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Here is the panel that Ida participated in on "Foregotten Foremothers". She spoke about the Ghosh yogi Reba Rakshit. She spoke alongside historian and author Sudhir Chandra. The conversation was moderated by Vikram Iyengar.
Enjoy!
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 When we deepen our physical practice there's a weird wall that appears in front of us. We spend time learning how the postures work and we get it. We know what we're doing and what part of our body is doing it. But then it seems like nothing is happening! Our body just doesn't make the position that is in our mind. Even though we understand it, our body needs time to put it together.
While this seems frustrating and is definitely a test of patience, it's also a really thrilling part of the practice. This is the time where we work the postures into our body. When we know them on a mental level, but can't yet execute them on the physical level, we get to build this deep and complex relationship with the postures. We learn what the process is, not just what the posture is. When we put in the time, we develop faith in the posture, our body and the practice as a whole. When we take the time to really work though the postures, the experience stays with us. While the postures may come and go as our bodies change, our time and effort is never lost. We always have the experience that our practice provides us. This is priceless.  Occasionally we will hear that people feel worse after taking class than before. Maybe the body hurts, there's tension or there are negative mental reactions to what the body did or didn't do. It is so important that we don't ignore these signals.
When the body hurts we must listen. The simplest reason for this is that we will inevitably get more seriously injured if we push into what hurts. (At that point we will be forced to listen.) However, the deeper reason from a yogic perspective is that we are trying to deepen our connection with truth and understanding. When we ignore something on the physical level, we shut down our curiosity and openness. The action of ignoring pain suggests that we (or our ego!) already knows where we are going, how to get there and what is and isn't part of our journey. This is the opposite of yoga. In yoga, we should work to remain open to the path as it unfolds in front of us. We should remain humble and open to new information. If we ignore the signals in our practice on a physical level, we will have a very difficult time sorting through them on a mental or spiritual level. This is not to say it's easy or we will always be successful. We don't always know or feel pain accurately and sometimes we don't know how far is too far until we find too far. The only option we have is to do our best and then adjust as we have more information. If we have pain in our practice and we also have the desire to push through it, we really need to ask ourselves: What goal is worth harming our body? Most people today practice for reasons related to feeling better or better health, so the answer has to then be NO goal is worth doing harm. This leads to the next point which is: Don't beat yourself up! Regardless of where you are right now, it's where you are. All practice is part of the learning process. The body and the practice are both resilient.  This year, Ida will be speaking at the Kolkata Lit Meet. She is part of a panel talking about "Forgotten Foremothers" including Reba Rakshit.
If you haven't read Strong Woman Reba Rakshit yet, you can get your copy here. It's the story of a star, a yogi, a circus performer and stunt woman from the mid-twentieth century. Reba Rakshit was a student of Bishnu Charan Ghosh and Ghosh's Yoga College. She was one of the early female, physical yogis in India. For more details on the panel and the whole literature festival, visit this link: kolkatalitmeet.in/2025/  Are we doing the postures or are they doing us?
When we practice physical postures, it's easy to think that we are trying to accomplish a certain look. Even subconsciously, we practice in a way that is trying to get our body in a certain shape. We think (and have often been told) that if we are trying to find some perfect expression of the posture. However, practicing in this way means the postures are doing us. A posture is a set of benefits. Each posture is a set of contractions and relaxations that manipulate the body in a unique way. If we use the muscles correctly, we get benefits specific to that posture. Depth and perceived "expression" have very little to do with it. Let's take the example of running a marathon. Would we think that we had failed and received no benefit at all because we didn't run 5 minute miles like the winner? Probably not. We would still have run a tremendous distance, have used our cardiovascular system, found mental focus and accomplished a huge feat. When we practice postures, it's so very important to ask ourselves "Am I getting the benefits?" If we are practicing in a way that is using the body correctly, we are doing the postures. This means of course, we must know what we are doing in each posture! This requires that we ask ourselves, What is the purpose of the posture? That is a great way to get clear on the postures, the practice and allow for the benefits to arise.  Scott and Ida with (L to R) Srinjoy, Muktamala, & Shantanu Mitra - Taj Mahal, Agra India January 2025 (Photo by Gideon Elron) In 2015, we arrived in Kolkata, India and knocked on the door at Ghosh's College of India. We introduced ourselves as students of yoga and visitors to Kolkata. We were working on the Buddha Bose manuscript project with Jerome Armstrong, and knew essentially nothing about what we were getting ourselves into or how the yoga world and our lives would change in the coming years.
Now, ten years later we are celebrating a decade of connection, friendship and collaboration with the very people who answered the door that day: Muktamala (granddaughter of Bishnu Ghosh), Shantanu, & Srinjoy Mitra. We are here in India for the month promoting Strong Woman Reba Rakshit, and very kindly, the Mitra family offered that we all go visit the Taj Mahal together. It was a spectacular experience. Not only did we see one of the world's iconic monuments, but we discussed the current yoga landscape. We talked about what might be next in the yoga world, and how we can work to preserve Ghosh's Yoga College, which is over 100 years old and holds various histories of yoga across a century. Mrs Mitra works as the current principal of Ghosh's College. We all discussed how yoga may be changing (as it always has been) but how there is value in knowing where yoga has come from and learning specific methods like the therapeutic, prescriptive yoga of Ghosh's College that she teaches. Yoga has roots and has histories. Even as it changes, we hope people will remember and seek out an understanding of where it came from.  This year, I'm taking a different approach to my list. It's all fiction. I also read a lot of non-fiction and yoga related scholarship. There is a lot I could recommend! However, for a change, and to highlight the importance of fiction, I'm selecting only from that genre. Therefore, I'm not sure this is a collection of books I recommend you read-- you may have a very different reaction to any of these! But rather this is a list of books I personally enjoyed. As a side note, in general I seek out works in translation. I've found I really enjoy the depth that translation brings. It reminds me that we are always trying to communicate, and essentially, translating what we are trying to say into a version that someone else can understand. I like that works in translation are a literal version of this phenomenon: humans trying to communicate and understand. The first on the list is not a book that has been translated, but deals directly with translation. Translation, in various ways, is a theme of this list.  Babel by R.F. Kuang This book is set in Oxford, England and is about translating languages from around the world, including Sanskrit. There is travel involved, as well as ethics and questions of power. A young team of students works to learn many languages but the purpose for this is not always clear. They are at the whim of those who hold positions of power until they take matters into their own hands. It's a magical and epic tale that illuminates many present day issues. Yogis may be quite interested in how Sanskrit features in this book. It certainly brought to light the act of interpreting history and culture and the power dynamics at play.
Whale Fall by Elizabeth O'Connor & Western Lane by Chetna Maroo I grouped these two together because of how they both speak through the voice of a younger girl. In Western Lane, the girl is a bit younger. In Whale Fall, she's a teenager. I thought both of these books captured the perspective of their protagonist so well. Whale Fall is about a research team that comes to a very remote Welsh island. For me, it captured the uncomfortable and, in this case, problematic nature of research. Research can easily become a process of taking something that is dear to someone else and packaging it up for one's own gain. I thought O'Connor tackled this very carefully and usefully. I loved the nature in this story and the sense of place it provided. I felt like I was on this remote island. Western Lane is about family dynamics and the talents of a young athlete. It too captures the voice and heart of this young girl in a way I thought was quite well done. I wasn't too interested in the subject matter-- I'm not a Squash player and know nothing about the sport. Yet, this story is about loss, developing a vision and personality, wanting comfort and a home. It was a lovely read.  Ædnan by Linnea Axelsson, trans. Saskia Vogel This is a very unique book: it's all in verse. I had a hard time putting this down. It poetically tells the tale of three generations of the Sami people. It is set in the arctic circle. It too captured place so well. The use of verse really made the bleak, northern cold come to the forefront. (For me, that's a good thing.) Perhaps it's because my family comes from Scandinavia, but I really enjoyed this epic.
Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy & Hangman by Maya Binyam Pairing these together is perhaps confusing. They are nothing alike! The reason I am putting them together is because I think they are both books where you love them or hate them. I have seen quite a few reviews of Soldier Sailor that were not comfortable with the book at all. Yet, I really enjoyed both. Here are the reasons why. Soldier Sailor is about a young mom who is not doing well with caring for a new baby. She's extremely depressed, tired, lonely and struggling with her life as it is. The book starts with a somewhat disturbing scene. However, the mom corrects her actions and the book continues from there. It's bleak and extremely raw. I really appreciated the honesty in the book. It presents a very distinct point of a view on something that is probably a lot more common than we realize. If you want a good audiobook, I suggest Hangman. I adored the recording of this. I thought it was so funny! The repetition in the writing and generally confusing scenes were great. (My opinion! I could see someone finding this very annoying too....) I honestly had no idea what was happening in this book until the end. I got many good laughs out of it and didn't want it to end. What is it about? It's about a man traveling back to his home country in Africa. It's his homeland, yet he doesn't recognize it and generally doesn't know what to do with the pigeons, buses and ugly clothing he encounters on his journey.  The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood This is a book I felt I needed to have read. In order for that to happen I just had to do it. This was the year. Wow-- the writing. I am particularly taken by books that are really dark in subject matter but don't necessarily read that way. I found this to be that way. The subject matter is very intense, but the humanity was never lost. The characters were people being people regardless of the structures around them. I read this with my mom and she commented on how when people build up rules and structures around them, they still find ways to act out. They find ways to express their freedom, desires and curiosities. No matter what we try to do, we are humans. Lastly, the end shocked me. (I actually missed it because I didn't realize what was happening.... I had to go back and read the end.) I had no idea about the structure of this book but it illuminated just how masterful Margaret Atwood is.
Kindred by Octavia Butler & God's Bits of Wood by Sembene Ousmane, trans. Francis Price Kindred was another one, like The Handmaid's Tale, that I wanted to have read. I wanted to make sure I knew for myself what the book contained as it has become a book that some think is dangerous or should be feared. I think we should fear the destruction we as humans are capable of, but we should certainly not fear this book. Butler's writing is somewhat simple. It doesn't flow in ornate constructions, but rather, clear and to the point sentences. I really enjoyed reading it, despite it being about slavery and the horrific violence people endure. The science fiction of it worked for me. I thought it was powerful and well worth reading. God's Bits of Wood is set in Mali & Senegal. It fictionalizes a railroad strike in colonial Senegal. It engages with French colonialism and the women who ended up marching in protest of the treatment of the workers. It too captures humanity and is a fictionalized take on a historical moment. Yet, the themes of this book such as the effects of colonialism and worker's rights are important subjects today. I heard again recently from someone who dislikes fiction. I do understand this to a certain degree. But over and over again, I find fiction can express depths of humanity in ways we don't always sit with when content is "fact". Fiction is strange, complex, illuminating. Sometimes it's sweet and easy, other times extremely unsettling. Often a mixture of all of the above.
  A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart by Martin Luther King Jr I must begin with this short book because I read it early in January and it set the tone for the entire year. Martin Luther King Jr is quite famous, but I had never read any of his actual writing. Then last year I heard a King expert speak about how misunderstood King is, buried under cultural symbolism and over-simplified platitudes. King, said the expert, was actually quite complex and detailed in his thinking, and was more controversial than is known. So I resolved myself to read some of his work. This volume contains six short essays and speaks to his intelligence and thoughtfulness, his philosophical rigor as well as his religious foundation. The title indicates a difficult balance that King says we should strive toward: a tough mind and a tender heart. King argues forcefully for the path of nonviolent resistance, saying that it can be effective where outright violence is not. He explains that nonviolent resistance "combines tough-mindedness and tenderheartedness and avoids the complacency and do-nothingness of the soft minded and the violence and bitterness of the hardhearted." Within his argument is deep belief in the underlying good of humanity. In the essay "The Sword That Heals," he suggests that people know injustice when they see it. "Punish me," he says. "I do not deserve it. But because I do not deserve it, I will accept it so that the world will know that I am right and you are wrong." Overall, King's writing is thoughtful and deep. Far more complex than our general impressions of his fame.  How the World Thinks by Julian Baggini I love a broad-scope look at philosophy and how our minds process the world. This book takes "big perspective" to a new level, breaking out of any single philosophical system to examine and compare a few different views from around the planet. While this approach seems simple enough, it reveals a profound limitation of most philosophical inquiry — that it is based in one specific tradition. In the West, most philosophers and other types of thinkers in the past 2000 years have worked in the tradition of the Greeks, Plato and Aristotle. And while there is diversity in the way people think, Westerners generally share a common worldview that looks through the lenses of reason, Christianity, capitalism and individual autonomy. Baggini's book considers the Western worldview but also two other significant perspectives: those of India and China. Each of these areas of the world has an ancient and highly developed way of seeing the world and how humans function within it. There are central themes here, like how each culture thinks about time, ourselves, and even the nature of knowledge itself. While it is not an attempt at perfect understanding of all of these philosophical systems — indeed, such an endeavor would be impossible — the simplicity and directness of the comparisons are stark and illuminating.  Natural by Alan Levinovitz Like most people, I value "natural" things. (And yes, that "natural" needs quotation marks.) I prefer all-natural foods to something that isn't labeled as such, wondering if it is processed or chemical or, God forbid, unnatural. Levinovitz's book takes subconscious preferences like these and questions them. Why do we prefer natural things? Furthermore, what do we mean by "natural"? As he delves into the meanings we place on the word "natural," it becomes apparent that it is a fuzzy idea, and one that is rooted in faith. We believe that the world around us will not hurt us, but if we intervene and add our own unnatural elements, the results will be harmful. My favorite chapter is about natural medicine and healing. These concepts have changed profoundly from their earliest usage thousands of years ago. Medicine was originally part of a natural cure, set apart from more superstitious cures like rituals, exorcisms and prayer. Medicine was a move toward the physical body and away from the spiritual realm. In this way, medicines dealt directly with nature. This has changed in the past few centuries, as many in the West have become disillusioned by the systems of medical health. It can feel like diagnoses of illness and the prescription of medicines separates us into discrete parts. The symptoms and illness get treated but the whole person gets ignored. So now "natural" medicine tries to treat the whole person, and often places itself in opposition to the medical approach to treating disease. Somehow, medicine is now unnatural. This book is insightful and readable. Levinovitz takes a topic that easily flies under the radar of our awareness — often we prefer natural things without knowing why. As he discusses the different aspects of nature and natural ideals, the concepts slip through our fingers.  The Power by Naomi Alderman This is a story about a supernatural power that develops in women — the ability to generate electricity and project it through their bodies and hands. With this power they can protect themselves and also control, harm or kill others. Some embrace the power and utilize it to gain equality and status in society; some reject it and try to live in more traditional ways; some use it for terror. The responses of the women, and the responses of the society around them are central to this story. This book is wonderfully written and readable. The story centers on a few characters and follows them through their plights. Each uses their power differently, in ways that are entirely plausible and human. Some use it to protect those they love while others use it for revenge. Perhaps the most surprising element of this book was how real it felt despite the women with magical hands. Every decision that is made is credible, which at times is all the more terrifying.  On Gaslighting by Kate Abramson I stumbled across this book at a shop in London, and I had the thought that must have motivated the writing of the book in the first place: What exactly is gaslighting? We've all heard the term, and it has become more prominent in the last few years, it seems. Often it gets used as a harsher way of saying "you are wrong" or "that is misleading." But "you are gaslighting me" is a way of announcing a more sinister intention to the misleader. My curiosity about gaslighting must be combined with the fact that this type of book is one of my favorites. The philosophical essay which is often simply titled "On _____". (Last year On Bullshit was one of my favorites.) These essays are usually quite sophisticated in their reasoning while also being conversational and relatively easy to read. According to Abramson, gaslighting goes beyond mere lying or misleading or arguing. It is set apart because it is a long term project to destabilize a person's ability to think for themselves. Over time, the target begins to question their own sanity and eventually becomes unmoored from reality. It goes far beyond persistent disagreement, denial or lying. Those things certainly exist, and a long-term liar can make us question the nature of reality. But gaslighting is intentionally designed to make a person lose their own ability to think, and eventually they feel that their own reasoning is faulty. This book is as interesting for its clarity about topics that are not gaslighting. It brings specificity to the ideas of deceit and disagreement as it defines gaslighting. In this way, it is similar to On Bullshit, which brings clarity to ideas of truth and lie while it defines bullshit.  The Amaraugha and Amaraughaprabodha of Goraksanatha translated by Jason Birch This is one of two truly scholarly books on my list this year. (The other is by Norelius, below.) But the importance of this book to our understanding of yoga history, especially hathayoga, is immense. This book is an output of the Hatha Yoga Project that, over the past decade, has revolutionized the way we think about hathayoga. The Amaraugha is probably the first text that explains a system of hathayoga, as well as the first text to describe a system of four yogas, and the earliest to describe a relationship between hatha and raja yogas. All of these were adopted by later texts including the hugely influential Hathapradipika in the 15th century. So the Amaraugha is vital to our understanding of where hathayoga comes from, what its meaning was in the earliest days, and how it evolved over the centuries. This book includes a critical edition of the text, an English translation, and an introduction that discusses the most important elements. Any serious practitioner who is interested in the history of yoga and can tolerate the formalities of scholarly writing will benefit from reading this book. Birch is the sharp end of the spear in hathayoga study. All the rest of us are using his work as a primary reference point.  Kerouac by Ann Charters Over the summer, a friend and I were discussing the prevalence of Buddhism in Western thought, and the possibility that it began in the 1950s with the so-called Beats like Kerouac, Ginsberg and Burroughs. Though I have read several of Kerouac's books and knew a little bit about his Buddhist influence, I was unclear about what Kerouac's other influences were. How influenced was he by Buddhism, actually? How much Buddhism was present in the thinking of the other Beats? So I decided to read a biography of Kerouac, in the hope that I could better understand the cultural movement of the time. The first thing that struck me while reading Ann Charters's biography was how brilliantly it is written. There is urgency and creativity to the language, not just a ho-hum play by play of his life. It is exhaustively researched, and told in a story as compelling as one of Kerouac's novels. In addition to every beat, trip, relationship and book of Kerouac's life, it includes his interactions with other key cultural figures like Allen Ginsberg and William S Burroughs. My initial inquiry was quickly overshadowed by the depth and intensity of Kerouac's quest for life and literature. Disenchanted by a materialistic society, seeking inward, authentic spiritual insight, he could never sit still for long. The influence of Buddhism on him was smaller than I initially thought. He seems to have studied it and discussed it and written about it intensely for a brief period. Overall, he strived after a new form of writing that was immediate and free.  Soul and Self in Vedic India by Per Johan Norelius This is a beast of a book in the best way possible. A 600 page scholarly investigation of various notions of the self in the Veda. These include full chapters on atman, manas, purusha, prana and asu. Norelius traces the meaning and usage of these concepts through the entire Vedic corpus, as well as investigating smaller bits of their usage in other traditions. The difficulty of a book like this is the same as the difficulty of any vast set of teachings like the Veda. There are no clear answers, no straightforward narratives. So many concepts change in meaning in a non-linear fashion, or have different significance to different groups. The best we can do is to try to understand the meanings and hold them side by side, without collapsing them into a perfectly sensible story. I always finish reading volumes like this with an awe-filled sense of the complexity of history and knowledge.  Orbital by Samantha Harvey
This is one of the more recent books I read this year. It just won the Booker Prize in November. The day after I heard about it, I saw it in a bookstore and picked it up. It is one of the most profound, poetic and beautiful pieces of writing I've ever read. The story is built around a small group of astronauts who are orbiting the earth aboard the International Space Station. Their removal from the rhythms and patterns of earth is destabilizing, and everything from their blood to their sleep, their sense of time and the meaning of humanity is untethered. Though the book is short and easy to read, it combines evocative, poetically written prose with genuine insights into the meaning of our lives and our relationship to this planet.
This is the third in a series of articles about where some modern postures come from. The first two are about Standing Deep Breathing (where-does-it-come-from-standing-deep-breathing.html) and Half Moon Sidebend (where-does-it-come-from-half-moon-sidebend.html). This is the Half Moon Backbend, ardha chandrasana, often just called Half Moon Posture. Since the name "Half Moon" is used to refer to so many different postures and positions, we prefer to specify that this is a "backbend." It is a newer posture in yoga, which can be guessed from its standing position as well as its apparent emphasis on encouraging health and mobility in the body. Practices that move the body around to increase its health are relatively new, historically speaking, dating from the last one or two hundred years. The textual evidence supports this, as there are no examples of a standing backward bend in any premodern yogic instructions, including hathayoga.
This is the second in a series of articles about where postures come from. The first was about Standing Deep Breathing: where-does-it-come-from-standing-deep-breathing.html. Half Moon Sidebend is done standing, which is a giveaway that this is a newer posture. It is often given a Sanskrit name, ardha chandrasana, which means "half moon posture." Already this can be confusing, since there are several modern postures with that name. This one bends the body to the side, so it is sometimes called parshva ardha chandrasana, or "side half moon posture." Another bends the body backward. We will cover that one next. Yet another is taught by BKS Iyengar, an entirely different position done on one leg and one hand. If that seems overwhelming, and you find yourself wondering, "which is the true Half Moon Posture?" the answer is that they are all equally new, appearing in yoga in the last 100 years or so.
CONCLUSION
Ardha chandrasana, the Half Moon Posture, here explained in its side bending form, appears for the first time around 1900 in the Danish physical culture of JP Muller. From there it goes to Yogendra and to the school of BC Ghosh in Kolkata. All of Ghosh's students teach this posture. Over the past century, there are variations with the arms, but the posture remains at its core a standing sidebend of the torso. In addition to Ghosh's students, Kuvalayananda's school began teaching the posture after his death. |
AUTHORS
Scott & Ida are Yoga Acharyas (Masters of Yoga). They are scholars as well as practitioners of yogic postures, breath control and meditation. They are the head teachers of Ghosh Yoga.
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