Showing posts with label Authentic Yoga. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Authentic Yoga. Show all posts

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Origin of Yoga and its journey to America (Series – Authentic Yoga Tradition-1)



Origin of Yoga and its journey to America
(Series – Authentic Yoga Tradition-1)
By
Acharya Girish Jha, Mentor, Guide and Life Coach
Yoga represents a philosophy comprehensive enough to embrace the whole of knowledge, everything that was, is and must be. Yoga is the master of all sciences. By integrating the material and transcendental divine, yoga enables one to lead a balanced life with the optimum level of physical, mental and spiritual well being. Yoga is also the greatest and most difficult of all the arts. It is the discipline in life of coming in conscious contact with the divine or ultimate consciousness- The source. So yoga calls for self-conscious human beings to understand mentally and intellectually its philosophy, to follow it as a path systematically and to experiment within life and experience the new level of consciousness that in the end results in enlightenment.  
History of Yoga in India
The birth of human civilization (oldest) is known as Indus Valley Civilization or Sindhu-Sarswat tradition is as old as 5000 B.C.   The oldest text Rig-Veda is considered to be written prior to 1900 BC, around 3100 BC before Sarswat River went dry in 1900 BC
A beautiful verse from Rig-Veda explains all about Yoga:
When a Yogi has control on his 5 organs of action, 5 organs of perception and mind through the power of Yoga, in this way when he does meditation, then he sees God - (Rig Veda Mantra I, Sukta 93 Mandal 9).
There are as many as 900 texts were written and available during the period until 300 AD, in which references about philosophy, practices of yoga are explained in detail. These texts are classified into two groups- Shruti and Smriti. Shruti are authoritative texts, while Smriti are secondary texts. All these texts prove the continuing of Yoga Tradition during the period of over 8000 years. Following Shruti Texts have many references of philosophy and practices of Yoga: Four Vedas  namely Rig Veda, Yajur-Veda, Sam-Veda and Atharva-Veda , Aryankas( texts written perhaps in forests by masters)  specially Aiterya and Shankhayana ( name of texts), Brahman Granthas( name of texts), Upanishads( 32 out of 108 Upanishad texts essentially belong to Yoga). Following Smriti texts refer about Yoga practices : Dharma Shasta (  27 texts which refers about Yoga), Mahakavyas (the Epics; they include Mahabharata and the Ramayana) – Bhagvad Gita – the famous text is part of Mahabharata has 30 million copies in over 30 languages of the world, Puranas (the fables or writings) –  18 Puranas , Sutras (proverbs or aphorisms) – there are as many as 100 texts under this category explains about Yoga, Agamas (the philosophies; including Mantras, Tantras, and Yantras) –  250 texts , Darsanas (the philosophies; including the Vedanta) – there are total nine divisions out of which six are known as followers of Vedic Principles while rest three are Non-followers of Veda are Jainism, Buddhism, and Charvaka.
 Many great masters during the period beginning from 700 AD until present time have immensely contributed and have written very authentic texts on Yoga. Kabir, Rai Das, Meera, Sahajo Bai, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Mother, Telanga Swami, Swami Rama, Osho, Mahrashi Raman are few of many names who influenced the entire humanity.

Journey of Yoga to America

Swami Vivekananda in 1893, Mastmuni in 1919, Paramhamsa Yoagnanda in 1920, Indra Devi (Russian Born) in 1947, Maharshi Mahesh Yogi in 1960 is few of many who popularized Yoga in different forms and styles in America. The most notable who laid the foundation and awakened the American mind to think beyond their own set paradigms of life was Swami Vivekananda. In 1893, in the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA, speech of Swami Vivekananda is well remembered. This marked the beginning of interest of Americans in Indian Philosophy, particularly Yoga. The very first phrase used by Swami Vivekananda, “Sisters and Brothers of America” mesmerized the audience present there.
 According to one conservative estimate over 17 million Americans are practicing one or the other schools of Yoga 2-3 times weekly. Yoga is now a $20 billion dollar industry and is increasing at the rate of 30% annually. The first ever Yoga center was established by two monks of Swami Vivekananda, known as Vedanta Society of Chicago.
Yoga: A science of making a better person
I was asked by an audience in Indonesia, after a lecture on Yoga, “I am a Christian, and can I practice Yoga.”
I was really amused by his question and said,” If you are a Christian and practice Yoga, you become a better Christian. If you are a teacher and practice Yoga, become a better teacher. If you are a husband, practice Yoga, become a better husband.”
Yoga discovers the Real Self (that dwells within every human being) guided by Peace, Harmony, Love, Delight and Wisdom.  And when one discovers and brings these attributes into one’s life, one evolves consciously , drops all his/her inhibitions and awakens inherent latent traits that makes him wiser and wiser , besides attaining physical, mental and emotional well being. That is why, Yoga is also termed as way of life that harmonizes every layers of Human Existence i.e. Body, Life and Mind. A simple query to your self-followed by contemplation as how to be good/better person in personal, professional, social lives will take one to understand the philosophy of yoga and encourages him to practice yoga in order to bring about fundamental changes in life.

The next blog we will cover “Perennial Philosophy of Yoga for Modern Man’ (series –Authentic Yoga Tradition-2)
Contact Acharya Girish Jha at guruji220@gmail.com
Acharya Girish Jha, a master teacher, mentor, guide, and blogger and life coach holds MS, BS, Dip. Yoga, nature cure, Cert. in Research methodology, and Board Certified Professional Counselor (APA). A deep urge for self-discovery inspired to spend yrs. in Himalayas and with many yoga and spiritual traditions. He learnt from more than 100 Himalayan masters, teachers and saints. He has the credit of teaching over 100000 people during the last over 33 years, conducting over 1000 workshops, seminars, and talks, actively conducting res. projects in Asthma, Diabetes, Stress Management, High Altitude Sickness research, meditation and stress management, offered life coaching (integral wisdom with customized practices) to more than   500 couples, conducted over 300 Radio talk shows, anchored over 30 TV serials on Yoga. He has experience of over 28000 hours of teaching (6000 hrs. of life coaching and spiritual counseling), contributed over 200 articles/papers on yoga and yoga research, and developed specialized practices based on conscious evolution and transformation.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

ShantoHam Meditation- Passive Meditation for YOU


Authentic Yoga Tradition offers thousands of practices of meditation, written and taught by great masters in over 1000 texts. There are many classifications of meditations depending upon the path of yoga to be followed. One classification is Passive, Active and Dynamic meditations. Other classification is Shtula (gross), Sukshma (Subtle) and Jyotirmaya (light) meditation practices. Still other classifies practices of meditation as Discursive, Reflective, and Concentrated meditations.
All meditation is a journey from outside to inside. All meditations aim at self-discovery. All meditations aim at awakening to higher ranges of consciousness beyond mind. In reality, all meditations transcend the mind, opens to higher, generally termed as spiritual consciousness.  What is very important to understand is that whether we are moving into meditation consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously. There are many practices of meditations especially in Hatha Yoga that begins the journey consciously but make a transition unconsciously. The practitioner is not at all aware of what is happening as these meditations progresses. When he returns from meditation, he recalls what had happened in meditation. Many a times, these experiences lead person to hallucinations i.e. altered states of consciousness.
There are masters who inspired their students to follow the meditation practices consciously. It helps to know how mind moves within, how mind moves without thoughts, how mind understands through visions and images, how mind melts or transcends even when awareness is maintained. This moving consciously into meditation leaves no chance for any hallucinations. Further, it opens the ranges of consciousness and their movements and interaction with body, brain, mind, and the emotions.
ShantoHam meditation is also a meditation practice that follows every step consciously. the practitioner knows what he is doing at every moment into meditation. It follows strictly the fundamentals of authentic Yoga tradition. There are few steps that includes in ShantoHam Meditation
  1. Being Comfortable, Carefree and Causal
  2. Raising the energy from lower to higher consciousness
  3. Inducing Stillness and Quietness
  4. Expanding awareness in order to drop the mind
  5. Enjoying the state of meditation
  6. Maintaining or state of being while being aware of the mind and its activities on the surface
  7. Returning by moving from outside to inside
  8. Chanting to influence the mind again
ShantoHam means, “I am the Peace.”  All the steps above allow the conscious mind to identify with “ShantoHam” so that mind drops all its activities , thoughts , feelings that either come from outside or from unconsciousness, thereby awakening to higher consciousness. This leads to conscious awakening and experience of Peace as peace consciousness.
It is also important to customize the practices or steps of meditation that varies from people to people, depending upon their state of consciousness, mental, emotional, physical states.
Sita (name changed) came to me with anxiety , depression and conflicts. She carried all negative impressions of her problems in relationship. Later she divorced and started living alone. The aloneness became painful and her mind constantly started nagging her about her decision to divorce. She also developed fear of meeting people. When she was introduced to me by her friend about 3 years ago, she told that she wanted to practice yoga and meditation to maintain her health. Authentic Yoga session introduced her consists of 10 groups of practices helped me to observe her states of mind, emotions