Yoga Blog - Sanskar Yogashala

Bhastrika Pranayama: How to do it? In our long course of practice, we have seen and experienced so much and I think till now many of us would be curious to know the depths of these specific techniques. I can once again assure you that what we would uncover would truly make your even happier and healthier at least. Upon knowing the Pranayama practice one tends to think how, why and where regarding the practice of this immensely potent practice as we had extolled about it in our last article. And today I would begin with the very first type of Pranayama which again has been the result of the tireless synthesis of our ancestor sages who provided us with these gifts. The name as the title says is BHASTRIKA and once again the Sanskrit meaning of this word means BELLOWS, in short, the meaning is bellow breathing. Bellows is a medium-sized hollows pipe through which air is blown and is used in India for lighting up fires for cooking (especially in rural villages). If you want an id...

What a Yoga Asana means? Well, this one is going to be both interesting and action-packed as we try to understand it since writing more and more on this topic doesn’t end. The heart and core of the yogic practice which we know today, no wonder streets, facebook walls and every corner which has heard the name of yoga has an imprint of this part of the yogic routine. Asanas are postures, simply speaking taking your physical body and trying to manipulate and put it into various ways here and there is what an asana is. Twisting, laying down, standing, bending, etc. Etc whatever possible motion your body can do is combined to form a specific posture and then you stay or try holding it feeling both stable and peaceful at the same time. From the perspective of the practitioner that is what a posture would look and feel like. This way we have not hundreds and thousands of postures (new ones being developed by curious practitioners as well), and while it is both a challenging a...

What Meditation actually means ? You might be waiting for this article for quite some time and we have been waiting to write it down pretty much to ease your curiosity in the way as it is. Many of us or almost all of us are aware of the practice of meditation or commonly known as peaceful concentration. In the yogic tradition, the word used is DHYAN, which has similar meaning and sense but with a very specific twist. DHYAN means to contemplate on one and only one topic or subject. Seems pretty simple but it is rather something very –very tough to do at once. For example, reading a book is easy; you can concentrate on the matter and go on doing it for any length of time but consider meditation or DHYAN like reading a book and only doing it nothing else. This means while you read it you can neither sense anything else, feel anything else or in other words, you are aware of nothing but only reading the book in hand. All of your minds, senses, and efforts are doing only one thi...

What do you mean by Pranayama ? Another of the most well known practises of yoga pranayama is truly the heart of yoga if not less. It might seem a very easy going and generally, still, it is one of the most in-depth procedures for any practitioner where the focus is of course on breathing. Breathing has two basic processes inhaling and exhaling but pranayama will help you understand that there are few more steps to breathing. The emptiness of breath before inhalation, the holding of breath once inhaled and the emptiness of breath once exhaled is the other procedures of breathing which one realises. The word pranayama is made up of two words namely PRANA + AYAM, the first word is again very deep but for now, you can understand it as breath and the second one is rather simple which means extension. Hence PRANAYAM means breath extension. The technique of pranayama aims at deepening and extending the whole breathing cycle. Hence your inhalation capacity and time is extended as is y...

Meaning of Prana Meaning of Prana? Now we come to the seat of it all, the seed and source of all human efforts and strength both mental and physical. In scriptures there is mention of the most subtle yet most superior element which makes our life possible, the element has been named PRANA, a name quite well known to Indians from long as it is synonymous to the very life itself. PRANA has been termed as “ lifeforce” within all beings living and non-living both. While the nonliving world comprises of almost anything where there are flow and sustenance be it the radiating sun or the flowing rivers the most important manifestation of PRANA is within living beings as it is essentially at the center of all life processes and makes life as a whole possible. PRANA has also been termed as FLOW, hence movement, motion, push happening anywhere and anytime within the living systems are due to PRANA. The most simple example of PRANA is the breath that we take and also the breath...

What is Yoga? What is Yoga? This might be the thousandth time you would be going through a similar article or similar page. Well if you are of course you are trying to find the answer to this question which is so very complex and simple at the same time. Talking in broad terms if I try to explain anything on the same lines it would be attempting to fill a jug full of the ocean that is how complex this question is. But let’s make it simple and proceed what actually we are trying to understand once we ask this question. Since all of us are aware of the physical, mental and spiritual routine (as of course the reason why you are reading this blog page) we would try to maintain the same. But first we must know the very word we use, simple enough Yoga means “ union”, it can also mean “ to add” and even “ to join” all the meanings equally applicable when we talk about yoga as we know all around us. Now coming to the practise straightaway since we have established the yoga we ...

What is Mantra? Mantra is that world which takes the man who sincerely chants it across the ocean of rebirth. This is the highest meaning of the term mantra. There is other lesser meaning also. Mantra is an occult formula to remove various troubles or to fulfill various mundane desires. Depending upon the motives with which the mantra-s is chanted In regard to the chanting of mantra-s or mantra-yoga, what is a mantra? Mantra is a powerful world or a combination or world heard by a sage. Mantra is that world which takes the man who sincerely chants it across the ocean of rebirth. This is the highest meaning of the term mantra. There is other lesser meaning also. Mantra is an occult formula to remove various troubles or to fulfill various mundane desires. Depending upon the motives with which the mantra-s is chanted. Mantra is an incantation which, when uttered with correct intonation. Yields results through the forces of nature, deities, or angels whom one propitiates, whose ...

What is Aum This is the primal sound. This is the name of Brahman or god. AUM stands for Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. It stands for the whole universe made up of triguna-s or the triple manifestations of nature. They are sattva-guna, inactivity. Esoterically, Aum stands for our physical, astral, and causal bodies, and indicates Atma stands for our physical, astral, and causal bodies. And indicates Atma which is beyond the three. A is guttural, U is middle, and M is the labial or end of the vocal cord. In short, Aum stands for all that are manifested and unmanifested. It is the word from everything has come. It is the Nada-Brahma or sound-Brahma. It is the bija or seed Mantra and is usually prefixed to all the other Mantras.Om is the Eternal; Om is this entire universe. Om is the syllable of assent. Saying”Om! Let us hear” they begin the citation. With Om, they sing the hymns of the samba Veda. With “om shom” they pronounced the sastra-s.Om...

What is Samadhi? Samadhi is such a subtle state of chitta (mind stuff) and intellect as brings face-to-face the subtle and essential nature of objects by analyzing them. In this knowledge there is no possibility of doubt, wrong or perverted knowledge or imagination. By the discourse of the sages in scriptures. Only general knowledge of an object can be gained, but the special knowledge attained by Samadhi is beyond the grasp of the senses and is the means of attaining. Moksha or liberation. By showing this super sensual knowledge the Samadhi-s takes one to the very gate of moksha. Both the samkhya and the yoga schools of philosophy consider Alinga prakriti (non-manifest nature) to be the balanced state of the three guna-s (sattwa, rajas and tamas-purity, passion, inertia) and all objects of the world, being evolved from prakriti, have the nature of the three guna-s (qulitities). knowledge of the objects is also in accordance with the three guna-s, therefore chitta ...

Introduction to Mind - Sanskar Yogashala Blog You may be surprised at this healing. There are few people in the world who don’t know the name of mind. Learned or ignorant, villager or townsman, civilized or uncivilized, most people are familiar with the world “mind”. The mind has special importance in the Vedas also. From time immemorial arguments and differences of opinion exist in relation to mind.  In the time of king janaka, various spiritual conferences were organized, and the main topic of discussion was simply this mind. There has been much anxiety in the human race on this question of mind, due to ignorance of its essential nature and its functions. Many functions are even attributed to mind which don’t belong to it.Mind along is the cause of bondage and liberation of human beings. Such statements have often been misunderstood. Mind and intellect have been considered one and the same, therefore, there has been confusion regarding their functions. Intermingling...