According to Nibalkar, Yoga is Philosophy, a science and art. He says he is interested in the Art aspect of it. He adds the word "darshan" which according to him, means philosophy. He quotes "Sthir Sukham Aasanam; aasan should derive comfort, should be pleasurable to the mind. (Sthir- stable).
Trainer from Dadar Yog Vidya Niketan talked about the earliest Yoga scripture consisting of just 153 sutras. These could be written on a small book of no more than 10 pages! Very early in the scripture, a sutra reads, "Yog Chitta Vriti Nirodhaya" Chitta means the mind and Vriti means thought. Yoga rids the mind of its thought. I wonder, the fact that Yoga had been pursued as a way to rid the mind of its constant chatter infers that our society thousands of years back, was reeling with similar issues of mental fatigue and burn outs. So much so that thinkers and philosophers were experimenting with various breathing and yogic technique to deal with such issues. Maybe people were more stressed back then because of the esoteric nature of knowledge. Knowledge was much harder to transfer and far few people had access to it. A common man must have faced death on a more regular basis than now. Though the past is often romanticized it doesn't take too long to realize people were suffering at that time too; maybe more hence so many thinkers sought ways/tricks to overcome such issues.
The teacher talked about the three steps of an asan: going into, maintaining and coming out. He talked about the need of Prana dharana. He said "If you do not engage your mind, it will wander". Engaging your mind on your breath is prana dharana. He also stressed the importance of using only those muscles that are directly involved in a particular asan. Also, ideally, less effort should be required to attain a posture. "Prayatnam Shaya.ti.liya Ananta Sama.pita.bhayam". Prayatnam- effort, shayatilya= relax, anant = infinite. Differential relaxation helps in achieving it.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment