The Spiritual Background to Yoga

Yoga has a beautiful and rich history. It is entangled in life and love and movement and passion all over the world.

Although ancient, it is now beloved and advocated by just about every health and spiritual practitioner.

It has to be pretty special to transcend time and space.

It may seem like a craze if you know yoga solely as an exercise. But this adornment is assuredly for good reason when you discover all of its intricacies.

In the beginning…

Yoga roots can be traced back to Northern India, at the purported ancient city of now Rishikesh, some 5,000-10,000 years ago. Many of the poses are in Sanskrit because of this origin. Its upbringing involved complimenting poses and postures with mystic prayer, song, chants, and mantras. The first purposes largely surrounded getting to know the Self and downloading divine wisdom.

The Divine Purposes of Yoga

Yoga is a life path, philosophy, and a religion for some. The following are a few deep paths in the realm of yoga:

Bhakti “Devotion to the Divine”

A form of yogic religion that involves:

• Mantra meditation, prayers, and altars
• Belief in Oneness in the divine and practitioner
• Chanting praise hymns (kirtan)

Ashtanga 8 Limbs of yoga

Eight principles from the Yoga Sutras (made 16 centuries ago) in the philosophical realm of yoga to delve into a rich, meaningful, and deep practice. The principles are as follows:

• Yama- living by values and morals. Restraining from cheap thrills and superficiality (i.e. gossip, stealing, harming, possessing)
• Niyama- finding passion in life and living, contentment with your journey, and surrendering to precariousness of life
• Asana- connecting holistically via posture and poses. Creating balance, strength, flexibility, and beauty in each area of your life.
• Pranayama- breath and mindfulness
• Pratyahara- turning your awareness inward, letting go of external circumstances
• Dharana- concentration, focus, and determination
• Dhyana- meditation and reflection
• Samadhi- Bringing your practice, and the bliss and enlightenment that you receive from it, into your every moment and in turn, expanding your consciousness. Feeling oneness with your surroundings and internal world. Releasing the restraints of ego and liberating your internal conditions from external struggles

Kriya:

Spiritual path that focuses on meditation and devoting to Source (or divine, or God, or Goddess- whatever you subscribe to) through:

• Finding the beauty of discipline and ritual
• Transcending ego
• Spending time in isolation and aloneness
• Creating stability in life and self reliance
• Learning about your self

Vibhuti:

Spiritual path on ascension and achieving divine potential through various forms of meditation and yoga practices. Claims to:

• Finding divine magic
• Achieve ultimate expanded state & help you break human glass ceiling to live optimally, infinitely

The tangible and tested

Yoga uniquely intermingles your mind, body, and soul. The poses are meant to enter into, bring breath to, and release tensions in tight corners of the body. It acts on your nervous system to release strain, both mentally and physically. The balance postures act as an internal massage on your nerves and small muscles and provide lasting effects to your entire body.

Because yoga is both calming and blood pumping, it has evidence- based physical effects such as:

• promotes digestion
• increases circulation
• promotes parasympathetic (inhibit stress and stimulate digestion) nervous system
• lowers blood pressure
• raises GABA levels
• double directional: energizing and relaxing dependent on the purpose

How can a practice both be medicine, a prayer, an exercise, and a way of life?

Yoga has been curated and transformed over thousand of years to deliver potent medicine to those who practice. Through the multidimensional merriment of mind, body, and soul, yoga opens the channel for holistic steps outside of practice. It creates harmony within and outside of the body and has the ability to bring awareness and relaxation to areas of your life that need healing.

Along with it being available to every age, walk of life, belief system- it is also meant to be a practice that is deeply personal. It is a way to not only a way to express your creativity but to mingle with the misunderstood, fluid, and inexplicable parts of life.

Yoga is an interconnectedness of spirituality and humanity. It is capable of bringing together people from many different backgrounds and belief systems by defining us not by our differences but by how we can all find harmony when we find peace within.

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Closing

The truth is there is no right or wrong way to Yoga; but c’est la vie, ma chérie. There is no right way to do life, either.

The only way is to get out there… or onto your yoga mat (or grass or in the middle of your work office) and try your best to infuse intention and presence into each moment. Do it as much as possible, even if it gets unconventional. You may even try some of the above chants or devotional meditations. Who knows what it could open up for you.

For some yoga visuals, check out this post on chakra work.

I truly believe everything in life should be personalized and internally felt for you to really benefit from it. So however you do it, put your own creative spin on it and be fully present throughout your practice.

Thanks for reading and Namaste