The Little Book of Yoga

Nora Isaacs

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781452135601
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Sport & Exercise Science
• Index: Biological Sciences

A concise overview of the ancient mind-body practice, covering the poses, history, philosophy, and more. The Little Book of Yoga offers a comprehensive foundation in the practice of yoga. It's an engaging and approachable volume perfect for yoga lovers of all levels—beginner or advanced, committed or just curious. Beginning with a brief history of yoga and its various styles, Nora Isaacs presents instructions and illustrations for all the major poses. She also goes beyond the poses to discuss yogic philosophy, breathing, meditation, chakras, and more.

Part One

The Foundation

A Brief History of Yoga

The history of yoga is a complex web of branches and schools that twist and turn, leading to what is considered to be today’s modern yoga. No one can pinpoint precisely when yoga was invented, but here’s what we do know: Yoga hails from India. The language of yoga is called Sanskrit, an ancient priestly tongue. A pose is called an asana, based on the Sanskrit word for “seat.” The yoga lifestyle has changed quite a bit since ancient times, when yogis lived in secluded caves or forests and practiced ways to master their bodies, such as stopping their heartbeat. But the essence of yoga remains the same, as does the ultimate goal: to find harmony with yourself and the world.

The Ancient Age

(3000 BCE–300 BCE)

Some scholars believe the yoga tradition began as early as 5,000 years ago, linking its origins to a soap-stone seal, which was excavated in the early 1900s, that had human-like figures carved in shapes that looked like yoga poses. Others believe yoga is 2,500 years old, which is when it was first mentioned in an ancient text. Still others believe that yoga originated during the Vedic Age in India, when people focused on ritual, poetry, and transcending the mind through intense focus. During this time, holy men and women were said to have magical powers and practiced strenuous physical feats to overcome the body, which they considered an obstacle to enlightenment. These early yogis were committed to understanding their relationship with the divine, a core idea that is found in many schools of yoga today, thousands of years later.

Over time, the focus shifted from study and rituals toward self-understanding through direct experience. The body was no longer considered an obstacle; rather, it was seen as a means to finding freedom.

The Classical Age

(300 BCE–500 CE)

In yoga’s Classical Age, which also took place in India, yoga came to be seen as a spiritual philosophy that could help people reach their full human potential. Finding freedom wasn’t so much about uniting with some great spirit in the sky, but about awakening to one’s own authentic self. It’s known as the Classical Age because during this time, six classical philosophies were established, one of which is Patanjali’s yoga. During this era, the emphasis of the practice was on meditation, rather than on yoga’s physical poses.

HISTORIC TEXT OF THE CLASSICAL AGE: The Yoga Sutra

The Yoga Sutra is an authoritative text of the Classical Age. It was written at the dawn of the first millennium by a sage named Patanjali. It contains 196 aphorisms on the meaning of yoga, the experience of yoga, the expanding of one’s yoga practice, and how yoga can free the soul. It also defined a set of guidelines called the Eight-Limbed Path (see page 134) that serves as a template for some modern-day yoga schools. And it identified five causes of suffering, called kleshas, which stand in the way of enlightenment. The five kleshas are ignorance (avidya), ego (asmita), attachment (raga), aversion to pain (dvesa), and fear of death (abhinivesah).

• 15^TH–18^TH CENTURIES •

The Foundational Texts on Yoga’s Physical Poses

There are three key texts that describe yoga poses, breathing techniques, and meditation, which are the main practices of Hatha yoga, the most popular form of yoga practiced today. These foundational texts are the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (from the fifteenth century), the Gheranda Samhita (from the seventeenth century), and the Shiva Samhita (from the eighteenth century).

The Modern Age

(1893–PRESENT)

Modern yoga as we know it gained traction in the late 1800s after a few individual Indian yogis shared teachings of Eastern philosophy with Western audiences. Among those was Swami Vivekananda, a Hindu monk who gave an influential speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. Over the next century, more Indian teachers came to America, including B.K.S. Iyengar, Pattabhi Jois, Indra Devi, and T.K.V. Desikachar. These teachers, all students of a great Indian master called Krishnamacharya, went on to create the major styles practiced by today’s yogis. Another Indian teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda, came to Boston in 1920 and founded the Self-Realization Fellowship. His book, Autobiography of a Yogi, is a wildly popular spiritual classic.

By the 1960s, yoga had taken hold in Western counter-culture. An Indian guru named Swami Satchidananda gave the opening speech at Woodstock in 1969, while the Beatles started traveling to India to study with a guru named Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Ram Dass wrote a famous book called Be Here Now that heralded in the age of spiritual seekers. By the 1990s, yoga’s popularity had fully transitioned from counterculture to the mainstream, where it thrives today.

HISTORIC TEXT OF THE MODERN AGE: Light on Yoga

Written by B.K.S. Iyengar and first published in 1966, Light on Yoga is considered to be the definitive manual on modern yoga. It includes descriptions and photographs of the yoga master himself in a wide range of poses. Iyengar went on to create an eponymous style of yoga, which focuses on precise alignment and the use of props.

The Branches of Yoga

What opens your heart? What makes you feel receptive to new ideas, creative, and compassionate? The many branches of yoga reflect the diversity of our temperaments, goals, and individual personalities. Whether it’s rigorous exercise that opens one’s heart, or music, or service to others, there’s a branch of yoga for everyone, be it a traditional branch or a unique combination of many. Here are the modern forms of today’s most relevant branches:

• • BHAKTI YOGA (Devotion)
• • HATHA YOGA (Physical Exercise)
• • JNANA YOGA (Wisdom)
• • KARMA YOGA (Service)
• • MANTRA YOGA (Sound)
• • RAJA YOGA (Meditation)

Bhakti Yoga

[THE YOGA OF DEVOTION]

Goal...