Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 *Guruji will say "Laghuvajrasana, You go!"<br>as you stare back not knowing what this pose is*<br><br>As a beginner, I am struggling to learn the proper names of asanas. As I go to a Mysore-style class, the names are not called out so I can't learn them that way.<br>Does anyone have any useful way of remembering them? <br>Is there any mnemonic I could use?<br><br>Many TIA. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 "practice, practice" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 Unless you don't have a good knowledge of Sanskrit--like Guruji has--it may indeed be difficult to remember all those names. I'm practising Astanga Yoga for a little more than one year now, but I still have to look up most of them in a book when posting here. Perhaps it may be helpful to learn Sanskrit ... (what about learning Kannada?)<br><br>However, at his workshop in Milan I can't remember that Lino named a posture with its name right and proper even once--he just kept shouting: "bend forward ... triangle ... bend back ... up into candle ..." etc. Maybe this was because we were a beginner's class. But I guess it doesn't matter much to know all those Sanskrit names at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 > But I guess it doesn't matter much to know all those Sanskrit names at all<br><br>Are you sure you're feeling quite well? That's the sort of thing sloppy-thinking imprecise people like me would say. <br><br>Actually, I think using the sanskrit names does help unambiguous communication when you're talking about these things - otherwise "am I going to name it in English or German? Which of the three or four different and ambiguous English nicknames am I going to use?" etc. But talking about it is completely unimportant, unlike doing it.<br><br>But I must say, by the time somebody gets to being able to attempt laghuvajrasana (sp?), I *would* expect them to know what it is called. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 A book like David Swenson's "Ashtanga Yoga: The Practice Manual" will take the Sanskrit names and break them down a bit, translating each part. Thus, Parivritta Trikonasana gets treated as:<br><br>"parivritta = Revolved, Tri = Three, Kona = Angle, "Revolved Triangle Posure.""<br><br>By comparison with other asana names, and by keeping track of your glossary as you read translations of other Indian texts, you can figure out that "Pari" means "around" and "vritta" means "turning" (just as, in Patanjali's Yogasutras, the vritti are the mental fluctuations) -- and so you can break things down even further. It also helps to make a mental note of the cognates in other Indo-European languages, thus: "vritti" matches "vertigo" and "vertex", "utthita" (extended) matches "utter" and the "ut" in "utmost", etc.<br><br>Hope this helps.<br><br>Homer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 Actually, my latest acquistion is the laminated poster with all the asanas of series I and II demonstrated by Sharath Rangaswamy (the middle-sized one ... for $7 ... ha!). I have purchased it at the workshop, and I'm still looking for a suitable place where to hang it. But I think I'll fix it over my bed; so that before getting my head down to sleep, I can learn a couple of those Sankrit names for the postures every night, and maybe I'll even dream of them--guter Lerneffekt! Then in half a year say, I shall be able to spell out TRIANG MUKHAEKAPADA PASCHIMATTANASANA like nothing; I shall even be capable of saying the difference between Marichyasana C and Marichyasana B without looking it up, and then I'll say: textbooks--Goobye! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 Was the choice of that posture just an example or did you go to the second series class? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 11, 2001 Report Share Posted October 11, 2001 <Actually, I think using the sanskrit names does help unambiguous communication when you're talking about these things ><br><br>I think it's a bit like knowing the Latin names of plants - just makes communication easier.<br><br>However, I have struggled to learn the names, and still don't know all the 1st series yet. It is helpful to understand the meanings, but I still have to spend a few days learning the name of each posture, repeating it to myself at work etc! Lucky I work in an office on my own ... ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2001 Report Share Posted October 17, 2001 you scientist you. I do like the ut in utmost part for uthita the best. Uthita is utterly out there.<br><br>chamoya<br><br>and who thought that (on a different topic now) spw could stay away after his dramatic departure?<br><br>(hi skully) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2001 Report Share Posted October 17, 2001 re lagu<br><br>yip, you know it when you have been zapped by that little thunderbolt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 18, 2001 Report Share Posted October 18, 2001 Well, I'm glad YOU aren't staying away.<br><br>Homer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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