What is Yoga really about?
The word Yoga comes from the ancient language of Sanskrit that was developed in ancient India and means to yoke or union. When a person through the practices of Yoga becomes self realized or enlighten, essentially what they have done is united there individual consciousness with the supreme consciousness.
It is said that when a person realizes who they really are, then they can understand who the creator is as well as understand creation its self. When this happens a person then becomes a Yogi.
The word Yogi is misunderstood by to many people and they think that a Yogi is a person who practices Yoga. An individual who practices Yoga is just simply a practitioner of Yoga or a person who practice Yoga.
Yoga is a spiritual practice that has over 20 different techniques and has been practiced for thousands of years and possibly for tens of thousands of years. This is known because about five thousand years ago people started to write down the knowledge that they had accumulated and wanted to keep alive in order to pass down to the next generations.
We really do not know how old this practice really is, but the ancient Indians did a great job describing the night sky. Using computer software, today we can look back in time and see what they were seeing. With this information it can understand that the father of Yoga, Shiva also known as Adi Yogi which means the first Yogi or first self realized person lived about sixty thousand years ago.
When most people think of Yoga, they are thinking of the Asanas or Yoga poses that are preformed in most Yoga classes which come from Hatha Yoga.
Within Yoga, there is a technique called Hasta Mudra which means hand gestures. Therefore in this technique of Yoga involves just the hands and is separate for the practice of Mudra which is preformed in the technique of Hatha Yoga. The practice of Mudra involves the whole body and is preformed before a Meditation practice and after a Pranayama practice.
The practice of Hasta Mudra can be preformed through out the day or along with any technique of Yoga such as Hatha Yoga or during a Meditation practice. Hasta Mudras can be preformed for health reasons, to help balance and or activate the seven main Chakras within the body and the can also be preformed to help calm the mind before or during a Meditation practice.
Yoga is a wonderful practice that can be used for health reason such as constipation, arthritis and many other health issues. It can also be used to help calm the mind and help the practitioner to calm the mind, relieve anger issues, increase the breathing compacity as well as to keep the entire human body in good general health.
There are many resource on the internet to learn how to practice Yoga but the best by far is the Karma Kriya Center, which is a free resource and will always be. The Karma Kriya Center has a main focus on Hatha Yoga, but they also discuss many other techniques of Yoga such as Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Kriya Yoga and Raja Yoga. https://www.dictionary.com/browse/yoga
