YOGABHARATI

[ Krishna in Bhagavad Gita gives several unique concepts and one such concept is ‘Swadharma’. In the second chapter he brings about this by telling this to Arjuna, the Kshatriya or warrior and as a leader of an army, He also makes subsequent references to this concept where he makes it much more elaborate. Let us try to unravel this in this article. ] PART – 1 Swami Vivekananda quotes the Upanishad concept“Each soul is potentially divine and the goal is to manifest this divinity internally and externally …”Here he meant that we may look to be different individuals outside but deep inside we have the same divinity, but it is in an un-manifest way and each of us has to find out our own unique way to manifest this. This process in short is the “Swa + Dharma or Swadharma” way of life. Krishna further emphasises that nobody else’s Swadharma or the path, or journey or methodology can be our Swadharma. He further cautions that following others methodology is frightening. In a ge...

 Faith, belief and Shraddha . Many at times, we face the question, Is faith necessary? The answer is that we are surviving every second because there is something called Faith. Every moment is moving from the known to the unknown. The known is minuscule compared to the unknown dimension. In nature, every life happens with faith as its foundation. The plant grows roots with the faith that it will find water. A creeper holds on to a big tree with the faith that it will support the creeper. We all go to sleep with the faith that we will wake up the next morning. Every moment, as the unknown unfolds, we move on in life with faith only. Faith comes within the sphere of logic. Faith is built based on enquiry. For example, we have faith in one doctor because he seems to have treated a disease very well. We have enquired about the doctor and built faith on him. Faith is very functional and is focused to that particular function only. I may prefer to learn Yoga from a partic...

Have always wondered .. Why the name retreat? what does it mean? The dictionary meaning says ‘withdraw’. In YB retreat, what are we withdrawing? As I was wondering, the bus came at classic orchard to pick all the enthu students of 2018 batch of YTT. Here was a batch full of youth energy. We all were heading to ‘The school of ancient wisdom”. As always, the journey was filled with never ending Antakshari . The songs were perennially flowing out, filling everyone with lively energy. What a serene place! This was the thought ,in everyone’s mind when we reached ‘ The School of ancient wisdom’ . The energy given by the trees, birds, lilies, many flowers, ponds, sculptures, paintings, brought in a strange sense of settle and peace in everyone. Now I reflect .. Are we withdrawing from the hustle bustle noisy city life? We all sat for a round of introduction, after a welcome chai. Listening to everyone on how their journey has been with YB, was a feast to my mind. Everyone seems to hav...

On the mat - Where Theory meets practice Yoga has gained popularity in the last few decades, though the depths of it are still uncovered. At the surface level,  Yoga has earned a ground in therapy where modern and other medicine sciences are found to be less effective . A very common misconception about Yoga is that,  it is treated as an alternative to other exercise regimens such as gymming,jogging or swimming. This also makes Yoga popular. Here Yoga ends just at the physical dimension. The deeper mental, intellectual and spiritual dimensions are yet to be explored.The mental and spiritual dimensions of Yoga offer a fine tool for personality development. Yoga at the mind level, has helped me to  look at myself objectively , discover and accept my weakness and  strengths and find ways to work on them to progress further. Whilst I practised yoga at home, my thoughts were often similar to what most people seek out of yoga practise - Lose weight, reduc...

Sahanau Bhunaktu = May we nourish Today’s modern material world thinks, that a child grows because of proteins, carbs and vitamins. This makes us question, “Is that all?  For a child to grow, is food the only factor? ‘.  In our ancient country Bharat (India), we factor in an essential and a more fundamental element that enables a child’s growth. That essential element is “LOVE”.   Right from the childhood, we all experience varieties of love, from our parents, teachers, friends, cousins, grandparents, neighbors and so on. The list is endless. The family structure is so broad that we constantly enjoy and experience love. God is love. When we go beyond the world of dualities, when we accept everything as it is, our experience touches the supreme Love.  The beautiful bond of love between a Guru and his disciple, is responsible for the student to grow in the presence of his Guru. A strong thread of love keeps the siblings together during a lifetime and...

Stiti and Gati - Nonmoving & Moving: Brahman is ‘being’ Stiti and creation is "Gati" or journey or moving. This journey is possible in two directions naturally. One way our journey is towards the objects in front of our senses. Not a single moment is possible to live in this creation without going to the world outside. Every moment we have to breath the air, which is going outside. The moment we open our eyes, our sight obviously goes into the world outside. Our nose, our tongue, and touch continuously give us the information about the outside world.  This way going outside is called ‘Raga’. But at the same time we also have to get back to the source or self, which is "vi-raga, or vairagya" which is opposite to Raga. This is also happening always with us and we are equally familiar with it as our familiarity of Raga.  But the problem with us is that every vairagya happening is supposed to take us to self but on the other hand, we are only coming out of one obje...

Our underlying essential purpose or aim of life is to be happy.  Happiness is a state of being one with the universal consciousness and forget the sense of I, as an identification of ourselves within the boundaries of space and time.Let us understand Happiness in the different layers(kosas) in us: At the Annamaya level, happiness state is reached when the senses are one with their desired objects. Few examples are , when we hear music of our liking , we are happy. When we eat gulab jamon that we like, we touch happiness momentarily. Infact the act of eating is the most sensuous act where all senses are one with the object . To explain further, when we eat a mango, we see the fruit, we taste the fruit, we hear the chewing while eating, we enjoy the smell and we ofcourse touch the fruit. At this moment of enjoyment, there is a flash of universality of consciousness. This is called the experience of oneness .At this level, happiness is being one with the moment. At the man...

Students often ask, "Am I right?" Is my posture correct? Is Yoga about getting the posture right? Sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras PYS..2.46… 2.48…..gives these 3 facts about Asana. Sthiram Sukham Asanam Prayatnashaitilya anantasamapatibhyam Tato dvandva ana bhigatah Posture is that one which is steady and comfortable. Initially, one has to put in effort, but with practise it becomes effortless, and the posture can be maintained with ease. Since each body type is different, there can be as many postures as the number of people. Each person can be comfortable in their posture What is important is how they feel while getting into and holding a pose, than "getting it right."  In yoga, the experience is different for everyone, the experience is different each time and what feels right is something the individual must determine . A teacher can only guide the student —and that requires finding a window into that student's experience. A teacher can...