YOGA! these days Yoga is getting a very good response throughout the western world. Yoga is considered as a very good tool for relaxation. Proven to show reduce blood pressure and calm down the person mentally. Yoga attracted attention world wide. Made more popular by pop starts such as Madonna. Celebrities like Meg Ryan, Jennifer Anniston, Ricky Martin, and Madonna have all admitted to using yoga as a means to calm the spirit, tone the muscles of the body, and increase physical strength. Many people also say that yoga gives a personal sense of accomplishment, and that it is easier to handle rigorous demands of the day by practicing yoga. Yoga is also designed to help people learn about the meaning of life. Yoga allows you to train your mind to think about positive things, and you are also able to think about how to solve problems and even get along well with others. You are also taught about how certain yoga principles should transfer into your daily life, such as learning how to do everything in the right time, or being patient with others. It is also believed the yoga will give you a higher tolerance for pain.
Celebrities and yoga are a great combination for the exercise and fitness market, since the public is automatically attracted to things that celebrities endorse. Perhaps one of the most famous celebrities to do yoga is Madonna, who has made many comments about yoga and its benefits in her daily life. “Yoga is a metaphor for life. You have to take it really slowly, Madonna says. You can’t rush. You can’t skip to the next position. You find yourself in very humiliating situations, but you can’t judge yourself. You just have to breathe, and let go. It is a workout for your mind, your body and your soul.”
As many knows this practice of Yoga originated in India, many still considers it a land of snake charmers and yogis, but in fact India now stand with world powers and world recognizer India as the next super power. Enough politics, let us get back to Yoga. Swami Vivekananda defines Yoga as “It’s a means of compressing one’s evolution into a single life or a few months or even a few hours of one’s bodily existence”.
Many different interpretations of the word Yoga have been handed down over the centuries. One of the classic definition of Yoga is “to be one with divine.” It does not matter what name we use for the divine-God, Allah, Ishvara, or whatever- anything that brings us closer to understanding that there is a power higher and greater than ourselves is Yoga. When we feel in harmony with that higher power, that too is Yoga.
I hope I am not boring you all basically Yoga got different forms - Ashtanga Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Streams of Yoga.
The Ashtanga Vinyasa series is said to have its origin in an ancient text called the Yoga Korunta, compiled by Vamana Rishi. This style of yoga is characterized by a focus on viṅyāsa, or a dynamic connecting posture, that creates a flow between the more static traditional yoga postures. Vinyasa translates as linking and the system also implies the linking of the movement to the breath. Essentially the breath dictates the movement and the length of time held in the postures. Unlike some Hatha yoga styles, attention is also placed on the journey between the postures not just the postures themselves. The viṅyāsa ‘flow’ is a variant of Sūrya namaskāra, the Sun Salutation. The whole practice is defined by six specific series of postures, always done in the same order, combined with specific breathing patterns (Free breathing with the ujjāyī sound).
Hatha Yoga as preparatory stage of physical purification that the body practices for higher meditation. TheAsanas and Pranayama in Raja Yoga were what the Hindu Yogis used to physically train their body for long periods of meditation. This practice is called shatkarma. The word Hatha is a compound of the words Ha and Tha meaning sun and moon ( हकारः कीर्तितः सूर्यष्ठकारश्चंद्र उच्यते | सूर्यचंद्रमसोर्योगाद्धठयोग निगद्यते || ), referring to Praana and Apaana, and also to the principalnadis (energy channels) of the subtle body that must be fully operational to attain a state of dhyana or samādhi. According to the Monier Moneir-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary, the word “hatha” means forceful. It is a strong practice done for purification. In other respects Hatha yoga follows the same principles as the Raaja Yoga of Patanjali including moral restraint yamaand spiritual observances niyama. Hatha Yoga is what most people in the West associate with the word “Yoga” and is practised for mental and physical health throughout the West.
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