After reading the Indra Devi book I was curious about finding a book on yoga more relevant to a modern, non-1950s-Hollywood practice. I’ve browsed Iyengar’s Light on Yoga before and didn’t feel very inclined to take it on, even avoiding the main bulk of it that is comprised of explicit instructions on poses, which isn’t really what I’m looking for. Desikachar is the son of Krishnamacharya, so this seemed worth checking out.

This book could function both as an overview for someone with limited knowledge of yoga or a bit of perspective for someone who is already practicing. There’s a chapter about developing a good sequence of poses that build on each other in a good way, using appropriate counterposes, as well as some instructions on pranayama (breath work). But mostly Desikachar discusses more of the philosophical aspects of yoga. I like that he stresses that it doesn’t necessarily have to be about religion or any specific religion. Some of these chapters I skipped because they were more than I was interested in thinking about for the moment, if ever. The book finishes with the entirety of the Yoga Sutras and some poems by Krishnamacharya, which I also didn’t feel like I needed to read right now.