Day 20 Krishnamacharya Mudra/Life Saving Session #3

 

Points of concentration: 16 vital points.

sirsa - the fontanel

murdhna - middle of forehead

bhrumadhya - between eyebrows

nasagra - extremity of the nose

talu mula - back of the palate

lalata - root of the uvula

kantha - throat

kantha kupa - back of the throat

hrdaya - middle of the heart

nabhi - navel

sroni - centre of the pelvis

mula - perineum

jangha- point at top of thighs

janu - point at middle of knees g

ulpha - point at middle of ankles pada angusta - point of the big toes.

Also of note...

Murdhna: the point located in front of the nose

Divya Chakshush: Point behind the head (occipital)

Aditya (the sun) is the disk of the sun, black and shiny,

The star: lying on his back to look as far as possible on the sky Taraka: the horizon point,

Kumbhaka

A.K. = Antah Kumbhaka (holding of breath after inhalation ) 

B.K = Bhaya Kumbhaka (holding of breath after exhalation )

NOTES

To point or flex the feet in  head and shoulder stand?

When I was diagnosed with glaucoma a year or two back I stopped doing inversions, stopped having my head below my heart altogether in fact, no downward dogs, not even a full fold in Paschimatana Asana. Once the glaucoma was under control with eye drops and given that my eye pressure was being regularly tested I started to reintroduce these aspects of practice. So far so good. I do two things in my head and shoulder stands to try to counteract the increase in eye pressure that is supposed to result from them, I have no idea if these techniques make the slightest bit of difference. One is to point my toes and the other is to press my tongue to the roof of my mouth. I can’t remember where I heard these techniques might help, I’m not sure if there is any science behind it but so far I’ve been able to reintroduce these inversions without my eye doctor frowning at me.

I think I heard Shribhashyam prefers us to flex the feet or perhaps relax them rather than point them. Pointing might I guess be a distraction from the concentration point although I haven’t found it a problem. 

I checked Krishnamacharya’s own photos and if not strongly pointed they aren’t flexed either.

Shribhashyam offers alternatives to these inversions, should my eye pressure increases I could take advantage of these. Also, there seem to be few full forward folds showing up, perhaps we might consider this a glaucoma friendly system.

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Mudra session today, the Pranayama session tomorrow then back to general practice sessions on Thursday. I’m looking forward to practicing this session today, after another cup of tea, a beautifully sparse practice.

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Practice sheets based on the sessions in T. K. Sribhashyam's wonderful 'Emergence of Yoga'.

 May be available on Amazon but check the language.

 https://www.yogakshemam.net/product-page/emergence-du-yoga

Also available direct from T. K. Sribhashyam's school.

I heard the website says it doesn't ship to the US but if you contact them direct it might be able to be arranged for a little extra shipping cost.