Saturday, 1 December 2012

RISHIS - Srivatsa Ramaswami's December 2012 Newsletter

I was quite excited by this Newsletter from Ramaswami this morning as I've posted playfully on this topic a few times, see my Rishi page at the top of the blog and this post in particular with pictures of many of the Rishi and the postures named after them.
Ashtanga Rishi made up of Rishi Asana?

Also excited about Ramaswami coming to the UK next year to teach his Hatha Yoga Pradipka course.

December 2012 Newsletter from Srivatsa Ramaswami—RISHIS 

I started this monthly newsletter four years back, from Jan 2009, 
thanks to the generous help from Ross Smith who created the whole 
setup and my friend David Hurwitz ( Yogi Dave) , David has gone 
through each and every one of my articles these four years, and made 
the necessary corrections and passed on brief valuable opinions. I am 
very thankful to both of them. I hope some of you may have found some 
of the articles of some use. But it gave me an opportunity to write 
several topics that were floating in my mind and based on the 
teachings of my guru. This way one can communicate freely with 
friends. Of course most of my writing require heavy editing. Thanks 
are also due to my friend  Anthony Hall for posting these regularly in 
his highly popular Yoga blog and making them available to more yoga 
friends. Thank you all for the kind support and interest shown all 
along. 
You may access my earlier newsletters from the following link 
http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasa-krama-announce?hl=en 
Any comments or suggestions? Please write to in...@vinyasakrama.com 

For the year 2013,  I am scheduled to teach a 200 hr  week Teacher 
Training Program at LMU in July/Aug and a 45 hour program at Ricky 
Tran's Krama Yoga in Dallas in April  and at Suddha Weixler's Chicago 
Yoga Center for a week in September as  I mentioned earlier. I am also 
scheduled to teach in Wells. UK,at Steve Brandon's Harmony Yoga in 
May . It will be 18 hrs of Yoga Chikitsa Krama, 24 hrs of Yoga Sutra 
and 18 hrs of Hatayoga Pradipika. And 6 hrs of Suryanamaskara with 
mantras. I may also possibly teach in San Fransisco for about ten days 
including Memorial day weekend. 
  
**************************************************
RISHIS 

During my long studentship with Sri Krishnamacharya, he taught several 
asanas and vinyasas normally not well known at that time. Some bore 
the names of renowned sages or rishis. I had known about rishis being 
associated with a few asanas even earlier but these were mostly seated 
poses, basically meditative postures like Vajrasana also known as 
Dadhichi asana about which I had written earlier. But Sri 
Krishnamacharya taught several new asanas I had not known, not even 
heard of before. These were also featured in his book Yoga Makaranda. 

Some like Bhardwajasana, Marichyasana are simple seated poses but many 
others are more difficult ones and one may wonder if the rishi would 
be able to stay for a long time in those postures and also meditate. 
Of course some of the asanas were one legged poses like Bhagiratasana 
and Durvasasana but I had heard  and also read in some puranas that 
such one legged standing poses were resorted to by several tapasvins 
to get the blessings of the Lord. The asanas named after rishis and 
taught by my Guru can be classifies into simple seated meditative 
poses like Dadhichi asana (vajrasana), more involved seated poses like 
Bharadvajasana, Matsyendrasana, Marichyasana and others. Then we have 
a few poses which can form a group like the 'side plank' poses such as 
Vashishtasana, Viswamitrasana, Kasyapasana and others. Then we have a 
series of poses centered around 'ekapada sirsasana' like Kapilasana. 
Krishnamacharya thus taught many asanas bearing the names of well 
known rishis—many of which I had not heard of, before I came to study 
with him. 

These Rishis were well known though, not necessarily for their 
yogasana capabilities. There is a view that the entire vedas was 
called Arsha or the creation of rishis, even though Sri 
Krishnamacharya would say, quoting the vedas, that the vedas are 
apourusheya or not created by human beings. The view is that the vedas 
were created by creator Brahma when creation took place but were 
dormant. The rishis with their deep contemplation were able to tune in 
with the hidden vedic mantras and then gave it to human beings for 
proper use and understanding. So the rishis were known as “seers of 
mantras”, as Yaska the vedic etymologist would say “Rishayah 
Mantradrashtarah”. But then vedas were considered revelation of the 
absolute truth so another definition of a Rishi as quoted by Sri 
Krishnamacharya from a well known Sanskrit thesaurus “Amarakosa” is 
that Rishis are revealers of Truth (Rishayah Satyavachasah). Of course 
both the definitions could amount to the same. So we can say Rishis 
are those who reveal the absolute truth after they experience the 
truth through the discovery of vedic mantras. Some scholars indicate 
that the words Rishi, Rtam (truth), Rju (proof), Rk( vedic mantra), 
Arjava (straightforwardness) can be traced to one sanskrit root “rj' 
meaning 'to be straight' . 

Kapila was a vedic rishi, and still some Indian families carry his 
name. According to Bhgavata purana he was the avatar of Lord Narayana 
Himself. His discussions and advice to his mother on spiritual matters 
known as “Kapila-devaahuti samvada” is very well known. He is credited 
with the formalization of the Samkhya philosophy. It was also known as 
Seswar Samkhya. He is also credited with the Samkhya Sutras one of the 
earliest works on Samkhya even as Iswarakrishna's Samkhyakarika became 
the standard text for Samkhya philosophy. Kapila also is associated 
with the story of how the Ganga was brought to earth from the lofty 
heights of the Himalayas by Bhagirata. Please read the story of 
Bhagirata in an earlier Newsletter. 

Maharshi Kashypa is another well known vedic rishi. Reference of 
Kashyapa is found in some Buddhist literature also. Rishi Kashypa is 
mentioned along with the understanding of the solar system in the well 
known Surynamaskara portion of the vedas. ”Kashyapaf pashyako 
bhavati”. He is said to be the son of Marichi (does it ring a bell?) 
who was believed to be one of the ten 'mind children' (manasputras) of 
Brahma. Here is an interesting story about how different species were 
created. Kashyapaa married 13 women and through them were born so many 
offspring/progeny that the whole universe was filled different beings. 
Divine beings like the 12 suns (adityas), several creeds of demons, 
tigers and lions, birds like garuda (eagle), then snakes and other 
reptiles all were born to these women, each set of species to 
different wives. Kashyapa thus became the father of all beings and all 
beings of the universe were considered to be related to one another 
(not just the human beings) through a common forefather Kashyapa. Thus 
not only other human beings but all the beings belonging to all the 
species were considered kith and kin. Many families in India still 
carry his name. 

Sage Bharadwaja is another renowned vedic rishi. He is considered to 
be a great vedic scholar and teacher. An episode found in the Kaataka 
portion of the Taittiriya sakha of Yajur Veda would be of interest. 
Bharadwaja was so much concentrating in studying the vedas that even 
as the life was coming to an end  he was still continuing with his 
studies. Indra, the Lord appeared before him and reminded him that it 
was almost the end of his life. He told Bharadwaj, “Bharadwaja!! If I 
give you another human life what would you like to do?” Back came the 
reply, “I will study the Vedas further”. Upon that, the Lord asked him 
to look at the three huge mountains the Lord created and took out from 
each one of them a handful of earth and placed them before Bharadwaja 
and said, “These mountains represent the three vedas and the three 
handfuls of dirt in front of you represent the vedas you have studied 
so far. You see the vedas are innumerable and infinite (ananta vai 
vedaH) and any number of births would not be sufficient to exhaust all 
the vedas. You try to understand the essence of the vedas, the source 
of all the Universe, the Brahman.” And Bharadwaja became a great 
spiritual teacher of the vedas. Again many families carry the 
Bharadwaja name. 

Vasishta and Viswamitra are two renowned vedic rishis. I have already 
written about these two in an earlier article “Yogagate”. Viswamitra 
is credited with revealing one of the most important mantras of the 
vedas, the Gayatri which is used by thousands everyday and is the 
mantra used lifelong by many. Viswamitra also is credited with 
teaching a pair of important mantras to Lord Rama (and Lakshmana), 
known as balaa and atibalaa mantras in the Ramayana. If one masters 
the bala mantra one would not tire during a war and the atibala would 
protect the disciple from thirst and hunger while on the battlefield. 
Again many families still carry the name of Vasishta and Viswamitra's 
earlier name Kausika. 

These are some of the stories of rishis well known to yogis through 
the asanas that bear their names. There are many more rishis whose 
lives, discoveries and service to mankind in the spiritual path are 
very significant and can be found in vedas, puranas, itihasas, smritis 
and various other ancient works. 

Usually mantra meditation(japa) is well organized. When one wants to 
use a mantra she/he should associate the mantra with the author rishi 
of the mantra, the meter in which it is constructed and the devata or 
the divinity it addresses. If you take the gayatri mantra, you first 
say the rishi of gayatri mantra is Viswamitra and touch your head 
(nyasa) with the finger tips as head(brain) is the thinking instrument 
the rishi used to discover the mantra. One touches the nose(instead of 
the mouth) and mentions the name of the meter in which the mantra 
occurs and then one touches the heart and mentions the deity that the 
mantra represents. In the case of the Gayatri mantra the meter is 
(nichru)gayatri and the devata is  savita the bright sun and of course 
the rishi is   Viswamitra.  There is another interesting procedure for 
the  Gayatri meditataion. Prior to Gayatri meditation one has to 
welcome or imbibe/invoke into oneself Goddess Gayatri and there is a 
mantra called  'gayatri  avaahana mantra '.  the rishi of this vedic 
mantra is Vamadeva and the meter is anushtub and the devata is of 
course Gayatri. Likewise when one uses the pranava, the rishi in this 
case is Brahma the creator Himself-- it is said in the vedas that 
Brahma created the Universe chanting “OM”. “Om iti brahma prasauti” 
say the vedas. Then in the daily Sandhya routine the seven vyahritis 
mantras are used while doing pranayama. The seven vyahritis are bhuH, 
bhuvaH, suvaH etc. These are important mantras next only to pranava 
and gayatri. Which are the rishis associated with these seven mantras? 
They are the seven rishis (sapta rishis) who are Atri, Bhrugu, Kutsa, 
Vasishta, Gautama, Kashyapa and Agirasa. What are the seven main 
meters found in the vedas? They are gayatri (6 syllables per line), 
ushnik (7 syllables), anushtup, the most common meter (8 syllables), 
brihati (9 syllables), Pankti (10 syllables) tushtup (11 syllables) 
and jagati (12 syllables). And the devatas or divine beings 
represented by the mantras and meditated on in the heart would be 
agni, vayu, arka, vageesa, varuna, indra and visvedevaH. 

When I was young I used to do the rishi asanas with reverence. One day 
I started wondering how the sages could stay in these postures like 
viswamitrasana, durvasasna for a long time and still meditate. Maybe 
some yogis gave the names of rishis for some of the postures. Maybe 
asanas with rishi names can be found in older texts like puranas and 
smritis, I do not know. It is one of the million questions I did not 
ask my Guru. Many postures are named after objects like 
catushpadapeetam or table pose, Some were given the names representing 
the effects the posture has like paschimatanasana (posterior stretch 
pose) or sarvangasana (whole body benefiting asana) and some were 
named after rishis I guess. The rishi poses are majestic,  great fun, 
but the mantras and philosophies of the rishis are very profound 
indeed. Rishis are known  and remembered more for the mantras and 
philosophies and not so much for their yoga poses. 

Sincerely 
Srivatsa Ramaswami 

My website 
 www.vinyasakrama.com 
My videos 
 https://www.youtube.com/user/srivatsaramaswami?feature=mhee 
Newsletters 
http://groups.google.com/group/vinyasa-krama-announce?hl=en 

3 comments:

Neil Advani said...

Sounds great,
I really enjoy this reading, thanks for sharing.


Anonymous said...

tirumulai sribashyam

Who are the Rishis?


We talked about different characters in the Ramayana.
The Rishis are a class of important characters in the Ramayana.

The word Rishi is often mistranslated in our books in French. No "wise men" or "hermits".
The Rishis are not very numerous in the Ramayana. The word "Rishi" comes from a root meaning etymologically Fuego, ie Agni.
In fact, the Rishis are "Those who have the vision of the Creator." They are limited in number. It is sometimes referred to as the "Sons of Prajapati."
Are "those who have mastered the five core subjects" as Bharadvadja, for example.
They control the five and the five Mahabhutas tanmatras: his dominion extends beyond time and matter. This means they have eight psychic powers.
a) The Rishis and Rakshasas:


"Rishis" and "Rakshasas" have a common etymology: the mastery of fire. The difference between the Rishis and Rakshasas Rishis is to never use his powers contraCreación.
A Rakshasa is "one who wants to destroy the world by the abuse of power."
In fact, a Rakshasa always want to destroy the other. A Rishi wants to bring the other to the Creator.
Where God is, there is always the Rishis. In the Mahabharata, Vyasa still there.
Note that in the Mahabharata, there are two times less in the Ramayana Rishis, so there are more lies in the Mahabharata.



b) The seven Rishis classes:


As for his approach to know the Creator, there are seven classes of Rishis.


1) Brahmarishi:

Brahmarishis Rishis are the most important. Brahmins are those who use their knowledge of the Vedas to know the Creator. Vasishta Brahmarishi is an example.


2) Rajarishi:

Rishi is a Rajarishi between Reyes. Rishis become after a spiritual search, for example Vishwamitra. In the Ramayana, a king does everything to know the Creator. They make an effort as necessary to meet the maker.


3) Kândarishi:

The Jaimini Kândarishis eg, performing rituals. We talked about the two types of Kanda in Veda.Los Yâjñakânda Kândarishis are responsible for everything to be provided with the Creator.


4) Devarishi:

Rishi is a Devarishi among all gods creation. Devarishi Lohay is one Kashyapa. Two Rishis are almost the same name, but only one is a Devarishi Kashyapa. His name means "He who has created." Kashyapa is the Father of all creation. He is the great son of Brahma, the Creator. This is not Kashyapa who created it, but it came out all creatures.
Again, in all the rituals of the temple, had Kashyapa talk.


5) Maharishi:

The rigorous austerity Maharishis characterized as Ravana, is why respect.
Anjaneya saw Ravana, reaching Sri says: "If Ravana not sink into vice, would be comparable to Indra".


6) Paramarishi:


7) Shrutarishi:



First, consider the most important Rajarishis devotion. In fact, the study Rajarishis allow us to draw a parallel with our devotional approach.
For example Vishvamitra pay the consequences when doing things you should not do! If not Vishvamitra makes you lose everything you have gained in your research.
We will try to see what can not be done in our lives.
Even kings are afraid of Vishvamitra!

Vasishta then we'll talk in the next speech.


c) Toponymy of India at the time of the Ramayana:


This card contains ancient names of places in India, the names found in the Ramayana. At that time, Pakistan does not exist, the Kekayarâja located west of the river Sarasvati. Kekaya the word literally means "the richest soil, which always gives the wealth", ie land that never empties. It is true that this area is known for its precious stones, fruits, animals ...

Punjab is the "land of five rivers".

Sri Rama with Sita and Lakshmana, lived 14 years, near the Godavari River, an area now known as Ayodhya Gujrat.Rama across






Grimmly said...

Many thanks as ever for this fro Sribashyam Anon.

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