Why Practice Astanga Yoga?
I once watched while my teacher tried to answer this question with a new student, he began like this:
"How many breathings in a day?"
She just gave him a confused look.
He didn't seem to notice it, "Each man, twenty-five thousand breathings. How many breathings in sun salutations?"
The new student, not having much experience with yoga at all, didn't have a clue. But again, that didn't deter
Sheshadri.
"Twelve breathings in Surya Namascara A. Five times. Sixteen breathings in Surya Namascar B. Five times. Total is?"
The new student had thought she was here for a yoga class, not an arithmetic test, but she struggled through, "Um.. let's see, sixty, plus, um..."
As she struggled, so did Sheshadri, "Yes, yes, total is... total is..."
Someone else in the class chimed in at this point, "One hundred forty."
Sheshadri didn't appear to hear him, "Total is one hundred breathings."
The girl, glad to get the math section of the exam over with, did not argue.
"In full practice, how many breathings?"
She quivered in fear. Sheshadri realised that this was a mistake. It would take them all class, and she would leave without experiencing his famous swinging-backbend-adjustment.
He did the only thing he could, cut off that tangent where it stood. "If you are slow the breath, the life is come to the body."
She nodded, uncertainly.
"Each man is have twenty-five thousand breathings. If you are slow the breath, that is longevity. If you are fast the breath, that is shortgevity."
Sheshadri's pronouncements can take a while to... understand, but when it comes down to it, he's right. Sort of.
Yoga slows down the pace of life. It calms the mind and gives us a time of sanctuary, to forget about worries and concerns, and this is a great way to relieve stress.
Living without such worry in my experience makes it much easier to enjoy to
simple things that come along in life. Will practicing yoga make you live
longer or with greater health? As much as any other form of exercise.
But perhaps more important than the length of that life is it's quality.
And at least in my experience, that quality increases as that mind calms, and as
we learn to take things as they come. This doesn't mean ignoring such
worries, rather it means not being controlled by them.
Of course, there's more to it than that. Astanga specifically is a strong, powerful practice. The fast paced movements are slightly aerobic and lead to higher levels of fitness in the heart and lungs. As new students discover to their initial displeasure, we tone and work every area of the body, from the deep muscles in the abs, to the muscles that control the movement of the eyes or the spreading of the toes.
It's a strength that makes the body feel light and easy.
Yoga is best known for it's stretches. This is of course a valuable part of the practice, as it loosens the body, releasing tension, and allowing for a far greater range of movement. Simple things like sitting cross-legged become comfortable. Flexibility also allows the body an ease of movement, rather than fighting the body's own tightness in daily activities (whether a crick in the neck while reading a good book, or that two centimeters more you wish you could reach when halfway up a mountain rock face).
I could go on. I could talk about the calm focus that the mind can
develop. I could tell you about the spiritual benefits that some find from the practice as well, but I won't.
Those sorts of things can be explored, over time, with the practice. Come out and see how it feels, you'll know if it's right for you.
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