Yoga - ancient science, modern magic

·         Yoga is an ancient Indian science which is thousands of years old.

·         In the modern world, yoga is understood as the practice of asana, gentle exercise, and pranayama, breathing techniques.

·         However there are many different paths of yoga, and many different schools and interpretations of yoga.

·         The four main paths, usually followed by a majority of people, are Raja yoga, Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga and Jyana yoga.

·         All yoga practices have the same goal or destination, the discovery and fulfillment of the human potential.

·         Raja yoga consists of Hatha yoga, or basic physical practices, and raja yoga, the practices that lead to meditation and super consciousness.

·         Dhyana, or meditation and Samadhi or super consciousness is the essence and culmination of all yoga practices.

·         The two basic practices of hatha yoga are asana and pranayama and prepares a practitioner for dhyana. These practices provide complete and vibrant physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

·         Asana and pranayama makes a person physically strong, flexible, youthful, energetic and agile. At the very least, they help a person during illness, and at best the practice of yoga makes a person immune to diseases.

·         Yoga helps a person to combat and overcome or at least alleviate the distress caused by all diseases, chronic and otherwise, including cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, spondilytis, back ache, skin and nerve disorders, joint pain and arthritis, osteoporosis and Parkinson’s.

·         Yoga helps a person to recover quickly from illness.

·         Yoga helps with immunity. A person regularly practicing yoga falls ill with less frequency and afterwards, not at all. 

·         Yoga and meditation go far beyond helping people with physical health. They are the oldest science known to man, to improve a person’s mental and emotional well being. They help in these times of stress, to provide peace of mind and relaxation in a way that no other method can.

·         Yoga brings about fundamental and profound changes in the character of a person, improves well being and productivity, helps to fight depression and anger and builds a community of relaxed, positive thinking individuals. At the basic level yoga helps to promote peace and harmony in the world.

·         Today, there are millions of yoga practitioners around the world and thousands of teachers and ashrams. The benefits of yoga are now documented with the help of modern science.

·         Yoga’s growing acceptance and its rediscovery by modern man has seen it being taught as part of the school curriculum in India. The government has established yoga universities and yoga as a subject in graduate studies all over the country.

·         Yoga therapy is part of many government hospitals in India and yoga teachers are recognized as therapists by the government of India, in curing or alleviating human illness.

·         Yoga ecology, or the place and environment in which yoga is taught and practiced, is as important as the practices itself. Yoga is done in a clean, well lit, quiet and undisturbed location. It should be free from external influences and disturbances like noise, insects, dew and rain, heat, wind, cold, day, afternoon and night, other people (audience), animals, dirt and dust, and changes in the weather. As with all spiritual practices, the environment is enhanced with the burning of incense (agarbattis), praying at an altar to the gurus (teachers) and higher energies, playing of soothing and calming music, and conducting all activities in a peaceful, relaxed manner.

·         Yoga is India’s precious heritage, a ancient scientific, systematic and progressive philosophy, training and practice in the discovery of human potential. Its time in the world has come. Yet again.