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Thursday, May 24, 2007

ALL ABOUT YOGA

Introduction:
In today’s speeding life ,people are forced to copy with their daily need for their existence. In the verge of fulfilling their requirement they tend to experience many forms of negative impact either physically or mentally. However physically impact can become over somehow but the mental impact so vast and deep which produces stress addiction anxiety depression, hypertension heart diseases etc. This further enhances different disorders too.
To find the remedy against all negative impact yoga is the most trusted and beneficial method. Therefore the term yoga should be thoroughly understood.
Yoga literally means to sum up that is connecting one self to truth eternal truth according to swami Vivekananda, yoga may be regarded as a means of compressing ones evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few months of body existence.
Yoga is very useful and effective method to overcome most of human mental disorders. Yoga therapy is very demanding, now a days, because due to this people can be treated is complete way by producing self realization, inner strength development, positive attitude. These improvements in people's life leads them to a new horizon of life where they understand the real meaning of their life and existence.
In yoga therapy one has to first discover itself being to the surface the profoundest reason of its being in that general truth and that unceasing aim of nature, which it represent and find by virtue of this new self knowledge and self appreciation its own recovered and larger synthesis.
Reorganizing it self, it will enter more easily and powerfully into the reorganized life of the race which its processes claim to lead within into the most secret penetralio and upward to the highest altitude of its own existence and personality.

What is yoga?
Yoga has already become a very popular amongst the masses all over the world however for this very reason, many quacks and charlatans are exploiting masses for their selfish goals and due to them, very queer notion regarded yoga have become prevalent among people. some consider yoga as a set of exercise for maintaining health, other consider it as some mysterious means of getting supernatural powers, whereas still other thinks it to be a means of getting a kick from sensory experience and entering into extra sensory perception. We can find a number of popular books on yoga in street bookstalls all over the world. The title such as "yoga for youth" ,"yoga and sex", yoga for beauty etc speak for themselves. Of course yoga has something to do with all these things but by isolating an aspect and laying undue stress on the same, misguiding picture of yoga has been presented in such books. More over, this books do not represent any sound study of the ancient text on yoga.
Actually the word yoga has been and is being used in so many different connections that one find oneself completely at sea as regards its exact meaning old lexicons have regarded good many meaning of this word. The well known 'Amar kosa' records five different meanings. The first is "Samhahana" that is protecting oneself with an armour,the second is 'upaya' or a means to an end, the third is "dhyana" or medition, the fourth is 'samgati'or harmony and the fifth and final is 'yukti'or union. The lexicon like medition have recorded six more meaning of the word. They are'Apuruarth samprapti' i.e. acquiring a new things,'vapuhsthairyaprayoga' i.e. a technique of keeping body young and steady,'viskambhadi' i.e. schemes and plots etc. 'Bhesaja' i.e. medicine, 'visrabdhaghataka' i.e. a treacherous person and 'karpana' i.e. miserliness of course, many of these meanings are not concerned with the yogasastra as such but for understanding the historical significance of the word, it is necessary to study its etymology and semantics.
The word Yoga is derived form the root Yuj-'yujyate anena lti yogah'. Panini's Dhatu Patha mention this root in three different conjugations giving three different meanings. In the fourth conjugation (Yujyate) the root signify samadhi ie absorption or tranquility, in the seven conjugation (Yunakti) it denotes yoga ie joining or yoking and in the tenth conjugation (yogayati) it means 'samayamana' i.e. judicious control of these the original root as the early uses indicates seems to be the one in the seventh conjugation. The different forms of this root and its derivatives represent a very old word of Aryan stock which can be traced in such word as the German ' Jock', Anglosaxon 'Geoc', 'Iuc', Latin ' Iugum' etc. Hence it can be said shat the tow other roots in the fourth and the tenth conjugations must have been coined when the word yoga got its special meaning of yoking body, speech and mind for achieving tranquility and thus controlling them judiciously. This semantic development can be seen in the historical development of yoga sastra thus yoga have very long and elaborate history a very systematic discussion of the yoga sastra has been presented in the famous aphorisms believed to have been composed by Patanjali near about the beginning of the Christian era. Patanjali has defined yoga as inhibition of the mental modification resulting into the realization of self through reintrigation of personality. For this purpose he has prescribed a number of method and discipline which help in reaching usually unfathomed depths of human mind. Thereby pirating the mind of its impurities and making it fit to reach the higher levels of experience. These techniques and the principles under lying the same can certainly be better understood in the light of depth psychology.
It hence that, an attempt is made here to furnish interpretation that makes Patanjalis ideas all the mode consistent rational and systematic. However yoga had a long history before Patanjali and several current of thought have been united in the aphorisms of Patanjali. Hence a Short account of this currents is being given in this first part to form a suitable background for our investigation.

Life and yoga

There are two necessities of nature working which seem always to intervene in the greater forms of human activity whether they belong to our ordinary field of movement or seek those exceptional spheres and fulfillment which appear to us high and divine. Every such form tends towards a harmonized complexity and totality which again breaks apart into various channel of special effort and tendency only to unite once more in the larger and more puissant. Synthesis secondly development onto forms each and imperative rule of effective manifestation, yet all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtues it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of all the spirit revivifying the dead or dying vehicles and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life. To be perpetually reborn is the conditions of a material immortality. We are in an age, full of the throes of travail, when all form of thought and activity that have ion themselves any strong power of utility or any secret virtue of persistence are being subjected to a supreme test and given there opportunity of rebirth. The world today presents the aspect of a huge cauldron of media in which all thing are being cost , shredded into pieces experimented on, combined and recombined either to perish and provide the scatter materials of new forms or to emerge rejuvenated and changed for a fresh term of existence. Indian Yoga , in its essence a special action or formulation of certain great power of nature, itself specialized divided and variously formulated is potentially on of these dynamic elements of the future life of humanity. The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its rituality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and seeking its place in the future sum of living human power and utilities. But it has first to discover itself, bring to the surface profounder reason of its being in that general truth and that unceasing aim of Nature which is represents and find by virtue of this new self- knowledge and self appreciation its own recover and larger synthesis. Rear gaining itself, it will enter more easily and powerfully into the organized life of the rest which its processes claim to lead within into the most secret penetralia and upward to the highest altitude of its own existence and personality.
In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life in either consciously or sub consciously a Yoga. Foe we mean by this term a methodized effort forwards self perfection by the expression of the potentiality latent in the being and a union of a human individual with the universal and transcendent. Existence we see partially expressed in man and in the cosmos. But all life when we look behind its appearances, in a vast yoga of nature attempting to release her perfection in an ever increasing expression of her potentiality and to unite herself with her own divine reality. Yoga as Swami Vivekananda has said may be regarded as a means of compressing one's evolution into a single life or a few years or even a few month of body existence.


Yoga and Patanjali
The word yoga occurs in the Rigbeda in various sense, such as yoking or harnessing achieving the unachieved , connection and the like. An examination of the passage refer to in the foot notes shows that the sense of yoking was not so frequent as the other senses but it is nevertheless true that the world had been in use in this sense in such later Vedic work as the Satapatha Brahamana and the Brahada ranyaka upanishad.
The word yoga in the sense of yoki is used in many place in the Rigbeda and the Brahmans and this word with its derrivative yoga (carrier of the yoke, the animals) is quite familiar to us in the later Sanskrit literature they represent a very old word of Aryan stock which can be traced in such words as the German joch, Anglo-saxon geoc, iuc, ioc Latin. In the older upanishad such as the chandogya, Brahadaranyaka and Taittiriya, we got this word ion the sense of austerity and meditative abstraction productive of mighty achievements in the Taittivya Brahamana also we hear of such a tapas and the commentator assure us there that tapas does not means any such thing as asceticism, expiatory penances or the like, but devoted meditation upon the particular objects which would have to be created. Bramhacharya and tapas are also highly praised in the well known hymn of A.V. XI. 5.1 and also in the Taittriya Brahmana III. 10.11.3 where we are told that Bharadvaja had practiced religious austerities(brahmacarya) during three lives and decayed and emaciated his body, but was still willing to continue it.
In the light of the growth of these ideas of asceticism and self control it is easy to understand that when the force of the flying passion was felt to be as uncontrollable as that of a spirited steed, the word yoga which was originally applied to the control of steeds was applied to the control of the senses.
The fact that there is no verbal use of the root "Yuj" in the sense of concentration goes a great way to show that the root in 'Yuj samadhau" was only an imaginary analysis of a root-from which had no use as a verd and was only found in the noun and adjective forms of yuga, yugya, yoga and yogin. A consideration of the rule of panini's grammar 'tadasyd brahmacaryam' It shows that not only different kind of asceticism and rigor which passed under the name of Bramhacarya where prevalent in the country, but , associated with these, had grown up a definite system of mental discipline which passed by the name of yoga and whose adherents were called yogins. The earliest Sanskrit records where we hear of such regular adherents of Yoga practice or yogins are the maitragani upanishad and pannini's grammar.
Yoga and its scope
Yoga is for the divine. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life to divine living. Yoga is the wisdom of life. It is the intelligent and self conscious effort of man towards achieving universal existence. It is a means by which man transcends human limitations and becomes the cosmic man. It is possible to give up human modern desires through yoga.
The highest truth of life is a spiritual experience not an intellectual conception. Yoga as a method of training the mind and developing its power of subtle perception so that man may discover for himself spiritual truth on which religions believes an moral values finally rest. Yoga is the realization of the hidden powers.
Yoga is the art of life which is also a technique for achieving the purest form of self awareness devoid of all the thoughts and sensation. Yoga is expressed in various books like Maharsi Patanjali's book , Upanisad and in Geeta. Yoga arose in the age of Vedas and Upanishads. It had its beginning among a healthy powerful and independent community which had attend a high level of culture.
Yoga is the art of living. Our life is given to us to life not to suppress. We find a positive attitude towards life in the upanisads and the Geeta. The world is the manifestation of the divine. A true life is the life in which action and contemplation and land.
Yoga is no retreat from the world. It is not a repressive but a directive psychology. The limit to man's growth is his vision. There is no end to man's self expression. Yoga enables an individual to realize and unfold his reality. Through proper utilization of yoga, one can attend the highest knowledge to ease his walks of life. A true and meaningful life is the one which has come to terms with all rider of the personality and become integrated on the basis of spiritual to insight. This quality of life can be achieved though Yoga. Yoga may play very important roles in improving the moral and the spiritual qualities in human beings.

Yoga and depth psychology
C.G. Jurg himself had realised and admitted the significance of "yoga" for the development of modern psychology and psychotherapy. But he did not pursue the studies of Indian Yoga beyond certain english text on 'Tantrism' and thought that the context modern life. K.t. Behanan who studied yoga and conducted research under the guidance of well-known psychologist and neurologist in the states in his book " Yoga , a scientific evaluation" , he has also discussed the relation between ' yoga and psycho- analysis', a similar and more intensive study was carried out also in the state by Dr. S.L. Vinevar as well. He and swami Kuvalayananda have discussed psycho-somatic and psycho-pathological value of yoga in their treaties on logic therapy. The aim of the yoga is to make the mental personality pure so that it can be completed conscious the yoga view of psycho forces has no resemblance. What so ever with friends idea of psycho force and " Libido and Patanjali" is almost mute as regards the role of sex instincts in human life though of course some other school of Yoga have attached considerable importance to sex.

Ocean in a drop
Yoga meditation and life in the Himalayas Swami Chandresh publish- Nirala(Page 205). Literally the word yoga means to unite or to be one without the support of the totality, an individual existence of anybody whose ever or an unit existence of anything what ever is practically absurd.

Conclusion
Yoga has solution for all ailments and can relieve one from mental tension and emotional imbalance. Yoga can also sooth the agitated and excied mid and restore it to tranquility, calm and peace. Where as Asanas, Pranayamas and Kriyas are effective for curing ill health, the skeletal defects and derangements like lordlsis, kyphesis, pocking head , Hunch Back, piglon Chest, Knock Knees, Plat food etc. which are so common among students and in such cases school remedial, Orthopedic and Psycho-therapy treatments succeed only to a little extent, the Yamas, Niyamas, Pratahasras, Dharana and Dhyana are for assuaging and soothing the aggrieved and excited mind.
Everybody is very well aware about the potentialities of yoga for the healing of the body and mind unfortunately hardly a microscopic minority ever practices the simple method and technique and discipline of yoga for the restoration of health and for the peace of mind, drug, medicines and injections are the fashion of the days. Pills and potions have intruded not only to the wardrobes of man but also to the dressing table of women among whom headache, back ache , cold cough , and so on are more common then among men. Men who are robust and easily excitable suffer more from blood pressure, heart diseases for which the only recourse is guided yogic relaxation and Sat karmas , Asanas or with the help of Dharana and Dhayana like Psycho analysis , contemplation and meditation. Gout and Rheumatism may be cured by yoga Asanas which could stretch the joints and by a discipline in the intake of proteins and fats in everyday meals.
one may enjoy perfect physical health through Yogig Asanas and Pranayama where yoga ordains some physical and mental principles for remaining in the perpetual state of physical well being strict dietary habits must be observed. Over eating of stimulating diets and absence of physical activity may give rise to physical ailments , that is why in Yoga , Vedas and Gita the diets had been classified as Sattvik, Rajasik and Tamasik, Unlike modern classification like far proteins, carbohydrates, vitamin and minerals etc the non digestible diets in the absence of appropriate physical activity have caused more diseases than by accident etc. Therefore it is advisable to observe some of the fundamental principle in eating digesting assimilating of food and by eliminating the refuse stuff from the body by proper elimination, urination and perspiration. When these outlets of the body are choked up the stagnant materials causes toxins in the body. The Yogis had mastered the technique of digestion assimilation and elimination and relaxation. That is why they lived long in perfect physical health and peace of the mind.
For the diseases of the eye ear nose and throat perhaps Jalaneti and Sutarneti as well as Trataka are the best antedotes for the diseases of chest , lungs and the heart. Pranayamas of various types and Savasana relaxation are invaluable for the diseases of the stomach , liver , spleen and intestine, Kunjal kriya, Gakarni and Dhauti are of great value. In insomnia and norvous distortion of various types both Siva Asana as well as Dharana and Dhyan can render a great help if followed under proper guidance. Asanas in themselves are not mere a system of physical culture or gymnastics but each Asana pertains to stimulate certain internal organs like pituitary penial , thyroid and thymus, adrenal and other glands and also stimulate the blood and purify it. Hence the symptoms of diseases are not only relieved by yogic practices but the diseases is uprooted from the very base. Man suffers because of the stagnation of the blood and of imbalance of emotions. These afflictions of the body and the mind can be cured by the various yogic Asanas.
When the Prana, the life force is stimulated and activated the disease cannot last any longer. When and individuals has control over his Pranic force he can heal the diseases of the person whose Pranic force is at a lower ebb.



Object of the study
1.To study the role of yoga as a therapy in different negative impact in human life

2.To study the inter connection between yoga and modern other therapy.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

interesting post. thought you might enjoy this site about meditation and patanjali at www.gitananda.org