THE HEART OF YOGA : DEVELOPING A PERSONAL PRACTICE PB – T. K. V. DESIKACHAR

Sri Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who lived to be over 100 years old, was one of the greatest yogis of the modern era. Elements of Krishnamacharya s teaching have become well known around the world through the work of B. K. S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, and Indra Devi, who all studied with Krishnamacharya. Krishnamacharya s son T. K. V. Desikachar lived and studied with his father all his life and now teaches the full spectrum of Krishnamacharya s yoga. Desikachar has based his method on Krishnamacharya s fundamental concept of viniyoga, which maintains that practices must be continually adapted to the individual s changing needs to achieve the maximum therapeutic value. In The Heart of YogaDesikachar offers a distillation of his father s system as well as his own practical approach, which he describes as a program for the spine at every level–physical, mental, and spiritual. This is the first yoga text to outline a step-by-step sequence for developing a complete practice according to the age-old principles of yoga. Desikachar discusses all the elements of yoga–poses and counterposes, conscious breathing, meditation, and philosophy–and shows how the yoga student may develop a practice tailored to his or her current state of health, age, occupation, and lifestyle. This is a revised edition of The Heart of Yoga.