Namaste - we started studying Yamas, the first limb in Ashtanga Yoga, in our classes recently. Yamas are the great, mighty, universal vows unconditioned by place, time and class (religion) – PYS 2.31. There is still a myth that ‘Yoga is religion’, while we can see that Patanjali begins yoga instruction stating that the first limb is universal in nature and beyond any religion. One of the first definitions of Yoga can be found in Vedas: “Tam Yogam iti manyante stiram indriya dharanam” - Controlling all of the senses, including the steadying of the mind, is known as yoga. The term ‘religion’ became popular only since 2000 years ago when Christianity came into existence, while Vedas existed for several hundreds of years prior to that.
I recently had an opportunity to visit a beautiful yoga center that embodies this universal nature of yoga. This is Paramahansa Yogananda’s center. Paramahansa Yogananda brought yoga to the West in 1920s and has profoundly impacted lives of millions with his comprehensive teachings on the science of Kriya Yoga meditation, the underlying unity of all true religions, the art of balanced health and well-being in body, mind, and soul. Where exactly is this place is left as an exercise to the reader. J
The first Yama we are going to study is Ahimsa (Non-Violence). One of the first things that comes to mind when we talk about Ahimsa is ‘vegetarianism’ vs ‘non-vegetarianism’. Should a yogi be a vegetarian? Or, is that another myth? Let us study that next week.
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