Gregor Maehle's Pranayama : Breath of Yoga, Svara and yogadandasana

No, not a full review of Gregor Maehle's Pranayama book, not yet. I've only just started it and for now I'll just be sharing the odd bits and pieces that suprise and delight me as I go along. For a full and quite detailed review have a look at this post from Claudia
http://earthyogi.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/pranayama-breath-of-yoga-book-review.html

So I'm currently reading  Gregor Maehle's Pranayama : Breath of Yoga, which so far (only a couple of chapters in) seems an excellent treatment of the subject, thoroughly grounded in the ancient texts. I love how he's constantly mentioning, quoting, paraphrasing and directing your attention to different Upanishads, Puranas and other shastras, love being able to go to the primary sources and to take a look at the context, you'll come away with a long reading list of works you'll want to take a look at.

Amazon Link

I mentioned in an earlier post that Mark Singleton is embarking on a Yoga Sourcebook project, however Gregor Maehle leaves you with such a large number of texts already available in translation such that you might question the need for such a book, we just need to hunt around a bit. When I've finished Gregor's book I'll do a post here bringing together links to all the texts he mentions that I can find available online in pdf.

So an interesting section in Gregor's book that I just came across deals with Svara, and how you change the dominance of the right or left side of the brain through use of the breath and trigger points in the armpits. There was a big Ahhhh moment when he mentioned Yogadandasana an Advanced B asana that I practiced a while back and always liked but found curious never understanding why it contained dandasana in the name. Well here's why....

"Traditionally yogis used a so-called yoga danda (yogic staff), which is a short crutch-like device to change the svara. Images of Lord Shiva, the divine yogi, often depict him resting his arm on such a yoga danda.

You may also use your knee as a substitute for the yoga danda. Assume a marichiyasana A-like posture and then press the knee into the armpit to open the opposite nostril. *Advanced yogis may also use a posture called Ekapada Yogadandasana to achieve the same end. here the thigh is extremely rotated externally and the foot placed into the corresponding armpit to change the svara to the opposite nostril. Be careful: Do not attempt this posture unless you have exceptional levels of external hip rotation."

Lord Shiva with his danda

Perhaps I should work at the asana again....or buy a stick, or a wad of cotton wool which would be a lot easier and far more comfortable.

Seems you can actually buy these

*Obviously, just because I can do a fair impression of yogadandasana doesn't by any means suggest I'm an 'advanced yogi', it just suggests I have flexible hips. I like how Krishnamacharya uses 'Proficient' for postures such as these, rather than 'Advanced'. It makes more sense to refer to a relative or certain proficiency in a type of asana, hip openers, backbends, arm balances say,  than sugest Advanced yogi status on account of some fancy shapes.

Here's a link to a page that goes into more detail on Svara.

http://www.swarayoga.org/SwaraChange.htm