Yoga - my own definition


I was recently talking about my yoga regime with a friend and he happened to ask me, what is this practice and what is it do for people. Its quite true yet strange that its such a widely owned and renowned practice of Indian culture, yet we have to make separate ways to get to learn it. Its not a part of our schooling or day to day learning, and one needs to know what you can do with it. Yoga, as per me, is not just a practice but almost a ritual. I have been involved with for the last 20 years. Its as much a part of my lifestyle that a day of lapse feels something a-miss in the day. And its been such a long time, yet I am all the time inspired when I meet or learn from new teachers. It has so much in its folds that small variations lead to new creativity. There are typically many branches of yoga in Hindu philosophy including Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, and Hatha Yoga.Raja Yoga primarily is compiled in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and known simply as yoga .

Patanjali's writing also became the basis for a system referred to as "Ashtanga Yoga" ("Eight-Limbed Yoga").


The Eight Limbs are classified as:

1. Yama (The five "abstentions"): non-violence, non-lying, non-covetousness, non-sensuality, and non-possessiveness.

2. Niyama (The five "observances"): purity, contentment, austerity, study, and surrender to god.

3. Asana: Postures done sitting, standing, lying down on back, stomach, inversions to help the body maintain its flexibility and maintain its rhythm.

4. Pranayama: Practice of breath control of the life force.

5. Pratyahara ("Abstraction"): Withdrawal of the sense organs from external objects.

6. Dharana ("Concentration"): Fixing the attention on a single object.

7. Dhyana : Intense contemplation of the nature of the object of meditation.

8. Samādhi : merging consciousness with the object of meditation.

With all this basis, its difficult to say how much can one absorb in a lifetime and its all the more amazing of a fact that they devised it in such ancient times, when the need for this was not as prominent. Even after practicing it for the last many many years, when I can be a teacher and pupil for this subject at the same time, this field consistently amazes me. I have learnt and done so many variations like Dynamic Yoga, Yoga asanas, pranayams, dhyana, yoga for ailments or specific needs and all these variations with the permutations and combinations is the overall fun element in the regime. There are variations like Krishnacharya yoga which takes the dance form benefits like usage of stomach muscle , correct bends and correct postures to make further more variations in yoga. Krishnacharya yoga is based on some innovations from Bharatnatyam (a combination of Bhav, raga, tala and natya) into the regime and is extremely exciting to learn the new innovations in this mode.

Comments

ddlj420 said…
It was a very enlightening read - why dont you write to the Speaking Tree column in TOI?
12:19 AM
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