ATHA the AHA of Yoga

If you’re a bit of a yoga junkie like me, you’ve strayed from the physical practice into the wider tradition. Very likely you’ve come across The Yoga Sutras which are a collection of aphorisms about the theory and practice of yoga.

The sutras begin with the phrase Atha Yoga Anushasanam. The “Once Upon a Time” of the ancients is commonly translated as “Now, the practice of yoga begins.”

It wasn’t until I started rolling the sutra around on my tongue that I awakened to its greater meaning.

The pronunciation is something like this: AT like hot, HA like hahaha.

ATHA has a very different quality than the chewy anglicized NOW.
You have to work for ATHA. The aspirated H in the middle suspends you in time. This isn’t the NOW of “I want it NOW.” This is the NOW of stepping up to the precipice of a great tradition.

This is the NOW where spiritually we are ready to mature.

ATHA requires us to depart from our previous desires and journey into the present with reverence and receptivity.

Our unedited self steps forward to meet the teachings and our efforts in practice dissolve the boundaries between our being state and feeling state.

Atha Yoga Anushasanam is a wake up call— we are ready to do more than hit the mat and go get Thai food. We are ready to tether ourselves to the sublime.

So if NOW is the time for your practice to begin, I congratulate you. It’s not easy but the destination is so very worth it.