Thank You, MacEwan University

Om Symbol at the Sivananda Yoga Retreat, Bahamas

Namaste,

Here are a few links, charts and tips to support today's guest lecture on The Language and Literature of Yoga.  

Feel free to browse around Kali's Kitchen.  It's a cozy place to explore the paths of Yoga and allow your own realizations, musings, and practice to "cook".

Enjoy!

We began today's class with the chant Om Sahana Vavatu in the call-and-response style of a traditional ashram or gurukulam.

The main topics introduced were:

The Language of Yoga:

Sanskrit and its script Devanagari
Transliteration vs Translation
Sanskrit Connections to English
Sanskrit Alphabet and Pronunciation Guide

The Foundational Literature of Yoga:

The Vedas
The Upanishads
The Mahabharata including the famous chapter The Bhagavad Gita
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

*Although we didn't discuss it in class, I also recommend the highly influential 15th-century text The Hatha Yoga Pradipika for a deeper understanding of the foundations of the path of Hatha Yoga specifically.


Key Definitions of Yoga:

The Vedas and the Upanishads: Aham Brahmasmi or "The microcosm (individual self) and the macrocosm (universal Self) are one and the same."

The Bhagavad Gita: Yoga karmasu kaushalam or "Yoga is skill in action"

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:  PYS 1.2 Yogash chitta vritti nirodhah or "Yoga is the stopping of the fluctuations of consciousness/the stilling of the mind."

Note* If you are in need of source materials for papers or your own personal study, I highly recommend archive.org, a non-profit digital library of millions of scanned documents and texts.

Final Chant:  Asato Ma Sadgamaya

Best wishes in your studies.  May your learning be brilliant and may it bring peace of mind, peace in the world and peace in your life.

Om Shanti,
Tara