Truth about 10 Reasons for Yoga
according to Yoga Day USA
Yoga Day USA lists "Top
10 Reasons to Try Yoga for Life" on their website www.YogaDayUSA.org
Unfortunately, most of their reasons have little to do with authentic,
traditional Yoga.
YOGA DAY USA REASON #1.
YOGA FOR … STRESS RELIEF:
Yoga reduces the physical effects of stress on the body. By encouraging
relaxation, yoga helps to lower the levels of the stress hormone
cortisol. Related benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart
rate, improving digestion and boosting the immune system as well as
easing symptoms of conditions such as anxiety, depression, fatigue,
asthma and insomnia.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Most people in the West, and also many in India, confuse Yoga with
Hatha Yoga, the system of bodily postures. But Yoga is primarily a
spiritual discipline.(Paramahansa Yogananda)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #2.
YOGA FOR … PAIN RELIEF:
Yoga can ease pain. Studies have demonstrated that practicing yoga
asanas (postures), meditation or a combination of the two, reduced pain
for people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis,
auto-immune diseases and hypertension as well as arthritis, back and
neck pain and other chronic conditions. Some practitioners report that
even emotional pain can be eased through the practice of yoga.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Yoga has become the health and fitness system of choice. This is odd
because it is the mind - not the body - that is the main target of
all genuine Yoga practices .... To regard Yoga primarily as a set of
practices for increasing strength and flexibility while calming the
nervous system is to mistake the husk for the kernel.(Pandit Rajmani
Tigunait)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #3.
YOGA FOR … BETTER BREATHING:
Yoga teaches people to take slower, deeper breaths. This helps to
improve lung function, trigger the body’s relaxation response and
increase the amount of oxygen available to the body.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Like many arts and sciences that are profound, beautiful, and
powerful, yoga has suffered from the spiritual poverty of the modern
world--it has been trivialized, watered down, or reduced to cliches.
The deep and eternal essence of yoga has been misrepresented and
packaged for personal profit by clever people. (Bhole Prabhu)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #4.
YOGA FOR … FLEXIBILITY:
Yoga helps to improve flexibility and mobility, increasing range of
movement and reducing aches and pains. Many people can’t touch their
toes during their first yoga class. Gradually they begin to use the
correct muscles. Over time, the ligaments, tendons and muscles lengthen,
increasing elasticity, making more poses possible. Yoga also helps to
improve body alignment resulting in better posture and helping to
relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
In ancient times hatha Yoga was practiced for many years as a
preparation for higher states of consciousness. Now however, the
real purpose of this great science is being altogether forgotten
.The hatha Yoga practices which were designed by the rishis and
sages of old, for the evolution of mankind, are now being understood
and utilized in a very limited sense.(Swami Satyananda Saraswati)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #5.
YOGA FOR … INCREASED STRENGTH:
Yoga asanas (postures) use every muscle in the body, helping to increase
strength literally from head to toe. And, while these postures
strengthen the body, they also provide an additional benefit of helping
to relieve muscular tension.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Yoga is not mere acrobatics . Some people suppose that Yoga is
primarily concerned with the manipulation of the body into various
queer positions, standing on the head, for instance, or twisting
about the spine, or assuming any of the numerous odd poses which are
demonstrated in the text-books on Yoga. These techniques are
correctly employed in one distinct type of Yoga practice, but they
do not form an integral part of the most essential type. Physical
posture serve at best as an auxiliary, or a minor form of
Yoga.(Swami Chidananda Saraswati)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #6.
YOGA FOR … WEIGHT MANAGEMENT:
Yoga (even less vigorous styles) can aid weightcontrol efforts by
reducing the cortisol levels as well as by burning excess calories and
reducing stress. Yoga also encourages healthy eating habits and provides
a heightened sense of well being and self esteem.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Many false and incomplete teachings have been propagated in its
name, it has been subject to commercial exploitation, and one small
aspect of Yoga is often taken to be all of Yoga. For instance, many
people in the West think it is a physical and beauty cult, while
others think it is a religion. All of this has obscured the real
meaning of Yoga.(Swami Rama)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #7.
YOGA FOR … IMPROVED CIRCULATION:
Yoga helps to improve circulation and, as a result of various poses,
more efficiently moves oxygenated blood to the body’s cells.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
Through the discipline of Yoga, both actions and intelligence go
beyond these qualities [gunas] and the seer comes to experience his
own soul with crystal clarity, free from the relative attributes of
nature and actions. This state of purity is samadhi. Yoga is thus
both the means and the goal. Yoga is samadhi and samadhi is Yoga.(B.
K. S. Iyengar)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #8.
YOGA FOR … CARDIOVASCULAR CONDITIONING:
Even gentle yoga practice can provide cardio-vascular benefits by
lowering resting heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen
uptake during exercise.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
The main objective of hatha Yoga is to create an absolute balance of
the interacting activities and processes of the physical body, mind
and energy. When this balance is created, the impulses generated
give a call of awakening to the central force (sushumna nadi) which
is responsible for the evolution of human consciousness. If hatha
Yoga is not used for this purpose, its true objective is lost.(Swami
Satyananda Saraswati)
YOGA DAY USA REASON #9.
YOGA FOR … FOCUS ON THE PRESENT:
Yoga helps us to focus on the present, to become more aware and to help
create mind body health. It opens the way to improved concentration,
coordination, reaction time and memory.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
The goal of Yoga is Yoga itself, union itself, of the little self
and the True Self, a process of awakening to the preexisting union
that is called Yoga. Yoga has to do with the realization through
direct experience of the preexisting union between Atman and
Brahman, Jivatman and Paramatman, and Shiva and Shakti, or the
realization of Purusha standing alone as separate from
Prakriti.(Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati)
YOGA DAY USA REASON
#10.
YOGA FOR … INNER PEACE:
The meditative aspects of yoga help many to reach a deeper, more
spiritual and more satisfying place in their lives. Many who begin to
practice for other reasons have reported this to be a key reason that
yoga has become an essential part of their daily lives.(This finally
touches on the real reasons for Yogaby mentioning that it is for
“spiritual” reasons.)
THE TRUTH ABOUT
YOGA:
You use the body as a medium to bring the mind back to the brain.
Perfect marriage between body and mind. Then, you can reach and
knock the door to the spirit.... Yoga is free. It belongs to the
earth. It's a god.(Bikram Choudhury)
This site is devoted to
presenting the ancient Self-Realization path of
the Tradition of the Himalayan masters in simple, understandable and
beneficial ways, while not compromising quality or depth. The goal of
our sadhana or practices is the highest
Joy that comes from the Realization in direct experience of the
center of consciousness, the Self, the Atman or Purusha, which is
one and the same with the Absolute Reality.
This Self-Realization comes through Yoga meditation of the Yoga
Sutras, the contemplative insight of Advaita Vedanta, and the
intense devotion of Samaya Sri Vidya Tantra, the three of which
complement one another like fingers on a hand.
We employ the classical approaches of Raja, Jnana, Karma, and Bhakti
Yoga, as well as Hatha, Kriya, Kundalini, Laya, Mantra, Nada, Siddha,
and Tantra Yoga. Meditation, contemplation, mantra and prayer
finally converge into a unified force directed towards the final
stage, piercing the pearl of wisdom called bindu, leading to the
Absolute.
