Revision as of 22:07, 30 October 2016

“What is yog(a)?”: the masters explain

The Times of India, May 23 2016

Nayaswami Devarshi  Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutras, gives the most clear and succinct answer to the question, “What is yoga?“ in his aphorism, “Yogas chitta vritti nirodh.“ The great master of yoga, Paramhansa Yogananda, interpreted Patanjali thus, “Yoga is the neutralisation of the vortices of feeling.“ Thought itself is neutral. It is only with disturbed feelings and emotions, likes and dislikes, along with emotional reactions to events, that humans truly suffer.

The mind is like a mirror. If a horse is reflected in the mirror, it will not discriminate as to what is reflected. The intellect is necessary to define it, “That's a horse.“ The ego chimes in next and says, “Why , that's my horse!“ It is only when feeling and emotion become engaged, that one says, “How happy I am to see my horse!“ Soul-bondage begins with the ego's `ownership', but real suffering happens with the involvement of feeling and emotion. This is why so many practices of meditation and yoga involve calming the waves of feeling and emotion.

Does this mean that we must deaden or kill our feelings? No! Adi Shankara described God as Sat-Chit-Ananda, or ever-existing, ever-conscious divine bliss. Bliss itself is pure feeling, so one could say , “God is feeling.“

Thus, the true yogi does not kill emotions, but instead transmutes them from restless human emotions that disturb and bind ­ into the calm pure divine `emotion' of Sat-ChitAnanda. Practices of yoga and meditation are simply an ancient technology (technology definition: “the practical application of knowledge“) given to humankind to help us achieve that goal. Following are two simple yoga practices that will help to calm your emotions. The next time you find yourself getting upset or angry , take a long deep inhalation for 10 counts, completely filling the lungs. Hold the breath for 10 counts. Then exhale slowly for 10 counts. Immediately begin inhaling again, and repeat three to five times.

You will notice an immediate and positive change in your state of mind and emotions. The reasons for this change are too complex to explain in a short article, but they are based on the inner science of yoga, breath control and control of the life force, or pranayama.

You can see that when done properly , yoga is an extremely practical technology . It can help you face everyday problems ­ in business, family life, relationships, moods, health, etc ­ with more clarity , calmness, energy and thus with more effectiveness.

Here is another simple practice: Next time you find yourself feeling sad, depressed and emotionally heavy , take note of your physical posture. It is likely that it will reflect your inwardly down-pulling feeling, with the shoulders being slumped, spine bent and eyes looking downward.

You've likely never seen someone looking down at the ground with such a posture stating enthusiastically , “I feel so uplifted!“ And you will never see someone with a straight spine, shoulders back, chest out, eyes looking upward, saying, “I feel so depressed!“ By changing our habitual posture, we can influence our mood and emotions. Hatha yoga can help with this process, so can physical exercise, but simply changing your habitual posture will have surprising effects on your mood. This is one reason why yogis meditate with a straight spine, and with the eyes gazing upward to the spiritual eye at the point between the eyebrows, the kutastha chaitanya centre.

Yog(a) teachers

2015: Non-Indian teachers in Tamil Nadu

The Times of India, Nov 16 2015

Diana Ningthoujam

Yoga gurus across Borders

Three Women From Foreign Shores Have Devoted Themselves To Teaching Yoga, Finding Inner Peace.

Pics: R Ramesh Shankar VALUE AND PURPOSE ARE THE SUSTAINABLE CRITERIA TO TEACH THE WONDERS OF YOGA

Alegal counsel, a psycholo gist and a photography major -bound together at a cosmic level by a reality rooted in the deep philosophy of yoga. Inspired by the idea of trusting the universe to do what it does, they stepped on the yoga mat and ever since, these three women have never been swayed from what they describe as the knowledge of life. Thousands of miles away from their birthplace, they found an awakening in their adopted land of Tamil Nadu, unknown to them before yoga brought them here. Now, they have made the south Indian state their home and have been relaying this knowledge and wisdom to others. It was on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus that yoga found Iris Dremaine from Latvia. But before she could immerse herself in the asanas and `pranayamas', her life was stuck in the quagmire of stress and exhaustion of a legal job for four years. Iris has been teaching at Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Kottivakkam for the past six months. After learning yoga at Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Dhanwantari Ashram, Neyyar Dam, in Kerala, she returned to Latvia. “I worked for two years, and took time to understand if this knowledge would work for me,“ she says. It was a debilitating eating disorder that made 25-year-old Franziska Krusche of Germany step on the yoga mat. After struggling with bulimia for 12 years, she finally found emotional healing through yoga. A n avid traveller since she was 18, Franziska has been to more than 30 countries. In 2012, in Bali, an inner voice told her to search for the brave new world of yoga. So she sold all her belongings in Germany and came to the Sivananda Centre, Neyyar Dam, to study yoga. She has been teaching yoga for the past few weeks at 136.1 Yoga Studio in Alwarpet. Fluent in Spanish, Italian, French and English, she wants to combine psychology and yoga teaching in future. “I want to set up my business and start healing people with emotional problems. London-born, US-raised Erin Korn began her yoga journey from high school. This 32-year-old yogini first came to India in 2005 to undergo Isha Yoga's teachers' training and has been a full-time volunteer with the centre in Coimbatore ever since. Taking cue from her major in photography, Erin believes in capturing moments in life and turning them into something mean ingful.

Though many rue yoga has become commercialised, value and purpose are the sustainable criteria on which a strong foundation to teach the wonders of yoga can be built, she feels.

A secular, international fitness regime

US Court: Yoga now a secular American phenomenon

Chidanand Rajghatta TNN

The Times of India 2013/07/04

Washington: Yoga enthusiasts in the US got a big boost this week when a California judge ruled that the practice which originated in India is now a “distinctly American cultural phenomenon,” while dismissing complaints from some parents that teaching it to school children amounted to “an unconstitutional promotion of Eastern religions.”

Weeks of testimony from yoga practitioners and opponents, including live demonstration in courtroom of poses taught to children, came to a convoluted finale on Monday when Judge John Mayer agreed that yoga “at its roots is religious,” but pronounced that the kind introduced by a school district near San Diego, which was the subject of the litigation, passed the test of secularism. “A reasonable student would not objectively perceive that Encinitas School District yoga does advance or promote religion,” he said.

Parents of some children had sued to stop the school district from teaching yoga maintaining it is a religious practice that surreptitiously promoted Hinduism. Funded with $533,000 from the K Pattabhi Jois Foundation, which is backed by Jois acolytes, hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II and his wife Sonia, the school district introduced a three-year pilot yoga programme in 2011.

While some 30 families pulled their children out of the classes, saying teaching of yoga in schools blurred the line between church and state and “represents a serious breach of the public trust,” many parents backed the programme. School authorities said in court that they had removed all religious elements from what was taught to the students, including the use of the word Namaste and substituting Sanskrit name of asanas with English ones. For instance, Padmasana, usually called lotus pose in English, became “criss cross apple sauce” in Americanese to appeal to children.

In fact, Judge Meyer, who had told the court early in the case that he himself had taken Bikram yoga classes, went so far as to observe that the yoga taught in Encinitas schools was no different from exercise programmes like dodgeball. He was also irritated that some of the plaintiffs were not really informed about yoga as taught in the Encinitas schools and had simply got their information from dubious sources on the internet.

A healing of mind, body and spirit

The Times of India Feb 27 2015

Swami Chidanand Saraswati

The practice of yoga was intuited, channelled, perfected and codified by our rishis and sages for the attainment of total health in body , mind, and spirit, so that the material human body may be a vehicle for spiritual awakening and enlightenment. The word `yoga' means `union'. Yoga is that which we become, that which unfolds and awakens when the body , mind, thoughts, motions and intentions are joined together. Today , joyfully, the practice of yoga is burgeoning throughout the world. Yet, there is rampant competition amongst styles, lineages and `brands' of yoga.`Which is the best?' is a common question. If there can be a `best' and therefore a `worst', it is not yoga. If there is competition, criticism, back-stabbing and cheating, it is not yoga. Yoga is cooperation. Yoga is togetherness. Yoga is a practice through which we connect to our own breath, bodies, minds and ultimately to our spirits. Then, in that divine, eighth limb of yoga as elucidated by Patanjali, we experience samadhi, the ultimate union of our spirit with the Supreme Spirit, our soul with the Supreme Soul. It is a union, verily, of us to each other and to the Universe.

Today the world needs yoga more than ever. However, we need it not only because we are more out-ofshape, obese and at risk for diabetes and heart disease than ever. All of that is true and yoga can be a fabulous panacea for nearly all that ails our physical body . Yet yoga has much more to offer. Today that which ails us ­ as individuals, communities, societies, religious groups and nations ­ is separation. The borders and boundaries between `me' and `you' and `us' and `them' are thicker and more i and `them' are thicker and more intractable than ever. Our personal frame of reference is narrowing each day .

Our culture expounds `Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam', that the world is one family . However, today , most of us do not identify as members of the world family .Rather, we identify as members of a political party or a religious group, or a country club, or followers of a particular guru. The lines between us get thicker and thicker. That separation, that sense of `self ' versus `other' is what permits us to dehumanise each other so drastically that we can be complicit, directly or indirectly, in each other's suffering and death. That sep aration is also what leads to the increase of depression world wide. Depression is marked by feeling alone, disconnected, isolated from the world, feelings which, when taken to an extreme, permit us to even take our own lives without realising the pain our death will cause others.

Yoga is a solution. It is a solution to our abysmal physical health and skyrocketing medical bills. The postures and breathing exercises are unparalleled in their ability to restore wellness.Yoga is a solution to personal angst, depression and lack of meaning in our lives. As we connect with divine prana, we realise that we are being nourished by the Universe, and inextricably linked to the web of Life. Yoga is also a solution to that which ails our planet. When we realise our interconnectedness, then we stand up and change our attitude and our actions into ones that protect that global family as ardently as we'd protect our own nuclear family .

The challenge is ours: to co-opt yoga into yet another way to compete with each other and separate ourselves from each other, or to use it in its fullest meaning, bringing health to ourselves, our communities and our world. The International Yoga Festival is being held at Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh, March 1-7. For details, visit http:www.internationalyogafestival.com

Yog is secular: US court

The Times of India

Apr 05 2015

School yoga is secular, says US court

A US court on Friday ruled that yoga taught in a California school was “devoid of any religious, mystical or spiritual trappings“ and didn't violate students' right to religious freedom, after some parents filed a lawsuit alleging that Hindu and Buddhist doctrines were being surreptitiously promoted through yoga classes. It upheld a lower court's ruling that the practice was now a “distinctly American cultural phenomenon“, reports Chidanand Rajghatta. The Encinitas Union School District had introduced a three-year yoga programme in 2011, with biweekly classes. Thirty families pulled their kids out of the classes though the school said the classes were also aimed at curbing aggressive behaviour and bullying.

The parents' attorney hinted they may now move the Supreme Court.

Yoga has no religious trappings: US court

The Times of India

Apr 05 2015

Chidanand Rajghatta

Attempts by yoga opponents in California to twist the ancient Indian practice to present it as religious indoctrination has again been rejected by a US court. A three-judge panel of the 4th district court of appeal upheld a decision by the San Diego superior court that the yoga programme in the Encinitas School District is “devoid of any religious, mystical or spiritual trappings.“

“We conclude that the programme is secular... (and) does not have the primary effect of advancing or inhibiting religion, and does not excessively entangle the school district in religion,“ the appeals court said on Friday .

As reported in this paper earlier in 2013, a lower court judge in California has already ruled that practice that originated in India is now a “distinctly American cultural phenomenon,“ while dismissing complaints from some parents that teaching it to school children amounted to “an unconstitutional promotion of Eastern religions.“

Parents of some children had sued to stop the school district from teaching yoga, maintaining it is a religious practice that surreptitiously promoted Hinduism and Buddhism. Funded with $533,000 from the K Pattabhi Jois Foundation, which is backed by Jois acolytes, hedge-fund billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II and his wife Sonia, the school had introduced a three-year pilot yoga programme in 2011, with twice-a week classes in addition to regular physical education.

While some 30 families pulled their children out of the classes, saying teaching of yoga in schools blurred the line between church and state and “represents a serious breach of the public trust,“ many parents backed the programme, which the school said was also aimed at curbing aggressive behaviour and bullying. The school later told the court that it had removed all religious elements, including the use of `namaste', and substituting the Sanskrit name of asanas with English ones.

For instance, Padmasana, usually called lotus pose in English, was termed “criss cross apple sauce“ in the Encinitas school programme to appeal to children. In fact, the judge in that case went so far as to observe that the yoga taught in Encinitas schools was no different from exercise programmes like dodgeball. He was also irritated that the plaintiffs were not really informed about yoga as taught in the Encinitas schools and had simply got their information from dubious sources on the internet.“It's almost like a trial by Wikipedia, which isn't what this court does,“ he observed.

The chastisement did not stop the plaintiffs from going to the appeals court, which again snubbed them and upheld the ruling of the district court, which heard and saw weeks of testimony from yoga practitioners and opponents, including live demonstration in courtroom of poses taught to children.

Attorney Dean Broyles, who represented the parents in the lawsuit, said he and his clients “are disappointed with the decision and we are carefully considering our options,“ -a hint that the matter could even head to the supreme court.

Yog, not bhog is the goal

The Times of India, March 30, 2016

Yogi Ashwini

What is the point of playing the best music in the world to a person whose ears are plugged? What is the point of showing the best scenery to someone who refuses to open his eyes? What is the point of offering the finest delicacies of the world to someone who does not have the appetite for them? Yoga is the final frontier, a very serious subject. If you are not ready to do the practices as taught to you, there is no point of taking up yoga. You will neither get the experience, nor the glow because your higher senses will not awaken. Even if those senses are forcibly activated for some time, it is not going to last forever. There are two kinds of people. First is the kind in whom this sense is completely missing. Second kind is that you have the sense, but it is curtained with veils of maya. For you to experience the truth, these veils have to be removed.

Sanatan Kriya is the process of removing these veils. The practices that you have been given, individually or collectively, are a process to remove the veils that have curtained your senses. When you do the kriya, you establish a connection with the gurutattva. It is like inserting the plug into a socket, and the current flows. But if you do not want plug in, despite having the sense, you are unable to experience it. You only perceive creation by your five senses ­ sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste. You do not know anything beyond because you are veiled by the five senses, maya. At times, a guru helps you to remove that curtain, you are made to experience what lies beyond. You see it, appreciate it, but after sometime the curtain is back because of your inherent desires.

There are five basics to yoga ­ one asana, one mantra, one guru, one isht and a single intent. If your intent is evolution, if your intent is of your guru, you can never digress from the path.

Ego is the biggest road block for a sadhaka. Jnana never comes from reading books or listening to lectures; it comes from somewhere else. Divine messages come in mysterious ways. Ego is the greatest veil, which never allows you to see the truth. It makes you believe that you know everything. The one who understands and accepts what is lacking in him, where he is going wrong, can very easily go ahead but the one who keeps denying till the very end ­ nothing can be done for such a person. Do not try assessing the subject of yoga with your limited five senses, that `this will happen' or `this should happen', wait for your experience. You are a normal human being ­ you have five senses and certain desires. Every soul has a desire and to fulfil that desire it takes a body and to rise above that desire it holds the hand of the guru. The problem arises when people start doing yoga for bhoga. Yoga is for rising above bhoga.The body and five senses are for bhoga, but yoga is to rise above desires. Yoga chitta vritti nirodh. Gita talks of control of senses. What that control is, the guru will guide you. Just like indulging in senses is an experience, similarly control of senses too is an experience.But for this, you need a guru.