Asana practice is much more than physical activity. If we practice with mindfulness, we can learn a lot about the nature of our mind and develop non-reactivity.

Learning Non-Reactivity

What happens when you stay in a pose like Paśchimottānāsana or Sālamba Sarvāṅgāsana, and after a few minutes you feel an urge to come out of the pose?

Do you follow this urge? If you do, you won’t learn much from this experience.

You may want to come out because of discomfort, stress, some worry, or simply because of distraction—and before you know it, you are out of the pose.

However, if you don’t react automatically to this urge and decide to stay in the pose, even though it may be uncomfortable and perhaps a bit stressful, then you may learn something very important.

You may discover that you can breathe and relax into the situation—into the unpleasantness or the stress—and go beyond your automatic tendency to react by moving.

This is a very important lesson, because you learn non-reactivity, which is an essential step on the way to equanimity. Equanimity is even given in the Bhagavad Gita as a definition of yoga (see Shloka II.48).

In our practice, and even more so in life, we often go through unpleasant experiences and encounter stress. How do we act in such situations?

We all like pleasant experiences and dislike unpleasant ones. If you observe your actions since you woke up this morning, you may notice that many—perhaps even most—of the things you did were meant to avoid unpleasantness and seek what is pleasant.

If the temperature is cold, you dress in warm clothes to avoid the unpleasantness of cold. You eat breakfast to avoid hunger. You can easily continue this list on your own.

Now, there is nothing wrong with pleasant experiences or with feeling good. However, there are at least two reasons why it is important to also be able to bear unpleasant situations without aversion and without the need to escape or shut down.

The first reason is that if you are constantly busy arranging your environment to please you, you will always be moving and never be able to truly rest and find peace. When you feel bored, you may go to the fridge to look for something nice to eat, or you may look at your cellphone to find something stimulating.

Boredom is unpleasant. But if, instead of looking for distraction, you become curious about the experience and ask: What does it mean to experience boredom? Can I observe my mind when it is bored?—then boredom may even turn into interest, and you may learn something about the nature of your mind.

What do you do when someone makes you angry or insults you? Do you immediately react with aggression? Do you compensate yourself with something sweet? Or do you simply suppress the unpleasant emotion?

If you learn to look at the nature of the experience on a deeper level than your likes and dislikes, you may learn to meet this experience—and ultimately any experience—with acceptance and calmness.

Your likes and dislikes will have less control over you. You will stop being so picky. You will not constantly move restlessly in search of satisfaction, but instead learn to rest in the present moment and find peace in any situation, – pleasant or unpleasant. You will not need to escape into fantasies or pleasant memories.

Fostering Equanimity

The second reason why it is important to be able to stay with unpleasantness is that in life we often encounter unavoidable unpleasant experiences—some of them even painful. I experienced an unpleasant experience in the US immigration, and described how I maintained my mental serenity during this experience (see also my post about Equanimity in asana practice).

How do we react when we have a painful experience? Do we feel that it is too much to handle, that we cannot cope with the situation beneficially?

In Buddhist teaching, there is a well-known list called the “eight worldly phenomena,” which are:

• Pain and pleasure
• Gain and loss
• Success and failure
• Praise and blame

All of us—even the wisest—experience these opposites, these dualities. The difference lies in how we respond to them.

If you do not become overly excited when you succeed or when people praise you, and if you do not see failure or blame as a disaster, you begin to develop equanimity—and you may find a kind of peace that is not easily shaken.

In our asana practice, we learn to postpone automatic reactions, to breathe and relax even when there is stress. This allows us to evaluate the situation with discernment and respond accordingly.

The key is to respond rather than react. A response comes after discernment, mindful consideration, and a wise decision. When there is no immediate threat that requires an instinctive reaction, a thoughtful response will usually lead to better action than an automatic reaction.

If you learn to respond wisely, you may save yourself much trouble—and your life will flow much more smoothly.

A yoga class is an excellent opportunity to observe and study yourself.
Many things may arise. Here are some of them.

You may not like the way the teacher leads the class—maybe it is too dynamic, and you want it slower, or maybe you are bored, your body feels cold, and you want it to be more dynamic.

Maybe the teacher talks too much, giving long and repetitive explanations; or maybe he or she does not give sufficiently clear instructions, and you feel confused, not knowing what to do.

Maybe she does not pay attention to you and focuses more on other students, which makes you feel jealous or angry.

Maybe you do not like her voice: she speaks too loudly or not loudly enough.
Maybe you do not like her appearance or her mannerisms.

Maybe you feel that the asana being taught is not suitable for you, but the teacher insists that you do it; or maybe you wish to try more challenging asanas, but the teacher spends too much time on the basics.

Maybe she asks you to do difficult asanas without sufficient preparation; or maybe she spends too much time on preparation and never gets to the asana itself.

Maybe the pace is too slow for you—or too fast.

Maybe the studio is too crowded, and you do not have enough space. Maybe you do not like the students next to you—their appearance or their smell. Maybe they are too noisy.

Maybe it is too cold or too hot.

Maybe the props are not good: worn out or not clean enough.

Maybe you are disappointed and frustrated because, despite all your years of practice, you still cannot do the asanas as well as some other students; or maybe you think, “I am so good! I do the asana effortlessly while others are struggling.”

Maybe you came to class with an emotional issue that surfaces during practice, and you cannot concentrate.

Maybe a student in the class is very attractive, and you want to get closer to them, but they ignore you.

…

So much noise in the mind — while yoga is supposed to calm it.

What a good opportunity to observe your likes and dislikes, your attractions and aversions.

Can you look at these likes and dislikes without identifying with them?
Can you look at them with a smile, and without a judgmental attitude?

By Hagit & Eyal Shifroni

Hagit Shifroni is an Israeli movement therapist, with 20 years of experience; she works with both children and adults. Hagit has been studying Iyengar Yoga in Israel for the last 15 years, and also visited Pune twice. In this article, she explains how she combines Iyengar Yoga in treating children with emotional problems. She reports some cases and discusses the effectiveness of using Yoga in these treatments.

My working space is a Yoga hall which I share with my husband, Eyal, who is an Iyengar Yoga teacher. The Yoga hall is equipped with all the standard props that are found in Iyengar Yoga centers (wall ropes, ceiling ropes, trestler, bolsters, and so on). Movement therapy is a form of psychological treatment for dealing with emotional problems. The expression and movements of the body reflect the emotional state and problems of the patients. As a movement therapist, I suggest different ways of movement or activities to the patients to help them express their feelings. The environment in the yoga room exposes and attracts many of my young patients to try Yoga postures.

I have been practicing yoga for nearly 15 years and I gradually found myself using my knowledge of yoga and the available props in addition to the more ‘conventional’ techniques used in movement therapy, to treat my young patients, who are naturally curious to ‘try’ the props.

Movement therapy is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on using movement as a medium for change. The basic assumption is that as the body and mind form an integrated and unified system, it is possible to use the tools of the somatic motion system to diagnose and treat mental disturbances.

In many cases, the use of Yoga postures and props significantly improved the outcome of the treatment process. Yoga, being a psychosomatic science, is very appropriate for therapy that focuses on body-mind interplay, and I found that it has helped many patients suffering from emotional disturbances like low self-esteem, poor social functioning, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), anxiety and depression.

I present here three case reports of treating children with emotional problems, which I used Yoga postures in addition to the conventional treatments that I had been using. This is just a sample of the many cases in which yoga was found to be very beneficial.

Dina[1]

Dina was referred to me when she was 12 years old due to anxiety, stomach pains, and regression in school. Dina’s parents had divorced when she was 5 years old.

When I started the treatment, her anxiety was expressed somatically by symptoms like headache, stomachache and nausea. She was constantly afraid that something bad would happen to her, or to her relatives in a terror attack (which was quite frequent in her town during that time). Every report, in the daily news, of such an attack was experienced by her as a personal threat, and disturbed her well-being and tranquility. I treated her with a variety of classical movement therapy techniques, as well as with Yoga.

During an attack of anxiety, her breathing became shallow and fast with a sense of helplessness. For this reason, I used postures that expand the chest, help to relax, and promote deep breathing. The main poses that were found beneficial were Supta Baddha Konasana and Supta Virasana with a bolster supporting her spine. I accompanied these postures with instructions for soft, slow and deep breathing as well as guided imagery. Controlling the breath helped her regain a sense of control.

Since Dina has very flexible hips, she enjoyed doing Adho Mukha Baddha Konasana, a posture that eased her stomachache. In addition to these postures, we also practiced balancing poses like Vrksasana, Garudasana, and Bakasana. I tried to draw her attention to the fact that balancing physically can lead to inner mental balance.

After two years of therapeutic process, during the last war of the summer of 2006, I called her after Hizbullah missiles reached her town, to ask her how she was enduring this tense situation. She said she had no fears. She did her asanas every time she heard the sirens.

Lila

Lila was referred to me when she was 8 years old due to difficulties at school and a problem of encopresis. Her parents had separated, and Lila had to regularly endure the difficult struggles between her parents.

Encopresis denotes uncontrolled defecation of emotional origin. It involves repeated, involuntary evacuation of feces into clothing without an identified organic cause, after the age of 4 years, with or without constipation.

The father is mentally unstable and does not maintain any constant relationship with Lila; this causes her a lot of frustration and disappointment. The encopresis becomes worse when Lila experiences more frustration in her life’s circumstances. At such times, she gets constipated for a week, and this causes swelling and severe pain in the abdomen.

To relieve the constipation and the pain, I would make her do Eka and Dwi Pada Supta Pavanmuktanasana, Supta Baddha Konasana, and simplified Malasana with emphasis on breathing, particularly on complete exhalation. I also used different kinds of relaxation techniques with sphincter contraction and expansion.

Lila’s family structure is very complicated and it is hard for her to balance her life. But whenever she did manage to practice asanas on her own, then she reported a remission in the constipation. As the feeling of organic release became more natural to her in her practice, she could use other means of expressing her difficulties, and did not need to regress to the ‘holding’ of the constipation that is so painful and harmful, physically as well as mentally.

Tom

Tom was referred to me at the age of 6 due to restlessness, impulsiveness, aggression, and low self-esteem. Tom was diagnosed as suffering from ADHD; drug treatment was recommended, but his parents objected to such treatment.

ADHD Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is a diagnostic label of children and adults who have significant problems in four main areas:
● problems with attention,
● problems with a lack of impulse control,
● problems with over-activity or motor restlessness, and
● problems of being easily bored.
ADHD is a medical condition caused by genetic (and other) factors that result in certain neurological differences. Those neurological differences might affect one, two, or several areas of the brain, resulting in several different styles or profiles of children and adults with ADHD.

ADHD affects about 5% of the population.

In my treatment, I used different techniques to provide a controlled outlet for his aggression (boxing sac, throwing balls, etc.); I also suggested to Tom some standing poses, especially Virabhadrasana I, II, and III. Tom could identify himself with the character of mythological heroes, and understood physically that strength requires strong legs and firm grounding. Sometimes, when he was restless, I suggested making the transition between the Asanas with jumps, in a Surya-Namaskar style, and at other times I suggested slow-motion transitions.

One of Tom’s favorites is the rope Sirsasana; when he discovered this inverted pose, he said: ‘This is natural to my body’. The fact that this pose is so comfortable and natural for many children makes me think that it resembles the position of the baby in its mother’s womb. The similarity to the embryo position has two facets: it is inverted, and there is a holding of the body. I found that the holding that the rope provides helped children suffering from ADHD calm down and relax. The use of props, especially the bolster, provided the support to the body that helped the child release tension and become passive.

Initially, Tom got excited seeing the ropes, would swing on them and restlessly move his limbs. I provided him with some guided imagery and told him that he is a batman that is hung in a cave. He must keep quiet and not move so as to hide from the strangers who had entered that cave. This imagery helped him; gradually, he could relax for a few minutes and experience the wonderful sense of success and control. As the treatment progressed, Tom told me that he could use breathing exercises to defer his reaction rather than reacting impulsively.

To summarize, I feel blessed in that the world of Iyengar Yoga has opened up for me, both personally and professionally. As a movement therapist, it enriched my working tools. Today, Yoga is an inherent part of my work, and I employ it in almost every treatment. The asanas provide concrete physical and mental forms that supply a rich vocabulary for the therapist. In contrast to free movement, which in many cases demands exposure that is too threatening for many patients, the asanas provide structure that promotes confidence.

[1] In order to preserve the patients’ privacy, their names were changed

Introduction

In this short article, I will discuss two interesting questions:
• What character traits and qualities are required in order to be a good yoga practitioner?
• What character traits and qualities are required in order to be a good yoga teacher?

These are interesting questions because the answers to them can guide us on our yogic path and help define the qualities we need to develop and cultivate in order to become good practitioners or good yoga teachers.

The Yoga Journal has addressed the second question; here I share my own thoughts.

Let us begin with the first question.

What Is Required to Be a Good Yoga Practitioner?

First, one must love the practice

It is not easy to persevere in yoga practice. In order to maintain a regular practice, we need to give up some of life’s pleasures (what is known as bhoga). In order to practice in the morning, one needs to go to bed earlier and limit late nights out. Attention must be given to nutrition, and sufficient time should be kept between eating and practice. This requires a more carefully planned daily routine, with practice given high priority among our activities.

In addition, practice requires time, which comes at the expense of other pursuits. Often, it is difficult to begin practicing due to laziness, fatigue, or an overly busy schedule. Therefore, the first thing required to be a yoga practitioner is to love the practice.

If, during practice—and especially afterward—we do not feel that something in our state of mind or emotional condition has changed, we will lack the motivation to continue practicing. When, as a result of practice, we feel more calm, focused, clear, or refreshed—even if it is still difficult to begin—we know that it is worthwhile. We know that the memory of the special feeling after practice is worth the effort.

Love for the practice creates tapas—a burning desire to practice, a strong wish to bring about inner change that leads to greater calm and joy. Without tapas, it is difficult to continue on the yogic path.

Second, perseverance is required

However, love for the practice is not enough; the initial enthusiasm may fade. Therefore, the second requirement is determination and perseverance. Practice demands the investment of energy and effort. Self-discipline, willpower, and determination are required.

Patañjali summarized this in Sūtra I.14, stating that yoga practice must be carried out over a long period of time, without interruption, and with sincerity and devotion.

Sūtra I.20 describes what B.K.S. Iyengar called “the five vitamins of the yogi”: faith, determination, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. These too, are necessary in order to be a good practitioner. These five qualities nourish one another. To begin, one needs faith in the path—a belief that the path leads somewhere good. With faith comes determination and the ability to invest effort and persevere. Practice develops mindfulness and concentration, which lead to insight and spiritual wisdom. The wisdom gained through practice strengthens faith, which in turn encourages further effort, and so on.

Additional necessary qualities

A yoga practitioner needs motivation, but not ambition. Motivation is the desire to do good for oneself and for others. Ambition, by contrast, is the desire to be good, to excel, and to impress. Our goal is to do good, not to be successful or impressive.

Yoga is not gymnastics and does not operate solely on the physical level. In every posture there must be action and firmness, but also relaxation and space for breath. A yoga practitioner must find the right balance between steadiness and ease—sthira and sukha (Sūtra II.46)—and between effort and relaxation—abhyāsa and vairāgya (Sūtra II.47). Without steadiness there can be no ease, but steadiness alone is not sufficient, because effort without relaxation does not allow for observation and clarity.

In addition, a yoga practitioner should be curious about the field of yoga, eager to learn, and to grow. Practice should be creative, not repetitive and mechanical.

Furthermore, practice must not violate the principles of the yamas. It cannot be done at the expense of the well-being of others. For example, practitioners who have families cannot practice at the expense of their partner, and must ensure that practice does not prevent them from fulfilling their family responsibilities.

It should be remembered that practice is not limited to the time we spend on the yoga mat, but should extend throughout the entire day. Yoga should gradually become a way of life—a way in which we cultivate within ourselves the wish to do good in the world. In Sūtra I.33, Patañjali gives guidance for cultivating benevolent intentions, describing the four qualities of the heart, or the four divine qualities: friendliness, compassion, appreciative joy, and emotional equanimity.

How do we know whether our practice is good?

A good practice develops balance, tolerance, joy, and calm. If these qualities are not present, we need to examine what is lacking in our practice.

What Is Required to Be a Good Yoga Teacher?

The first thing a teacher must be is a good and dedicated practitioner—teaching rests upon practice. If teachers lack passion and enthusiasm for practice, and if practice does not bring them calm, clarity, and joy, they will not be able to transmit these to others. Do not pass on second-hand knowledge to students, but only what you have experienced yourself. Learn from experienced teachers, but pass on to your students only what you have personally lived and practiced.

In addition, a good teacher should be interested in people—caring and empathetic. Teachers must remember that they are in the classroom for the students: to want them to progress and for their lives to be better.

Below are additional qualities required of a teacher:

1. A teacher should know how to create a supportive and encouraging atmosphere in class, rather than a critical or judgmental one. Teachers should not hurt or insult students.
2. Patience is required—lots of patience. Patience to explain the same things again and again. Patience in dealing with challenging students, who will always be there. Patience, even when it is difficult.
3. Teachers should possess emotional stability and equanimity. They should be able to contain challenges and difficulties presented by students without becoming unsettled and without reacting automatically or unreflectively.
4. Professionalism—teachers must know the field well and continue to develop and study. A teacher is first and foremost a learner.
5. Observation and sensitivity—a teacher needs sharp and precise observation in order to see all students and identify where corrections and improvements can be made. The teacher must be sensitive enough to know how to address each student without causing harm, and in a way that helps them progress.
6. Discipline is required in order to persevere in teaching, not to cancel classes, even when it is difficult or when the schedule is crowded.
7. Teachers need the ability to express themselves and to convey content clearly, both verbally and through demonstration.
8. Teachers should not reduce yoga teaching to technique alone. They must be well acquainted with the entire field of yoga, study the yogic texts (svādhyāya), and speak with students about yogic philosophy and theory, such as yama and niyama.
9. Teachers should relate equally to all students, including those they like less.
10. Last but not least, teachers must be humble.

The Need for Long-Term Training

As can be seen, it is not easy to be a good teacher. Before turning to teaching, one must devote years to practice and study. Only after deepening our understanding of yoga can we turn to teacher training. Such training must be thorough and extended. It takes years to mature into a good teacher. There is no instant yoga!

Insightful Quotes of Mr. Iyengar

In the eight volumes of Astadala Yoga Mala, a wealth of fascinating material has been collected, including lectures, messages, and interviews given by B.K.S. Iyengar throughout his long life. They contain distilled and profound wisdom. Among other topics, Iyengar addresses teaching (primarily in volumes 3 and 8, but also in other articles throughout the series—you can search for “teaching” in the general index at the end of volume 8).

I will bring here a few gems from volume 3:

Teaching yoga is very difficult subject, but it is one of the best services you can do for human beings. Work, not as a teacher, but as a learner in the art of teaching. Learn from looking at the pupils’ body and mind, as they are not the same in all individuals. (page 189)

Treat each pupil in your heart as God but outside as a pupil. Be strong outside, but feel inside that you are serving the pupils in the form of God. This brings in you the quality of being a true teacher. (page 190)

Your emotions as a teacher and their selfishness may put you in trouble. Do not get influenced. Do not show favoritism. Keep influences outside. (page 191)

As a teacher you have to wait for the right time to speak to the pupils with right words. (page 191)

Even if you do not like a person and yet you must teach him… Sometimes you get pupils who give you the nausea. Remember they are real gurus for you, because they help you to build yourself. God must have sent that person to you. (page 192)

In previous posts, I discussed the Yamas (see: On the Practice of Ahimsa and About Satya), here I discuss the fifth Yama – Aparigraha.

Aparigraha is the opposite of Parigraha, which means hoarding or collecting. Not consuming more than we need, and not chasing and collecting possessions, leads to a simpler, quieter, and happier life. Following Aparigraha gives us more mental peace. In Light on Yoga, B.K.S. Iyengar writes:

“By the observance of Aparigraha, the yogi makes his life as simple as possible and trains his mind not to feel the loss or the lack of anything… The Sadhaka has developed the capacity to remain satisfied in whatever happens to him. Thus, he obtains the peace which takes him beyond the realms of illusion and misery with which our world is saturated”. p. 35-36

To truly understand and establish ourselves in aparigraha, we must first recognize the shortcomings of parigraha—the habit of grasping and pursuing bhoga, or sensory enjoyments.
Pleasure requires objects. We work hard to obtain them, we invest energy in keeping them, yet their ability to satisfy us steadily diminishes. As a result, we seek more and more objects, and attachment to them grows.

These objects can also be emotional; for example, we may hold on to relationships or to other emotional satisfactions. We may accumulate more and more power and control.

Or, as Vyasa puts it: “Aparigraha means to desist from taking or coveting things, seeing that getting and keeping them involve trouble, that they are subject to decay, that association with them causes mischief, and that they beget malice”.

Aparigraha and the previous four Yamas

Attachment leads to a violation of ahimsa and asteya, and ultimately undermines all the yamas.
In asteya, we may accept what is freely given to us; in aparigraha, we refrain even from this, because the aim is to avoid accumulating possessions.

Thus, parigraha violates asteya. Similarly, addiction to pleasures leads to a violation of brahmacharya.
In this way, practicing aparigraha is, in essence, practicing all the yamas.

Controlling Greed

To establish aparigraha, we must learn to govern our greed. Greed is inherent in human nature and can never be fully appeased—once indulged, it only grows. We find ourselves wanting endlessly, exhausting our energy in pursuit of objects that promise pleasure. Trying to satisfy greed is like pouring oil on a fire—it only intensifies the flames.

Greed may even arise for what is unattainable. In the Ramayana, Sita longs for a golden deer, compelling Rama to seek one, despite its impossibility. This desire is what sets the entire epic in motion.

It is often difficult to differentiate between greed and need. For example, a smartphone was considered once a luxury, but today it is considred as a need.

Greed is based on fear; we are afraid that we won’t have enough in the future, so we hoard more and more things to feel secure. We become stingy because of the fear of scarcity. The two extremes are, on one hand, a Sadhu who gives up all material possessions and survives by begging for food; and a compulsive hoarder who fills his home with more and more stuff, on the other. As homeowners who live in society, we should seek a balanced middle-way between these two extremes.

Addiction is an extreme case of greed. Addicts lose their entire freedom because of the need of object. This shows how much Parigrha can deprive us of our freedom.

Excessive consumption deprives others of what they need. So, greed is harming for the ecology and causes injury (Himsa). This is true of material objects; the breath, however, is an exception: we take only the breath we need, and we cannot store it. We should learn to conume object just as we consume breath, or we risk becoming slaves to our desires and our tendency for hoarding.

How does one measure enough? Again, this measurement is a state of mind. The craving mind never has enough. It doesn’t really matter what we crave. Whether it’s food, clothing, money, or shopping – it’s never enough. That’s just the nature of craving. Its nature is always looking for more or something else. The quality of dāna, of generosity, permeates this craving mind. It can come to this place of openness and giving, the heart at ease, because it has enough.

There are many ways we can get to this place. We can work on generosity and learn to appreciate what it offers. We can consciously go against the craving mind by creating more generosity in our lives. We live by reaching out to give, relying on it, appreciating it, and savoring it. In practice, we cultivate and strengthen generosity so that we don’t get pulled back into the craving mind or the mind of greed and comparison. It’s so satisfying to have enough and to find joy and pleasure.

The craving mind does not only work in craving more material possessions, it also works in spiritual practice. When we meditate, do we feel like we have enough concentration or enough peace? The craving mind seeks more concentration, more calm, more peace, more of whatever; the main thing is more. When there is a lack of peace, we feel like we need more.

Is Aparigraha Easier than the other Yamas?

Although aparigraha may appear to demand less than the other yamas; however, the siddhi associated with it—knowledge of one’s past and future births—reveals its depth and significance.

How can this siddhi be understood?

When the mind turns inward and is no longer preoccupied with chasing external objects, we can come to know our essential nature. We begin to understand our deep-seated tendencies—our samskaras. These impressions shape the course of our past, present, and future: they are the hidden seeds that sprout into actions and generate the karma that propels us onward.

How to practice Aparigraha

We can weaken greed by contemplating the limitations and inherent dissatisfactions of objects. The more we reflect in this way, the more the craving diminishes.

Yoga practice provides a solid foundation for aparigraha. Through yoga, we cultivate calmness, purity, and contentment—qualities directly opposed to dependence on sensory pleasure and external objects. We discover natural joy and natural peace, like natural sleep, which arises on its own rather than being induced by substances or sleeping aids. Once we learn to find joy in simple things, like the scenes of nature, we become freer from the need for material objects.

Yoga practice reshapes our very biochemistry, moving us toward quietude, serenity, spiritual delight, and upliftment.

References

• B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on Yoga, George Allen & Unwin, 1976
• Prashant Iyengar, Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali, Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Institute, 2014
• Swami Hariharanada Aranya, Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali, State University of New York, 1983