Ashtanga Yoga – eight-limbed stages of spiritual growth

Kriyananda explains that ashtanga literally means “eight-limbed.” These eight ‘limbs’ are stages of growth, like steps in the direction toward spiritual fulfillment. Instead of calling it a ‘system’ it’s more like a ‘way’ of yoga.

He gives commentary on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that help us understand how to apply the aphorisms in daily life. He says that there is only one reality in everything, and that we are expressions of that divine reality.

Kriyananda describes rotations of energy in the spine – vrittis, and how karma and the states of consciousness relate to the vrittis.

The original recording of this class begins with the words “You think man….” It sounds like there could have been something before that, but it’s all that we have from the original.