Hatha Yoga

Physical Yoga or the Yoga of postures is known as Hatha Yoga. It is the most popular form of yoga practiced in the West. This form of yoga consists of many different styles. The different styles of Hatha Yoga have common roots. The founders of three of the most popular styles, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Viniyoga were all students of Krishnamacharya, a famous teacher at the Yoga Institute at the Mysore Palace in India . This form of yoga brings together Pranayama and Meditation with physical poses in its aim to promote positive energy and good health of the body.

Read more here: » Yoga Branches: Hatha Yoga

 The word "yoga" often brings to mind a classroom of students attired in exercise clothing attempting to stretch their bodies into different postures. A more traditional yoga class will even include instruction in breathing techniques, concentration, meditation, and positive thinking. In the media today, yoga is often associated with health benefits such as stress reduction, lower blood pressure, and an overall decrease in illness and hospitalization rates. This is the Western idea of yoga. If we look to the Eastern approach, where yoga is a part of the great Hindu and Buddhist traditions, we find that yoga is all of these things but much, much more as well.

Read more here: » Yoga:Serve, Love, Meditate, Realize - The Inner Teachings of Yoga

asana: (Sanskrit) "Seat; posture." In hatha yoga, asana refers to any of numerous poses prescribed to balance and tune up the subtle energies of mind and body for meditation and to promote health and longevity. Examples are the shoulder-stand (sarvangasana,"whole body pose") and the lotus pose (padmasana). Each asana possesses unique benefits, affecting the varied inner bodies and releasing energies in different parts of the nervous system.

While the physical science of hatha yoga can dramatically influence health and general well-being, it is primarily a preparation for the deeper yogas and meditations. Sivaya Subramuniyaswami has provided a system of 27 asanas to tune the nervous system for meditation and contemplation and to mitigate the burdensome karmas, known by the modern term "stress," built up through the interaction with other people. His 27 asanas are performed in a meditative sequence, not unlike a serene dance, accompanied by certain visualizations and pranayamas.

See: hatha yoga, raja yoga, yoga, yoga positions

(See also: Asana, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Yoga Schools: The Six Branches of Yoga

Of the six branches of yoga, only one is concerned with Prana and physical body. The rest can be seen as spiritual disciplines.

Includes: Hatha Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga and Tantra Yoga

Read more here: » Yoga Schools: The Six Branches of Yoga

All techniques that bring about union of the soul and Spirit can be called Yoga.

There are various indirect and direct methods of directing and controlling the mind to attain the union of spirit with spirit.

Some of these are chanting, prayers, silence, emotional singing, intellectual meditation, social and religious work. However the five widely practised types are:

-       Bhakti Yoga

-       Gyaana Yoga

-       Karma Yoga

-       Hatha Yoga

-       TantricYoga or Kundalini Yoga

(See also: Yoga Systems, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

Yoga gives your skin a healthy glow by balancing your hormones and boosting the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your skin. This keeps your skin resilient and prevents dryness and excessive sagging. Yoga also tones the muscles of your face and neck.

Medically poor diet and poor stimulation of the circulatory and excretory systems and subsequent build up of toxins are the root cause of skin eruptions.

Shitli Kumbhak paranayam has the potential to reduce facial wrinkles. It also improves blood circulation and purifies the blood, reduces toxins and acidity and prevents skin infections.

(See also: Yoga and Health, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

Hatha Yoga deals with physical body and astral body purification and training. Its goal is to bring the physical body into a perfect state of health so the soul has an appropriate vehicle of expression to work through.

Hatha Yoga embraces many practices, including physical postures and breathing exercises ( pranayama ) , which also act upon the physical nervous system and etheric body. It helps bring the vital energies of the physical and etheric bodies under conscious control.

(See also: Yoga Systems, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

What you seek as your highest goal depends upon who you think you are. If you think you are a physical creature subject to biological laws, the highest goal you can aim for would very likely have physical limits, says Ramanuja.

You could just end up seeking physical gratification. In other words, human suffering is the result of our own opinions and aspirations.

(See also: Yoga, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

The flailing arms, high kicks, twists and crouches may look eccentric, but the walking style of exercise guru Duke Saraye is sweeping Japan with its unique mix of yoga, ballet, aerobics and other Oriental and Western ideas.

"Sole is soul - if you don't tread right, your soul won't become clean," 49-year-old Saraye, wearing a trademark black T-shirt and lycra skullcap, told a class of 60 women, young and old during a recent two-hour class at a Tokyo hall.

(See also: Yoga, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

Are you disturbed? Most people will say yes to that question. Don't worry you are not alone. The bondage that keeps us entangled in the world outside and disturbed in the world inside - are Desires.

At any point of time, any one of your senses is always at work, all the time running after objects of desire. The doorways to these desires in the human body are our sense organs.

Shanmukhi mudra is the technique to shut these doors to maya to be able to experience the real world, which lies within.

(See also: Shanmukhi mudra, Mudras, Mudras and Health, Mudra Instructions, Yoga)

Spirituality is man’s realisation of the spirit. According to advaita , the non-dualistic philosophy of Vedanta , this spirit, which is also called the Brahman , created this entire universe through matter and energy.

All objects are the outcome of one primal matter. All natural forces like gravitation, and thoughts and feelings on the consciousness level, are the outcome of a primal energy called prana .

(See also: Self-realisation, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Pranayam term is formed of joining two words- pran and ayam. It means strengthening and expanding the life force. Pran is the life energy or force, which empowers all the work of mind, body and senses. Without pran, our body is dead.

Ayam means expanding or strengthening this pran. It is essential for keeping our body and mind healthy and powerful. Pranayam is important for protecting us from diseases, sickness.

It is very important to understand the methods of pranayam before actually practicing it.

(See also: Pranayama, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

The sage Patanjali postulated an eight-fold system of spiritual yogic practice for achieving the divine goal. It comprises:

Yam (Controls) Niyam (Rules and regulations) Asan (Bodily Postures) Pranaayam (Breath Control Exercises) Pratyahaar (Sense control) Dharana (Concentration) Dhyaana (Meditation) Samadhi (Mergence)

(See also: Patanjali, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

Dussehra marks the day when goddess Durga killed the buffalo-demon Mahishasura, who had a boon from Brahma that he would not be slain by gods, men, spirits or any aspect of nature. So he vanquished the gods and tyrannised the world.

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva combined the energies of their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Shakti and created a beautiful woman - the ten-armed Durga - to kill the demon, as Mahishasura had forgotten to mention women while asking for his boon. Durga fought Mahishasura for nine days, finally beheading him on the tenth day.

(See also: Dussehra, Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Many studies have reported the beneficial effect of the practice of yoga on diabetes. Some studies have mentioned up to 65 percent beneficial effect of yogic therapy for diabetes. K.N. Udupa has even mentioned 5 cases of juvenile diabetes who were completely controlled by yogic treatment. All of these studies have emphasized the possible mechanism of the yogic practices.

Read more here: » Yoga and Diabetes: The effects of exercise and yoga on Diabetes - A Clinical Research (Part II of II)

A seeker asked, "What action shall I perform to attain God?" "If you wish to attain God" came the response, "there are two things you must know. The first is all efforts to attain God are of no avail."

"And the second?" the seeker asked.

"The second is that you must act as if you do not know the first!"

The stages in yoga:

-       The Beginning Stage

-       The Intermediate Stage

-       The Advanced Stage

-       The Achievement Stage

(See also: Yoga, Yoga, Yoga and Health, Yoga Systems, Yoga Positions)

One should become perfectly desireless and should be full of Vairagya before attempting to awaken Kundalini. It can be awakened only when a man rises above Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada and other impurities. Kundalini can be awakened through rising above desires of the senses. The Yogi, who has got a pure heart and a mind free from passions and desires will be benefited by awakening Kundalini. If a man with a lot of impurities in the mind awakens the Sakti by sheer force through Asanas, Pranayamas and Mudras, he will break his legs and stumble down. He will not be able to ascend the Yogic ladder.

Excerpt from the book Kundalini Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Awaken The Kundalini: How To Awaken The Kundalini

Desire determines which sort of objects you will have in your next life. If you desire wealth very much you will get it in your next life. If you desire power very much you will get it in your next life. But money and power cannot give you eternal bliss and immortality. You must be very careful in your choice. Entertain one strong desire, the desire for Moksha or the final emancipation. Shun worldly desires ruthlessly. You will soon be freed from the round of births and deaths.

The death and dying and the life after death has always fascinated man. This is an excerpt from the book What Becomes Of The Soul After Death by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Conquest Of Death: Seek The Immortal

Meditation Experiences by Sarasvati Buhrman PhD - Part I

Sometime after 350 B.C. a great yogi sage wrote the "Yoga Sutra". This brief translation should wet your appetite. This describes the transformation of mind that will unfold over a course of sadhana (spiritual practice), focusing on the relationship between the mind and the object of meditation.

Read more here: » Meditation: Meditation Experiences According to the Ashtanga Yoga Tradition with Commentary on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra

Marx wrote: "Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life". He assumes that man's ability to think, and the quality of his thoughts depend largely on the quality of the life he lives.

Marx's thrust is primarily to improve the living conditions of man, a pre-condition for intellectual growth. Marx thus attributes primacy to living by establishing a hierarchy of 'living' and 'thinking'. Descartes' cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) can be placed antithetically to Marx's perception. The Cartesian proposition, which is translated as "I think, therefore I exist", subverts the Marxian hierarchy by attributing primacy to 'thinking'.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)