The Heart of Yoga

The first yoga text to outline a step-by-step sequence for developing a complete practice according to viniyoga--yoga adapted to the needs of the individual. • A contemporary classic by a world-renowned teacher. • This new edition adds thirty-two poems by Krishnamacharya that capture the essence of his teachings. 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 Yoga Desikachar 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.

A structural engineer by training, T. K. V. Desikachar (1938-2016) lived and studied with his father until Krishnamacharya's death in 1989. He devoted his life to yoga instruction for people of all backgrounds and all levels of ability and taught at the school founded in his father's memory in India, the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, as well as in Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.

Heart of Yoga Developing a Personal Practice A Blessing from Indra Devi Forword by Vanda Scaravelli Introduction by Mark Whitwell Part I The Practice of Yoga 1. Yoga: Concept and Meaning 2. The Foundations of Yoga Practice 3. The Principles of Asana Practice 4. The Careful Construction of a Yoga Practice 5. Asana Variations 6. Pranayama 7. The Bandhas Part II The Understanding of Yoga 8. The Things That Darken the Heart 9. Actions Leave Traces 10. The World Exists to Be Seen and Discovered 11. Living in the World 12. The World Exists to Set Us Free 13. The Qualities of the Mind 14. Nine Obstacles on the Yoga Way 15. The Many Paths of Yoga Part III The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali Part IV Yoganjalisaram Appendix 1 The Texts Mentioned in This Book Appendix 2 Four General Practice Sequences Glossary