchair speculation and has no bearing on our lives. In contrast, philosophy in the Indian context is very close to life and makes life truthful. This is eminently true for yoga as well, as a system of philosophy.”

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras is considered as the seminal foundation in the domain of yoga — written in the beginning of the Christian era or just before that period. Yoga, according to the book, is to establish one’s own true nature by chittavritti-nirodha (calming and silencing the mind). It provides a powerful set of tools, termed ashtanga (eight-limbed) yoga, which leads a practitioner towards his real self — as a sublime goal for self-realisation. Jayarajan elaborated, “The eight limbs — in the ascending order of concentration of mind — of astanga are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Interestingly, yama and niyama are therapeutic prescriptions of Patanjali for social health, with which pathya (dietary restriction) and bhesaja (medication) for individual health go hand in hand.”

V Sumitra and Nandini Ramani followed with their erudite presentations on yoga as related to music and dance treatises respectively. While the kritis (set compositions) of Thyagaraja and Muthuswami  Dikshiter, the 19th century saint-poets, were quoted and sung extensively by way of illustration, it was clarified that kalpita (pre-composed) segments left enough scope for manodharmi (imagined) elaborations in their music. Again, Bharata’s Natyashastra spoke of drishyakavya in terms of dance and drama, each of which comprised abhinaya (expressions) of sattvik (facial), angik (physical), vachik (oral) and aharya (ornamental) kind, yoga, too, consisted in word, sound and image in a composite way.

Navtej Singh Johar’s performance at the end of the evening was a tour de force. Together with his disciple lokesh Bharadwaj, he created variations on the Yogic Surya Namaskar in a multiple manner. Navtej explained, “I’ve practiced yoga since 1980 while lokesh has been training for 10 years. Together, we tried to create sequences and variations, invoking the sun.” Their presentation was in two parts — the first with a Muthuswami kriti: Suryamurti namostutey, in raga Saurastra, while the second part was executed with an incantation from Yogasutra by Navtej himself. The total impact of the slow and serene movements on spectators was mesmerising.