Pattabhi Jois' 1989 'extreme' regular Led Ashtanga Advanced series videos

I've posted these videos before, Clifford Sweatte, an early student of Pattabhi Jois, posted them some time back on his website Prana Airways http://www.pranaairways.com/ his site is well worth a visit, some wonderful old photographs of Pattbhi Jois and his early students.

Recently I've watched the videos again and to be honest I'm not sure what to make of them. Most of the videos we have of Pattabhi Jois teaching are of demonstrations, the videos below though are of a regular advanced series Led class held in a garage. Clifford mentions that occasionally somebody would just turn up with a camera, so what we have here is the real deal, nothing put on for the cameras and rather than a chosen six we have around twenty practitioners struggling through advanced asana in a hot garage, it's quite insane.

Clifford writes in a comment to my original post

"There was nothing scripted about these sessions or Guruji’s methods other than the asana sequence and vinyasas. There were cameras in class snapping photos from time to time but video shoots were rare and unexpected for most of us. I was lucky enough to be with Guruji and Manju in that very first group in Cardiff-by-the-Sea where we spent months together long before they were known. Over the years, he taught me that just as we were all different as students, his teaching technique and demands would vary according to the student’s prana level and general condition. Guruji’s ability to read one’s Bandha status is something he could do in an instant and would often announce to the class: “no mula bandha” or “weak mula bandha”! 

No being held back at an asana until perfect, proficient or even getting close here.

The situation couldn't be more different now it seems. How many does Sharath allow to continue through to the end of an intermediate led. Is it still the case that the majority are tapped out at some point and left to sit until finishing. Most in the video below would probably have been tapped out at the first posture, different times.

I tend to be with Pattabhi Jois' son Manju regarding Marichiyasana D, do your best then move on to the next asana, keep working at it and eventually it'll come. And why not, Krishnamacharya had Marichi D in his middle group anyway, it's not as if it's going to help you with Navasana and if your barely touching your fingertips,... or not, practicing Navasana isn't going to make that much of a difference. 

See this post

Miley Cyrus' Intermediate Ashtanga Marichiyasana D. ALSO Madonna's Eka pada Sirsasana, Sequences Vs groups and Marichiyasana G and H

Marichiyasana D is one thing but the extreme twists and binds, the stretching and straining we see in the videos below strikes me personally as....irresponsible? 

Sometimes we need to question teachers, drop the guru narative and question our idols, not in everything perhaps, not necessarily all of the time, but when our discernment strongly suggests it to us, if we deem something to be inappropriate, an instruction, an adjustment, anything, then certainly then. Questioning doesn't necessarily mean we are less devoted, that we love less (devotion can stand on its own, its unsightly collocate adjective is not implied by the noun, they are merely too often found together), only the Pope has infallible in his job description. YS101

But I wasn't there, perhaps no Ashtangis were harmed in the filming of this video..... or in the practices that weren't filmed.

It should be noted that as far as we can tell there were no Ashtanga Vinyasa series before Pattabhi Jois. Krishnamacharya had three groups of asana, Primary, Middle and Proficient. It seems likely that students would practice many of the Primary asana and as they became comfortable with certain postures, more advanced versions of the asana would be added. At some point Marichyasana D from the middle group would be added to A, B and C from the Primary group. And then perhaps, with growing proficiency, the young, flexible boys would be told to practice Marichyasana E, F and perhaps G, all from the proficient group of asana. 

Pattabhi Jois supposedly formed the four series for a four year college course, his Primary is almost exactly the same as the asana are laid out in Krishnamacharya's Primary group. The Ashtanga Intermediate series closely follows Krishnamacharya's middle group but the two Advanced Ashtanga series are made up of asana thrown together in Krishnamacharya's Proficient group with a few other asana that Krishnamacharya taught ( as we can see his student BKS Iyengar practicing in the 1938 film ). Krishnamacharya clearly never intended advanced asana to be practiced as a series other than perhaps in a short demonstration by his most accomplished boys. 

The fixed Ashtanga series came about as a pedagogic accident of circumstance and I wonder how many of Pattabhi Jois' 1940/50/60s students,outside of his family, progressed to the advanced series with any proficiency , some perhaps they were young college students after all, surely some.

We can't be even be certain that Pattabhi Jois practice Advanced asana as a series for a significant period of time, if at all.

See my earlier post.

Should it matter if and how long Pattabhi Jois may have practiced the Ashtanga 'methodology' himself

Going by the Yoga for the Three Stages of Life theory, it probably doesn't matter what asana we practice on that first and second stage or how we go about practicing them for that matter as long as we still have our knees intact to sit in the third stage.