Awakening the Spine

"Vanda Scaravelli was a very cultured Italian woman who came from a very musical family. In her 40s she met B K S Iyengar when the Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti was staying at her family villa near Florence. Iyengar would come every morning to give a yoga lesson to Krishnamurti and he began also to teach Vanda. She went on to study with Krishnamacharya’s son, T K V Desikachar, and over time became a teacher of yoga herself. This book is beautiful. It’s very visual—every short text is accompanied by an image, mainly photographs, many of nature rather than of anyone ‘doing yoga’. She conveys her vision or understanding of yoga in a very impressionistic way through these pictures. It’s a book about how rather than what to do, an extremely beautiful book by somebody with the spirit of an artist. That’s what makes it very special. An awakened spine would be a spine with no constriction, with energy flowing freely through it. We’re not talking about Kundalini energy necessarily, but more about just moving in a way that allows your spine to be free throughout your life, well into old age, like her. So, yes, you’re doing these yoga postures, but in your normal daily life as well, you’re able to carry on moving freely and in a pain-free way. The root of the word yoga in Sanskrit means ‘union’. It’s all about union with God, about merging the individual soul with the ‘Universal Soul’. A merging with God, whatever your conception of God is. That is the aim of yoga."