Anusara School of Hatha Yoga Anusara School of Hatha Yoga Anusara School of Hatha Yoga, also known as Anusara Yoga (In Hindi:अनुसार योग) is the successor of a modern school of hatha yoga originally started by American-born yoga teacher John Friend in 1997. Friend derived his style from the Iyengar style of yoga and reintroduced elements of Hindu spirituality into a more health-oriented Western approach to Yoga. The Anusara style emphasizes a set of Universal Principles of Alignment which underlie all of the physical asanas and are connected to philosophical aspects of the practice. The school's ideology is "grounded in a Tantric philosophy of intrinsic
Aparoksha from which unity of existence is derived. This knowledge is gained by establishing a "guru-shishya sambandha" (Guru-shishya tradition) with a teacher who has already experienced that kind of knowledge (Aparoksanubhuti); the karma or acts required to be done, after gain of "Aparoksha jnana" is "Vidya-karma" which consists in "sravana" (hearing of srutis), "manana" (reflection) and "nididhyasana" (meditation on Brahman). Aparoksha is "savikalpa jnana" (knowledge) when one re-recognizes the non-dual nature of the ever-realized Self (Tat Tvam Asi), it is the immediate knowledge gained through the "pramanas"; practice of "Dhyana" (meditation) removes all "vikalpas" (varied thoughts) and leads to "nirvikalpa" or