Paul Harvey posted on FB yesterday morning, a link to a download on his site of a Krishnamacharya documentary '100 Years Of beatitude', marking Krishnamacharys 100th birthday celebrations.You can download the movie here on Pauls excellent resource pages at Yogastudies.org I've embedded the movie at the bottom of this post.
Here are a couple of scenes that stood out for me the first is quite astounding (I've given the time so you can skip through the movie to the clip).
1.
24:55 It seems to be a scene left out of the familiar 1938 B and W documentary footage, I've certainly never seen it before. We see Krishnamacharya raise his padmasana (lotus) turn it through his arms 180 degrees and drop it to the mat before repeating it on the other side.
We shouldn't be surprised some nice padmasana work appears in the 1938 movie include Krishnamacharya snapping his legs into lotus while in utpluthi,
Party tricks?
This dropping of the lotus seems to be Krishnamacharya's take perhaps on mahavedha (mahaveda, maha veda)
from Hatha Yoga Pradipka
"The mahâ Vedha अथ भहावधे ्
भहाफन्धश्चस्थतोमोगीकॄत्वाऩयूकभके धी्। वामनू ाॊ गश्चतभावॄत्य श्चनबतॄ ॊ कण्िभद्रु मा ॥२६॥
Atha mahāvedhah
Mahābandhasthito yogī krtvā pūrakamekadhīh Vāyūnām ghatimāvrtya nibhrtam kanthamudrayā
Sitting with mahâ Bandha, the Yogî should fill in the air and keep his mind collected. The movements of the Vâyus (Prâna and Apâna) should be stopped by closing the throat.)
सभहस्तमगुोबभूौश्चस्फचौसतॊािमच्छे न्ै।
ऩ टु द्व म भ श्च त ि म्य व ा म ् ु स्फ ु य श्च त भ ध्य ग ् ॥ २ ७ ॥
Samahastayugho bhūmau sphichau sanādayechchanaih Putadvayamatikramya vāyuh sphurati madhyaghah
Resting both the hands equally on the ground, he should raise himself a little and strike his buttocks against the ground gently. The air, leaving both the passages namely Idâ and Pingalâ, starts into the middle one".
भहाफन्धश्चस्थतोमोगीकॄत्वाऩयूकभके धी्। वामनू ाॊ गश्चतभावॄत्य श्चनबतॄ ॊ कण्िभद्रु मा ॥२६॥
Atha mahāvedhah
Mahābandhasthito yogī krtvā pūrakamekadhīh Vāyūnām ghatimāvrtya nibhrtam kanthamudrayā
Sitting with mahâ Bandha, the Yogî should fill in the air and keep his mind collected. The movements of the Vâyus (Prâna and Apâna) should be stopped by closing the throat.)
सभहस्तमगुोबभूौश्चस्फचौसतॊािमच्छे न्ै।
ऩ टु द्व म भ श्च त ि म्य व ा म ् ु स्फ ु य श्च त भ ध्य ग ् ॥ २ ७ ॥
Samahastayugho bhūmau sphichau sanādayechchanaih Putadvayamatikramya vāyuh sphurati madhyaghah
Resting both the hands equally on the ground, he should raise himself a little and strike his buttocks against the ground gently. The air, leaving both the passages namely Idâ and Pingalâ, starts into the middle one".
2.
26:57 TKV. Desikachar pointing out the folds in Krishnamacharya's back as he engages mula bandha fully
3.
25:40 TKV Desikachar Suggesting that Krishnamacharya invented Vinyasa Krama to allow students who didn't have the possibility of spending 1-2 hours on asana to benefit from a variety of asana Have to remember this is very much a Viniyoga perspective on things.
4.
21:20 Drawings said to be by Krishnamacharya's teacher in Tibet, Yogeshwara Ramamohana Brahmachari's daughter. I remember seeing two of these drawings in a Biography of Krishnamacrya, wonderful to see more of them. Isn't this a distinctive south Indian style of representation? Reminds me of those in Norman E. Sjoman, The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace,
I'll be presenting a workshop on Krishnamacharya StillPoint Yoga London next Sunday (still places)
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