Loss and discovery
Some years ago I had enrolled for a course on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra at the K.R. Cama Institute along with a friend. It was as my father accused me of, an excuse for having been a lazy non-practitioner trying to compensate by reading theory. I went through the weekly lectures diligently even as he went through hospitalization, cure, and ultimately passed away before I completed the course. He was a yoga practitioner and I have observed him with so much curiosity as a kid. Though he used to ask me sometime during my working years to learn yoga, he never made an attempt to teach me while I was much younger. Actually, being a Sri Vaishnava he didn’t teach me any of the traditional texts or slokas as well. It was not that he wasn’t interested, he just let us imbibe, read for ourselves, just assist us and kindle our curiosity even as we got busy with our own mundane existence of education, career, earning etc., I look at that as somewhat a reflection of what happens to a tradition, while some are memorized, committed to writing, propagated, some just remain a memory and wither away some day. As a community we have gone through this process. Loss and discovery. While some lost texts were re-discovered many were just lost. Some traditions stayed as a memory, and some faded.
Why am I reflecting on all this? One of
those early days of International Yoga Day recognition and celebration I was doing
a random search for Nathamuni’s ‘Yoga Rahasya’. The Sri Vaishnava Guru
Parampara clearly states the first of the preceptors in the Sri Vaishnava tradition
of Ramanuja sampradaya, Nathumani, was a Yogi and attributes the authorship of
a text ‘Yoga Rahasya’ to him. No fragments,
no history of manuscripts, publication exist. To my surprise I found an edition
of Nathamuni’s ‘Yoga Rahasya’ on the online retail platforms – that was a text
which the renowned yoga guru Thirumalai Krishnamacharya had written and
published after his death. Not being a student of Yoga, or a scholar, I had no
idea of the works of Krishnamacharya and the status of the publications.
Prodded by curiosity I went searching further for details and the contents of
the book. I came across a blog that I am not able to trace now, nor recollect
the name of the author that was highly skeptical of the story of rediscovery of
‘Yoga Rahasya’. I was engrossed in the story of its discovery.
Nathumani, the 9-10th century preceptor
was the one who started the Sri Vaishnava parampara as it has come down over
the last 1000 years with his re-discovery of the Nalayira Divya Prabandham, a
compendium of the verses of the 12 Alvars. The discovery of Nalayria Divya
Prabandham by Nathamuni is a well known legend among the Sri Vaishnavas – having
heard just 10 verses out of over 1000 verses of Nammalvar’s Tirovaimozhi, his search
for the rest, vision of Nammalvar and the gift of the entire corpus obtained
through his Yogic vision. Without that discovery, the systematization of recitation
of 4000, incorporating it into musical and dance recitations, propagation of it
through a sishya parampara, the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya as it has come about
through these centuries would not have been possible. It is believed that he
taught Yoga to one of his students Kurugai Kavalappan which unfortunately didn’t
get passed on through his grandson another illustrious guru of the parampara,
Alavandar or Yamunacharya. While Alavandar has been instrumental in passing on
the legacy and the Sri Vaishnava sampradaya which blossomed into a beautiful
tradition and lives through to this day, the Yoga part of the Nathamuni’s
legacy passed into oblivion. Nathamuni did the illustrious work of rediscovering
the Prabandham for us, but unfortunately both his texts ‘Nyaya Tattva’ and ‘Yoga
Rahasya’ were lost, and the yoga part in the whole sampradya context stayed on
through Bhakti Yoga, Prapatti and Nityanushtanas but not the Yoga and Yogasana
as such.
“As we mature spiritually, we begin to
understand that things happen for a reason. And we also recognize that there is
often some divine intervention that supports us and our mission when we least
expect it. When the Sri Vaishnava tradition was declining Nathamuni set out to
revive it, he needed support to complete his task. Probably, this is why he
received the Divya Prabandham.
Similarly, when yoga facing its dark days
in the early twentieth century, Krishnamacharya needed support to fulfill his
mission and preserve the tradition of yoga. This may be the reason for the
divine intervention that allowed him to recover the lost teachings of the Yoga
Rahasya, which would become such an invaluable tool in his work.” – This is what
Kausthub Desikachar has written in his biography of Krishnamacharya ‘The Yoga
of the Yogi’, about his coming to terms with the idea of discovery after a
visit to Alvar Tirunagari.
“My father never acknowledged that he
discovered anything even when I have seen that it was he who discovered. He has
discovered postures but he would say that it was his teacher who taught him. Rarely
has he said that it was his “original” work. At the same time, I have seen him
– because I am his son also composing some verses and correcting those verses
for the Chandas (Metre) and all that and finally saying – this is what
Nathamuni is saying and this is what my teacher says! I tend to think that the
Nathamuni’s Yoga Rahasya that he taught us is quite likely to be a combination
of his own commentary and the lessons he received though he would not accept
it.”
– ‘The Study of Yoga Rahasya‘ – Extract
from an Interview with TKV Desikachar in KYM Darśanam, a publication from
Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram vol 1 no 1 Feb 1991: Source: internet
http://www.sutrajournal.com/krishnamacharyas-yoga-rahasya-by-eric-shaw
https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/krishnamacharya-s-legacy/
https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/yoga-rahasya-of-nathamuni-NAH808/
Photos: From the internet
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