The Yoga Sādhanā (External Practices)
From Tapas to Modern Yoga - Sādhus’ Understanding of Embodied Practices - Daniela Bevilacqua
Daniela Bevilacqua [+]
Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA, ISCTE-IUL), Lisbon
Daniela Bevilacqua received her PhD in 2015, in Civilizations of Africa and Asia from Sapienza University of Rome and in Anthropology from the University of Paris Nanterre. Her PhD research was published by Routledge (2018) under the title Modern Hindu Traditionalism in Contemporary India: The Śrī Maṭh and the Jagadguru Rāmānandācārya in the Evolution of the Rāmānandī Sampradāya. She is a Associate Researcher at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA, ISCTE-IUL) in Lisbon. Her research has aroused particular interest because of its methodology and results. Her article, “Let the Sādhus Talk. Ascetic understanding of Haṭha Yoga and yogāsanas”, published in Religions of South Asia, (Vol 11, n. 2, pp. 182-206) has been translated in German, French and Portuguese. She has been invited to give lectures in various universities (Cambridge, London, Haifa, Prague, Turin, Milan) as well as to present her research in various yoga teacher training courses and yoga studios. She has published several articles in peer review journals and book chapters for publishers like Routledge and Palgrave on Hindu asceticism, female asceticism, etc. She is currently editing two volumes, one forthcoming for Amsterdam University Press and another will be a special issue of the Journal of Yoga Studies (JoYS).
Description
Chapter 5 focuses on the practice of yoga as a sādhanā, a spiritual discipline for sādhus, beginning from its external practices: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra. Before addressing these practices, however, a general introduction on the yogic body is presented. Then, particular attention is given to āsanas and kriyās (actions) to purify the body and to certain mudrās and bandhas that are particularly important among ascetics, such as vajroli and khecarī mudrās. The different roles and practices of breath control are then described, ending with the retractions of the senses (pratyāhāra). These different practices will be contextualized within the learning frame of the ascetic world.