Natya Yoga: Peace Passion Pain Mapping Emotions

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"ANJALI" ANGELIKA SRIRAM graduated in Dramatic Arts in Stuttgart, Germany, studied in Chennai at Kalakshetra, with The Dhananjayans and with Muthuswamy Pillai. She has performed extensively in India and Germany and published a book on Bharatanatyam as well as three novels in German.

R. SRIRAM trained with the renowned Yoga-Master and teacher of teachers T.K.V. Desikachar and taught initially at the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram. He has been an active student of Yoga for over 40 years and teaches yoga today to Yoga teachers in India, Germany and the UK. The couple run the rewilding project Base Art Nature Yoga near Kodaikanal.

The authors of this delightful and illuminating book need no introduction from me. A couple who have dedicated their lives in different disciplines with the same goal at heart: the cultivation of love and serenity as a way of life. The cultivation of serenity demands a profound understanding of human emotions.

This book brings to life the way two different disciplines - yoga and dance - shed light on our understanding of the emotions. The authors are leading lights in their separate fields, and each brings a lifetime's wisdom and study to the subject. The book presents a blend of both art forms to illuminate not only the emotions themselves and the power they embody, but how they can be harmonized in the human heart. Approaching emotions through classical texts on yoga and dance (Natya), whether expressing them in the teaching space or on stage, or dealing with them in daily life - for Anjali and Sriram, the subject of emotions has been a life- long investigation.

In 1969, Anjali Sriram graduated in Performing Arts from the State School of Dramatic Arts and Music in Stuttgart and had her debut with the Staatstheater Stuttgart the same year.

For us as authors - a dancer and a yoga practitioner - it has long been our desire to bring together the aesthetics of Indian art and the philosophical thought behind yoga.

There is a common assumption that a dancer - or any artist for that matter is attached to her or his own body, voice and dreams and tends to be vain, whereas a yogi aspires to the exact opposite. In this book we wish to do away with the preconception that a serious practitioner of yoga is a dry, emotionless being removed from reality, while an artist is temperamental and impulsive, overreacts to their surroundings and is very often in love with their own convictions. This book is also our attempt to show the union between Indian art and yoga: something we have come to appreciate in our own personal life.

Peace as contentment, fulfilment or enlightenment seems at first to be the opposite of passion, as fury, anger or rage; and also seems in no way connected to love, as attraction, desire or affection. This is not in fact, the case.