Atha Yoganusasanam

Written By Sarah Delfas

This term sees the new studio officially opened and up and running with new classes including a beginners’ course.

What is it to be a beginner? Each time I pick up Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras I feel like a beginner. Sometimes when I practise I still feel like a beginner. A deeper understanding may surprise me and changes something and I wobble and fall as if I haven’t done the asana before. Likewise when trying harder asanas I just can’t do. The struggles we have with our yoga practice may feel purely physical but how many of us also experience tears or angry frustration alongside the physical struggle? (And how much does our mindset hold us back?) Some people come to yoga as complete beginners but it is as if their bodies know what to do and just need a bit of guidance. Others come and struggle for years but need that struggle to learn properly, and perhaps learn more deeply than those for whom it comes easily. Sometimes we greet a favourite asana with joy only to discover that our bodies aren’t so joyful about it because of how we slept, how we sat, what we ate, the weather, our age…… Then we need to go back to basics and find a way through whatever is holding us back. Or just keep trying. “Better luck next time”, as my teacher Rajiv Chanchani would say. Perhaps what is the most important is the decision we have made to start something and to make a beginning. This could be making a beginning of something completely new, as will be the case for new yoga beginners, or it could be making the beginning of further explorations of something you have already started. Starting something new requires courage - the courage to let go of old “safe” habits and take a step beyond this. It is the mentality of being open to learning that helps us make these steps and this we can carry to our practice however experienced we are.

Patanjali heralds the beginning of his “Yoga Sutras” with the words “Atha Yoganusasanam”. This is the opening sutra, referenced as Yoga Sutras 1.1. Its meaning is deeply discussed by Sanskrit scholars but for our purposes and as explained by BKS Iyengar in his book “Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”, it means “With prayers for divine blessings, now begins an exposition of the sacred art of yoga.”

“Sutra” literally means “thread” in Sanskrit - “sutras” are a collection of aphorisms “threaded” together to make a whole exposition or text. Hence Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are a series of short verses organised into four chapters to make a whole text. They are considered THE text on what yoga is. Iyengar writes as his dedication at the beginning of his “Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”, “This work is my offering to my Invisible, First and Foremost Guru, Lord Patanjali.”

Patanjali also wrote works on grammar and ayurveda - scholars consider these to predate the Yoga Sutras and both aspects of clear speech and comprehension and the bodily wellness and balance given by ayurveda serve to prepare for the study of yoga - which is described by BKS Iyengar as “the cultivation and eventual transcendence of consciousness, culminating in liberation from the cycles of rebirth.”

More simply, this first sutra, “Atha Yoganusasanam” is translated as “Now, the teachings of yoga are presented”. “Now”, as in - “I’ve told you about other things but NOW I am going to tell you about yoga. Listen up and prepare! This is the really important stuff!” Apparently “atha” also holds a somewhat sacred nuance and therefore brings an auspiciousness to the beginning of the text - hence Iyengar’s more elaborate translation. It means much more than “OK - it’s time I told you about yoga”, but perhaps brings it more in line with the ancient custom of starting anything new with prayers for auspiciousness. We want our yoga practice to be done well and to bring good. It has a connection with the divine that is acknowledged in BKS Iyengar’s translation.

For us these days perhaps the word “Atha” is also a good reminder to stop prevaricating and get on with what matters. The sutra often comes to my mind in the morning when bed feels preferable to yoga practice. There is no time better than the present - NOW- to start practising what matters most. Get up and do it!

As for the other words in the sutra - “Yoga” means yoga - and that is enough for now. Better we start to learn what that is through asanas and yoga practice in combination with the texts and reflection on how it changes our lives for the better, than by trying to read it. Just reading about it is like showing a child a picture of a potato growing in the ground - how can they really understand it without touching the potato, feeling the soil, watching the sprouts shoot, observing the rather uninteresting green leaves and then…digging deep to find the magic of the hidden treasures that weren’t in the soil when the potato was first planted but which have miraculously appeared in an invisible process, to bring us nourishment.

“Anu-Sasanam” means “teaching” - or, more precisely, “the continuation of teaching” (perhaps continuing on after his previous texts).

So with reverence, with prayers for blessings, NOW it is time for us to continue learning and to study yoga.

Looking forward to seeing you in class soon and welcome to all beginners!

Helpful reading: BKS Iyengar “Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali” and Edwin F Bryant “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”.