All You Wanted to Know About Yoga For Health And Happiness

Monday, December 7, 2009

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Saturday, November 21, 2009

Jnyana yoga or raja yoga

Evolved by patanjali involves techniques for purifying the mind by removing impurities through the eight-fold practice.
These include:
1.Abstinence or yama
2.Observances or niyama;
3.Postures or asana;
4.Breath control or pranayama;
5.Retrieving the mind from objects of enjoyment or pratyhara;
6.Concentration or dhyana;
7.Contemplation or dhyana; and
8.Absorption or samadhi of the mind
The above eight-fild path leads to self-realisation (atmadarshana).
The purpose of hatha yoga is achuevement of mental stability by silencing the mind through pranayama.Achievement of mental stability arouses the dormant divine power in human beings called kundalini.Arousal of the dormant divine power enables hearing the subtle sounds(nada) and absorpation of the mind in the state of samadhi.

Bhakti & Karma Yoga

Sit seeks to propitiate abject of worship.i.e.,God.As a result of this worship,the practitioner of Bhakti yoga hopes to overcome difficulties in daily life and/or to remove the hurdles on the path to the kingdom of God.
this is in a way the goal of all religions.
Karma Is based on the idea that by equanimity (samattva) in relation to the opposites (dvandvas), the practitioner of karma yoga can be freed from the shackles of his/her deeds (karma-bandha), and there by attain liberation (mukti).

Hatha Yoga

This has become very popular in recent times.
Its was popularised by the experts of tantra, called the Natha-yogis in the periods between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries AD.
Two main experts who popularised hatha yoga include Matsyendranatha, Gorakhnatha,etc.
Hata yoga is described as the yoga of unity of ha and tha.this means the unity of the sun and the moon in the body or the sun unity of vital airs---prana and apana.
The Purposes of the four varieties of yoga in daily life are not the same.

Jnyana Yoga

Is explained thoroughly in the Yogasutra of Patanjali (Second century BC.)
It consists of eight parts and is therefore also called ashtanga or eight-fold yoga.
Jnyana Yoga includes outer and inner aspects of disciplining and training the body and mind.
It has three important techniques:postures,breath control, and meditation.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Karma Yoga

Karma Yoga is described in great detail in the Bhagavad Gita.
The main principles of karma yoga include (a) never giving and never failing in one's duty and (b) looking equally upon opposites such as success and failure, pleasure, and pain heat and cold etc.. without being affected or swayed away by them.

Bhakti Yoga

BHAKTI YOGA Is the Oldest Variety of yoga in which the person practicing it invokes the creator of the universe to shower grace and compassion.
This grace and compassion is meant to help the devotee overcome all the trails and hardships of living.
Practice of Bhakti Yoga includes prayer, worship, observing austerities and abstinence,and practice of virtue.
In the middle ages in India, many saints cultivated the way of devotion as a mass-movement.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

What Is The Purpose Of Yoga?

In recent times, yoga is mainly looked upon as a set of techniques useful for achieving fitness in daily life and prevention and cure of some specific diseases or disorders.
But the goal of yoga was different when yoga practices came into existence more than three thousand years ago. Throughout its history, yoga seems to have undergone changes regarding the purpose for which it was practised.Many different varieties of yoga came to be practised for different purposes.The main varieties of yoga include:
*Bhakti Yoga (yoga of devotion)
*Karma Yoga (yoga of duty or action)
*Jnyana Yoga (yoga of bodily performances).
The final goal or general purpose of all the above varieties of yoga was the same.This goal was liberation from the cycle of rebirths,called mukti or kaivalya.However,the methods and contents of each variety was different from the others.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

What is Yoga?

Until a few decades ago. many people were not aware of what yoga is. some used to believe that the practice of yoga was akin to "magical performances" of the past such as bending bars and tearing plates. breaking stones. stopping the pulse or a car. walking on fire, remaining underground in a pit for several days, etc.

In recent times. instead of wanting to know what yoga is, many people are keen what among the different yoga practises should they follow for maintaining health, or for overcoming some common health problems.

Yoga is one of the very ancient Sanskrit words. It has two different meanings - a general meaning and a technical meaning.Both these meanings are not related with each other. In the general sense, the word "YOGA" is derived from the root Yuji Ryoge. which means joining, coming together or union of any two or more things.

The word yoga has been used in the rig Veda, one of the four Vedas, or ancient texts, to mean "unity of the intellect of the sages" or dheenam yogaminvati or "arrangement of verses" or chandasam yogam.

In the Atharva Veda, another of the four ancient texts, words such as ashtayogaih and shadyogebhih are used to indicate a plough pulled by eight or six bullocks respectively.Words such as vi-yoga samyoga ayoga, prayoga,viniyoga,sahayoga, are common examples of the use of the word "yoga" even today in the general sense of coming together derived from the root Yuji.

The technical meaning of the term yoga is derived from another root Yuj (samadhau). Here the meaning of word is not "union" but a state of stability, stillness, and peace". The word "yoga" here indicates both the state of stillness and the means or practices which lead to that state. These practices include asanas, pranayama, dhyana, yama-niyamas, etc.

While in the Vedas the word yoga is used only in the general sense, there are texts (such as the Bhagavad Gita) in which both the meanings are ascribed to that word in the Gita, words such as Buddhi Yoga, Karma-yoga are used which refer to the technical meaning.

In the Kathopanishad and Shvetashvatara Upanishad, ancient Hindu Scriptures. yoga is used in the technical meaning.Many experts have said that at the time of Panini the famous Sanskrit grammarian of the seventh century BC, both the meanings of the word-general and technical-yoga were already in use.