Continuing Weekly on Thursdays

Join us for an outstanding educational opportunity! Study with a master teacher and learn about one of the key Hatha Yoga texts which influenced Sri Krishnamacharya’s teaching and helped to shape modern yoga as we know it today.

Yoga Yājñavalkya saṃhitā is a unique text in many respects. It is a 13th Century yoga text which is in the form of a conversation between husband and wife. The sage Yājñavalkya is speaking with his student and wife, the Yogini Gargi. This demonstrates how both men and women practiced yoga in those times and that it was practiced by family people as well as ascetics. Yoga Yājñavalkya saṃhitā is also unique in its expression of Vedic rituals, a feature normally not found in Hāṭhayoga texts. As the subtitles indicate, though it is considered a Hāṭhayoga text, its chapters are based on the Aṣṭāṅgayoga of Sage Patañjali. This text is considered to be a confluence of many unique ideas and approaches which has had an influence on the modern yoga that we practice today. Join us for a unique and insightful journey into yoga! Our course will be a systematic overview and in depth exploration of this unique 13th century Hāṭhayoga text with our distinguished teacher, Dr. M. Jayaraman who has personally translated this text and has a deep and thorough knowledge of it.

There are twelve chapters in this work comprising 463 verses. Over a 24 week (six month) period we will be going through each verse with Dr. Jayaraman. This will be an opportunity to learn more about the rich tradition behind Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga as we absorb the deep insight of the Sage Yajnavalkya and experience yoga through the lens of his teachings.

Chapters

Chapter 1 – Introduction to the text & Tradition- 10 Yamas
Chapter 2 – Niyamas (10)
Chapter 3 – āsanas (8)
Chapter 4 - Types of Nāḍīs, places and functions of prāṇas
Chapter 5 - Nāḍīśodhana - Means for Purifying the Nāḍīs
Chapter 6 – Prāṇayāmas (11)
Chapter 7 - Pratyāhāras (5)
Chapter 8 –Dhāraṇās (6)
Chapter 9 - Dhyāna - (7)
Chapter 10 - Samādhi
Chapter 11 – On Performance of Nitya Karma
Chapter 12 – Review and Final Teachings

A preview of the first chapter…

The text commences by introducing Sage Yājñavalkya with 24 qualities. The qualities include, that he is – omniscient, the one who is always in a meditative state, the one who has controlled his senses and anger etc ., Gārgī salutes and requests such a Sage Yājñavalkya to speak about the Yoga with all its limbs in detail.(verses 1-9).

It should be noted that Sage Yājñavalkya and Gārgī are mentioned as husband and wife (Verse 1.42) . Sage Yājñavalkya meditates upon Lord Nārāyaṇa and states that he will speak about the knowledge of Yoga that he attained from Lord Brahman. The Sage mentions that Lord Brahman also taught Pravṛtti (following Vedic way of life with worldly attachments that leads to rebirth) and Nivṛtti (following Vedic way of life bereft of worldly desires towards attaining knowledge which leads to liberation). Towards attainment of liberation the practice of Vedic way of life in a dispassionate manner and Yoga is essential. (Verses 10 -40).

The term Yoga is defined in this context as the union of the jīvātman and paramātman (verse 43) and the practice of aṣṭāṅgayoga leads to that union (along with dispassionate performance of one’s duties and Vedic injunctions (Karma)) (Verses 41-48).

After this, the first limb of the aṣṭāṅgayoga, Yama is enumerated and defined. It is interesting to note that this text enlists ten Yamas, five more than that of Pātañjalayogasūtra. The ten Yamas presented herein are - Ahiṃsā (nonviolence), Satya (truth), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacarya (celibacy), Dayā(compassion), ārjava(straightforwardness), Kṣamā(forgiving nature ), Dhṛti(fortitude), Mitāhāra (moderate diet) and Śauca(cleanliness). (verses 49-69). Thus ends chapter one.

Our lectures will be held every Thursday at 6:30pm India Standard Time

Lectures will be approximately 1hour with time for questions afterward

course duration 24 weeks

*Please check your local time zone to find the exact timing in your location.

18:30pm India

Oklahoma USA (Central Standard Time) 8am

England and UK 14:00

Central Europe 15:00

Eastern Europe/Greece/Israel 16:00

Recordings of each lecture will be made available to all recipients

(Please note that the class schedule is subject to change according to the speed that we progress through the chapters, as well as as well as Dr. Jayaraman’s judgment while teaching the course. It is possible that we will spend more time on certain subjects of interest. Please remember that it is necessary to be flexible and welcome all possibilities when studying great philosophical works with great scholars).

Dr. M. Jayaraman, holds a PhD in Sanskrit from the University of Madras (2006-2010) (Topic The Doctrine of Tantrayukti - A Study).

He meritoriously completed his undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Sanskrit with gold medal and first rank in both the degrees. Prior to that he underwent traditional Gurukula education in Vedas, Vedanta and Yogashastra (1998-2005), in Veda Vijnana Gurukulam, Bengaluru, under Pracarya Kotemane Ramachandra Bhat.

Dr. M. Jayaraman is currently serving as the Professor & Dean in the Division of Yoga and Spirituality, SVYASA Deemed University. Previously he served as the Director of the Research Department, at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai (2010-2021) and Director of the Division of Textual Research in Yoga at the Indic Academy (2021-2022).

His work in the field of Textual Aspects of Yoga involves editing, translating and disseminating inputs from traditional Sanskrit literature on Yoga. Thus far, he has published 20 books and 19 peer reviewed Journal articles on Yoga and Sanskrit literature in Indian and International Research Journals. He is also involved in developing immersive learning methods of Yoga texts and digital repositories for Yoga texts.

Dr. M. Jayaraman conducts international workshops on "Tantrayukti - Ancient Indian thesis/text construction and methodology" His expertise in the field of Yoga, academics and Research has been recognized and utilized by a number of academic and research organizations. He has been nominated to various academic boards and government councils.

He received Samskrita Grantha Puraskara (2021) from Karnataka Sanskrit university for his Sanskrit book - Mantra-artha-cintanam.

Some of Dr. Jayaraman’s contributions in recent times include:

Yogasya Bhasha a four-part self-learning material on Sanskrit and Yoga

(https://www.learnsamskrit.online/yoga)

Yoga-Vaisharadi a searchable web-repository on classical texts of Yoga

(https://kymyogavaisharadi.org/)

To learn more about Dr. M. Jayaraman please visit https://independent.academia.edu/jayaramanMahadevan

To join the course Please submit tuition and fill out the form below

*Yoga teachers may claim 30 hours of CE continuing Education credits with YA upon completion of this course.

Join for a 1 month module (4 classes) for $54

Cost of the entire 24 week course $249

We have a limited number of scholarships available. If you live in an economy that does not support this price but wish to participate in the course, please contact andrew@ashtnagayogastudio.com or WhatsApp +1 40585037779 to request a scholarship discount price. We believe these teachings should be accessible to everyone.