Skip to main content

Happy new year 2019 and a message


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
தபஃ ஸ்வாத்யாயேஶ்வரப்ரணிதானானி க்ரியாயோகஃ
ತಪಃ ಸ್ವಾಧ್ಯಾಯೇಶ್ವರಪ್ರಣಿಧಾನಾನಿ ಕ್ರಿಯಾಯೋಗಃ 
തപഃ സ്വാധ്യായേശ്വരപ്രണിധാനാനി ക്രിയായോഗഃ 
તપઃ સ્વાધ્યાયેશ્વરપ્રણિધાનાનિ ક્રિયાયોગઃ 
ତପଃ ସ୍ଵାଧ୍ୟାୟେଶ୍ଵରପ୍ରଣିଧାନାନି କ୍ରିୟାୟୋଗଃ
তপঃ স্বাধ্য়ায়েশ্বরপ্রণিধানানি ক্রিয়ায়োগঃ

Tapas describes a sense of zeal, austerity and self-discipline in our practice (Raja Yoga).  Such self-discipline improves our senses and mind control which results in improved actions, relationships, right knowledge acquisition to take our journey in the right direction.  Svadhyaya means study of texts, scriptures and evaluation of our progress in our yoga journey (Jnana Yoga).  Isvara Pranidhana means surrender to a higher power with a sense of love and devotion (Bhakti Yoga) and it also means to give our best effort in every action (Karma Yoga) without worrying about results. Together, Tapas, Svadhyaya and Isvara Pranidhana represent ‘Yoga of Action’, as all of these aspects involve ‘doing’ something.  Kriya Yoga comes from the root work ‘Kr’ meaning ‘To do’, indicating that Yoga is not passive!

Thank you and looking forward to a wonderful 2019 ahead,

Regards,             
Shailesh

http://shaileshyoga.blogspot.com/
https://yogabharati.org/milpitas-classes (sign up for new session starting on Jan 26th)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yoga and me

Yoga has been a way of life for me. My first guru was my father who introduced me to Yoga at an early age of around 7 or 8. I am who am I today mainly because of his guidance and his teachings. In the last couple of years, I have worked closely with a few Gurus in US. Dr. Sachin at ICC has been a great mentor. I was very impressed by his gentle and caring approach to Yoga. http://drsachindeshmukh.com/ I have noticed that in the last several months, stress levels have gone up amongst my friends, family and colleagues. Economic times have not helped the cause either. People are always on the run. Long work hours, hyper-active kids and their activities, long commutes, sedentary life styles and unemployment seem to be some of the common factors. I personally felt that I can share the knowledge of Yoga that I have been practicing for years to reduce their stress levels. Around this time, I came across this wonderful organization "Yoga Bharati". I instantly joined their Yoga teache...
2 comments
Read more

Happy New Year 2022 and a message

  Namaste everyone, Wish you all a very happy and healthy new year. We started this morning with beautiful Surya Namaskar sadhana where we offered our reverence and gratitude to the Sun God ( hiraṇmayena pātreṇa ), Sage Patanjali (Yōgēna cittasya), Swami Vivekananda (Each soul is potentially divine…), Guru RaghuramJi and other gurus.   All these gurus have provided us with authoritative source of knowledge (āgamāḥ) over the years and centuries.   Sage Patanjali talks about how the knowledge we acquire can affect our mind (vrittis).   The knowledge we acquire through various means is classified by Patanjali into five types (PYS 1.6) a) Right knowledge b) Wrong knowledge c) Imaginary knowledge d) Remembered knowledge (memory) e) No knowledge (sleep).   This knowledge can lead to pleasurable or painful experiences and the objective always is to reduce or eliminate any wrong knowledge (eg. fake news, non-authoritative sources). These pleasurable and painful exp...
1 comment
Read more

Patanjali Yoga Sutras - Sadhana (1.13 tatra sthitau yatno-‘bhyāsaḥ and 1.14 sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-ādara-āsevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ)

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...
Post a Comment
Read more