Yoga is a very ancient discipline, which encompasses body movements and postures, breathing techniques, mental concentration practices together with a spiritual experience of life. In fact, Yoga is a vast and deep subject, an age-old tradition which can be tremendously useful for scientific and medical purposes in our modern times. Hence it deserves an equally thorough treatment when presented to the reader. It is true that Yoga has inspired a variety of modern-age techniques, which in turn have given rise to a plethora of books on the matter but, Yoga also deserves to be represented in its true light with nevertheless a modern approach, i.e. traditional but at the same time scientific. 

This is exactly what SOLAR YOGA purports to do and hence it can be considered a “classic” in the field: it may not enjoy best-seller status ever but it is destined to pass through various fashions and remain a serious reference to be consulted by practitioners and larger readership alike.  

SOLAR YOGA benefits from the profound and genuine experience of Yoga practice by a Hindu master, Yogacharya Janakiraman, and the methodical and analytical treatment of the subject by a Western linguist and Yoga teacher, Caroline Rosso Cicogna, who together decided to blend their experiences in a book which contains a digest of their philosophical knowledge as a background for a clear, simple and progressive practice of the self-regenerative techniques of Yoga.

The book is divided into two main parts with four chapters each. 

The first part is of a conceptual nature and contains:

a thorough description of the traditional branches of Yoga with the main emphasis on Solar Yoga;
a study of Yoga physiology with particular emphasis on the breathing and nervous systems and their relationship to the mental processes;
a detailed introduction to the practice of asanas, breathing techniques and pranayamas;
a study of the practice of solar mantras and their relationship to the energy body.
The second part is of a practical nature and it treats a carefully selected number of classical Yoga practices in a novel manner, integrating the use of sound vibrations with that of postures and breathing techniques at the physical, psychic and spiritual levels.

For each asana (with original sketches by Carmelo Vrancih, a renowned Italian artist and Yoga practitioner) the practice is presented on three planes – body, energy, divinity- with a clear and methodical description of the preparatory movements and the final posture, the breathing patterns and the mantras. Moreover, the main benefits as well as counter-indications are described each time and each asana is given in a sequence of postures specially designed by the authors, in the light of their personal and teaching experience.

The book also contains a glossary of Sanskrit terms, a selected biography of classic works on the subject, an index of English terms and an index of Sanskrit terms.

SOLAR YOGA was introduced in 1989 by a foreword by the then Professor Abdus Salam, Nobel Prize for Nuclear Physics and a preface by Swami Chidananda, President at that time of the Divine Life Society. On its first publication, the book was blessed by some of the greatest living Masters and Saints of the time and hailed by authorities in the field, wishing it a long and fruitful life!