Asanas: 608 Yoga Postures

This little book has been sitting on my shelf for a while, I pick it up from time to time for inspiration. Sometimes I flip through the pages quickly to see Shri Dharma Mittra come to life in my hands, twisting, reaching, inverting, and folding. The simplicity of the black and white photos bring to life the power of the yoga practice.Asana: 608 Yoga Poses is a study of the third limb of yoga, asana or the physical poses. The exercise slice of the bigger pie of the yogic life that purifies and tones the body in preparation for pranayama (breath control exercises) and meditation, which ultimately lead to Self Realization.In 1983, Dharma Mittra took these 908 pictures of himself in asana, both in preparatory positions and in the full expression of them. He then lined up the pictures on a piece of cardboard for the famous poster. In 2003, he worked with editors to put the book together into 608 poses and had to retake some of the shots due to negative damage. So there is slight variations in the tone of the pictures, which adds a very subtle brightening and softening as you progress through the book.There is less than 25 pages of text amongst 668 pages. There are no instructions on how to do the poses. The words Dharma Mittra has written are an uncomplicated explanation of why and how we should practice yoga. The images truthfully tell the ability of the capability of the human body.This is a must have for the yoga practioner.

The introduction offers some very insightful words, and the photographs of the poses are beautifully done. I wish that the pages contained detailed descriptions of the dynamics of each posture, but if you are an experienced hatha yoga practitioner, these can be ascertained by studying the photographs. It will be harder for a new yoga practitioner to get benefits from this book because of the lack of descriptions. That being said, the book is still inspiring and will become a great resource for the beginner who intends to stay with yoga. The images of a man in only a small amount of clothing shouldn't be an issue if you are an adult and don't see something shameful in the human body. Perhaps the reviewers who took issue with a man in a speedo-style garment should look beyond only one part of his anatomy and realize that the lack of clothing allows us to really see and study the form of the postures.

this is a wonderful book. it is just of photos though, so it will not teach you yoga. wonderful tool for any yoga teacher or anyone who loves to see all the different poses out there.the reason i didn't give this a 5 star review is that the binding on my book came off completely and all the pages are starting to fall out. will have to take to staples or some place like that to see if they can fix it. they squeezed too many pages into such a tiny book.other than that it's a great book, well worth the money!

I first bought this book (used) and it came opened with nothing in the bag. I got a return and bought it again. It seems nice but It’s kinda strange because it’s a male, not that I have anything against men, but his private parts are just out there. I opened it up with my boyfriend and he was uncomfortable with how exposed it is. Other than that it is nice and it has all the different names but some are just repeats.

I like all the poses that the book shows you. The simplicity is good and the quality of the paper itself is good. But my book binding fell apart the very first time I used it. I definitely wish this was made as a binder to keep that from happening, I just set my book out flat and it happened after 12 minutes of turning my pages

This book was worthless to me and would be to anyone other than a Yoga instructor. I have been doing Yoga for a year and was looking for a book that displayed a wider range of "exercises" with descriptions of each. While this book does in fact show 608 poses, it does not provide any instruction on positioning. I use Yoga to complement my weight lifting and long distance running and this book does not do this. Having said this, a professional Yoga instructor probably would know exactly how to do each pose and just having a visual representation may be quite helpful. I highly recommend "Journey into Power, How to shape your body, free your self, and transform your life" by Baron Baptiste. Don't be scared by the esoteric nature of the title, for me it was very thorough on the exercise part of Yoga. I don't know why these people insist on attempting to inculcate this psycho-babble on people that may just be looking for exercise and the benefits of the relaxation. No offense intended.

This is more of a picture book rather than any form of instructional or informative material.

I actually loved this book, but it’s more for teachers than for casual practitioners because there is not anatomy or explanation of hot to into a pose. The pictures are awesome and inspirational, I use postures from here in my own home practice and if I want to work on more advanced Asana

livro com poses em ótima qualidade. bom para quem já prática. o texto que segue é super interessante e importante porém não são nem 5 páginas ao todo. coisa básica para quem já estuda a yoga e a sabedoria por trás.para quem quer praticar é ótimo. é pequeno e dificil de deixar aberto por conta das muitas páginas mas dá pra praticar bem

Precioso regalo que Dharma Mitra hace al yoga, sencillez, y arte, él mismo las fotografió con una Nikon, que me encanta porque yo también intento ser yogui fotógrafa, es un libro elegante, en blanco y negro, no es para explicar técnica sino para quienes ya tienen cierto conocimiento sobre las posturas y saben apreciar a este grandísimo yogui.

Muy buen libro, son fotos de posturas algo viejas pero las asanas solo es imitar la postura que viene su bombre. Categorizadas por tipo de ejecución. Nada de texto. Amazon muy impresionante su entrega pronta.

Llegó roto

This man is a legend and the book is his sole work, he took all the photos of himself, himself and wow, a beautiful coffee table book to show just how the human body when working together with the mind, body and soul will open itself up and allow itself to be placed in these asanas and you feel great whilst in them. A lovely little book all ion black and white, it looks classy aswell.