Understanding Yoga and Pranayama
...Yoga is a scientific system of physical and mental practices that originated in India more than 3000 years ago. It is not just physical fitness training. Yoga is an ancient indian philosophy that enhances personal growth and well being of the practitioner. It is extremely powerful stuff and is part of the Hindu religion and a way of life.
Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of indian Philosophy. It is a science that has been practiced for thousands of years. Yoga is anything but aerobics, not gymnastic. There are those who think Yoga is nothing else but standing on one's head or sitting somewhere in a Buddha-like posture without moving. Or they believe it is a religion. Yoga is a practical aid, not a religion. A male who practices yoga is called a yogi, a female practitioner, a yogini.
Yoga philosophy consists of eight limbs. Ashtanga which basically means asth (Eight) and Anga (limbs) or eig...more
Yoga - A Brief Historic Perspective
... as "mind boggling expressions of truth", or aphorisms. It is rumored that if one understands all the Sutras, divine revelation follows by default. There are several hundred Sutras.
This brief historic perspective of yoga is not complete if it stops at the classical stage of yoga. At the turn of the millennium, yoga spread in different forms. Theory states this occurred because of the need for standardization. Many different schools of yoga came into existence of which many continue to exist in our day and age, think of Hatha or Tantra Yoga, for example, or Kriya Yoga.
In his autobiography, Paramahansa Yogananda explains that he was the second master to have been given the task of making yoga known to western civilization. The first was Swami Vivekananda, the sanskrit term "swami" could be translated as "master", who went to America in the late nineteenth century. In more recent decades, yoga has greatly and swiftly evolved. From being an occult science only accessible to the brahmin caste of India it has become a mainstream activity that can serve the purpose of helping every living individual evolve beyond maya.more
Free Yoga Exercise Online
... You can learn the basic poses and terminology so that when you do take a class, you will understand what to expect from your training class.
As with all things you find on the internet, you need to take what you learn with a grain of salt. If all the free information you find about yoga exercise describes one particular pose one way, and another article descri...more
The World goes Gaga Over Yoga As A Stress Reducer
...Yoga has intruded into almost all spheres of healthcare. A good number of health organizations in America have come up with strong advocation for Yoga practices. And they are no fool in doing so as they are well aware of yoga's efficacy in holistic health improvement. Furthermore yoga has also proven its worth in shooting out stress and anxiety that are widely prevalent. In fact, if you keep practicing Yoga on a regular basis, you are very likely to remain stress free for the whole life. There could not be a better natural stress reducer than yoga.
A good number of workaholic folks have been found falling prey to stress and anxiety and usage of medi...more
