Yoga breathing

Here are some Hatha yoga videos, from beginners to advanced stages. Yoga is one of the best ways to cultivate your mind and body union. It tones muscles, increases flexibility, calms the mind and can improve overall health. You can notice results from your very first practice, and as you become familiar with the postures, both your yoga practice and your body will evolve in an enriching and truly powerful way. Read more »

asanas, demonstration classes, dhyana, energy enhancement, hatha yoga, mind and body, path to enlightenment, postures, pranayama, raja yoga, swami, word yoga, yoga asana, yoga posture, yoga practice

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 »

ahimsa, anga, asana, dhyana, karuna, niyama, patanjali, pranayama, samadhi, satya, sex control, tarka, upanishad, yoga sutras

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 »

ananda, asana, concentration, external disturbances, impressions, objective world, obstacles, purusha, remembrance, samadhi, true knowledge

‘Raja’ means king and thus Raja Yoga is the ‘Kingly Yoga’ or the ‘Royal Way’ of Yoga. Our mind is the ‘King’ in question, the master in our lives is the mind, and the control of mind is the primary concern of Raja Yoga.
Read more »

aphorisms of yoga, concentration, dhyana meditation, eight limbs yoga, hatha yoga, patanjali, raja yoga, states of ecstasy, yoga sutras

Yoga in its definition of the structure of the world has many things in common with Sankhya, but it differs indeed from Sankhya in admitting the existence of God. Of course the God’s concept in Yoga, as happened in Nyaya, has passed through different stages: from the primitive one, indifferent presence, God has become, under the influence of theistic tides, an active assistant of liberation. The assimilation with Shiva of the popular religion confers him little by little all the ownerships of Ishvara, the Supreme almighty Being. Read more »

asceticism, existence of god, liberation, moral discipline, right knowledge, sacred texts, sankhya, yoga

Yoga asanas have been developed over thousand years to promote physical health and to prepare the student to higher yoga stages of meditation. Each yoga pose is attentively designed to focus on particular areas of the body. Read more »

cakra, muscles of the body, visceral organs, yoga asanas, yoga poses, yoga practices, yoga practitioner

The atma, by its association with the upadhis has three states of consciousness - namely, the jagrat, or waking state, when through the sense organs are perceived objects of sense through the operation of manas and buddhi. It is explained in the Isvarapratya-bhijna as follows - “the waking state dear to all is the source of external action through the activity of the senses.” The Jiva is called jagari - that is, he who takes upon himself the gross body called Visva. Read more »

atma, causal body, conscious, dreamless sleep, dream state, gross body, jiva, karana, macrocosm, manas, objectification, sense impressions, sense organs, sound sleep, states of consciousness, subtle body, yoga sutra

SADHANA is that which produces siddhi. It is the means, or practice, by which the desired end may be attained, and consists in the exercise and training of the body and psychic faculties, upon the gradual perfection of which siddhi follows; the nature and degree of which, again, depends upon the progress made towards the realization of the atma, whose veiling vesture the body is. Read more »

adhikari, atma, brahma, jnana, kaula, manas, moral qualities, panca, psychic faculties, puja, renunciation, ritualism, ritual practice, sadhana, samadhi, universal self

Kaula-dharma is in no wise sectarian, but, on the contrary, is the heart of all sects. This the true meaning of the phrase which, like many another touching the Tantra, is misunderstood, and used to fix the kaula with hypocrisy - antah-saktah, bahihsaivah, sabhayam vaisnavamatah, nana-rupadharah kaulah vicaranti mahitale; (outwardly Saivas; in gatherings, (1) Vaisnavas; at heart, Saktas; under various forms the Kaulas wander on earth). Read more »

cremation, funeral rites, gnosis, hamsa, heart, jnana, kaula, parama, passions, phases of the moon, pisaca, samsara, tantra

By mantra the sought-for (sadhya) Devata is attained and compelled. By siddhi in mantra is opened the vision of the three worlds. Though the purpose of worship (puja), reading (patha), hymn (stava), sacrifice (homa), dhyana, dharana, and samadhi, and that of the diksa-mantra are the same, yet the latter is far more powerful, and this for the reason that, in the first, the sadhaka’s sadhana-sakti works, in conjunction with mantra-sakti which has the revelation and force of fire, and than which nothing is more powerful. Read more »

bija, hymns of praise, mantra, mantras, monosyllabic, nitya, nyasa, puja, quintessence, saumya, tantrik

Thiss word, derived from the root Yuj (”to join”), is in grammar samdhi, in logic avayavasakti, or the power of the parts taken together and in its most widely known and present sense the union of the jiva or embodied spirit, with the Paramatma, or Supreme Spirit (1) and the practices by which this union may be attained. Read more »

jiva, jnana, munis, sastra, supernatural, supreme spirit, yoga, yuj

Lastly, through samadhi the quality of nirliptatva, or detachment, and thereafter mukti (liberation) is attained. Samadhi considered as a process is intense mental concentration, with freedom from all samkalpa, and attachment to the world, and all sense of “mineness,” or self-interest (mamata). Considered as the result of such process it is the union of Jiva with the Paramatrna.(1) Read more »

anahata, atma, bhakti yoga, bliss, brahman, dhyana yoga, manas, meditation, mental concentration, nada, rajayoga, samadhi yoga, visnu