Shailesh Basani

Namaste everyone, Yoga Bharati Milpitas team wishes you all a very happy and healthy new year. We hope that you all are enjoying the winter break and spending some quality time with friends and family. As you look forward to the new year and your goals, please make stress management as one of your top goals. 75-90% of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Studies show that stress can play an important role in developing ailments such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression and anxiety. Patanjali’s yoga sutras give us many tools and techniques to deal with stress.   One of the important aspects we can learn from yoga sutras is about sadhana. Yoga Sutra 1.13 (tatra sthitau yatno-‘bhyāsaḥ) defines Sadhana - practice is basically the correct effort required to move toward, reach, and maintain the state of Yoga and 1.14 ( sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-ādara-āsev...

Namaste, Wish you all a very happy new year. Hope your yoga practice is going well and you are looking forward to taking it to next level this year.   Yoga practice typically is equated to Yoga Asanas by many folks.   However, Patanjali beautifully describes how a typical (Raja) yoga practice can influence other streams of yoga - Karma yoga, Jnana Yoga and Bhakti Yoga - in a positive and profound way. Patanjali Yoga Sutras is predominantly a Raja Yoga text.   It focuses on the study of mind and how to take our mind to deepest levels of concentration and refinement.   Though Patanjali describes the concept of Ashtanga Yoga (Eight limbs) in detail to reach this highest state of mind, he also describes a concept called ‘Kriya Yoga’, or Yoga of Action, in the second chapter (Sadhana Pada). Patanjali says in 2.1: “ tapaḥ svādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥ” तपः स्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः తపః స్వాధ్యాయేశ్వరప్రణిధానాని క్రియాయోగః த...

Namaste, Hope you all are doing well and had a good summer break. I just returned from a short trip to India.  One of the reasons I took this trip was to meet some of my long lost buddies during our Silver Jubilee Meet at NIT, Warangal. During this trip, I had opportunity to visit many 'yoga' related places such as Ramakrishna Math, Bellur, Patanjali temple, Shri Shri Ravi Shankar Ashram etc.  I also had an opportunity to visit a few different colleges and schools and talk to students about many topics related to yoga/meditation, managing stress, leading a principle centered life with yamas/niyamas, focusing on quadrant-2 activities (Stephen Covey), applying four streams of yoga during all walks of your life, how to be successful in corporate life etc.  It was a wonderful feeling talking to all these students, conducting yoga classes, giving these messages, sponsoring yoga/meditation teachers and scholarships for schools students in my village etc. I captured som...

Namaste, Wish you all a very happy International Day of Yoga. Please take a moment on this day to express your gratitude to all your teachers and everyone else who had a profound impact on you in imparting all the yogic knowledge and lifestyle.  Let us remind ourselves that yoga is a lot more than physical postures and as Swami Vivekananda beautifully put it -  it can be work (Karma Yoga), worship (Bhakti Yoga), philosophy (Jnana Yoga) and/or psychic control (Raja Yoga, that’s where all your poses are :-)). My gratitude first goes to my dad and Yogasri NV Raghuram from who I had the opportunity to learn many things directly. There are several other gurus who also had profound impact on me through their publications, talks, recordings and messages and sincere thanks to all of them – Swami Vivekananda, Swami Sivananda, Swami Bodhananda Saraswati, BKS Iyengar, TKV Desikachar, Swami Brahmananda, Dr. MA Jayashree, Brahmasri Chaganti Koteswara Rao to name a few. Thanks to ...

Namaste everyone, Yoga Bharati Milpitas team wishes you all a very happy and healthy new year. We hope that you all are enjoying the winter break and spending some quality time with friends and family. This is the time many of us make important resolutions. Some of us are good at keeping them, but many of us aren’t and the resolutions start to wear off after a few weeks. We would like to just give some suggestions to keep up your ‘yoga practice’ resolution. We have been blessed over the last several years to have listened to many gurus about leading happy, healthy and peaceful lives. Many gurus provide these messages in their own beautiful way, based on their lineage, personal experiences and other aspects. One of the important aspects all of them talk about is the importance of ‘ Sadhana ’ or ‘a strict discipline of a routine practice’. Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga discusses in depth about Sadhana required to go from outward interactions (Yamas) to deep state of absorption (Sa...

Namaste, we started discussing the concept of vegetarianism in relation to the first yama – Ahimsa (Non-Violence). Should a yoga practitioner be vegetarian? There are different schools of thought on this, but, generally most gurus recommend a wholesome and nourishing vegetarian diet, which assists you in deepening your sadhana as you move towards meditation. You can find a lot of literature on the Internet arguing for and against a vegetarian diet in general. Our Guruji gives the following four important reasons on why one should choose a vegetarian diet: 1. An average vegetarian can survive (over lifetime) with 1.5 acres of land , while a non-vegetarian typically needs 12 to 15 acres of land . Why should I be such a big burden on this environment? Couple of facts to ponder: a) According to soil and water specialists at the University of California’s Agricultural Extension, it takes 5,214 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef , but only 23 gallons to produce a poun...