Yamini’s gift on International Yoga Day

Following United Nations (UN) declaring June 21 of every year, beginning from this year, as the International Day of Yoga, there has been a plethora of publications on Yoga almost all over the world in different languages.

We find most of those books, richly produced on art-paper with any number of Yoga postures by sexy looking females along with men, looking like coffee-table books. This is not to belittle their purpose and quality. Some of the books are indeed excellently produced with inputs sourced from experience and research on the subject of Yoga.

One such book landed on my table by courier last evening and being such a beautiful book, I couldn’t wait for another day to browse through it. The cover of the book is produced above.

There is also another reason why I decided to write immediately about the book. Its creator, Yamini Muthanna, is a Mysuru girl, a highly talented daughter of my classmate in Madikeri, Kodagu, who mastered the art of Bharathanatyam, for whose arangetram in Mysuru, I had the opportunity to attend. That was decades ago. Being a distinguished Bharathanatyam danseuse, Yamini apparently is using her Yoga skills to enhance the beauty of her dance adding grace to this classical art form.

Yamini, who studied Ashtanga Yoga in Mysuru under the renowned Yoga Master B.N.S. Iyengar, later shifted to Bengaluru establishing a Yoga School called simply as ‘Yoga Sthala.’ Soon people from all walks of life — from professionals to students — began to make a bee-line to Yoga Sthala. From then on, there was no stopping her from spreading her wings and soaring high in the art and craft of Yoga. She has conducted workshops at Yoga-studios in London, New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles. She gives Yoga demonstrations with different postures interpreting the Yoga Sutras. A Baba Ramdev in female Avatar !

Yamini strongly believes that if every individual practices Yoga daily, making it a way of life, there will be much benefit to the practitioners of Yoga because it brings about mental transformation bestowing good health and peace of mind. That is the power and glory of Yoga.

The pictorial book running to 286 pages with an index and more importantly, [probably this is one of the good reasons to buy this book] it has in section D titled ‘Precautions’ under chapter 10, information about the common injuries that a Yoga practitioner may suffer and hence the need for taking caution.

The reason for some of the common injuries may be due to faulty practice of Yoga. Which is why one should always learn Yoga from a real Guru, an authentic master like for example the great late K. Pattabhi Jois and B.N.S. Iyengar of Mysuru or late B.K.S. Iyengar of Pune. These giants have produced many students who have perfected Yoga as propounded by its originator Patanjali. Apart from benefiting from it themselves, they have themselves become teachers of Yoga like Yamini Muthanna. It may be said that one of the reasons for its popularity is because these Yoga Asanas are therapeutic in nature and many have got cure from its practice for some of the ailments which could not be cured by allopathic or other alternative medicines.

While there are hundreds of books that have sought to explain different dimensions and perspectives of Yoga and its accompanying sub-types, ‘The Power of Yoga’ is a one-of-its-kind, hands-on guide that takes the personalised and customised approach to Yoga. It offers Yoga lovers the opportunity to get right to the heart of different kinds of Yoga.

Culled from years of teaching and learning Yoga, these sequences help incorporate combinations of the thousands of recorded asanas into tailor- made daily practice to suit particular lifestyles. The user can choose routines according to the levels of emotional, mental and physical fitness that he or she would like to reach. With bold visuals, illustrations and a go-to sequence manual, the book aims to be a dynamic and user-friendly guide to Yoga, rather than a stodgy reference book on it.

Not many of us are aware of the fact that Yoga routines can be customised and varied to suit our professions, body types, physical ailments, state of mind, mental make-up, work patterns and day-to-day life. It’s a book for the quintessential urbanite looking for physical fitness and mental balance.

Asanas are not mere physical exercises but therapeutic postures that activate certain chakras and nadis in the body. The techniques taught in this book are completely authentic and haven’t been improvised in anyway, claims the author.

Yamini has students from many parts of the world. She conducted a session for more than 100 people on the World Yoga Day as part of the celebrations. The book is a part of her endeavour to spread the knowledge of Yoga and what a purposeful endeavour !

At Rs. 995, this book must find a place in every home and benefit from it. The book will be launched on 3rd July, 2015 in Bengaluru at the Om Book Shop at the Phoenix Mall, Mahadevapura, by the noted artist (painting) Anjolie Ela Menon.

e-mail: kbg@starofmysore.com

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Abracadabra….Abracadabra / by K. B. Ganapathy / Tuesday – June 30th, 2015