“Tatpratishedharthamekatattvabhyasaha”
tat = their; pratisheda = prevention; artham = for; eka = one; tattva = principle; abhyasaha = practice
“For their prevention, practice one principle.”
– Patanjali Yoga Sūtra 32
To get rid of them just do one thing: beat the bush. Just go on beating it. Do just one thing, one-pointed attention in one thing. What happens when you keep doing one thing? Boredom comes, restlessness will surface. The restlessness and boredom take you to a peak that brings clarity. This is the only way out. Our mind is troubled because it is dwelling on duality. It has a choice, so it is more confusing, ‘Should I do this? Should I not do that?’ And it is jumping all around the place. This and that! And the mind is further divided. Divided mind is misery. And one-pointed mind is joy and all those moments when you have been very happy, if you would have noticed what happiness is, it is the mind becoming one whole. It becomes so total, so much together; then you have experienced joy in life, peace in life, and bliss in life. Then you have experienced life itself totally. Duality and a divided mind is the cause of fear and misery. There also if you do two things or too many things, it is not eka tattvābhyāsa. It is not one practice.
So what is the eka tattva ?
Attending to one principle: that one principle could be God, could be a matter, could be Guru, and could be Self, could be anything! But eka tattva abhyāsa – practice one thing! Then you get over all these obstacles. I live in a very small village Kadavaddaragudi in Mysore district, Karnataka. I’m an ashtanga vinyasa yoga and Arm balancing practitioner. I have been practicing yogasana for more than 15 years now. My father is my teacher, my Guru who taught yogasana to heal my sickness. I was an allergenic patient since childhood, and then YOGA entered into my life like a torch bearer. Under the proper guidance of my teacher (my Father) I was able to heal from the disease completely.
All these obstacles can be gotten rid of only if there is a certain amount of calmness in the mind, subtleness in the mind and courage to do something good in life. This can be done. Otherwise, even that does not seem to be possible. Isn’t it? In one-pointedness there has to be a certain degree of calmness in the mind. You can see any kind of problems. Yoga began as a spiritual practice but has become popular as a way of promoting physical and mental well-being.
Today, I have been running my own institute for the last five years in Mysore and feel very happy to serve people around. I personally practice 4 to 5 days a week. Some day’s ashtanga yoga, other days my own designed vinyasa sequences & Arm balancing asana’s. I enjoy being inverted in my favorite poses.
Ashtanga Yoga Primary Series is the foundation in the ashtanga yoga system. Whatever we build over it depends on the foundation. It is the 1st series of the Ashtanga yoga system. It has many variations of asana like standing, sitting, lying and inversions with a variety of dynamic movements syncing with breath, gaze and bandhas which helps to culture the consciousness (intellect, Mind and Ego). The most visible aspect of the Ashtanga Yoga system is the different yoga asanas (postures). More important, though, is stretching the breath. Listening to the sound of your breath has several implications. Withdrawing the senses from the outer world or more simply, ‘going inside’ is called Pratyahara technique. Furthermore the sound of the breath can teach us almost everything we need to learn about our attitude in the posture. In yoga we use both the abdomen and the thorax to breathe. The intercostals are exercised through actively breathing. There are two vital reasons for wanting to increase breath volume. Firstly, by increasing our inhalation we increase the amount of oxygens supplied. Secondly, by increasing our exhalation we exhale more toxins; mental toxins, emotional toxins, physical toxins, and environmental toxins. By breathing deeply, exhaling & exhalation we take first steps towards returning the body to its original state of health.
With the regular practice of yoga we need an accurate diet. For my diet I follow our traditional food recipes. I eat what my ancestor’s used to eat. Take two meals a day; brunch and dinner.
To stay focused in the practice, to perform asanas & movements with minimum effort and to navigate the flow of Prana in a right direction without wasting it are the fundamentals of Breath, Bandhas, Drastis and Vinyasa. The Ashtanga philosophy is to integrate all of the eight limbs of yoga. The set sequence of posture creates a strong framework that allows one to focus on the inner limbs of the yoga sutras.
