Anna Pavlova Anna Pavlova! My life stops as I write that name. Across the daily preoccupation of lessons, lunch boxes, tooth brushing and quarrelings with my sister flashed this bright, unworldly experience and burned in a single afternoon a path over which I could never retrace my steps. I had witnessed the power of beauty, and in some chamber of my heart I lost forever my irresponsibility. I was as clearly marked as though she had looked me in the face and called my name. For generations my father's family had loved and served the theatre. All my life I had seen actors and actresses and had heard theatre jargon at the dinner table. I had thrilled at Father's pr

Running I — P. T. Usha Dawn on a quiet beach in Kerala. The first light shows a narrow sandy path running through swaying palms. A lithe runner in a grey tracksuit comes into view, loping effortlessly ahead of a short rotund man who struggles to keep up. P.T. Usha and O.M. Nambiar make an odd twosome: one five foot seven inches of lean muscle, the other short and running to fat. Ten years ago, when they first came together, the athlete found it difficult to keep up with the coach. Now, with great patience, she tolerates his tortoise-like pace. With long measured strides she darts ahead, then jogs back and exchanges a few words with the coach before pacing fo

The Will to Live and Healing Norman Cousins, author of the book from which we are presenting an extract, was a senior lecturer at the School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles, and consulting editor of "Man & Medicine", published at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. For almost all of his professional life, Norman Cousins was affiliated with "Saturday Review ". He became its editor in 1940, a position he held for more than thirty years. Mr. Cousins is the author of eleven books, including Dr. Schweitzer of Lambarene, The Celebration of Life, Present Tense, In place of Folly, The Good Inheritance, and Modern Man Is Obs

Painting: Véronique Nicolet, Auroville Profounder Aspects of Physical Education Introduction With the increasing liberation of human spirit/Torn the clutches of narrow concepts and dogmas that refuse to consider the salutary influence that the ethical, aesthetic, and spiritual powers can exercise upon the development of the human body, there has come about in recent times a growing perception that the human body is not a tomb but a temple of the Spirit and that there is discernible in us a spiritual will which wants to manifest itself fully in the physical life. It is also

-42_Ram Gopal^s Training.htm Ram Gopal's Training Ram Gopal was born in Bangalore early in this century, from an Indian father and a Burmese mother. He received a complete training in Kathakali dance with his gurus Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Kujun Kurup but he was also interested in other forms of folk and temple dancing. He went abroad several times before and after the second World War and was the first Indian to dance the age-old legends of India in a Japanese theatre. Ram Gopal went to America, Poland, France and was happy to feel that he could understand completely the classic storehouse of European and Indian music. After his return to India, he continued to use the K

Ayurvedic nutrition In the ancient medical system of India, we find what is one of the oldest and most time-tested approaches to nutrition. Its science of food and diet is an integral part of a philosophy of man, his consciousness and his relation to the universe. The result is an approach to diet that is unsurpassed both in its profundity and sophistication as well as in its practicality and simplicity. Here the selection and preparation of food is seen as inseparable from the treatment of disease and the cultivation of vibrant health. Both these goals are part of traditional Indian medicine. The traditional system of Indian medicine is called Ayurveda. Ayur

-07_Extracts from Leonardo da Vinci^s Notebooks.htm Leonardo's drawing: study of the shoulder, the arm and one foot Extracts from Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks How it is necessary for the painter to know the inner structure of man. The painter who has a knowledge of the nature of the sinews, muscles, and tendons will know very well in the movement of a limb how many and which of the sinews are the cause of it, and which muscle by swelling is the cause of the contraction of that sinew; and which sinews expanded into most delicate cartilage surround and support the said muscle. In fifteen entire figures there shall be revealed to you the microcosm on the s

Emil Zatopek (left), the "Czech Express" Running II — Zatopek Zatopek had first realized his own potential in 1941, when he was nineteen, and he had improved steadily but unspectacularly at 800 and 1500 metres until 1945, when the great Swedish middle-distance runner Arne Anderson paid a short visit to Prague. Andersen's physical condition, and the quality of his background work, transformed Zatopek's own training. He added quality to the quantity he had already established, and blended both with the extraordinary determination he had acquired for stretching his own body to the utmost whether in a race or a training session. Even on army sent

Part VIII Body reaching out beyond itself An 18th century Indian depiction of the network of centres (chakras) in the subtle body Body reaching out beyond itself Introduction The growing popularity of Hatha Yoga all over the world does not necessarily mean that its real purpose is well known or understood. In fact, the Hatha Yoga practices which were designed by the ancient Rishis of India for the evolution of man, are now being viewed and utilized in a very limited sense. Today, particularly in the West, Hatha Yoga is generally practised to improve health, reduce stress, minimize the effects of ageing or k

Insights from Indian Wisdom May all be Happy. May all be free from diseases. May all experience the Bliss. Let none partake of any suffering. *** The mind, the soul and the body — the three constitute the three poles (supporting the human structure). It is their combination that maintains the living beings. Everything depends en them for its subsistence. Charakasamhita *** He alone can be considered to be healthy whose dosas, power of digestion, and functioning of dhatus and malas are in a state of equilibrium and whose soul, Page – 182 mind and senses as well as organs are free