The notes below are designed to give prospective readers an idea of what to expect from the book, and to aid in making a decision on whether to buy it.
Ageless: A Yogi's Secrets to a Long and Healthy Life, Sharath Jois
This is a good little book. It’s super easy to ready in a couple hours and very accessible.
Introduction
Includes material contributions from Isha Singh Sawhney.
Book opens with story of how Sharath was always sick as a kid with pain, rheumatic fever and many ailments. He always watched movies and wanted to become a cricket player.
His grandfather in 1948 had started the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute and was an astrologer, priest, and landholder. Sharath liked Hanuman’s spirituality and devotion to Ram.
Yoga with his grandfather helped Sharath to improve his health. Guruji was strict and Sharath was scared of him. Guruji had a simple life but pushed Sharath hard in the shala.
Yoga helped Sharath heal via boiling the blood which cleansed it and allowed it to freely circulate and to the rid the body of toxins, impurities, and disease.
We are attracted to teachers with whom we have interacted in previous births.
Review of 8 branches of Ashtanga previously discussed in other parts (I cover this in depth in the Yoga Resources section of the website).
Yogis live longer because they focus on living, eating, sleeping, walking, and reacting mindfully. They keep things simple, eat sattvic foods, and understand the trappings of maya. Walking barefoot connects them to the earth. They establish simple routines and a spiritual practice. They eat small, local meals.
Chapter 1
Eat less to live longer: fasts help siddhi (pschic power).
Prana is Sanskrit word for lifeforce.
Fire of digestion, Jathragni, was the seat for all physical balance and harmony. Fire needs a balance of air and light to burn it up.
Don’t eat more for 5-6 hours after you eat. Let it digest.
Replace sugar with honey, and eat mostly vegetables.
Use a smaller plate.
Use cold pressed oils and eat simple foods. Eat what is grown locally.
Drink warm water to flush out toxins. Cook your own food to infuse it with love.
3 main doshas:
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Vatta is space and air (in the clouds, moody artist)
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Pitta is fire and water (angry, motivated)
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Kapha is earth and water (grounded, stalbe, excess causes indigestion)
Vatta most active from 2pm to 6pm. Pitta is most active at noon until about 2pm. Kapha active from 6am to 10am.
Wake up at 1am.
Don’t eat a big breakfast if any—perhaps oats with spices.
No coffee, no prana.
Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Rice, sambar, and salad should be eaten.
Chapter 2
Eat like a yogi.
Need foods that heal, are light, nutritious, and filled with energy.
In Ayurveda, humans are described as tamas (darkness), rajas (activity), and sattva (purity.).
Sattvic foods are calming and light and include legumes, grains, fruits, climbing vegetables, and sprouts.
Ragic foods are stimulants and bring out aggression, passion, and control and include coffee, chocolate, salmon, tuna, eggs, chicken, alcohol, and sugar.
Ion and garlic are the worst.
Tamasic foods are over processed and increase the need for sex and greed. They include red meat, deli meat, and other items.
Yogis eat savic foods. Savic foods are almost always grown above the ground.
Rice stimulates vata and cures pitta.
Unprocessed red and brown rice with the husk on is most healthy.
Milk is sattvic. Guruji and Krishnamacharya loved milk. Milk is easier to digest with saffron, turmeric, black pepper, and cinnamon and when heated. If lactose is an issue try cottage cheese or yogurt and ghee.
Ghee increases our intellect; milk increases our lifespan. Ghee reduces inflammation in the gut and increases good bacteria. Ghee reduces excess vata.
Dahi is heavy with kapha and should be avoided at night.
People with excess pitta should avoid pickles, otherwise they are good for you.
Coconut water hydrates with electrolytes. You should not drink too much as it is high in vatta, making it bad for people with asthma.
Jaggery is a good source of energy in sweets in small doses, given it is unprocessed.
Meat is bad as it kills others and is against ahimsa and is also rajasic and often has chemicals in processing. Plus, it’s hard to digest.
Store water overnight in a copper vessel.
Cook your own foods to take care, infuse love, and feel reverence.
Wait at least 40 minutes after exercise before you eat.
Lemon water is alkali. Drink as third glass of water.
Gargle salt water to improve breath.
Don’t drink after meal to let food settle. Go for a walk after a meal.
Don’t throw out rice water.
Chapter 3
How to perfect your daily routine.
Must balance family with yoga.
Early to bed, early to rise.
Vedas call the Brahma Muhurta (90 minutes before sunrise) the most sacred time of the day.
If you need help, wake up then and think about things.
15 min naps later ideal.
Tibetan monks have higher dopamine levels.
Do japa - chant - of anything every night to relax mind and connect it to ourselves.
Banish negativity.
Saucha, or cleansing, applies to the mind too.
Yoga is prayer.
Walk barefoot on the earth. Our feet have 200,000 Nerve endings.
Melatonin comes from pineal gland.
Red lights may help kids sleep.
Be asleep by 9:30pm and wake by 6am.
No more than 8 hours of sleep, nor less than 6 hours.
Never sleep with head north as it drains you. Head west causes violent dreams. Head south creates deep, restful sleep. Head east for meditative sleep.
Disconnect from technology one day a week to avoid jealousy and comparison. Excessive socializing makes us worry.
Chapter 4
Fast Once Every 15 days. Many religions fast. Hindus fast according to the lunar calendar (typically 11th day after moon day). Fasting must come from deep within the soul.
Bindu preserved via inversions.
Shat kirsa include:
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neti, clears nasal passages via cloth (sutra) or pot (jal)
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Dhauti, drinking 2L of salt water and then purging self
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Nauli, contracting digestive muscles to simulate self
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Kapalbhati, breathing done to dispel toxins from the deepest part of the lung
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Take oil bath—use coconut, castor, and almond oil. Castor should be heated first as can be too thick. Afterwards use soap-nut powder and arappu powder and hot water to remove with circle motions. Castor oil and sonamukhi leaves (cassia angustifolia) can also help with constipation if taken.
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Asana is the ultimate detox that cleans you from the inside. Like gold emerges from boiled metal, our blood gets purified when it boils. If you have a regular asana practice you won’t need the others.
Chapter 5
Ten Asanas are All you Need to Do.
Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras does not give any instructions regarding asana practice just says be firm but relaxed.
Asana is nothing without proper breathing. Breathing + asana together are vinyasa. Vinyasas create heat and cleanse your organs.
When moving up inhale, when moving down exhale.
Primary series called Yoa Chikitsa means yoga therapy.
Sun A and B warm up the body, strengthen the legs, and reduce fat.
They also work on digestive and repertory organs.
Do 10-15 A and 5-8 Bs. Start with small particle. TI takes time.
Trikonasan helps the lower abdominal.
Ujjai breathing makes your breath powerful and strong.
Surya is the source of energy.
Sun is like the health minister. If you wish to get good health pray to the sun god.
In Samasthitih stand as if a thread is holding your head up.
Be careful of Trikonasan A and B if you have lower back issues.
Pachimattasana realigns the spine that could otherwise be compressed. It stretches the spine and creates gaps between vertebrae while also strengthening the lower abdomen and stimulating digestive organs.
Baddha Konasa - be sure you bend from your lower back and not your neck. Don’t worry if knees do not toughen, open the inner thighs and turn them outwards.
Upavistha Konasana (wide leg) stretches the back of the legs, lengthens hamstrings, calms the brains then releases tightness in the inner groin and thigh.
Supta Padangusthasas is perfect for those with lower back pain (on back).
Pavanmuktasana can ease gastric problems.
Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana helps to develop balance and concentration and strengthens ankles, thighs, calves and the abdomen while stretching the hamstrings and opening the hips. It’s more advanced.
Utkata means powerful. It stimulates the abdominal organs and builds endurance. Keep thighs as parallel to the floor as possible.
Urdhva Dhanurasana stimulates the pituitary and thyroid glands, strengthens the spinal cords, legs, buttocks, wrists, arms, and vertebrae, while also giving your stomach, lungs, and thorax an intense stretch. It relieves lower back pain, stress, depression, and even asthma.
Padmasana: named after lotus. Finding stillness and comfort not only destroys disease of the body but also sins. This is the greatest and best asana. Can also help to cure flatulence and is used in dhyana, meditation, and pranayama.
Chapter 6
Deeper Breaths Result in a Longer Life. Those species that breathe slowly, live the longest. Turtles take only 4-5 breaths per minute and live for hundreds of years.
Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras says that, if done correctly, pranayama can help alleviate darkness of ignorance, affliction, and karma. And from there emerges the light of clarity. The world prana means life force and the ‘ayama’ means to draw it out.
Nadi shodhana and Ujjayi pranayama are the two powerful breathing techniques to help regulate our prana and apana.
Prana is centered at the third eye. Deep breathing helps increase concentration and is even prescribed for children diagnosed with ADHD.
Pranayama is essential. The best time to practice is early in the morning on an empty stomach.
Ensure at least a 45 minute gap between eating a meal and doing Nadi shodhana. Inhale completely via left nostril, then finally inhale again via right. Repeat 5x.
Kama: lust
Krodha: anger
Madha: pride
Matsariya: jealousy
Lobha: greed
Moha: attraction
Buddha described the human mind as like a screeching, chatting monkey swinging from branch to branch and hard to control.
Trataka: place a dot 8-10 feet away or a candle. Focus on it until you get tears without blinking. This helps with mediation. Another technique is Japa—any kind of chant. Om represents universal energy and is a simple and powerful place to start.
Chapter 7
Help Other to Help Yourself.
Emphasis on seva or service. Took a while to understand the magic behind seva, or selfless service. It takes the focus away from our own problems and this is doing you a favor.
Diets heavy in locally grown plants and legumes and moderate exercise as well as social connectiveness are important.
Put family first.
Commit to one partner and invest love and time in the children. If you have a child, plant 10 trees. Then your children will grow with the trees and they will see their connection with mother earth.
When you are in a clan room where oxygen levels are high your brain activity increases by 30%.
It’s about controlling your breath to expel toxins and infuse the vital force back into your body.
Seva for your country: be honest, pay your taxes, follow the rules.
Strong focus on breath and movement.
Also do seva quietly.
Donate part of your income to a good charity.
Chapter 8
Staying Positive and Being Content.
By turning ones gaze inwards we can ignore or simply sidestep the distractions around us.
Guruji arrived at Mysore to study at Sanskrit college, but was so poor he could not afford food. He had to beg for food. Studying was always his first focus. His wife only owned two saris.
This is the true niyama, to work honestly, without thinking of money or of cheating people to get ahead.
Many challenges come from within yourself and you can find the answers within yourself.
If you carry negative within you and crave for negative things, this will bring negativity to you.
Two types of illness: lifestyle and genetic. Yoga solves both in many cases.
Positivity leads to a happier and calmer state of mind which lowers the burden on our minds and bodies.
People who were happiest with their relationships at age 50 were healthiest at age 80.
Children are sponges and the future of this world. We need to set a good example for them.
Get up with happiness every day, otherwise your entire day is ruined. Wake up with love, positivity, and contentment.
Epilogue
4 Stages of Life:
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Brahmacharya from 14 to 24 and getting educated. Celibacy.
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Grihasta, developing a relationship with your wife, creating a family.
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Vanaprastha - You have control over the children and can become more spiritual. They start visiting places of worship and state to rid self of material attachments.
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Sanyaa, 75+ you get ready to leave your body smoothly.