Musical yoga

Nothing can help you reach a higher level of consciousness faster than music. Supriya Sharma finds out how yoga classes, in India and abroad, are using music to reach out to more people.

In a faintly lit room young yogis try and balance delicate asanas to the tune of a sitar. The room vibrates with this coming together of two ancient forms. As the class sways to yoga guru Zubin Atre's postures, the accompanying sitarist Galen Passen does impromptu musical improvisations making it a seamless flow of energies. Sitar yoga has caught the fancy of Delhiites, who love this new concept of musical yoga sessions. "I have done improvised jam sessions before, where a group of people play music, dance, and sometimes do yoga simultaneously at my yoga studio. Passen and I improvised together at one such session, and then the idea of sitar yoga followed," tells Atre.

Music can help lift students through difficult sequences with upbeat music or create a restorative vibe with calm music. A soulful musician can truly make a difference in creating the perfect atmosphere for a class. Combining music with yoga is a famous practice abroad. Musician Todd Boston fuses acoustic world instruments together to create a unique and beautiful sound. With no pre-recorded tracks he mixes and blends the instruments and his voice in harmony to create a musical journey of soulful, heartfelt compositions. He has played at the Kundalini Yoga and Music Festival in Rishikesh. Similarly, Yoga Soundscape is a unique yoga and music experience curated and guided by Aarona Pichinson in New York. Every week, an eclectic array of talented musicians, laptop masters, or DJs perform live soulful music ranging from old-world tribal instrumental to experimental electronic beats for classes filled with stretched-out breaths and sweaty patches! Source

Yoga-The Art of Transformation

An 11th-century yogini sculpture is part of an upcoming Smithsonian exhibit.

This October, the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. will unveil the world's first-ever exhibit of yoga's visual history, called "Yoga: The Art of Transformation."

The museum's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery will display 120 masterpieces of Indian sculpture and paintings with pieces that date as far back as the third century to the early 20th century. Temple sculptures, devotional icons, illustrated manuscripts, as well as colonial and early modern photographs, books, and films aim to shed light on the 2,000-year old practice. Source

Flute Yoga a best way to beat stress

In Hindu mythology Flute was played by Lord Krishna to charm the maidens, birds and animals of Vrindavan and Mathura, is leading a new healing therapy called Bansi Yoga to beat lifestyle stress.

Bansi Yoga, created by the S. Vyasa Yoga University using a combination of traditional yoga, breathing exercises and flute melody, will get the official stamp of approval in the capital at the third World Flute Festival, "Raasrang 2012", Aug 9-12. The festival will be presented by the Ministry of Culture and the Krishna Prerna Foundation with support from flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia.

A team of experts will demonstrate the yoga and discuss its healing powers in 12 workshops over four days at Hotel Ashok in the capital, Arun Buddhiraja, the founder of the Krishna Prerna Foundation, said.

Arun Buddhiraja  said: "Bansi Yoga is a combination of yoga and flute used as a deep relexation technique in 40 minutes of cyclic meditations. The practitioner moves his limbs in a cyclic pattern and the flute, played as an accompaniment, allows him to relax. The relaxation induced is equivalent to eight hours of sleep. The flute was a symbol of love, peace and water”.

Practice yoga in the supervision of qualified Yoga instructors

 

                                        Photograph by: DIBYANGSHU SARKAR , AFP/Getty Images file photo

Today people all over the world have been practicing Yoga to keep themselves Fit and Healthy.  Some people are practicing Yoga without proper knowledge of Yoga Asanas. So Yoga must be practiced in the supervision of qualified instructors or Yoga Gurus to avoid unwanted injuries. Yoga is a powerful medication for curing what ails you, from sore backs to sore wrists and even the occasional achy knee

Yoga for Fitness

Yoga is all the rage for its combined physical and mental benefits, as well as the fact that so many of us look downright sexy in those groovy yoga pants and bare, recently pedicure feet.

Hatha Yoga is the most commonly practiced form, and it's ideal for beginners, focusing as it does on slow stretching and simple poses. Like all fitness trends, more intense forms of Yoga are the ones you hearing people talking about—Iyangar, Vinyasa, Tantric and Hot Yoga are in vogue with the same people who were all about Pilates a couple of years ago. If you're looking to increase your strength, balance and flexibility in a calm atmosphere, look for a generic, beginners' Yoga class instead of going with one of the trendier forms: you'll find it satisfying and you'll be less likely to suffer strains.

Some Yoga classes focus on spiritual work with a lessened emphasis on fitness. There may be meditation and chanting. Yoga at the gym or health club will probably be fitness oriented, but if you study at an ashram or another place dedicated to Yoga, you may find the classes more comprehensive.

If you're looking for a more challenging workout and want to shake things up a bit, you may want to try Iyangar Yoga, which can be fluid and fast paced. Iyangar is not for the out-of-shape: you'd be surprised at the muscles you can pull if you just jump into an already-moving Iyangar class. While Hatha Yoga doesn't generally use props, Iyangar uses some of the same bands and bricks as Pilates.

There are as many types of Yoga as there are people who teach it. Hot Yoga is especially popular because it's fun to do Yoga in a 95 degree room full of sweating students. Okay, that doesn't sound like fun, but people love it because it combines a Yoga workout full of stretching and bending with a room heated to bring waxy flexibility to even fairly stiff muscles and joints. Hot Yoga isn't for everyone—if you have health issues like heart trouble, if you're pregnant or out of shape, you shouldn't attempt Hot Yoga. But if you're in good health and especially if you live in the cold North and want a warm winter workout, Hot Yoga is the way to go.

There are various ways of becoming certified to teach Yoga, so before you join a class, find out about the instructor's educational background. You want a teacher who's been doing Yoga for a long time, and it never hurts if that person also has a degree in something like exercise physiology. Yoga is a specialist sport: your gym shouldn't be training Yoga instructors in 3 or even 6 months: Yoga takes years. And once you've ascertained that your instructor does indeed know her or his stuff, you will still want to look for the hallmarks of a good instructor. Instructors should be happy to answer questions, should provide demonstrations and feedback during class, and should never push you into doing things you aren't ready for. Because Yoga is about stretching and gaining flexibility, people who are in a hurry to get fit may feel impatient. That impatience can lead to injury if you stretch too far, bounce in your stretching or attempt poses that hurt. Don't expect to be able to do it all at first: over time, you'll get stronger and will be able to hold poses longer and take on new challenges in the form of more extreme poses.

Yoga for Fitness, Wellness, Mental health

Yoga

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from Sanskrit language ‘Yujir Yogey’, which means ‘to unite’ or ‘to yoke’ or ‘to join’. Yoga is about extending accord between mind and the body. Yoga is a 5000 year old science whose teachings were first imparted not in a classroom or Gurukul, but on the battle ground of ‘Kurukshetra’. In the epic ‘Mahabharata’, the sage, Lord Krishna is first said to have expressed the teachings of Yoga to his disciple Arjuna.   

Yoga related to conventional physical and psychological disciplines originating in India. Yoga is one of the six orthodox disciplines of Hindu philosophy. Yoga is a technique to revitalize the mind. The stress and pressure which the physical body undergoes over a span of life ultimately results in polluted mind and abnormal breathing system.  Yoga is a way of life, a conscious act, not a set or series of learning principles. Yoga requires no major effort. In fact trying hard will turn your practices into a routine, painful, even injurious routine and will eventually slow down your progress. Subsequently, and interestingly, the healing effect of Yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally in inspiring the body to awaken.

The guru Patanjali is considered to be the Father of Yoga because he systematized the knowledge of previous sages and collected this in the form of a manuscript called the ‘Yoga Sutras’, two thousand Years ago. He described the principles of the full eight fold yogic discipline. He composed the treatise in brief code words known as 'Sutras'. 'Yoga Sutras' is the most vital basic text on Yoga. It is through this basic thesis that the essential message of yoga spread throughout the world. Many other Hindu books discuss aspects of yoga, including the Vedas, Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the Shiva Samhita and various Tantras.  

Sage Patanjali has counseled eight stages of Yoga discipline. They are

           

• Yama- Yamas (abstentions or restrains)
• Niyama- Niyamas (observances)-austerities, purity, contentment, study, surrender of the ego
• Asana- Physical postures or exercises
• Pranayama- Breathing control
• Partyahara- Withdrawal of the senses
• Dharana- Concentration of the mind (Contemplation)
• Dhyana- Meditation
• Samadhi- Attainment of the super conscious state

There are different types of yoga that are practiced such as the following:   

• Raja Yoga
• Pranava yoga
• Vinyasa Yoga
• Ashtanga Yoga
• Hatha Yoga
• Kundalini Yoga
• Dhyana Yoga
• Iyengar Yoga
• Bikram Yoga
• Bhakti Yoga
• Jnana Yoga
• Karma Yoga
• Mantra Yoga
• Tantra Yoga
• Purna Yoga
• Sidha Yoga