Yoga – A Yogi Perspective – Indo-Canadian Community Centre

YOGA – A Yogi Perspective

Dr. Virendra Bharti

Yoga is one of the many gifts given by India to the world. It’s an ancient knowledge originally created and developed by one of the greatest sages Maharshi Patanjali, usually referred to as Patanjali. The original name given by the sage is “Yog:” with the addition of ‘:’. In Sanskrit and other Indian languages having origin in it, ‘a’ is added to the last alphabet of the word when you stress or stay longer there while pronouncing. These are some of the sound reasons of referring it as Yoga not Yog. Yoga means to join or union with self. The whole concept of this is to look inward rather outward. The philosophy revolves around inside-out instead outside-in. This means the problems and solutions of the issues in this world and beyond is in you and you only.

Yoga empowers you (gives you SHAKTI or SHAKTHI) to see, understand, accept and explore the facts about yourself because you are best known by none other than yourself. It helps you to let go many false egos or baggage (enthused by past karmas, inheritance and wider living environment). Many times you are a carrier of this without your awareness. It covers a wide range of social, material, health and spiritual aspects of life. Health and peace of mind is actually a by-product of this but plays one of the most prominent roles in modern day life style. There are five kinds of mood: Facts (Praman in Sanskrit), Transposition (Vipary), Alternate option (Vikalp), Sleep (Nidra) and Memory (Smriti). A person can manage these moods better and find solace beside infinite benefits to health through Yoga practice.

Various kinds of Yoga derived from the original source India and Patanjali are practiced and commercialized in modern times. All of them have got roots and inspiration from India and Indian philosophies. Our focus would be more on Yoga (Aasan – physical postures and Pranayam – breathing exercises), Mudras (Touching fingers to each other) Acupressure and Ayurveda (ancient Indian herbal medicine system) in the upcoming columns. The author can be reached at vkbharti@yahoo.com or 613-863-1679.