This is my first blog on Yoga. Its an honest attempt to share my findings on the path. A path that I have cherished and pursued relentlessly like a madman for the last 10 years and more so since the last 6 years.
My tryst with Yoga started with The Art Of Living (www.artofliving.org) in 2006 when I first enrolled for their Hatha Yoga Course (Sri Sri Yoga) and then the more calming and meditative Sudarshana Kriya Yoga (SKY). The first interactions and engagements with The Art Of Living were life changing. Life changing in the sense that they were loaded with epiphanies (Aha moments), life changing experiences and the awesome and absolutely loving presence of my Guru and Master, Sri Sri Ravishankar. I will forever be grateful to this awesome being for being an inalienable part of my life. If I have been so steadfast on the path, its not so much my madness as much as it is the sheer presence of the master in my life. The introduction to the beautiful Yogic scriptures like Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the Yogasara Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita whose teachings now mean so much more to me as a book of Yoga than a religious book on which Hindus take oaths of truthfulness in court cases (as depicted in almost every Indian film!)
So what is Yoga?
Patanjali in the Yogasutras describes Yoga as a discipline (Atha Yoganushasanam). Not as a religion as is misunderstood in the west and across the non Hindu world.
Is that all?
The great sage further states 'Yogah Chitta Vrittih Nirodhah' ....Yoga is the cessation of all modulations of the mind.
So what happens then?
'Tada Drishtuh Swaroope Avasthanam'...that the practitioner resides in the form of the observer.
The entire Yogasutras are just what it means in the literary sense....'The Threads of Yoga'...The ones more accomplished in the English language call it 'The Aphorisms of Yoga'. There are a 196 such sutras/threads/aphorisms spread across 4 main chapters titled as follows
1. Samadhi Pada - which speaks of the ultimate state to reach, namely samadhi, what I realise as a state of complete equanimity and acceptance of the world as it is perceived by our mind and the ever judging intellectual faculties. This is achieved or rather happens to the practitioner in the practice of meditation.
2. Sadhana Pada - which speaks of the means to reach 'the state'. My Guru always speaks of Sadhana as 'Sa+Dhana' which means your 'very own' wealth. A wealth that is never torn away from you when the physical body is discarded. Something so beautiful and out of the staid ways of understanding some of these beautiful concepts. Something only Sri Sri is truly capable of!
3. Vibhuti Pada - though my master has not explained this and the next chapters so far, we do hope he will in the coming year of 2017. The chapter throws a lot of light on what exactly happens when 'Samyama' (understood as the combination of the last 3 parts of Ashthanga Yoga, namely Dhyana (meditation), Dharana (one pointed focus) and Samadhi (reposing in the depth of ones own self)) is employed on various subjects both external and internal to the body
4. Kaivalya Pada - explains the 'blessedness' or 'grace' that is experienced by the seeker.
The Yogasutras are a great guide that helps the seeker to understand the ways and means to get to the 'experience'. The biggest difference between any religious spiritual practice and Yoga as a spiritual practice is that the former is immersed in belief whereas the latter focuses on direct personal experience. Yoga is the path for seekers, NOT believers. A yogi would not believe but would know. The way you 'know' that the fingers in your hands are your very own and don't need a belief system to accept the same!
My tryst with Yoga started with The Art Of Living (www.artofliving.org) in 2006 when I first enrolled for their Hatha Yoga Course (Sri Sri Yoga) and then the more calming and meditative Sudarshana Kriya Yoga (SKY). The first interactions and engagements with The Art Of Living were life changing. Life changing in the sense that they were loaded with epiphanies (Aha moments), life changing experiences and the awesome and absolutely loving presence of my Guru and Master, Sri Sri Ravishankar. I will forever be grateful to this awesome being for being an inalienable part of my life. If I have been so steadfast on the path, its not so much my madness as much as it is the sheer presence of the master in my life. The introduction to the beautiful Yogic scriptures like Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the Yogasara Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita whose teachings now mean so much more to me as a book of Yoga than a religious book on which Hindus take oaths of truthfulness in court cases (as depicted in almost every Indian film!)
So what is Yoga?
Patanjali in the Yogasutras describes Yoga as a discipline (Atha Yoganushasanam). Not as a religion as is misunderstood in the west and across the non Hindu world.
Is that all?
The great sage further states 'Yogah Chitta Vrittih Nirodhah' ....Yoga is the cessation of all modulations of the mind.
So what happens then?
'Tada Drishtuh Swaroope Avasthanam'...that the practitioner resides in the form of the observer.
The entire Yogasutras are just what it means in the literary sense....'The Threads of Yoga'...The ones more accomplished in the English language call it 'The Aphorisms of Yoga'. There are a 196 such sutras/threads/aphorisms spread across 4 main chapters titled as follows
1. Samadhi Pada - which speaks of the ultimate state to reach, namely samadhi, what I realise as a state of complete equanimity and acceptance of the world as it is perceived by our mind and the ever judging intellectual faculties. This is achieved or rather happens to the practitioner in the practice of meditation.
2. Sadhana Pada - which speaks of the means to reach 'the state'. My Guru always speaks of Sadhana as 'Sa+Dhana' which means your 'very own' wealth. A wealth that is never torn away from you when the physical body is discarded. Something so beautiful and out of the staid ways of understanding some of these beautiful concepts. Something only Sri Sri is truly capable of!
3. Vibhuti Pada - though my master has not explained this and the next chapters so far, we do hope he will in the coming year of 2017. The chapter throws a lot of light on what exactly happens when 'Samyama' (understood as the combination of the last 3 parts of Ashthanga Yoga, namely Dhyana (meditation), Dharana (one pointed focus) and Samadhi (reposing in the depth of ones own self)) is employed on various subjects both external and internal to the body
4. Kaivalya Pada - explains the 'blessedness' or 'grace' that is experienced by the seeker.
The Yogasutras are a great guide that helps the seeker to understand the ways and means to get to the 'experience'. The biggest difference between any religious spiritual practice and Yoga as a spiritual practice is that the former is immersed in belief whereas the latter focuses on direct personal experience. Yoga is the path for seekers, NOT believers. A yogi would not believe but would know. The way you 'know' that the fingers in your hands are your very own and don't need a belief system to accept the same!
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