Krakow 3. What Does “Svarūpa” Actually Mean?

The next report that I would like to refer to was made by Keith Edward Cantú from the University of California, Santa Barbara and explored the category of Svarūpa and its understanding in live Yoga Traditions of India, mostly of Bengal. The reader may remember that the term svarūpa (own form) was introduced by Patanjali to denote the genuine state of Drashtar (the Inner Observer) at the moment of attaining the state of yoga (chitta-vritti-nirodha). Patanjali did introduce the term yet left it without comments having just confined himself to asserting the state opposite to the said to be vritti-sarupiam i.e. being of the same form as that of vritti. It is interesting to note that earlier texts almost never refer to this term as well. Nevertheless the issue of svarūpa notional core is highly important due to its significant association with ontological aims of yoga.

Krakow 2. The History of Standing Asanas. James Mallinson’s Report

The next report that I would like to give my special consideration to was made by a person who is believed to be a living legend of yoga insider studies - James Mallinson. A British aristocrat addicted to Oriental studies since his early youth; a man who’s been practicing in one of authentic Traditions for more than twenty years and the only European with a highest degree of this Tradition consecration. They say that in order to decide whether a European can be assigned with such a status a special convention of the School Masters was held. He took his doctor’s degree at the University of Oxford and he is a lecturer in SOAS, University of London.