I find it very
handy when I happen to like a book that I have to read anyway. T.K.V. Desikachar’s book, The Heart of Yoga: Developing a Personal Practice, is one of
the texts for the yoga course I’m taking.
It is a lovely book.
For the course,
we don’t have to read every chapter, but I read the whole thing anyway because
that is how I roll. Desikachar has a
gift for lucid explanation and tells a good story when it is useful to
illustrate a point. There is also a
gentleness and humor to his prose, which is welcome given that he has to unpack
some complicated ideas and introduce some arcane practices.
The diagrams
support the text well. Even better, many
of the (vintage) photographs feature Desikachar’s father and teacher, Krishnamacharya. They illustrate the poses and ideas, of
course, but have a pleasing tone of lightness and fun (and sometimes striped
shorts!).
Desikachar lays
out the eight limbs of yoga and discusses them at length. He concludes the book with a translation and
commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. I expect to treasure this book and use it
often.
