Don’t skip your yoga class

When you browse through books on yoga in any bookstore, you will find the first few rows filled with beautiful glossy ones with attractive models in yogic postures.

These are mostly foreign publications. Next to them are books by yoga stalwart BKS Iyengar. Get past these, and you will encounter a large number of reasonably priced books written by other Indian yoga practitioners.

They have ordinary dust jackets, black and white photographs, and average-looking people dressed for comfort, illustrating poses. Such books go largely unnoticed.

On a recent visit to a bookstore, I decided not to judge a yoga book by its looks and took the time to flip through rows of these non-descript looking books. I was quite surprised — they were well researched and rich in content. Whether one is looking for a handy reference to postures or trying to understand yoga, these books provide ample information. The books I found very interesting were mostly by writers, I’ve never heard of.

Yoga for Health by NS Ravishankar is a compendium of one hundred postures, performed by the author himself. The book gives step by step instructions on how to get into a posture, how long to stay there and whether it needs repetition. This book can serve as a practical manual, especially for beginners.

Every book on yoga tells you that it helps boost your immunity. Therapeutic Yoga by Dr MT Shah describes in simple physiological terms, the health benefits of each pose. The pictures are simple sketch figures as the focus of the book is not to teach a posture but to enunciate which organ, gland, or tissue is stimulated by it. It is quite motivating when a doctor tells you that your thyroid and pituitary glands will function better from a pose as simple as toe touching!

Growing with Yoga by Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra is useful if you are trying to get your children to practice yoga. She describes and illustrates poses that are simple for a child to perform. She makes sure none of the postures requires more than 10 seconds of holding, since children find it tedious to stay in one position for long. The book has a select set of postures that aid growth, improve concentration, and build the immune system.

The Heart of Yoga by TKV Desikachar is not for a beginner but for an advanced practitioner. Yoga here is not meant for only physical toning or improved health but to reach a higher spiritual realm. There is ample theory on each limb of Ashtanga Yoga, how to design a set of poses for a daily practice (vinyasa), and on achieving perfect breath control through pranayama. The book culminates in a treatise on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Most people start Yoga for fitness. Reading books on it will help one understand this ancient science a little better, and in turn sustain the initial interest. When you read in a book, that taking a break from yoga for a day sets your body’s agility back by four days, it certainly makes you think twice before skipping the next morning’s session!

    Vanishree is the founder of online library easylib.com