| Magazine
- June 2008 |
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| A Selection
from the Contents Page: |
| Universal Aspects of Practical Yoga |
-by Shri Yogendraji |
Suggestions on Yoga |
-by Dr.Jayadeva Yogendra |
| Anxiety, Emotions, Heart |
-by Dr. Ambardekar |
| The Nature of God |
-by Shri Andrew Levitt |
| The King who was Willing to Learn |
-by Kum. Hella Naura |
| Ways to Weaken Suffering-Gentleness |
-by Shri John Kimbrough |
| Seeting Your Outlook |
-by Shri Dhruv Sinha |
| Editorial by Dr. Jayadeva
Yogendra |
The concept of
Yoga being an education to uplift the human
being from the ignoble to the noble has to
be worked upon systematically. All the issues
that go in its serious study like wheter the
learner is very sincere to learn and mould
himself or herself as required by the teacher
to undergo the hardships of the study will
have to be considered.
We have unfortunatelty just a passing interest
in Yoga, the subject has not been presented
to us in its fullness. There is a lot of misunderstanding
and misinterpretation and we understand by
Yoga only, asanas pranayams mudras etc. |
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The learner will have
to do some home work to understand the subject, should
study authentic literature, meet genuine practitioners,
search honest gurus and build for himself or herself
a correct image of Yoga.
Once one has understood Yoga as a Culture consciousness
leading to change in objectives and values, it is
then that one could arrive at a decision whether one
wishes to go in for a serious study of Yoga. "Am
I a fit student-a Adhikari-to enter into a Yogic Life?"
One who talks and performs merely Asanas, Pranayamas,
Kriyas, Mudras etc. fades away into the background
and is just a 'also ran in Yoga' and no more than
that. |
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
by Hansaji
Chapter III Sutra 50
Once that kind of understanding comes
where the individual has actual experience of
a total knowledge of things then there is no attraction
left.
Human efforts continue because of this mistaken
notion of gaining something more and something
new. However, when the limitations of our knowledge
and material possessions is obtained there is
no desire left. There was only a partial occupation
of some mistake or imperfection in any situation.
We would leave that and go for something else.
This happens in business where noticing difficulty
in one kind of business, one could take to something
else. The distinction becomes complete. So far
as the Yogis are concerned, after they realize
through Samadhi, the shortcoming of all kind of
material activities, this leads to a total disinterestedness.
It ends in Kaivalya or freedom. One just remains
a spectator without one getting involved in life
situations that would lead to suffering.
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UNIVERSAL ASPECTS
OF PRACTICAL YOGA – Shri Yogendraji.
The practice of Yoga preceded its metaphysical speculations
and in its early development, the Yoga methods were
not dependent on any particular metaphysical theory.
Even to this day, there are many Yogins who admit of
their relation to Samkhya-Yoga philosophical tenets
only theoretically without any marked influence on their
practical course of training or on the final achievement
of their objects. Thus the theoretical speculations
of Kapila or Patanjali in regard to the nature of soul
(Purusa), matter (Prakrti), emancipation or aloneness
(Kaiivalya) etc, did not seem to have made much of a
difference in the practical course of discipline of
the Yogins. It is because of the fact that the science
of Yoga from the earliest period was absorbed and grafted,
even in many of its details, in their own systems by
almost all the schools of Indian philosophy and has
as a result so broad and cosmopolitan in its outlook
that in its present form it is very difficult to associate
this scientific Yoga with any metaphysical doctrine
to which it can be considered to have remained faithful.
And while the Hatha Yoga treatises, while making any
reference to their own philosophical tenets, admit of
the dependence on the Raja (Patanjala Samkya) Yoga teachings,
there are a number of Yogins who follow not so much
for the knowledge of difference of Purusa and Prakrti
or for attainment of Kaivalya but towards the controlling
of other senses. The purpose of concentration is nothing
but an unconscious move towards the attainment of Yoga.
So any practice that teaches us to control the external
and internal senses for the purpose of concentration
is known as Yoga. It may be either natural or it may
come as a result of some definite system of training.
The recent instance of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a
case of natural yoga tendency while the case of Sadhu
Haridas in 1835 was a result of a systematic training
of Hatha Yoga. In nature also we find some sort of a
suspension of activities as in the case of Hatha Yogins.
The case of Salamandar or Lingustri, or such other animals
who suspend the activities of their senses without being
conscious of it, proves that there is such a stage in
nature. But when this stage has to be attained with
the perfect development of consciousness, by the control
of all the mental modifications, various physical and
mental practices which fall under the class of different
kinds of yoga become necessary. The practical Yoga thus
embraces all kinds of activities that lead to self-culture.
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