Is yoga Hindu?

[Bitter Melon]

Interview of B K Iyengar, founder of BKS Iyengar Yoga, one the most popular form of yoga in the West.

Bhakti yoga is not the highest form of yoga. Bhakti yoga is just another form of yoga prescribed in the Agamas.

The claim by that guy that doing Sajda is the highest form of Yoga and beyond that nothing else is needed and union is achieved left me flabbergasted. This from a guy who says he is a practitioner for 12 years.

 

[VivasvatManu]

Yoga was always popular and practised in traditional families and by the sadhu community which in itself is huge always. It only had disappeared from the urban and westernized landscape. Krishnaraja Wodeyar's attempt was to bring it back to focus of the urban masses and Westernized elite.

The claim by that guy that doing Sajda is the highest form of Yoga and beyond that nothing else is needed and union is achieved left me flabbergasted. This from a guy who says he is a practitioner for 12 years.

Yes, most of the urban elite were totally divested from yogic practices. My dad started learning Yoga after his first heart attack. I was six or seven at that time and got inducted into yoga and have been practising yoga ever since. Its been almost 30 years.

The Yoga master back then was an guy from UP and he had back then explained Kecheri mudra to my dad. Its a mudra where you put your tongue behind your palatine uvula. As a kid I had heard it and my father encouraged me to try it. Obvious it was impossible for me and I had even contemplated cutting off the frenulum below the tongue to help me do that

Back then I people used to laugh at yoga and I was teased quite a few times for practising it. In fact when I grew older, I scummed to peer pressure and quite it for quite some time and took up weight lifting

I started practising yoga again only after I got married. By then the stigma of practising yoga had disappeared.

Its come a full circle in India today and now I see Yoga workshops being conducted in my apartment complex. I attended a class but after listening to the rubbish the 'teacher' was talking, I quite the next day. Modern proliferation has resulted in quantity over quality .

Simply because it is not practiced by other faiths. Sanatha Dharma itself is "internal universal law".

You mean abrahamic faith because Buddhism is nothing but what I have explained in my earlier post.

Sanathan means forever or eternal. Not internal universal.

I called it universal because only time is eternal and the universe is how we perceive time.

 

[The BrOkEn HeArT]

Yes, most of the urban elite were totally divested from yogic practices. My dad started learning Yoga after his first heart attack. I was six or seven at that time and got inducted into yoga and have been practising yoga ever since. Its been almost 30 years.

The Yoga master back then was an guy from UP and he had back then explained Kecheri mudra to my dad. Its a mudra where you put your tongue behind your palatine uvula. As a kid I had heard it and my father encouraged me to try it. Obvious it was impossible for me and I had even contemplated cutting off the frenulum below the tongue to help me do that

Back then I people used to laugh at yoga and I was teased quite a few times for practising it. In fact when I grew older, I scummed to peer pressure and quite it for quite some time and took up weight lifting

I started practising yoga again only after I got married. By then the stigma of practising yoga had disappeared.

Its come a full circle in India today and now I see Yoga workshops being conducted in my apartment complex. I attended a class but after listening to the rubbish the 'teacher' was talking, I quite the next day. Modern proliferation has resulted in quantity over quality .



You mean abrahamic faith because Buddhism is nothing but what I have explained in my earlier post.

Sanathan means forever or eternal. Not internal universal.

I called it universal because only time is eternal and the universe is how we perceive time.

I didn't mean "eternal". I know what eternal is? I called it internal because it is spiritual law code to achieve moksha. Buddhists follows that part.

 

[SBUS-CXK]

I first heard about yoga is controversial.

 

[VivasvatManu]

I didn't mean "eternal". I know what eternal is? I called it internal because it is spiritual law code to achieve moksha. Buddhists follows that part.

Buddhist have 'Nirvana', not Moksha.

Not all Buddhist follow the path to Nirvana the same way not all Hindus follow the path to Moksha.

But the spiritual law code for the Buddhist which they call "Arya Astanga Marga" is the same as the path mentioned in "Astanga Yoga". Its nothing but Yama and Niyama.

 

[Bitter Melon]

Yes, most of the urban elite were totally divested from yogic practices. My dad started learning Yoga after his first heart attack. I was six or seven at that time and got inducted into yoga and have been practising yoga ever since. Its been almost 30 years.

The Yoga master back then was an guy from UP and he had back then explained Kecheri mudra to my dad. Its a mudra where you put your tongue behind your palatine uvula. As a kid I had heard it and my father encouraged me to try it. Obvious it was impossible for me and I had even contemplated cutting off the frenulum below the tongue to help me do that

Back then I people used to laugh at yoga and I was teased quite a few times for practising it. In fact when I grew older, I scummed to peer pressure and quite it for quite some time and took up weight lifting

I started practising yoga again only after I got married. By then the stigma of practising yoga had disappeared.

Its come a full circle in India today and now I see Yoga workshops being conducted in my apartment complex. I attended a class but after listening to the rubbish the 'teacher' was talking, I quite the next day. Modern proliferation has resulted in quantity over quality .



You mean abrahamic faith because Buddhism is nothing but what I have explained in my earlier post.

Sanathan means forever or eternal. Not internal universal.

I called it universal because only time is eternal and the universe is how we perceive time.

30 years of practice? Wow. I guess that accounts for your mental clarity.

 

[Kathin_Singh]

Yoga was always popular and practised in traditional families and by the sadhu community which in itself is huge anyways. It only had disappeared from the urban and westernized landscape. Krishnaraja Wodeyar's attempt was to bring it back to focus of the urban masses and Westernized elite.

You answered it very well.

Krishnaraja Wodeyar popularized it in the 19th century
What the Upanishad mentions is very different from yoga
Patanjali's ideas led to the creation of yoga later

There is not one school of Yoga. There were several and there is several now.

Classic books like Hathpradipika and yogsutra follow different paths but goal is one.

 

[VivasvatManu]

30 years of practice? Wow. I guess that accounts for your mental clarity.

Not a continuous 30 years. But I can readily attest that my mental capacity grew when I practiced yoga as a child. My ability to concentrate improved considerable and I was able to remember stuff only after a single reading. Same is true for my brother. I realise this after watching my daughter study. Her mind jumps from one topic to another and is unable to concentrate. I never had that problem as a child.

Even today when I read or do something I become oblivious to the world around me. The capacity to focus and concentrate on the task at hand is one thing yoga helps you with.

Another way to improve concentration in a child is 'japa'. When you memorise Sanskrit mantra and repeat it for 108 times with concentration every day, you mental ability to focus improves considerably. Children will then tend to do well in class. Its the next best thing for kids.

I am searching for a good Yoga master for my daughter. I am unable to be strict with her the way my yoga teacher was. So she does not take me seriously enough to follow my lead.

 

[Bitter Melon]

Another way to improve concentration in a child is 'japa'. When you memorise Sanskrit mantra and repeat it for 108 times with concentration every day, you mental ability to focus improves considerably. Children will then tend to do well in class. Its the next best thing for kids.

I am searching for a good Yoga master for my daughter. I am unable to be strict with her the way my yoga teacher was. So she does not take me seriously enough to follow my lead.

LOL. I wish I had done that with my nieces. I so want them to be geniuses

 

[VivasvatManu]

LOL. I wish I had done that with my nieces. I so want them to be geniuses

How old are they ? If they are below 7 years then Japa is better. If they are 8 and above, its never too late to start yoga.

 

[Indus Pakistan]

Your comments

Yoga is more than not likely to be from within South Asia. And it is positive thing - much going for it, call it what you want

CPEC, in which only Pakistanis and Chinese will participate and debate on technicalities

Yes. One thing with the Chinese here is they are so humble but have razor sharp intellects. With their roar away success they have now began get effected by a phenomenon that I see often in the West. That is where people start equating their success to their genetic superiority over others - form of racism.

So yes, I will discuss with them but only once armed with full facts and appropriate sorting out of my thinking on the subject. After all I would not want them to think we are thick? If you get a time read up on Bell Curve by Hernstien and Murray.

 

[Bitter Melon]

How old are they ? If they are below 7 years then Japa is better. If they are 8 and above, its never too late to start yoga.

12 and 18. The older one missed it entirely I think, but the younger one has some yoga classes in school. Apart from that nothing. They find all knowledge based discussions boring.

 

[VivasvatManu]

12 and 18. The older one missed it entirely I think, but the younger one has some yoga classes in school. Apart from that nothing. They find all knowledge based discussions boring.

12 is young enough. You need to start teaching them stories from the Puranas to lay the foundation for further discussion.

One of the tricks my father used was ask us to press his legs when he came back from work and when we did that he used to tell us the stories from the scriptures, the vedas and explain the Upanishads. I used to hate doing that but enjoyed the stories and associated teachings.

Now when I look back, he used it to prevent us from wandering away when he was teaching us. So we heard and understood even the boring parts which otherwise I would have run away from. It was quite an ingenious idea inspired of Native intelligence.

So a bit of ingenuity is required to teach kids.

 

[Bitter Melon]

12 is young enough. You need to start teaching them stories from the Puranas to lay the foundation for further discussion.

One of the tricks my father used was ask us to press his legs when he came back from work and when we did that he used to tell us the stories from the scriptures, the vedas and explain the Upanishads. I used to hate doing that but enjoyed the stories and associated teachings.

Now when I look back, he used it to prevent us from wandering away when he was teaching us. So we heard and understood even the boring parts which otherwise I would have run away from. It was quite an ingenious idea inspired of Native intelligence.

So a bit of ingenuity is required to teach kids.

My dad used to tell us some of these stories after a beer or two LOL. My own knowledge about our scriptures is very poor and is mostly from what I am gathering now. Also I don't live with my brother's family so the opportunity to teach stuff to the kids is rather minimal. They always are in a rush to go home if I have a political or religious discussion in mind.

 

[VivasvatManu]

My dad used to tell us some of these stories after a beer or two LOL. My own knowledge about our scriptures is very poor and is mostly from what I am gathering now. Also I don't live with my brother's family so the opportunity to teach stuff to the kids is rather minimal. They always are in a rush to go home if I have a political or religious discussion in mind.

One of the other things my dad did was take us to visit some ancient historical sites. And when we saw the broken structures, we used to ask him the reason behind them and he used to then tell us the stories of how the invasion and destruction happened.

This naturally made us curious and made us want to know more and that search for the truth took me to many corners and formed my opinion.

One of the other resources I had growing up was an amazing periodical called Chandamama magazines. Those were AMAZING resources to understand India and our culture. I don't think they exist today.