More is not always better

Some modern ‘Yoga’ teachers advise their students to perform Yoga postures at a faster pace and do it for a longer duration – more is always better! In fact one of the research papers on Yoga benefits even compares Yoga with some African tribal dance that is supposed to be very strenuous!

Perplexing ‘Yoga’ breathing claims

I have heard many ‘Yoga’ Gurus making claims on how ‘Yoga’ breathing works. I am not sure whether their claims are medically sound.

Tail wagging the dog!

One of my readers recently complained to me that I give too much emphasis on ‘Yama’ and ‘Niyama’ of Yoga. The reader felt that ‘Yama’ and ‘Niyama’ are not at all necessary! And laying emphasis on them discourages people from practicing Yoga!

 

Well, he is not the only one who makes such statements.

Yogic hair splitting

Some of my readers have pointed out my ‘wrong’ usage of the word ‘steps’ while referring to Patanjali’s Ashtänga Yoga  as ‘Patanjali’s 8 step Yoga process’.

Yes. The word Ashtänga literally means 8 limbs and not 8 steps. But if you have carefully observed these 8

Yogic Law of Exponentials

Many people have asked me – “How long does it take to experience the effectiveness of Yoga?” The simple answer is “it depends!”

 

For most people effectiveness means stress reduction which is one of the prominent effects of Yoga if practiced properly. Less stress means better health, better performance, peace of mind, and so on. Now, how long does it take?

Which is the best Yoga?

Nowadays, people have wide options even for Yoga – something like a menu card in a restaurant! Of course, each item comes tagged with a price 😉 How does one decide?

Yoga timeline (over 3000 years)

One keeps hearing/reading different things being called Yoga. Most people have various notions about Yoga that are quite confusing. So I thought of giving a brief timeline of Yoga (set of practices that apparently resemble the system propounded by Patanjali – a generally accepted source) spanning over 3000 years.

‘that’ which one needs to know

We started this series of posts with a question whether there is anything after knowing which we know everything; after hearing which we have heard everything. Or in other words, what is the essence of all the diversity we see around us as the world and our individual existences?

More ways to sink in the fundamental truth

In the previous posts we saw the origin and final destiny of the universe that we see around. But Swetaketu was still not convinced in spite of his father reasoning it out the way we did in previous posts. So, father gives more analogies to sink in the truth.

Forward trace instead of back tracing

In the previous post we back traced to infer the fundamental cause for this universe. There is one more way that can lead you to the same conclusion. Instead of back tracing, trace forward.

Supposing you have a dying man. Observe him carefully. Gradually, his ability to see, hear, feel and so on cease. And finally he dies. His body is still there but he is dead. Why? Because the soul has left the body.