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9:00 AM - 10:00 AM (UTC+5.5)
The Essence of Yoga: Looking at Patañjali’s Distillation of the Practice
Explore the power of yoga through chanting, connecting with one of the most widely referenced sources on yogic philosophy. In this one-hour session, we’ll explore Yoga Sūtra 1.12, among others, exploring what is perhaps the greatest truth to be derived from Patañjali, that oneʼs choice to exercise the combination of abhyāsa, practice and vairāgya, non-attachment, is more powerful than any pattern that inhabits citta, the heart-mind-body field. In my teaching, this idea has served as an anchor and a container for learning, one I received through a teaching model created by Vyaas Houston at the American Sanskrit Institute, a model that proved itself steady and reliable during my 14 years of study and teaching there, and showed that these fundamental principles to be infallible. In sūtra 1.12 Patañjali distilled the essence of yoga, which in his age was rooted in an ancient tradition that was time tested. Centuries before the teachings of Yoga were codified Kṛṣṇa assured Arjuna, who had just acknowledged his own doubt about being able to regulate a turbulent mind, that “No doubt, an active mind is hard to control, but by abhyāsa and vairāgya, Arjuna, it is held steady. BG 6.35. Let us come together to steady our minds.
Speakers
Claudette Evans
Yoga Teacher, Trainer and Mentor
Claudette Evans (E-RYT 500) is passionate about the study and practice of yoga, as well as the training and mentoring of its teachers. As a yoga student and educator, Claudette fell in love with yoga philosophy. Already trained in western classical voice, she was naturally drawn to study the Sanskrit language, Vedic Chanting, and eventually, Indian Classical Voice. Claudette's classes create a space for self-expression through body and voice, cultivate a clarity of focus, and foster the gift of embodiment. Claudette is grateful for the many teachers she’s studied with over the years, particularly her early Sanskrit education with Vyaas Houston’s American Sanskrit Institute (ASI), where she was a teacher for the past decade. Today, her main teachers are Shantala Sriramaiah, Dr. Varun Khanna, and Dr. Douglas Brooks. Claudette shares the beauty of Sanskrit, Yoga Philosophy, and the Veda in weekly classes, workshops, and yoga teacher training programs throughout the Pacific Northwest and online.
Sophia French
Host, Journalist
Sophia has been a journalist for over 15 years, and she has been practising hatha yoga for 20 years. She completed a yoga and Vedanta course at the Sivananda Yoga and Vedanta Ashram in Netala, and she's been practising hatha yoga in the Iyengar and Krishnamacharya systems. She is currently studying Indian philosophy and is a regular journalist