Sanskrit_Pronounciation_Question

The March/April issue of Yoga Chicago includes the following interview with Rama. She will will lead a workshop at Chicago Yoga Center April 13–15. For more information or to register, call 773.327.3650 or visit www.yogamind.com

Rama Jyoti Vernon, Yogi and International Peace Builder

By Sharon Steffensen

http://www.yogachicago.com/mar12/ramajyoti.shtml

Interview with Rama Vernon

http://eastsideyoga.wordpress.com/

KARMA Rama Vernon 01 24 12 

Yoga & Breath – Reponse to NYT

River of Sound: Chants for Awakening & Balancing the Chakras

Reviewed by Amy Weintraub

If you can’t get to a workshop with master yogini and international yoga teacher Rama Jyoti Vernon, this CD may be the next best thing. River of Sound is not background music. In fact, it’s not even music as those of us who chant Kirtan know it. If however you want a glimpse into the depths of what the Sanskrit language offers in terms of psycho-emotional and physiological realignment, this CD is an invaluable resource. In it, we learn and practice Sanskrit vowels and diphthongs (the vibratory combination of vowels), and bija mantras. As Rama guides us from the poetic wisdom of her heart and soul, she shares teachings of universal truth. “Sanskrit is like a great river,” she says in the introduction, “It just keeps flowing. All we do with the sound is we change the banks of the river with our teeth, our tongue and our lips.”

From her decades of practice and study with the great Indian yoga masters of the 20th century, she has a wealth of knowledge that has been tested in the laboratory of her own body-mind and with the thousands of students whom she has instructed. While most of her formulations are aligned with the primary teachings of Nada Yoga (study of sound), some are different. She instills confidence in the listener so that we trust her system and willingly practice along with her a sound for swatistana chakra at the pelvic region, for example, that may be different from what we have learned.

In the introduction to the bija mantras, Rama explains that the sounds have no meaning but that they are potent and powerful vibrations “that realign our sensory organs” and bring us into “greater attunement within ourselves” that opens us to an “expanded attunement with the universe.” Woven throughout her extemporaneous teachings about the chakras are references to Patanjali’s Sutras and wisdom from her own inspiring sutras, full of passion and poetry. The listener hears that poetic passion in descriptions of, for instance this one about anahata the heart chakra: “As light dawns within our being, we are not creating anything but rather releasing the impediments of the past that have hardened areas that have blocked the light that is always there.” As she describes the releasing effect of the bija mantra on vissudha, the chakra at the throat, she says that Saraswati, the Goddess of wisdom, poetry and music, “will dance upon the tongue as the throat opens.”

You might, as I did, weave this CD workshop with Rama into your morning practice. Let it be your meditation and, as Rama says, “awaken to who and what we are.”

Order CD here: www.cdbaby.com/cd/ramajyotivernon2

If you’re a yoga teacher or serious student, you might be inspired to join Rama for her Tucson retreat in February 13-18, 2013, Tucson, AZ, http://ramajyotivernon.com

Click Here to Order: River of Sound: Chants for Awakening & Balancing the Chakras

This CD was recorded in March 2009 with a group of Rama’s Arizona students Yoga Vida yoga studio in Tucson. The results are quite amazing: Rama’s unique chanting with instructions for Vowels, Diphthongs and Bija Mantras. This CD is complete in its instruction, practice, and study application. There are tracks with call and response and tracks with the chants repeated and space left for your own response. Those who have studied with Rama will cherish this CD, and those who have not will have a wonderful introduction to Rama’s inspiration.