What is Yoga
We know one of the popular exports from India is “Yoga”.
You need not follow any religion or philosophy to have a good life.
The concept of Yoga itself is enough to give you a healthy life and more mental clarity on various things in the world.
Here below are the core concepts of Yoga and answer to the question “What is Yoga”
Objective: cessation of all mental functions leading to the realization of God.
Practise Methods:
Yama: Restrain from violence, lying, theft, and other bad behaviors.
Niyama: Have good habits, keep hygiene, study, contentment, etc.
Asana: Physical postures to help you maintain physical and mental health.
Pranayama: Breath control, is one of the best derivatives of Yoga to help you in eliminating breathing disorders and keep you energetic.
Dharana: Focus attention on an object to improve attention.
Dhyana: Meditation.
Pratyahara: Withdrawl of senses.
Samadhi: Once your Dharana and Dhyana reach a threshold and lead to a mental state called Samadhi, where the practitioner loses self-awareness, beyond this what happens nobody knows except the practitioner, it could be union with God or feel integrated with everything.
Image courtesy:
Ian Alexander, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons