Svadhyaya Yoga Shala

With NASA to SVYASA

THE IMPORTANCE OF A DAILY YOGA PRACTICE.

Why practice yoga daily?
Daily yoga practice is a commitment to yourself and your growth. Daily practice is essential to help us stay physically fit, mentally balanced, spiritually connected, and emotionally strong. It is a simple, accessible, and affordable practice that can be done almost anywhere. It doesn’t have to belong or be complicated, even if you only have 15 minutes per day, it will still benefit your body, mind and spirit.

The Yoga Sutras (1.14) teach us that to become firmly established in our practice, we must attend to it for a long time, without interruption, with an attitude of devotion and service, and a full heart. When we practice daily, we create a powerful foundation and clear attention to progress along the path towards enlightenment.

The challenge of daily practice
Students often come to yoga filled with enthusiasm. They invest in yoga mats and athletic wear; they sign up for classes and declare they now “do yoga.” As they immerse themselves in their practice, they begin to come face to face with their ego, their fears, frustrations and anger that they can’t touch their nose to knees. Bodies long conditioned to a state of numbness respond with pain as under-used muscles are summoned to the work they have long levelled on joints. Egos suffer as yogis look around the room comparing themselves to advanced students.

Many stops coming to class and eventually quit. But it’s at that juncture where we meet our obstacles and excuses that the true challenge of our practice begins.

The benefits of doing yoga every day
We will not transform our practice—nor, in turn, our practice transforms our lives—if we do not practice regularly. The more we practice, the deeper we delve into our potential, our true selves.

What happens if you practice yoga every day? A daily practice empowers us with the spiritual confidence gained from progressing through the asanas and breaking through mental, physical, and emotional obstacles. A daily practice cultivates the attitude that through patience and compassion, not brute strength, we can accomplish just about anything on and off our mats. Daily yoga practice has many great benefits! It helps keep us grounded, centred, balanced, flexible, strong, calm, clear-headed, focused, relaxed, happy, healthy, and free from stress and anxiety. In other words, it keeps us sane!

How much yoga is enough?

In his book Yoga Beyond Belief, Ganga White responds to students who ask the age-old question: How long will it take? How long will it take before I master the yoga postures? White’s response: It will take the rest of your life.

Yoga is not a destination. It’s a journey. Mastery of the asanas is not the goal of the practice, it is the result of it. Pattabhi Jois said, “Yoga is one per cent theory; the rest is practice.” The sage Patanjali did not prescribe a period required to achieve mastery. He taught that through abhyasa, constant and determined effort, and vairagya, non-attachment and freedom from desire, we can establish a firm foundation in our practice. That is counter to the way many of us live our lives: we want instant gratification. A lifetime of practice? That’s way too long for many of us.

But we must practice vairagya and let go of our attachment to the goal. We must approach our practice with tapas—the zeal and willpower—to sustain a practice over a lifetime. Along that journey, we see yoga reflecting on our lives. We learn that what we do on the mat is what we do off the mat. Our attitude as we approach a challenging pose is a reflection of how we live our lives.

How to start a daily yoga practice.

Many people struggle with how to begin a daily practice. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the thought of trying to fit in a new activity into your life and daily routine. Here are eight tips to help you get started:

1-Set a time. I recommend setting aside time each day to do a short yoga routine. Examine your daily routine to find the most ideal time to take time for self-care. Set up reminders on your phone to remind you to practice.

2-Start is small. Committing to a short practice will make it much more likely to accomplish every day. It can be as simple as five minutes of sun salutations or a few beginner yoga poses, followed by some pranayama (breathing exercises), and ending with a few minutes of meditation. You don’t have to spend hours on your mat; just start small and build from there.

3-Choose an appropriate level. Make sure the yoga classes you commit to are of the correct length and intensity for your ability and dedication. If you bite off too much at once, you may find yourself feeling frustrated and discouraged. Also, consider whether you need more guidance than what they offer in class. Many teachers offer private lessons so they can work closely with their students to ensure they receive proper instruction.

4-Find a yoga teacher who inspires you. Find someone whose teaching style resonates with you, and whose classes are challenging enough to push you to new heights. Ask friends or family members about who their favourite yoga instructor is. If you don’t have access to a teacher, there are tons of great online yoga classes to practice with.
Do what feels right. Don’t worry so much about whether a yoga asana “looks” good. Just do

5-whatever works for your body. Some days I’ll start my morning off with a few sun salutations before breakfast. Other times, I might just sit quietly and breathe deeply. Whatever makes sense to you is fine.

6-Take it off the mat. You can start a daily practice anywhere, anytime, by simply taking a moment to slow down and listen intently to what’s happening inside and around you. Remember that yoga isn’t always physical. Manyhasize mental discipline and self-awareness. When you’re in traffic, take a few moments to breathe deeply and focus on your breath. If you’re walking to the grocery store, pause to notice the sensations in your feet, the air on your skin, the touch of the sidewalk beneath your feet. Look for any spare moments to pause, breathe deeply and bring awareness to your body. Find opportunities to move into a posture—like taking three deep breaths in Tree Pose while waiting for your morning coffee to brew.

7-Be patient. There may come a point when you find yourself struggling to stay consistent with your practice. This happens because you’re learning more than you expected. When this occurs, remember that patience is key. Keep reminding yourself why you decided to commit to regular yoga practice in the first place. Like anything else, the experience and benefits of yoga and meditation deepen with practice.

8-Keep at it. The most important thing to keep in mind is that consistency is essential if you want to see results. The best way to maintain consistency over time is to make it part of your lifestyle. Schedule a specific time during which you will meditate or perform a yoga pose. And if you miss one day, don’t beat yourself up! Simply pick back up where you left off next week. As long as you continue practising regularly, you will improve over time.

"Meaitation" or Dnyana means to go beyond the limitations of the physical body and the mind. Only when you transcend the limited perspective of the body and the mind do you have a complete dimension of life within you. When you are identified as the body, your whole life is only about survival. Your whole perspective of life will be simply survival. When you are identified as the mind, your whole perspective is enslaved the religious perspective, to the family perspective. You can't look beyond that. Only when you become free from the modifications of your own mind will you know the dimension of the beyond. Can you see that this body and this mind are not yours? It is something that you have accumulated over a period of time. Your body is just a heap of food you have eaten; your mind is just a heap of impressions you have gathered from the outside.

What to you have accumulated you handled it well, it's your property like your home, like the property that you own, like your bank balance, you have a body and a mind. You have a good bank balance, a good body and a good mind. Good! This is needed to live a good life. But it is not sufficient. It is not fulfilling yet. No human being will ever be fulfilled by these things. They will only make his life comfortable and conducive. Especially if you see Western society, everything that you are dreaming of, every average citizen has. But do you think they are fulfilled, that they are blissful? Definitely not! Nowhere near bliss. So Dhyana is to transcend the limitations of body and mind, and you begin to experience yourself in a much deeper dimension.

Morning Meditation. The best part of waking up.

What is Meditation?
Meditation is the delicate art of doing nothing and letting go of all the efforts to relax into your true nature which is love, joy, and peace.

Meditation is that which gives you deep rest.

The rest in meditation is deeper than the deepest sleep that you can ever have. When the mind becomes free from agitation, is calm and serene and at peace, meditation happens. The benefits of meditation are manifold. It is an essential practice for mental hygiene. A calm mind, good concentration, clarity of perception, improvement in communication, blossoming of skills and talents, improved resilience with an unshakable inner strength, better sleep, greater immunity, deeper healing, stress reduction, relaxation, rejuvenation, and good luck are all-natural results of meditating regularly. In today's world where stress catches on faster than the eye can see or the mind can perceive, meditation is no more a luxury. It is a necessity. To be unconditionally happy and to have peace of mind, we need to tap into the power of meditation.

Parivritta Surya Yantrasana(Compass pose)

Level:- Advanced.

Yoga poses are typically considered advanced when they require a combination of "skills"—flexibility, strength, and balance, for instance—that it takes time and experience to build. Compass pose qualifies as an advanced pose under the extreme openness of hamstrings and shoulders that are necessary for the full expression of the movement. If you're not there yet, no worries. You can practice this pose with a bent leg as long as you take care to avoid rolling your weight to your tailbone which causes the spine to round forward.

As with most yoga poses, compass pose is typically incorporated into a series of poses, or a flow. While there's not a specific flow unique to compass pose, it's important that the selection of poses preceding compass helps warm you up and prepare your body for the extreme hamstring stretch. It's always a good idea to get warm with a series of sun salutations, then incorporate hamstring, hip, and shoulder openers, including poses like standing crescent, lizard lunge, wide-legged standing forward folds, fire log pose, and gate pose.

Step-by-Step Instructions
Other than a yoga mat, you don't need any specific equipment to perform a compass pose.

Sit in a comfortable, cross-legged position.
Breathe in and bend your right knee, hugging it into your chest. You may leave your left leg bent or straighten it in front of you.
Lift your right leg with your left hand. Thread your right arm underneath your right knee, bringing the right fingertips to the floor outside of your right hip. Breathe slowly and steadily as you focus on sitting tall, lengthening your spine, and staying upright as you move into this position.
Use your left hand to position your right knee as high up on the right arm as possible. The goal is to get the right knee to align behind the right shoulder with your right leg straight.
Bring your left hand to the outside edge of your right foot. Begin to straighten your right leg as you stretch your left arm back behind your head.
Look up toward your left arm, keeping your spine upright. Take three to five deep breaths here as you hold the pose.
Release the pose carefully, exhaling as you guide your right leg back down slowly with your left hand before repeating to the other side.

Benefits:-

Compass is an excellent pose for more advanced yoga practitioners to continue to deepen hip, hamstring, and shoulder flexibility. Maintaining and increasing flexibility through the hips and hamstrings helps increase overall agility, making daily activities, like squatting down, easier to perform.

Also, because the pose requires an overhead reach and stretch through the obliques (commonly referred to as the "side body" in yoga), the pose helps strengthen and lengthen the stabilizing muscles of your spine, maintaining spinal mobility. Done regularly, the lengthening, strengthening, and stretching that takes place from your hamstrings to your shoulders can result in better overall posture and alignment. Ultimately, good posture and well-balanced alignment can help prevent injuries and pain, particularly in the low back.

🙏🙏

Anyone who practices can obtain success in yoga but not one who is lazy. Constant practice alone is the secret of success.” — Svatmarama

Happy International Day of Yoga to Everyone 🧘🏼‍♂️🧘🏼🧘🏻‍♀️

According to the Vedas, before the manifestation of the universe, the totality of potential energy exists in a massive, undifferentiated state. This is known as prakrti. Within prakrti are three fundamental gunas, or energetic qualities, often referred to as the three modes of material nature.* These gunas intermix in varying proportions to form the complete variety of existential experience, much like the three primary colours, which combine to produce the wide array of visible colour.

The gunas are:

Sattva — Lucidity. Sattva literally means “beingness.” It is this quality that sustains material combinations. Equilibrium, harmony, peace, tranquillity, justice, knowledge, happiness — all these results from the influence of the sattva-guna.

Rajas — Action. Rajas stem from the Sanskrit root “ranj“, to colour or redden. Rajas are thus the source of passion and creative potential. Lust, greed, anxiety, restlessness, excess, haste, sensual indulgence — all these results from the influence of rajo-guna.

Tamas — Inertia. Tamas gives rise to darkness and ignorance, the opposite of sattva & rajas. Lethargy, sleep, depression, apathy, hatred, destruction, gloom — all these results from the influence of Tamo-guna.

Yoga’s Ethical Guide to Living: The Yamas.

The Yamas and niyamas are yoga’s ethical guidelines laid out in the first two limbs of Patanjali’s eightfold path. They’re like a map written to guide you on your life’s journey. Simply put, the Yamas are things not to do, or restraints, while the niyamas are things to do or observances. Together, they form a moral code of conduct.

The five Yamas, self-regulating behaviours involving our interactions with other people and the world at large, including

Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: non-stealing
Brahmacharya: non-excess (often interpreted as celibacy)
Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed.


The five Yamas, self-regulating behaviours involving our interactions with other people and the world at large, including

Ahimsa: nonviolence
Satya: truthfulness
Asteya: non-stealing
Brahmacharya: non-excess (often interpreted as celibacy)
Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed.

The five niyamas, personal practices that relate to our inner world, including

Saucha: purity
Santosha: contentment
Tapas: self-discipline, training your senses
Svadhyaya: self-study, inner exploration
Ishvara Pranidhana: surrender.

it’s important to address character first, so you can support your physical practice. “If you start to do a ton of asana or pranayama but haven’t addressed that you are violent, depressed, or anxious, it’s going to come out,”

Here I would say you need a strong spiritual foundation to contain your newfound energy and Without that foundation, you might inadvertently violate other people’s autonomy,

Perhaps the best way to learn the yamas and niyamas is to live them, as Gandhi did. I taught them at length, teaching that if you practice one, the others naturally follow. Sally explains that you can approach the teachings in a very cut-and-dry way, or more subtly. For example, ahimsa, or nonviolence, can be interpreted as refraining from hurting another person. But it can also mean not speaking violently about others, by refusing to gossip. Others practise nonviolence toward animals by becoming vegetarians. Gandhi’s practice of ahimsa incorporated all three.

Brahmacharya, the process of moderation, can show up for some as moderate eating habits. For others, it means managing their energy by abstaining from practices that sap it in unhealthy ways. Some translate brahmacharya as celibacy, a vow yogis have traditionally taken when entering an ashram.

I say most people find one of the 10 practices particularly challenging. its surrender comes back again and again to Satya or non-lying, and being straightforward icommunication. so that studying the Yamas and niyamas, how to navigate their everyday interactions, especially when it comes to having difficult conversations. through practice and learned to be gentle yet direct. Finding that balance is just as much practice as mastering Handstand or Tree pose.

Thanks for your all support🙏🙏

Where do those funny names for yoga poses come from?

Yoga postures – asanas – are given traditionally in the ancient language of Sanskrit. For more than 2,000 years, Sanskrit has been a classic literary language of India and a sacred language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.

Many yoga poses are named after heroes, saints and sages of India and Hindu myths. Others are named after animals and nature – observations by people in the world around them. These poses are all named in Sanskrit. Then there are the newcomers – the yoga postures that have developed in recent times, with names like “Wild Thing” or “Rock Star”.

Yoga pose Downward-facing dog.

Adho Mukha Svanasana is the name for Downward-facing Dog pose, which comes from a natural stretch that dogs do. Watch any dog get up from a nap and you’ll see a perfect “downward dog”.

Cobra pose (Bhujangasana) uses the symbol of the sacred cobra and the awakening of dormant energy for its action.



Yoga tree pose

Tree pose (Vrksasana) follows the nature of a tree to grow its roots down in the earth to be able to reach the sky.

Matsyendra Lord of the FisPosehe

deep spinal twists of the Lord of the Fishes Pose, or Matsyendrasana and Half Lord of the Fishes pose (Ardha Matsyendrasana), originate from the old Hindu myth about the early Ta***ic yoga master Matsyendra, known as the “Lord of the Fishes”. Matsyendra was an actual person, born in Bengal around the 10th century. In one myth about him, “the infant Matsyendra is thrown into the ocean because his birth has occurred under inauspicious planets. Swallowed by a giant fish, he overhears Shiva teaching the mysteries of yoga to his consort Parvati in their secret lair at the bottom of the ocean. Matsyendra is spellbound. After spending 12 years in the fish’s belly, all the while exploring yoga’s esoteric practices, he emerges as an enlightened master,”

Yoga pose Half Lord of virabhadrasana isYoga Journal

Warrior poses, or Virabhadrasana is named for the fierce warrior, Virabhadra, son of the god Shiva, whose qualities of courage, determination, balance and stamina are emulated in the poses.

The pose done at the end of every yoga class – Co**se pose (Savasana) – is the practice of the ultimate surrender of dying and deep peace. This restorative pose comes from the archetype of Shiva, the very first yogi, who is the god of destruction and letting go.

What is Yoga?

Yoga is a mental, spiritual and physical discipline stretching back 6,000 years to ancient India, and is associated with meditative practices in Hinduism and Buddhism. “Yoga”, in Sanskrit, can be trans slated as “union”; the purpose of yoga is to create a union, or balance, between mind, body and spirit. Ancient yogis developed these physical stretches and breathing exercises to strengthen and loosen their muscles and minds in preparation for centred meditation.

In today’s busy world, being centred and balanced is more important than ever. “Harnessing energy, having a vital healthy body, having a healthy mind – yoga helps us cope better to challenges in life,” “Most of us doing yoga have families, have jobs, have busy lives, and yoga helps us hone our skills to better serve ourselves and others.”

The Yoga Tārāvalī a Medieval Haṭha Yoga Text……

The Yoga Tārāvalī is a source often quoted within Aṣṭāṅga Yoga Communities because of the adoption of its opening verse (along with one of the traditional opening prayers to Patañjali) as their opening prayer dedications.

However it is a full text in itself, has 29 verses in total and is primarily teaching on Haṭha Yoga. It was one of the Haṭha texts taught by T Krishnamacharya to TKV Desikachar, along with the more popular medieval Haṭha Pradīpikā and other lesser-known Haṭha texts such as the Yoga Yājñavalkhya.

The Yoga Tārāvalī has been attributed by some to the 8th Century Advaita Founder Śaṅkara. However, it should be noted here that there is an Indian tradition of attributing texts or teachings to some ancient respected historical source as a form of humility on the part of the presenter, or perhaps to lend an immediate sense of provenance if seen to be originating from an authentic historical source.

The Yoga Tārāvalī is one such example where a thorough examination of the text about a study of the comparative chronology of both the textual content and the Haṭha Yoga techniques discussed raises questions as to both the dating of the text and because of that its authorship being attributed to Śaṅkara.

For example quoting from the well respected and scholarly attested ‘Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies’ volume X11 on ‘Yoga: India’s Philosophy of Meditation’ page 574.

“This small work in 29 verses is considered to be
an authoritative work on Rāja Yoga and Haṭha Yoga.
It is attributed to Śaṃkarācārya, but that attribution is highly unlikely.
The author and the date of the text are unknown.”

The common opinion amongst scholars of Haṭha Yoga is that it originates from the 14th century.