The beauty of a Mysore practice – A look at a winter morning at North Sydney Yoga.
Surya Namaskar means salute to the sun, and just as the the day begins with the sunrise, the Ashtanga Yoga series starts with the Surya Namaskar sequence. In this time lapse video shot in our beautiful shala, we see teachers and students alike going through their Yoga asana practice, starting with the Salutes to the sun, and flowing through to their peaceful savasana.
It starts with the stillness of the early morning. At first just a few, but more and more practitioners join the ranks of our Yoga community for their morning Yoga practice. At once together, and yet individually, our attention is on the breath, bandhas and drishti.
While the sun rises outside, awakening the world with it’s light and warmth, we rise with it. We awaken our inner selves as we vinyasa through posture after posture. Our ujayii breath warms us, and our bandhas keep us stable and centred. From this stable base, our eyes focus on our drishtis. Breath, bandhas and drishtis. With our eyes focussed on the drishtis and our ears – the breath, our minds are allowed to separate from the distractions around us and look inward, kindling the light of our essential selves.
The light spreads outside, and filters through the window across the waxed floorboards. Our light spreads inside, filling us with the yogic glow of self-awareness.
The beauty of this Mysore style of practice has been passed down generations in India and now spread to all corners of the globe. We rise with others, and yet both before and after others. The endless wave of Ashtanga Yoga practitioners across the earth both aligns with and reflects the sun’s light and warmth endlessly spreading westward.
We move through the sequence in the rhythm of the vinyasa, both teacher and student on the path of self-discovery. Eventually the sunlight fills the room, and we end with an awakened vitality, coupled with peace of mind.
Om Shanti.