Yoga breathing

Gwinnett Yoga Center is a yoga program that offers classes, private lessons and workshops for all levels of yoga students. We focus on yoga as a way to serve an individual’s unique physical condition and lifestyle, not as a means of achieving the ‘perfect’ body or pose. The yoga poses and breathing techniques are adapted for each student to respect individual differences in age, physical and mental health, and occupation. In this program you will find a place to relax, an opportunity to develop your mind and body as you learn yoga in a safe and effective way.

The style of yoga taught at Gwinnett Yoga Center is in the tradition of Desikachar, son of Krishnamacharya, who was considered the most knowledgeable yoga teacher of the 20th century. Some of Krishnamacharya’s students include A. G. Mohan, Indra Devi, K. Pattabhi Jois, and B.K.S. Iyengar. Read more »

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Some yoga positions for beginners are quite simple but you should still slowly practice them. If you start to do yoga positions for beginners or any yoga exercises for that matter, early in the morning or before retiring at night, make certain you are not over-tired, but fully enough awake to relax and concentrate on what you are doing with these yoga basic positions.
Obviously little benefit would be derived from either asanas (yoga exercises) or mudras in this yoga positions for beginners performed while the mind is in such a state of fatigue that it cannot address itself to the task at hand. Read more »

ankles, arc, asanas yoga, benefit, cobra, deep breathing, knees, mudras, posture, spine, thighs, yoga positions for beginners

Kundalini yoga is known as one of the most powerful types of yoga. Sometimes it was called the mother of all the Styles of Yoga. This type of yoga awakens the energy at the base of our spine which is known as the Muladhara Chakra.

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Hatha Yoga builds on the lesson of the two aspects that we consist of: consciousness and energy. Read more »

body tension, consciousness, dealing with stress, emotions, nervous diseases, nervous systems, psyche, psychosomatic diseases, soma, sun and the moon, ulcers, yoga

The karma yoga for the Karma yogi is a more thrilling way to solve a problem, accomplish a task, rid his own self and others of physical or psychic distress, than to entertain himself - if you throw yourself into a task then there is not much time left over. What looks from the outside like a struggling person involved only with work, is in reality someone very inspired and attentive, absolutely clear-headed about what he is doing. Read more »

anger, emotions, happiness, inner thoughts, karma yoga, karma yogi, liberation, meaning of life, meditation, mindfulness

The achievements of the ancient Indians in the field of philosophy are but very imperfectly known to the world at large, and it is unfortunate that the condition is no better even in India. Read more »

ancient indians, ascetics, hindu scholars, indian logic, philosophical literature, puranas, sanskrit, upanishads, vedas

When the Vedas were composed, there was probably no system of writing prevalent in India. But such was the scrupulous zeal of the Brahmins, who got the whole Vedic literature by heart by hearing it from their preceptors, that it has been transmitted most faithfully to us through the course of the last 3000 years or more with little or no interpolations at all. Read more »

brahmin, hindus, hindu philosophy, history of india, religious authority, vedas, vedic civilization, vedic literature, vedic ritual

A beginner who is introduced for the first time to the study of later Sanskrit literature is likely to appear somewhat confused when he meets with authoritative texts of diverse purport and subjects having the same generic name “Veda” or “Shruti” (from shru to hear); for Veda in its wider sense is not the name of any particular book, but of the literature of a particular epoch extending over a long period, say two thousand years or so. Read more »

authoritative texts, brahmins, heart, preceptors, samhita, shruti, upanishads, veda

There are four collections or Samhitas, namely rig-Veda, Sama-Veda, Yajur-Veda and Atharva-Veda. Of these the rig-Veda is probably the earliest. The Sama-Veda has practically no independent value, for it consists of stanzas taken (excepting only 75) entirely from the rig-Veda, which were meant to be sung to certain fixed melodies, and may thus be called the book of chants. Read more »

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This tendency towards extolling a god as the greatest and highest gradually brought forth the conception of a supreme Lord of all beings (Prajapati), not by a process of conscious generalization but as a necessary stage of development of the mind, able to imagine a deity as the repository of the highest moral and physical power, though its direct manifestation cannot be perceived. Read more »

deities, life immortal, manifestation, man and beast, oblations, rigveda, sage, supreme lord

It will however be wrong to suppose that these monotheistic tendencies were gradually supplanting the polytheistic sacrifices. On the other hand, the complications of ritualism were gradually growing in their elaborate details. Read more »

creation of the world, demon, devotion, dignity, eternity, fulfilment, magical results, rituals, sacrifice, vedas, virtue

The cosmogony of the rig-Veda may be looked at from two aspects, the mythological and the philosophical. The mythological aspect has in general two currents, as Professor Macdonell says, “The one regards the universe as the result of mechanical production, the work of carpenter’s and joiner’s skill; the other represents it as the result of natural generation (1).” Read more »

atman, births, brahmana, cosmogony, golden egg, hymn 5, immortality, navel, pantheistic, rig veda, supreme being

Though it is generally held that the Upanishads are usually attached as appendices to the Aranyakas which are again attached to the Brahmanas, yet it cannot be said that their distinction as separate treatises is always observed. Read more »

ancient philosophers, aranyakas, brahmanas, hindu view, jnana, meditation, upanishads, vedas, vedic literature

The Upanishads are also known by another name Vedanta, as they are believed to be the last portions of the Vedas (veda-anta, end); it is by this name that the philosophy of the Upanishads, the Vedanta philosophy, is so familiar to us. A modern student knows that in language the Upanishads approach the classical Sanskrit; the ideas preached also show that they are the culmination of the intellectual achievement of a great epoch. Read more »

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The passage of the Indian mind from the Brahmanic to the Upanishad thought is probably the most remarkable event in the history of philosophic thought. We know that in the later Vedic hymns some monotheistic conceptions of great excellence were developed, but these differ in their nature from the absolutism of the Upanishads as much as the Ptolemaic and the Copernican systems in astronomy. Read more »

atman, brahman, one god, principle, rig veda, upanishads, vedic hymns

The word Upanishad is derived from the root sad with the prefix ni (to sit), and Max Muller says that the word originally meant the act of sitting down near a teacher and of submissively listening to him. Read more »

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The oldest Upanishads are written in prose. Next to these we have some in verses very similar to those that are to be found in classical Sanskrit. Read more »

anatomy of the body, asceticism, classical sanskrit, cult, katha, methods of exposition, mundaka, sanskrit language, secret doctrine, self restraint, shiva, upanishad, visnu

How the Upanishads came to be introduced into Europe is an interesting story. Dara Shiko the eldest son of the Emperor Shah Jahan heard of the Upanishads during his stay in Kashmir in 1640. He invited several Pandits from Benares to Delhi, who undertook the work of translating them into Persian. Read more »

benares, indian wisdom, kashmir, pandits, sanskrit literature, schopenhauer, upanishads, vedas, zend avesta

It is difficult to say how the systems were originally formulated, and what were the influences that led to it. We know that a spirit of philosophic enquiry had already begun in the days of the earliest Upanishads. Read more »

aphorisms, atman, enquiry, gautama, pupils, upanishad

The Hindus classify the systems of philosophy into two classes, namely, the nastika and the astika. The nastika (na asti “it is not”) views are those which neither regard the Vedas as infallible nor try to establish their own validity on their authority. These are principally three in number, the Buddhist, Jaina and the Carvaka. The astika-mata or orthodox schools are six in number, Samkhya, Yoga, Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya and Vaisheshika, generally known as the six systems (shaddarshana (1)). Read more »

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It is, however, remarkable that with the exception of the Carvaka materialists all the other systems agree on some fundamental points of importance. The systems of philosophy in India were not stirred up merely by the speculative demands of the human mind which has a natural inclination for indulging in abstract thought, but by a deep craving after the realization of the religious purpose of life. Read more »

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The examination of the two ancient Nastika schools of Buddhism and Jainism of two different types ought to convince us that serious philosophical speculations were indulged in, in circles other than those of the Upanishad sages (1). Read more »

attainment, brahmanas, magical power, philosophical speculations, sacrifices, sages, upanishads, vedas, vedic

The main exposition of the system of Samkhya and Yoga in this section has been based on the Samkhya karika, the Samkhya sutras, and the Yoga sutras of Patanjali with their commentaries and sub-commentaries. The Samkhya karika (about 200 A.D.) was written by Ishvarakrishna. Read more »

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It is important for the history of Samkhya philosophy that Caraka’s treatment of it, which so far as I know has never been dealt with in any of the modern studies of Samkhya, should be brought before the notice of the students of this philosophy. Read more »

akasa, atman, auditory sense, cognition, five elements, five senses, illuminations, karma, manas, pleasure pain, purusha, samkhya philosophy, sense of touch, visual sense

Pancashikha speaks of the ultimate truth as being avyakta (a term applied in all Samkhya literature to prakriti) in the state of purusha (purusavasthamavyaktam). If man is the product of a mere combination of the different elements, then one may assume that all ceases with death. Read more »

annihilation, atman, existence, gunas, moksha, moral responsibility, purusha, renunciation

The earliest descriptions of a Samkhya which agrees with Ishvarakrishna’s Samkhya (but with an addition of Ishvara) are to be found in Patanjali’s Yoga sutras and in the Mahabharata; but we are pretty certain that the Samkhya of Caraka we have sketched here was known to Patanjali, for in Yoga sutra I. 19 a reference is made to a view of Samkhya similar to this. Read more »

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Do you want to become certified as a yoga instructor? Yoga is now offered in nearly every gym and fitness-health club. Yoga is a very old complete method of health and fitness which originated in India. It is no surprise that Yoga has become accepted as one of the best ways to achieve health, fitness and balance. Yoga is not a belief or a religion but a way to reach our greater mental and physical potential. Yoga is an advanced system that works on developing and balancing strength and flexibility, stamina, focus and endurance. Read more »

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A word of explanation is necessary as regards my interpretation of the Samkhya-Yoga system. The Samkhya karika is the oldest Samkhya text on which we have commentaries by later writers. Read more »

commentaries, gunas, intelligence, reference to, sutras, upanishads, yoga system

The word yoga occurs in the rig-Veda in various senses such as yoking or harnessing, achieving the unachieved, connection, and the like. Read more »

asceticism, bhagavadgita, brihadaranyaka upanishad, highest power, middle path, panini, philosophical ideas, rig veda, sanskrit literature, vow of celibacy, word yoga, yuj

We have now to meet the vexed question of the probable date of this famous Yoga author Patanjali. Weber had tried to connect him with Kapya Patamchala of Shatapatha Brahmana; in Katyayana’s Varttika we get the name Patanjali which is explained by later commentators as patantah anjalayah yasmai (for whom the hands are folded as a mark of reverence), but it is indeed difficult to come to any conclusion merely from the similarity of names (1). Read more »

commentators, grammarian, panini, patanjali, western scholars, yoga sutra

The conception of Yoga as we meet it in the Maitrayana Upanishad consisted of six angas or accessories, namely pranayama, pratyahara, dhyana, dharana, tarka and samadhi (1). Read more »

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The Samkhya philosophy as we have it now admits two principles, souls and prakriti, the root principle of matter. Souls are many, like the Jaina souls, but they are without parts and qualities. Read more »

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These three types of ultimate subtle entities are technically called guna in Samkhya philosophy (1). Read more »

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Samkhya believes that before this world came into being there was such a state of dissolution–a state in which the guna compounds had disintegrated into a state of disunion and had by their mutual opposition produced an equilibrium the prakriti. Read more »

Cosmic Evolution, gunas, manifestation, mutual opposition, phenomenal product, phenomenon, rajas, resistance, sattva, tendencies

But how or rather why prakriti should be disturbed is the most knotty point in Samkhya. It is postulated that the prakriti or the sum-total of the gunas is so connected with the purushas, and there is such an inherent teleology or blind purpose in the lifeless prakriti, that all its evolution and transformations tike place for the sake of the diverse purushas, to serve the enjoyment of pleasures and sufferance of pain through experiences, and finally leading them to absolute freedom or mukti. Read more »

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The first evolute of the prakriti is generated by a preponderance of the sattva (intelligence-stuff). This is indeed the earliest state from which all the rest of the world has sprung forth; and it is a state in which the stuff of sattva predominates. It thus holds within it the minds (buddhi) of all purushas which were lost in the prakriti during the pralaya. Read more »

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The other tendency, namely that of tamas, has to be helped by the liberated rajas of ahamkara, in order to make itself preponderant, and this state in which the tamas succeeds in overcoming the sattva side which was so preponderant in the buddhi, is called bhutadi (1). Read more »

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The question is raised, how can the prakriti supply the deficiencies made in its evolutes by the formation of other evolutes from them? When from mahat some tanmatras have evolved, or when from the tanmatras some atoms have evolved, how can the deficiency in mahat and the tanmatras be made good by the prakriti? (1). Read more »

cause and effect, concomitant conditions, gross body, gunas, karana, latent powers, manifestation, material cause, potential energy, shakti, ultimate energy

Granted that the interchange of the positions of the infinite number of reals produce all the world and its transformations; whence comes this fixed order of the universe, the fixed order of cause and effect, the fixed order of the so-called barriers which prevent the transformation of any cause into any effect or the first disturbance of the equilibrium of the prakriti? Read more »

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The question again arises that though purusha is pure intelligence, the gunas are non-intelligent subtle substances, how can the latter come into touch with the former? Read more »

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It has been said that buddhi and the internal objects have evolved in order to giving scope to the experience of the purusha. What is the process of this experience? Read more »

abstraction, consciousness, imagination, manas, perception, purusha, sattva, senses, sense data

Samkhya and the Yoga, like the Buddhists, hold that all experience is sorrowful. Tamas, we know, represents the pain substance. As tamas must be present in some degree in all combinations, all intellectual operations are fraught with some degree of painful feeling (1). Read more »

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The word Yoga which was formerly used in Vedic literature in the sense of the restraint of the senses is used by Patanjali in his Yoga sutra in the sense of the partial or full restraint or steadying of the states of citta. Read more »

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When the mind has become pure the chances of its being ruffled by external disturbances are greatly reduced. At such a stage the yogin takes a firm posture (asana) and fixes his mind on any object he chooses. It is, however, preferable that he should fix it on Ishvara, for in that case Ishvara being pleased removes many of the obstacles in his path, and it becomes easier for him to attain success. Read more »

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