Yoga For Everybody

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Among the many kinds of Yoga described by the philosopher sage Patanjali hatha yoga is the practice of physical postures. The word hatha denoted the complementary nature of all things in the cosmos. Yoga for everybody deals with this classic form of yoga whose practice helps achieve physical mental emotional and spiritual harmony, along with meditation mantra repetition and breathing exercises. It starts with the importance of prayer in yoga moves on to the beginning exercises and then illustrates in detail the complete routine. It also dwells on Suryanamaskar classification of yogasanas (separating meditation postures from relaxation and action postures) yoga trataka and yogic breathing ending with a chapter on pranayama. Yoga for everybody is thus an exhaustive one stop guide to health through hatha Yoga.

Bharati Joshi is a yoga enthusiast and practitioner of hatha yoga for the last 25 years. She has received her training and certification from yoga Vidyadham, Pune and has also passed the Yoga teachers training course from Kaivalyadham Lonavala. She has conducted yoga classes especially for women in Pune, Kolhapur and even abroad.

These were the words of Late Swami Kuwalayananda who was the founder director of the world famous yoga institute Kaiwalyadhama situated in the hills nearly 100Km from Mumbai at Lonawala, Maharashtra India.

Yogic science unmistakably recognizes the interdependence of body and mind. It prescribes exercise for both. All these exercises are aimed at the harmonization of human personality i.e. psycho-physiological balance of one’s personality. It clearly indicates that Yogic science is beyond all creed caste race and religion.

All physical yogic exercises are concentrated upon two very important cavities in the human body thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity. All important organs like the hear, lungs, spinal column, stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, womb, ovaries, breasts, testis, Kidneys, bladder, prostrate etc. are situated in these very important cavities in the human body. Throughout the world diseases and disorders of these organs are on the rise. Compared to other forms of exercise yogic exercises are best suited to provide direct motion to these organs which are situated inside the body organs. Yogic science is gaining the deserved recognition and is becoming very popular world wide.

All physical and mental yogic exercises have great therapeutic value and help in curing almost all serious and chronic ailments of the human body. However we should use these exercises as a preventive measure and avoid probable problems asthma, spondylitis, arthritis. The old saying prevention is better than cure is very true. One needs to spend about 45 minutes each day for exercising. A person who spares time to do the yogic exercises will be able to keep fit even at old age and has 70 to 80 percent more chances of avoiding serious disorders of health.

These days there is growing importance of various camps organized for personality Development, stress Management, Relaxation Techniques Mind Control, Concentration and Memory Enhancement. In all these camps the methodology and technique used is clearly based on yogic science and exercise.

There is not doubt that on a very large scale the people world wide are now interested in yoga due to its therapeutic effects. An even larger number of people are attracted due to the spiritual aspect of yoga which is the very foundation and essence of yogic science. In short we can say that there are two types of people who are attached towards yoga :

1. Physical culturist – for whom the physical aspect has the appeal and
2. Spiritual culturist – for whom the spiritual aspect is more appealing

When a person is involved in yogic exercises knowingly or unknowingly he develops himself towards spiritual good and while developing himself in that direction he manifests memory, health, confidence etc. which are the by products of yogic exercise and are very useful in our day-to-day life though these are not its aims.

Some months back Mrs. Bharati Joshi came to me to learn Pranayama. She has a wonderful attitude of collecting good and life giving things from all the sources and distributes it amongst common people. What ever is there which is good life giving light and strength giving she tries to understand is carefully consciously and then adopt it with full strength, vigor and concentration and gets ready to give it to the common people. This is her admirable quality which keeps her always on her toes. Laziness is the greatest hindrance in the path of Yoga which she does not posses even at his age. She likes practical more than theory. Accordingly she is more interested in Physical and therapeutic aspect of Yoga. Whatever she has achieved and gained she has learnt it by persistent and regular efforts along concentration and devotion.

In this very precise small back she has explained various yogic physical and mental exercises in very simple language which can be easily understood by any common person. She explains it with the help of clear and perfect illustrations so that any person in the society can use the therapeutic value of yogic exercise through this book to solve his or her mental and physical problems without any doubt. In short the people who want to keep themselves fir physically and mentally throughout their life and those who want to get rid of chronic physical and mental problems which they are suffering from and tired of the book is very useful for both of them and it is better to include this book in their personal library.

I pray to that almighty who is of infinite bliss for the success on all levels to her life and peace which is the highest arm of her strength.

Yoga is ancient an Indian science. More than 400 years ago our ancestors developed it to bind the body mind and spirit in a harmonious whole. Yoga has been growing in popularity with unbelievable rapidity over the last two decades. There is no mystical reason for this. It just fills a need.

Now that we live in the computer age our lifestyle has become very fast. It is also becoming very hard and difficult to live a natural and normal life because of the state the world is in. The very air we breathe is becoming unfit for human consumption. Our cities are growing noisier dirtier and congested. All this is creating tension. The mind is always under a strain. A normal human being needs some peace and privacy in everyday life to recharge himself. Deprivation of privacy and peace makes us irritable. We burn up valuable energy everyday to cope up with the pressures of life. Unless we are able to release our mind from tension and recoup our energy we feel tired and our health begins to suffer.

Tension headaches and backache becomes a permanent feature of our lives when we are under stress. We get clods and chills aches and pains too often. Our digestion is not proper and we may suffer from some fairly serious ailments life Asthma and Spondilytis.

In spite of all the miracles of modern medicine there is no real cure for stress related illness. Drugs are not the solution. Apart from being costly they lower out natural resistance to diseases and they can have serious side effects. There is also a danger of forming a dependency on these drugs.

In the treatment of almost all the chronic disorders and ailments Yoga can assist in a big way when practiced along with other streams of treatments. It is not panacea for all health problems. It has its won limitations. It cannot cure acute infective disorders or traumas. Obviously it is not possible to carry out surgical operations with its help. But is can definitely help in post operational therapy under able guidance. It cannot replace other medical therapies like Allopathy, Homeopathy and Ayurveda.

The key to the whole problem is self help. First of all everyday one should learn how to relax and remain relaxed. Learn how to breath properly reduce weight if need be and take up walking regularly as an exercise. We cannot avoid being ill in today’s polluted environment. We will all have our off days once in a while but through Yoga we can become resilient. We can acquire the energy to overcome the pressures and survive in the stressful conditions. This aspect of Yoga is the reason why it is growing in popularity everyday.

Yoga teaches us to be one with the world by being one with ourselves. When we achieve this state of oneness or unity we are at ease or balanced. We are better and healthier the world YOGA has originated form the Sanskrit work YUJ which means UNION. It is the true union of our will with the will of god.

This book endeavors to explains certain aspects of Hatha Yoga which can guide a person to lead a healthy life.

‘Ha’ means Moon and ‘Tha’ means Sun. the word Hatha Denotes the complementary nature of all the things in the cosmos. The balance of creation sun and Moon night and day, dry and wet and so on. It means that however further a pendulum may go in one direction there is always a complementary or compensatory swing in the opposite direction. It is the nature of all things in perfect balance.

Hatha Yoga is also known as Classic Yoga. It is the physical branch. We practice Hatha Yoga to achieve physical mental, emotional and spiritual harmony, along with meditation, mantra repetition and breathing exercise.

Hatha Yoga has eight stages. These eight stages are known as Ashtangayoga. The eight stages are as follows :

1. Yama (Social Discipline)
2. Niyama (Individual Discipline)
3. Asana (Posture)
4. Pranayama (Breath Control)
5. Pratyahara (Discipline of Senses)
6. Dharana (Concentration)
7. Dhyana (Meditation)
8. Samadhi (Self Realization)

Though all the eight stages of Hatha Yoga are equally important it is seen these days that Asana and Pranayama have gained prominence and popularity.

It we examine yoga in the light of modern knowledge it can be seen that many of the claims could be explained by scientific methods and that is why yoga is called of science. But is it’s not only an academic science. Yoga teaches to improve our social and personal life makes us healthier physically psychologically and improves the society as a whole.