Ayurvedic Cleanse

Ayurvedic Cleanse (you could try this!)

Ayurveda (Sanskrit for “the science of the lifespan”) is a 5,000-year-old system of natural healing that has its origins in the Vedic culture of India. This Ayurvedic cleanse and diet will reset the body in balance!

Adapted from Melissa Weinberger DC, RN

Daily Cleansing Routine

*Starred points are to be followed only during the cleanse. All other points should be followed during the pre-cleanse, cleanse and post-cleanse

·         Begin each morning by drinking 6-8 oz of hot water

·         *Optional: drink ghee (see instructions below)

·         Abhyanga: Ayurvedic Massage

Before bathing, rub a thin layer of warmed or room temperature oil (unrefined sesame or coconut) over entire body. Use long strokes for your limbs and circular strokes for your joints. Ideally, let the oil sink in for 20 minutes before showering.

Since sesame and coconut oil are natural skin cleansers it is best to not wash the oil off with soap; the hot water will wash most of the oil off. Then pat dry with a towel. (1 teaspoon of baking soda in the wash will help to remove oil from towels)

·         Exercise before breakfast (if this is not possible you can exercise in the early evening)

·         *Breakfast – prepare porridge or kitchari (see recipe below)

·         Sip hot water throughout the day

·         *Kitchari for lunch and dinner

·         Supper should be the lightest meal of the day and preferably eaten before 6 pm

·         Drink only herbal tea and honey or water after supper

·         Try to avoid snacking between meals. If you feel hypoglycemic, try drinking 8 oz. of water first. If you still feel hungry, have a snack of veggies, berries or kitchari.

·         The purpose of the cleanse is to eliminate all processed foods from your diet and give your digestive tract a break.

·         However, make sure you are eating enough food that you aren’t starving. Once you feel starving, your body moves from a relaxed state to a stressed state.

·         Optional: 2 Triphala capsules before bed. This is an Ayurvedic blend of herbs that assist with detoxification and rejuvenation.

·         Take time for self-reflection. Emotions are stored in fat cells, so as fat cells are being metabolized emotions may surface that need to be processed.

Pre & Post-Cleanse Instructions

·         The pre- and post-cleanse will last three days

·         Eat a low-fat vegetarian diet of fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, salads, seeds and soup.

·         Eat as many steamed and raw vegetables as possible

·         Add seeds, lean chicken and egg whites for protein

·         Avoid nuts, unless they are prepared properly

·         1 grated raw beet with lemon juice per day is a good addition because it helps to thin the bile and emulsify fat

·         Do not add any sugar, oils, wheat or dairy to the diet

·         Salad dressings should be low in fat but preferably homemade

·         Try to eat three meals a day without snacking

·         Continue the daily routine of sipping hot water in the morning, followed by abhyanga, shower and exercise.

Meal Options for Main Cleanse

·         Kitchari Only (requires strong digestion and balanced blood sugar) – can eat 4 meals/a day if necessary with this option

·         Kitchari with steamed veggies (requires strong digestion and fairly balanced blood sugar)

·         Kitchari, steamed veggies, fruit and salad (Better for weaker digestion and fairly balanced blood sugar)

·         Kitchari, steamed veggies, fruit, salad and lean protein (best for weak digestion and blood sugar issues)

Morning Ghee Protocol & Castor Oil Protocol

**this is optional, depending on how intense you want your cleanse to be**

·         Upon waking (on an empty stomach) drink the prescribed amount of melted ghee (clarified butter). You can mix it with warm almond milk to make it more palatable.

·         Wait a half hour before drinking or eating anything else so ghee has time to collect toxins.

o   Day One: 2 tsp ghee

o   Day Two: 4 tsp ghee

o   Day Three: 6 tsp ghee

o   Day Four: 8 tsp ghee

§  Only increase the dosage if you are tolerating it

Laxative Therapy – do not skip this step

·         On the evening of day 4 take a warm bath followed by ingesting 4-6 teaspoons of castor oil OR 1 ½ cups of prune juice

o   Castor Oil Tip: cut an orange into slices. Put castor oil in ½ cup warm water. Mix the juice from one orange into castor oil and stir vigorously. Hold your nostrils, drink the mixture and immediately bite into a slice of orange. Rinse cup, release nostrils.

·         You should have a laxative effect from 1-15 hours. It is ok if you don’t have one.

Suggested Meal: Kitchari (Rice and Lentils)

Makes about ten ½ cup servings

Ingredients

·         1 cup organic White or Brown basmati rice (you can mix them)

·         1 cup organic Mung Dal (yellow lentils)

·         4 cups water

·         2 tablespoons organic ghee

·         2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger OR 1 tablespoon dry ginger

·         1 ½ tablespoons cumin powder

·         1 tablespoon Cumin seeds, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, coriander

·         1 teaspoon turmeric

·         Salt and pepper to taste

Optional Garnish

·         Chopped cilantro, Greek yogurt, Sour Cream or Ghee

Directions

Bring water to a boil in a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Put rice and dal in a fine mesh colander and rinse mixture under cool water until it runs clear. Pick over rice and dal to remove any stones. Add rice and dal to boiling water. Cover and lower heat to a simmer and cook about 30 minutes or until the water has been absorbed (add more water if you prefer a soupier consistency).

Sauté spices in ghee or butter in sauté pan until fragrant, then remove seeds. When rice is finished cooking, remove from heat. Pour ghee-spice mixture into rice and stir together thoroughly. Serve with chopped cilantro and a dollop of yogurt or sour cream.

Variations

·         Add roughly diced spinach, carrots, zucchini, green onion and bell peppers to the boiling water when you add the rice and dal. Add a few tablespoons of lemon juice when finished.

·         Use a low sodium chicken or vegetable broth instead of water

·         Add diced sweet potatoes and asparagus to boiling water when adding rice.

·         Add cubed, cooked chicken breast to rice when finished.

·         For a sweet version: add ½ cup low fat organic coconut milk, maple syrup to taste, and cinnamon and nutmeg to ghee. Omit the cumin and turmeric.

Yoga & Addiction: Therapeutic Application

Anorexia:

• Yoga Provides a community in which to feel loved
• Yoga allows the sensation of somatic presence
• shifting the way you feel in and about your body 
• yoga allows you to have an intimate experience with yourself
• get to know yourself through the physical experience of yourself without having to put words to it
• explore your past through your body 
• Yoga practice can be beneficial or destructive for a person with an eating disorder
• eating disorders are more prevalent in the yoga community where people hide their illness through the guise of "detoxing" "special diets", "cleansing" or "pseudo-spiritual path to enlightenment". 

Addiction:

• Yoga provides an opportunity for inner work where 12 step provides an opportunity for association with and the support of a community
•  the importance of BREATH and BREATH AWARENESS

 FILM: ADDICTION AND RECOVERY

 Yoga and Addiction Article

Yoga and Addictions Article 2 

Yoga and Addictions Article 3

Yoga & Addictions Article 4 

Journal Assignment:

Can yoga be a useful tool for the management of addiction and other mental health issues. Please consider the articles, the film we have watched and the two articles in 20th Century Yoga (5&6). Your personal experience whether you are yourself an addict are relevant here as well.

Ayurveda: Yoga As Medicine

Ayurveda is a 5,000-year-old system of natural healing that has its origins in the Vedic culture of India. It is one of the seven sister sciences (along with yoga). Although suppressed during years of foreign occupation and British colonial rule, Ayurveda has been enjoying a major resurgence in both its native land and throughout the world. Tibetan medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine both have their roots in Ayurveda. Early Greek medicine also embraced many concepts originally described in the classical ayurvedic medical texts dating back thousands of years.

More than a mere system of treating illness, Ayurveda is a science of life (Ayur = life,Veda = science or knowledge). 

• It offers a body of wisdom designed to help people stay vital while realizing their full human potential. 
• Providing guidelines on ideal daily and seasonal routines, 
• diet, 
• behavior and 
• the proper use of our senses

Ayurveda reminds us that health is the balanced and dynamic integration between our environment, body, mind, and spirit. There is no standard therapy as in Western (allopathic) medicine, so that the only limitations are those of the physician.

Recognizing that human beings are part of nature, Ayurveda describes three fundamental energies that govern our inner and outer environments: movement, transformation, and structure. Known in Sanskrit as:

•  Vata (Wind), 
•  Pitta (Fire), and
•  Kapha (Earth)

these primary forces are responsible for the characteristics of our mind and body. Each of us has a unique proportion of these three forces that shapes our "constitution" (nature).

• If Vata is dominant in our system, we tend to be thin, light, enthusiastic, energetic, and changeable. 
• If Pitta predominates in our nature, we tend to be intense, intelligent, and goal-oriented and we have a strong appetite for life. 
• When Kapha prevails, we tend to be easy-going, methodical, and nurturing. 

Although each of us has all three forces, most people have one or two elements that predominate.

For each element, there is a balanced and imbalance expression. 

• When Vata is balanced, a person is lively and creative, but when there is too much movement in the system, a person tends to experience anxiety, insomnia, dry skin, constipation, and difficulty focusing. 
• When Pitta is functioning in a balanced manner, a person is warm, friendly, disciplined, a good leader, and a good speaker. When Pitta is out of balance, a person tends to be compulsive and irritable and may suffer from indigestion or an inflammatory condition.
•  When Kapha is balanced, a person is sweet, supportive, and stable but when Kapha is out of balance, a person may experience sluggishness, weight gain, and sinus congestion.

An important goal of Ayurveda is to identify a person’s ideal state of balance, determine where they are out of balance, and offer interventions using diet, herbs, aromatherapy, massage treatments, music, and meditation to reestablish balance.

Ayurveda: the science of health PP 

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DOCUMENTARY ON AYURVEDA: watch!

Smith: Tapas & Ashtanga Yoga

SMITH ARTICLE:

Ashtanga Yoga

Discipline and authority lie at the heart of Traditional Yoga (But how do we deal with this in modern TNY in the USA?) How is authority established through teaching and practice in the West?

·         GURU-S’ISYA (teacher –disciple) relationship

·         Physical Challenge of Daily Practice

·         Textual foundations and antiquity of practice

·         Physicality of teaching and traditional authority of the teacher

·         Progressing through teacher’s touteledge

History

·         First trained Norman Allen, David Williams and Nancy Gilgoff.

·         1974 brought PJ to calif

·         Now popular around the world mostly in urban contexts

·         Purpose: keeping fit and flexible and managing stress

Seriousness of Practice

·         Physically demanding nature of asana practice

·         Emphasis on daily practice

·         Programmatic form guided by teacher

·         Orientation toward PROGRESS (DRIVEN PERSON)

Role of HEAT

·         Internal heat (TAPAS) integral to practice

o   With heat even iron will bend

o   Aestheticism, discipline and generation of actual INTERNAL HEAT

o   Leads toward the perfection of the body-samadhi-blissful state

o   Ritual heat is linked to personal transformation and spiritual refinement

·         AGNI: purifying heat (burning out the impurities)

o   Head heat turns one into a seer as well

o   Tapas  practice is in al important yoga textual sources

§  Gita: austerities of body speech & mind

§  Manusmriti: methods are prescribed for priests- to minimize their attachments

§  Yoga sutras: part of the definition of Kriya yoga (action)- Tapas is essential to the achievement of perfection alongside self study (Svadhyaya) and the worshipping of god (isvara pranidhana) 2.1

·         Also third of the NIYAMA observances – activities conducive to the achievement of spiritual liberation. They provide the foundation for the higher LIMBS of yoga 2.43

·         4.1 foundation for Siddhis (extraordinary powers) and achievement of perfection

·         YOGA MALA

o   The strength gained through practice …we can come to know the method for bringing the mind and sense organs under control

o   Yama, Niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana Samadhi

o   The perfection of the body and sense organs …due to the intensity in spiritual practice (tapas), being the elimination of impurities.-observances performed to discipline the body and sense organs.

o   Purification is about the GROSS PHYSICAL BODY, and the SUBTLE/ENERGETIC BODY.

§  SIRA- kind of nadi (internal mechanism) Dhamini, nadi sira…gross, subtle and very subtle channels which move internal energies within the body. (from the HYP)

§  When the body is purified, so is the breath, and then the mind because of this subtle linkage of the body to the “message center” through the siras.

o   Pranayama (Ujjayi)

§  The breath regulates the vinyasa and ensures efficient circulation of blood. The result is a LIGHT, STRONG body.

§  Asana plus pranayama purifies the blood. 32 days and 1 drop of blood make VITAL NECTAR *Vria-life force). Stored in the crown chakra. Vria travels downward and is consumed by the upward flow of agni (digestive fire). If it is gone, we are lost. Asana and INVERSIONS safely store and maintain this vria in the AMRTABINDU

·         Teaching authority

o   Highly regulated by PJ and grandson now

o   Emphasis on sweating as an indication of internal heat production

o   Rub in sweat (LIGHT SHEEN is better than profuse sweating) (HYP)

o   Sweating after the casting out of impurities leads to the trsansformation of the body which is the first stage of yogic transformation. (HYP) FIRM AND LIGHT

Achievement, Discipline, and Authority in Practice

·         Controls yoga teachers certification and authorization

·         Performance of spirituality (Nevrin) is regulated by PJ

·         High energy atmosphere characteristic of the shala-COLLECTIVE NATURE

·         No nonsense style of teaching

·         Reverence for the guru

·         Control over development of each students practice

·         Weekly “conference” with guru, seated on a chair or raised dias while students sit on floor and listen

·         Students wait in line to bow down in front of their guru and kiss or tough his feet three times in the traditional gesture of devotion

·         Use of Sanskrit quotations in question and answer sessions, limited English tio answer questions. Relies on parable

·         Challenging ADJUSTMENTS of AYRI-authority of teacher

o   “openings” or injuries?

o   Inherited from K who emphasized fierceness???

·         Practices seen as CORRECT or INCORRECT by PJ

·         Sequences confirmed by the YOGA KARUNTA and are unalterable

o   Eaten by ants, acquired by K, but taught directly to PJ by K

In the WEST, the emphasis the PJ had on internal heat as a way of achieving spiritual transformation through cleansing the BODY (foundation for higher practices) is often replaced by the idea that the practice is about PERFECTING the body as a lean, strong and flexible machine through the perfect performance of asana. Tapas=EAST: (HYP)

·         Elimination of toxins through the skin

·         Internal purification of the gross and subtle aspects of the body

·         Transubstantiation of bodily fluids into vital essence of AMRITA

*Heat will destroy all obstacles to transformation vs heated practice will perfect the body.

PDF CHEAT SHEET

Aesthetics & The Body Beautiful

Is the emphasis on the body beautiful anything new?

----Or has yoga become a practice of women in the West, precisely because it has presented a vehicle for acquiring these images of perfection and beauty for women????????

• Delasarte
• Magana Babtiste
• Marily Monroe
• Jane Fonda
• Christy Brinkley

--How does the article in your reader comment on this reality or not?

--Can yoga ever not be about the body beautiful?

Dance and Yoga Have and continue to have a strong connection in the West as an aesthetic form:

• Dance and martial arts have made meaty contributions to yoga history, philosophy, and posework. The 108 Karanas of the Dance of Shiva (called Shiva Nata) are actually yoga-like postures meant to actualize viewers through a geometrically-precise drama.

• The Karanas create mandalas (meditation images called yantras) in space over time–with the frontal body in the vertical plane and in the horizontal plane with the feet. These mandalas affect our mind and our energetic body.

• The 108 Karanas are sculpted at the Nataraja Temple, Chidambaram, South India. The temple is dedicated to Lord Nataraja, the presiding deity of dance. The Karanas are the basic dance units of Bharata Natyam, and the mother source of the rich variety of Indian dance traditions. Lord Shiva has said, "Dance is of Divine origin, sent to Earth as a precious gift, not to please the senses, but to enlighten the spirit with contemplation of noble beauty, which expresses eternal Truth." 

shiva nata

• The “Classic” form of Indian dance was practiced by the Devadasis (“servants”–or literally “slaves”–of God). They were temple courtesans who were free women and occasionally scholars.  They were  second only to priests in Tantric settings in the Middle Ages.

• Their dance was called Dasi Attam, and it was a fertility rite performed for the pleasure of kingly guests and temple benefactors who wished to have blessings on festivals and marriage ceremonies.

dasi attam 

• This court and temple dance, called Margi (“march” or “step”)–as opposed to village dances called Desi–was resuscitated by Rukmuni Devi and made into the “Classical” form now called Bharat Natyam (“Dance of India”) in the 1930s.

In America, her work was anticipated by the inventive “Oriental Dance” of Maud Allen and Ruth St. Denis in in the early 1900s.

• St. Denis has a singular status because she taught Martha Graham (the mother of modern dance) for ten years and became a student of the great yogini Indra Devi in Hollywood in the late 1940s.

Ruth St. Denis

•  Devi, the first student of Krishnamacharya to be a western woman, brought yoga to Los Angeles whereshe became the teachers of many actors and dancers. most importantly Gloria Swanson and Marilyn Monroe who later popularized yoga as a was to create the perfect body for women.

• Magana Baptiste–the mother of Sherri and Baron Baptiste and a student of Indra Devi as well–taught Oriental Dance and yoga in the groundbreaking San Francisco yoga centers she created with her husband, Walt, beginning in the 1950s.
• She brought Oriental Dance to Hollywood movies, and Shiva Rea and Hemalayaa Behl have both advanced new yoga/dance movements in a big way. They are part of the  “evolutionary pulse of yoga in America” as Rea has well-characterized it.  She comes full circle with trance dance

• Behl has mixed yoga with hip-hop, Bollywood moves, and classical Odissi dance(that she trained in for five years). Rea has integrated work from Zhander Remete and hisShadow Yoga, as well as postures from the Indian martial art, Kalari, and her knowledge from ethnic dance worldwide.

fertility dance 

HARMONIAL GYMNASTICS (Stebbins)

WOMEN & THE OCCULT: 

The long-unsung heroine in the Church of Light’s history has recently been featured in an excellent scholarly study on the history of yoga.  The reciprocal influence of `harmonial’ gymnastic systems (like the American Delsartism of Genevieve Stebbins…) and modern hatha yoga is enormous.”(p. 71)  While Stebbins is remembered now almost entirely as a pioneer in the history of women’s exercise and dance, the “gentler stretching, deep breathing, and `spiritual’ relaxation colloquially known in the West today as `hatha yoga’ are best exemplified by variants of the harmonial gymnastics developed by Stebbins…and others— as well as the stretching regimes of secular women’s physical culture with which they overlap.”(p. 160)

Genevieve Stebbins earned international fame as the great popularizer of the teachings of French acting and singing teacher Francois Delsarte (1811-71) who “became famous in Europe for his theory of esthetic principles applied to the pedagogy of dramatic expression…”  By the time Stebbins emerged as a Delsarte teacher she was affiliated with the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor.  “She brought these esoteric influences…to bear on her interpretation of Delsartism… to American audiences [which] initiated a veritable Delsarte craze”(p. 144)  Her success in this endeavor recalls that of another former actress. Stebbins evolved from beginnings as an actress to a career as a propagandist.  If we consider her cause to have been harmonial women’s gymnastics, it seems a quaint and obscure claim to fame.

Stebbins’s Dynamic Breathing and Harmonic Gymnastics:  A Complete System of Psychical, Aesthetic, and Physical Culture (1892) is as described by Singleton “a combination of calisthenic movement, deep respiration exercises, relaxation, and creative mental imagery within a harmonial religious framework.  It is, in Stebbins’s words, `a completely rounded system for the development of body, brain and soul,’ a system of training which shall bring this grand trinity of the human microcosm into one continuous, interacting unison and remove the `inharmonious mental states’ that lead to discord.”(p. 146)

FRANCOIS DELSARTE

"The object of art is to crystallize emotion into thought and then give it form." Francois Delsarte.

History tells that he ends up loosing his mother and then his voice and this situation pushes him to start searching for the causes of his disability. Not having found satisfactory answers by doctors or teachers, he starts developing an own theory about the connection between emotions and physical gestures.

The core of his theory states that there is a connection between mental attitudes, emotions, physical postures and gestures. According to this, one’s emotional state would be communicated through one’s physical appearance and performance.

For example, the extension of the body would be in relationship with the feeling of self realization; the feeling of annihilation would translate into a bending of the body. Practicing those positions would reinforce the feelings they traduce and all emotions would have their own bodily translation (the gesture would reinforce them and at the same time they would reinforce the gesture).

This postulate coincides with the famous modern dance principle according to which the intensity of a feeling determines the intensity of a gesture, in opposition to the classical dance rule that makes use of codified gestures which are (presumably) not related to the mental state of the dancer.

“What we say is not what persuades but how we say it. The speech is inferior to the gesture because this last one corresponds to the phenomenon of the spirit. The gesture is the agent of heart, the persuasive agent. Sometimes 100 pages can not say what one sole gesture can express, because in that simple movement our whole being comes to the surface” (Translated quotation from: Alain Porte. Francois Delsarte, une anthologie, I.P.M.C., 1992).

The codification of the system of Francois Delsarte is organized under the omnipresence of what some historians call his ‘understanding of the Christian concept of the trinity’. So, his theory is full of classifications that are always divided into three categories:

·      His system, called applied aesthetics, is divided in three parts: the statics, the dynamics and the semiotics.

• ·      The body is divided in three zones: the physical, the emotional and the mental, which correspond to the inferior members, trunk and arms, and neck and head respectively.
• ·      There are three languages: the affective, transmitted through voice, the elliptic, expressed through gestures and the philosophical, traduced by the articulated word.
• ·      Movement is of three orders: opposition, parallelism and succession, according to the intervention of the physical, emotional or mental part.
• ·      Movement is of three categories: eccentric, concentric, and normal.

·      There are three laws for movement (The laws of harmonic movement):

1. Law of the harmonic posture: there’s a need to obtain a balanced and natural attitude like the position of perfect rest in Greek statues.

2. Law of opposed movement: every movement of one or several parts of the body demands, for balance principles, an opposed movement of the rest of the segments.

3. Law of the harmonic muscular function or of the succession of contractions: the force of a muscular function must be in direct relationship with the size of the muscles. Therefore muscles should start from the big muscles that surround the pelvis.

Francois Delsarte had two pupils that became important for the spreading of his work: Steele MacKaye and Genevieve Stebbins.

Stebbins: “different parts of the body express different emotions. To throw out the chest shows strength, power and energy in anything undertaken; the breast emphasizes the softer feelings and gives prominence to the lowest part of the body and shows the coarseness of the virago who, with her hands on her hips defies the neighborhood at large.”

MacKaye brought Delsarte’s teachings to the U.S.A. and spread them under the name of “harmonic gymnastics”. His success was enormous, to the point of having most of the women from liberal families following the trend. The practice even got a fashioned character and marketing clothes and products were sold under the system name. (sound familiar?)
____________
What About The Influence of Indian Theater

Theory of Rasa described in Chapters VI and VII of Natya Shastra

The theory of Rasa-Bhava establishes a relationship between the performer and the spectator. The model spectator is a sahrdaya, someone "who empathizes with the author." Since the success of a performance is measured by whether or not the audience has a specific experience (rasa), the spectator becomes a vital participant in the play. 

Bharata calls human soul as Bhava-Jagat (the world of emotions). Bharata and later authors explain how the Art universalizes emotions making them an instrument of appeal to the spectators. They say that the actor acts as bearer, media and connector of emotions of the character. By conveying emotions the actor step by step opens inner Bhava-Jagat of the character, creates special emotional atmosphere, which can be felt and relished. The actor introduces and involves the spectators into this emotional atmosphere. Thus, emotions of the character are spread through the actor to spectators, who share them collectively, as a group, by relishing the Rasa. Thus emotions are embodied and translated from one person to many.

Bhava and Rasa

Bharata says that which can be relished – like the taste of food – is rasa: "Rasyate anena iti rasaha (asvadayatva)."

According to Bharata, the playwright experiences a certain emotion (bhava). The director of the play should properly understand the idea and bhava-s of the character and convey his knowledge and understanding to the actors. The actors perform their parts using their own vision and experience, but they should follow the main idea and key bhavas emphasized by the director, Sutradhara. 

The term bhava means both existence and a mental state, and in aesthetic contexts it has been variously translated as feelings, psychological states, and emotions. In the context of the drama, bhavas are the emotions represented in the performance. 

Bhava is that which becomes (Sanskrit root "bhoo", "bhav" means "to become"); and bhava becomes rasa. In Natya Shastra it is said, that bhavas by themselves carry no meaning in the absence of Rasa: "Nahi rasadyate kashid_apyarthah pravattate." Forms and manifestations of bhavas are defined by the rasa. It is therefore said, Rasa is the essence of art conveyed. 

Rasa is the emotional response the bhavas inspire in the spectator (the Rasika or Sahrudaya). Rasa is thus an aesthetically transformed emotional state experienced by the spectator. Rasa is accompanied by feelings of pleasure and enjoyment. Such emotions tunes perception of the spectators, they create atmosphere of empathy, make people more sensitive, help to open mind and heart to understand the idea and message of the play. 

Rasa is associated with palate, it is delight afforded by all forms of art; and the pleasure that people derive from their art experience. It is literally the activity of savoring an emotion in its full flavor. The term might also be taken to mean the essence of human feelings. 

Rasa is sensuous, proximate, experiential. Rasa is aromatic. Rasa fills space, joining the outside to the inside. What was outside is transformed into what is inside.

Abhinaya

The actors convey bhavas using Abhinaya. The Sanskrit root "abhi" means "to lead", "to go together". Abhinaya is the process by which the meaning of the play is "led toward" the audience. 

Human activity is divided into the physical, the verbal and the mental. Thus Abhinaya is four-fold – Sattvika (temperamental), Angika (physical), Vachika (verbal) and Aharya (dress, make-up, etc.). 

Mrinalini Sarabhai uses famous shloka from "Abhinaya Darpanam" to explain these four aspects: "Where the hands go the eyes follow [anubhava], where the eyes go the mind follows [sattvika abhinaya], where the mind goes the mood [bhava] follows, where the mood goes there is rasa born." 

Sattvika abhinaya is very important kind of Abhinaya, showing the highest level of actor’s identification with the character . All of the components of abhinaya must be applied by the actor in order for him to bring the audience to the correct rasa, and thus to the enjoyment of the play, but sattva, which literally means "purity", however in dramaturgy is the psychological ability of the actor to identify with the character and his emotions, is the hardest to master and to understand. 

As Bharata asserts, "Sattva . . . is [something] originating in mind. It is caused by the concentrated mind. The Sattva is accomplished by concentration of the mind. It’s nature cannot be mimicked by an absent-minded man." 

The Natya Shastra calls Sattvika abhinaya the "Spirited" modes of abhinaya, but the best explanations link it to Stanislavsky’s "Magic If" and "Sense of Truth." This allows the actor to convince himself the circumstances are real to the character, even though, as the actor, he knows they are not. 

When executed properly, sattvika abhinaya allows the actor to exhibit the physical signs of the emotions the character’s feeling, such as tears, trembling, change of color, or horripilation (the hair standing on end, or goosebumps). For the audience to feel the correct rasa, the actor must manifest the outward expressions of the character’s emotion using all kinds of abhinaya, but especially sattva. The Natya Shastra insists, "The Histrionic Representation with an exuberant Sattva is superior, the one with the level Sattva is middling, and that with no [exercise of] Sattva is inferior."

Vibhava and Anubhava

Actions and feelings are evoked in connection with certain surrounding objects and circumstances, called Vibhava-s. Different mental and emotional states manifest themselves and become visible through universal physiological reactions called Anubhava–s. 

Thus Bhava, the emotion felt by the character, results from a "Determinant" (vibhava), or determining circumstance, such as the time of year, the presence of loved ones, the decor or environment, and so on. The vibhava affects the character so that he feels sorrow, terror, anger, or some such emotion (bhava). 

The "Consequent" (anubhava) of a particular bhava is a specific behavior exhibited by the actor as he portrays the character such as weeping, fainting, blushing, or the like. The anubhava, if properly executed, will cause the audience to feel a specific rasa corresponding to the bhava felt by the actor:

VIBHAVA — causes —> BHAVA — causes —> ANUBHAVA —> RASA

This is precisely the process Stanislavsky describes for his actors. A character’s feelings arise from the circumstances of the scene, both those in effect at the moment and those that occurred before. The feelings, combined with the "given circumstances," cause her to behave in a certain way — the "stage action." Replacing the Sanskrit terms of The Natyasastra with Stanislavskian terminology, the diagram might look like this:

GIVEN CIRCS — cause —> EMOTION — causes —> BEHAVIOR —> AUD. RESPONSE

Eight Sthayi bhavas

Chapter VII of The Natya Shastra goes into great detail about the bhavas, which are broken down into three categories. Bharata mentions eight "Durable," "Permanent," or "Constant" emotional conditions called Sthayi bhavas:

These emotional states are inherent to humans. They are basic as they are inborn, understandable without explanation. They also are characterized by intensity, as they dominate and direct behavior. On the stage Sthayi bhavas are represented by certain Anubhavas, explained in Natya Shastra as follows:

Sthayi bhavas are manifested by corresponding Anubhavas:

1. Rati (Pleasure) – Smiling face, sweet words, contraction of eye–brows, sidelong glances and the like. 
2. Hasa (Joy) – Smile and the like, i.e., laugher, excessive laugher. 
3. Shoka (Sorrow) – Shedding tears, lamentation, bewailing, change of color, loss of voice, looseness of limbs, falling on the ground, crying, deep breathing, paralysis, insanity, death and the like. 
4. Krodha (Malice) – Extended nostrils, unturned eyes, bitten lips, throbbing cheeks and the like. 
   • against enemies – knitting of the eye–brows, fierce look, bitten lips, hands clasping each other, touching one’s own shoulder and breast. 
   • when controlled by superiors – slightly downcast eyes, wiping off slight perspiration and not expressing any violent movement. 
   • against beloved woman – very slight movement of the body, shedding tears, knitting eyebrows, sidelong glances and throbbing lips. 
   • against one’s servants – threat, rebuke, dilating eyes and casting contemptuous looks of various kinds. 
   • artificial – betraying signs of effort. 
5. Utsaha (Courage) – steadiness, munificence, boldness of undertaking and the like. 
6. Bhaya (Fear) – trembling of the hands and feet, palpitation of the heart, paralysis, dryness of the mouth, licking lips, perspiration, tremor, apprehension of danger, seeking for safety, running away, loud crying and the like. 
7. Jugupsa (Disgust) – contracting all the limbs, spitting, narrowing down of the mouth, heartache and the like. 
8. Vismaya (Surprise) – wide opening the eyes, looking without winking of the eyes and movement of the eye–brows, horripilation, moving the head to and fro, the cry of "well done" and the like. 

Eight Rasas (Navarasa)

The eight Sthai bhava-s evoke eight corresponding Rasa–s:

1. Rati evokes Sringara (the Erotic – romance, love) 
2. Hasa evokes  Hasya (the comic – laugh, humor) 
3. Shoka evokes Karuna (the pathetic – compassion, sadness) 
4. Krodha evokes Roudra (the furious – indignation, anger) 
5. Utsaha evokes Veera (the heroic – valor) 
6. Bhaya evokes Bhayanaka (the terrible – fear, horror) 
7. Jugupsa evokes Bibhasa (the odious – disgust, aversion, repugnance) 
8. Vismaya evokes Adbhuta (the marvelous – wonder, astonishment, amazement) 

1. The Erotic – Sringara – (1) in union &ndash The Anubhava–s to be represented are clever movements of eyes and eye–brows, soft and delicate movements of limbs, sweet words, etc.; whereas those to be represented (2) in separation – are despondency, weakness, apprehension, envy, weariness, anxiety, yearning, sleep, dreaming, awakening, illness, insanity, epilepsy, inactivity (temporary) death and other conditions. 
2. The Comic – Hasya – It is to be represented by throbbing of the lips, and the cheeks, opening of the eyes wide or contracting them, perspiration, color of the face and taking hold of the sides. Hasya is self-centered when a man laughs himself and it is centered in others when he makes others laugh. This two-fold division of Hasya relates to its infectious nature. In the verses of the Anubhavas of the six types of Hasya are given.
   • "smita" (gentle smile): slightly blown cheeks, elegant glances, teeth not visible; 
   • "hasita" (smile): blooming eyes, face and cheeks, teeth slightly visible; 
   • "vihasita" (gentle laugher) – laugher suitable to the occasion; slight sound and sweetness, face joyful, eyes and cheeks contracted; 
   • "upahasita" (laugher of ridicule): the nose expanded, squinting eyes, shoulder and head bent; 
   • "apahasita" (vulgar laugher) – laugher on unsuitable occasion: tears in eyes, shoulders and the head violently shaking; 
   • "atihasita" (excessive laugher) – eyes expanded and tearful, loud and excessive sound, sides covered by hands. 
   Smita and hasita should be employed in the case of superior characters, vihasita and upahasita in the case of middling ones and apahasita and atihasita in the case of the inferior types. 
3. The Pathetic – Karuna – This is to be represented by shedding tears, lamentation, dryness of the mouth, change of color, drooping limbs, being out of breath, loss of memory and the like.
4. The Furious – Roudra is to be represented by red eyes, knitting of eye&ndashbrows, defiance, biting of lips, throbbing of the cheeks, pressing one hand over the other and the like.
5. The Heroic – Veera – This is to be gesticulated by firmness, heroism, charity, diplomacy and the like.
6. The Terrible – Bhaya is to be represented by trembling of the hands, the feet and the eyes, horripilation, change of color and the loss of voice.
7. The Odious – Bibhatsa is to be gesticulated by contraction of all the limbs, narrowing down of the mouth and eyes, vomiting, spitting and (shaking the limbs in) disgust and the like.
8. The Marvelous – Adbhura – This is to be represented by wide opening eyes, looking with fixed gaze, horripilation, tears. Joy, perspiration, uttering words of approbation, making gifts, crying (incessantly) "ha, ha, ha" waving the end of dhoti or sari and movement of fingers and the like.

Abhinavagupta interpreted rasa as a "stream of consciousness". He then went on to expand the scope and content of the rasa spectrum by adding the ninth rasa: the Shantha rasa, the one of tranquility and peace. Abhinava explained that Shantha rasa underlies all the other mundane rasas as their common denominator. All the other rasas emanate from the Shantha rasa and resolve in to it. Shantha rasa is a state where the mind is at rest, in a state of tranquility.The other rasas are more transitory in character than is shanta rasa. The Shanta Rasa is the ultimate rasa the summum bonum.

Transitory states – Vibhichari or Sanchari bhavas

Emotions have many shades, are characterized by different levels of intensity. Basic emotions can be also combined with each other. Such individual varieties of emotions, possible in different situations, in case f different characters are called Vibyachari (or Sanchari) bhava-s. They are many in number.

Sthayi bhava–s are accompanied by thirty–three Vyabhicari-bhavas, called "Complementary" or "Inconstant" modes, which may be seen as "Conditioning Forces" of a scene or the changeable conditions that affect character’s behavior, such as intoxication or exhaustion. 

1. Nirveda – weeping, sighing, deep breathing, deliberation and the like.
2. Glani – week voice, lusterless eyes, pale face, slow gate, want of energy, loss of color of the body and the limbs, change of voice and others.
3. Sanka – constantly looking about, hesitating movement, dryness of the mouth, licking the lips, change of facial color, tremor, dry lips, change of voice and the like. Concealment of appearance to be characterized by adoption of clever gestures according to some authorities.
4. Asuya - finding fault with others, decrying their virtues, casting glances in jealousy, downcast face, knitting eyebrows, disregard and abuse in public.
5. Mada – 
   In case of superior persons – sleeping
   Middling ones – laughing and singing,
   Low ones – crying and using coarse words.
   Stages of Mada – 
   (i) light smiling face, pleasant feeling, slightly faltering words, delicately unsteady gait.
   (ii) medium drunken and rolling eyes, arms drooping or restlessly thrown about, irregularly unsteady gait.
   (iii) excessive loss of memory, incapacity to walk due to vomiting, hiccup, tick protruding tongue and spitting. When there is panic, grief and increase of terror due to some cause, intoxication is to be stopped by effort.
6. Srama – gentle rubbing of the body, deep breathing, contraction of the mouth, belching, massaging of the limbs, very slow gait, contraction of the eyes, making hissing sound.
7. Alasya – aversion to any kind of work, lying down, sitting, drowsiness, sleep, etc.
8. Dainya – want of self&ndashcommand, headache, dullness of the body, absent–mindness, giving up of cleansing (of the body), etc.
9. Cinta – deep breathing, sighing, agony, meditation, thinking with a down-cast face, thinness of the body, etc.
10. Moha – want of movement, excessive movement of a particular limb, falling down, reeling, dazed condition.
11. Smrity – nobbing of the head, looking down, raising up the eye–brows, etc.
12. Dhriti – enjoyment of objects attained, absence of regret for the unattained, impaired or lost, etc.
13. Vrida – covered face, thinking with down casting face, drawing lines on the ground, touching cloths and the ring, biting the nails, etc.
14. Capalata – harsh words, rebuke, beating, killing, taking prisoner, goading, etc.
15. Harsa – brightness of the face and eyes, using sweet words, embracing, horripilation, tears, perspiration, and the like.
16. Avega –
    (a) due to portends – looseness of all the limbs, distraction of the mind, loss of facial color, sadness, surprise, etc.
    (b) due to violent winds – veiling the face, rubbing the eyes, collecting the ends of the clothes worn, hurried going, etc.
    (c) due to heavy rains – lumping together the limbs, running, looking for some cover of shelter, etc.
    (d) due to fire – eyes troubled with smoke, contracting all the limbs or shaking them, running with wide steps, flight, etc.
    (e) due to elephants – hurried retreat, unsteady gait, fear, paralysis, tremor, looking back, etc.
    (f) due to having something – getting up, embracing, giving away cloths and ornaments, tears, horripilation, etc.
    (g) due to unfavorable news – falling down on the ground, rolling about on a rough surface, running away, bewailing, weeping and the like.
    (h) due to calamity – sudden retreat, taking up weapons and armor, mounting elephants and horses and chariots, striking, etc.
17. Jadata – not uttering any word, speaking indistinctly, aversion to all work, remaining absolutely silent, looking with steadfast gaze, dependence on others, etc.
18. Garva – disrespect for others, harassing, not giving reply, not greeting others, looking to oneself, roaming, contemptuous laugher, harsh words, transgressing commands of the superiors, insulting others, etc. (In case of persons of inferior type, (boastful) movement of the eyes and the limbs is to be employed.)
19. Visada – looking for allies, thinking about means, loss of energy, absent–mindedness, deep breathing and the like in the case of superior and the middling types; in case of the inferior type – running away, looking down, drying of the mouth, licking the corner of the mouth, sleep, deep breathing, meditation and the like.
20. Autsukya – sighs, thinking with downcast face, sleep, drowsiness, desire for lying down.
21. Nidra – heaviness of the face, rolling of the body, rolling of the eyes, yawning, massaging of the body, deep breathing, relaxed body, closing the eyes, etc.
22. Apasmara – throbbing, sighing, trembling, running, falling down, perspiration, foaming in the mouth, motionlessness, licking (lips) with tongue and the like.
23. Supta – deep breathing, dullness of the body, closing the eyes, stupefaction of all senses, dreaming, talking while asleep, closing eyes softly.
24. Vibodha – yawning, rubbing the eyes, leaving the bed, etc.
25. Amarsa – shaking the head, perspiration, thinking with downcast face, determination, looking for means and allies, etc.
26. Avahittha – speaking otherwise, looking down words, break in speech, pretended patience.
27. Ugrata – killing, imprisoning, beating, rebuking, etc.
28. Mati – instructing pupils, ascertainment of meanings, removal of doubts, etc.
29. Vyadhi –
    (a) fever with a feeling of cold – shivering of the entire body, bending the body, shaking the jaws, desire for heat, horripilation, movement of the chin, narrowing down the nasal passage, dryness of the mouth, lamentation, etc.
    (b) fever with a feeling of heat – throwing out cloths, the hands and the feet, desire to roll on the ground, use f unguents, desire for coolness, lamentation, dryness of mouth, crying.
    (c) other types of sickness – narrowing down the mouth, dullness of the body, downcast eyes, deep breathing, making peculiar sounds, crying, tremor, etc.
30. Unmada – laughing and weeping without any reason, crying, irrelevant talk, lying down, sitting and rising up, running, dancing, singing, reciting, smearing the body with ashes and dust, taking grass and remains of flower-offering to deity, soiled clothes, rags, potsherd, and earthen tray as decorations of the body, many other senseless acts, imitation of others who are not present, etc.
31. Marana –
    (a) from sickness – looseness of the body, motionless of the limbs, closed eyes, hiccup, deep breathing, not looking towards surroundings people, indistinct words, etc.
    (b) due to accidental injury – 
    (i) wounded by weapons – suddenly falling down on the ground, tremor, throbbing, etc.
    (ii) snake bite or poison – gradual development of the following symptoms – thinness of the body, tremor, burning sensations, hiccup, foaming mouth, breaking of the neck, paralysis and death.
32. Trasa – contraction of limbs, shaking, tremor of the body, paralysis, horripilation, speaking with choked voice, etc.
33. Virtaka – various discussions, non-settling1 of problems, concealment of the counsel, movements of the head and eye-brows, etc.

Temperamental states – Sattvika bhavas

Temperamental states are expressed on the stage using Sattvika abhinaya. In fact, all the gesticulation of mental states may be designated as the Sattvika abhinaya. But the prominence given to the gesticulation of the temperamental states is due to the peculiar mental effort which is necessary for their presentation. Bharata has thus given first the gesticulation of temperament for, without it the real purpose of the performance would be lost.

1. Sveda – taking up the fan, wiping off sweat, looking for breeze. 
2. Stambha – being inactive, smileless, being like inert object, limbs drooping. 
3. Kampa – quivering, throbbing and shivering, wiping the eyes of tears, shedding tear incessantly. 
4. Asru – wiping the eyes full of tears, shedding tears incessantly. 
5. Vaivarnya – alteration of the color of the face with effort by putting pressure on the artery. 
6. Romanca – repeated thrills, hair standing on end, touching the body. 
7. Svarabheda – broken and choked voice. 
8. Pralaya – motionlessness, breathing gently (unnoticed), falling on the ground. 

References

Natya Shastra, Chapters VI and VII