Kripalu Yoga - Learn the Benefits

By Michael Russell

The word "Yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit word "yuj" which means "to yoke". This roughly translated means "the union of the Individual Soul with the Universal Soul". Yoga is an ancient spiritual practice originating in India more than 5000 years ago. Its practice can be viewed either as physiological mastery (exercise), spiritual mastery, or both. There are four major branches of yoga.

*Bhakti Yoga ~ The yoga of devotion to a deity.

*Jnana Yoga ~ The yoga of intellectual endeavor and knowledge.

*Karma Yoga ~ The yoga of action in the world.

*Raja Yoga ~ The yoga of meditation.

There are many sub-branches including Anahata, Hatha, Kriya, Anusara, Kundalini, Anuyoga, Iyengar, Mahayoga, Ashtanga, Natya, Sivananda, Ati, Krishnamacharya, Pranava, Swara, Bikram, Kripalu and many more. The goals of yoga are expressed differently in different traditions. Kripalu Yoga is one of the many styles of teaching Hatha Yoga and is the style we'll be discussing here.

Kripalu Yoga can be described as the reciprocity of mind, energy and physical body. The prana or life force is the subtle current of rhythmic energy pulsations within the physical body. Every single act of the physical body is strongly affected and accompanied by emotional and mental conditions. Imbalance or even disease can be created by the most infinitesimal thought which disrupts or obstructs this crucial flow of energy.

The practice of Kripalu Yoga includes deep relaxation, breathing techniques, physical postures and meditation. Through the practice of this form of Yoga, you can release pain by eliminating layers of stress and resistance lodged in your physical body. This experience can dissolve blockages, free energy and actual healings can occur on all levels. Energy levels can be improved, anxiety reduced, blood pressure levels normalized, greater flexibility, more strength, increased levels of endurance and general well-being.

There are natural healing processes awakened to improve your mental clarity, emotional stability and your overall physical well-being. When emotional and mental disturbances are dissolved, huge amounts of prana are released to affect healing. The regular practice of Kripalu Yoga can have profound effects on the emotions, mind and physical body.

Kripalu Yoga teaches you to tap into your own inner-knowing instead of being dependent upon any guidance of external authorities. It's okay to be open to what others suggest, but you don't need to give away your powers to make your own decisions, your powers to reason and to be discriminatory. At all times during the practice of Kripalu Yoga you are establishing a nurturing and intimate relationship with your physical body.

Physical discipline alone will not provide the benefits of this practice in which your body becomes a temple, which you invoke with the presence of the divine. Each sensation you experience becomes sacred. Sensations are responded to with much tenderness and compassion. Every session is approached with an attitude of prayer.

The practice of Kripalu Yoga can take you to new spiritual and physical levels in your life. This form of Yoga practice may be an extension of your search for meaning in self and integration of the different aspects of being. For the average person still far from enlightenment, this particular practice of Yoga can be a way of increasing one's spiritual awareness, or cultivating insight and compassion. Yoga in itself is not a religion, but contains practical steps, which can be found in the spiritual practices of all religions, as well as those who do not consider themselves religious. No matter what your goals, Kripalu Yoga can be a method of improving your life on all levels.

The Eight Steps, Branches Or Aspects of the Raja Yoga

By Corrado Vinci

The Yoga is traditionally divided into eight aspects or helps, also said Astanga.
Transcribed in the Yoga Sutra by Test Patanjali, the helps am inter-related; each of them has several facets which reveal themselves through the study of the texts and with the practice. They progressively lead to the highest consciousness stadiums and to the spiritual life; the disciplines which constitute them are gradually have more interior.

The steps, branches or aspects of the Raja Yoga are the following:

Yama: understands the moral precepts of:

not violence (ahimsa)
truth (satya)
do not steal (asteya)
chastity (brahmacarya)
not avidity (aparigraha)

These beginnings of rectitude are universal, and constitute the foundation of the Yoga. The essence of the Yama is not to damage any living creature with the thoughts, the words and the acts.

The translation of the concepts is only approximate: each of them has a wide meanings and applications range, which changes according to the circumstances and the personal progress level.

Niyama: they are the personal practices which must be observed:

purity, cleanliness of the mind and the body (sauca)
satisfied (santosa)
fervour for the object of the study, perfection, burning effort (tapas)
study of the himself (svadhyaya)
abandon to God of all the thoughts and the shares (Isvarapranidhana)

The practices of the Niyama establish the discipline of the daily life.

Asana: they are the Yoga positions.

The asana (sukham) come described as buildings (sthira) and cheerful.

To obtain the mastery and the perfection, a prolonged continuos effort is necessary. The body and the mind move in harmony and assimilate with the infinite. All the rivalries of the mind cease existing.

Patañjali does not mention the asana with their name, but it supposes a long tradition of their practice. Some positions are mentioned in various comments to his work and in other witnesses on the Yoga.

In India, after Patañjali, the systematic and precise practice of the asana died out. In recent years thanks to the work of B.K.S. Iyengar, the wealth and the depth of the asana start being again appreciated.

Pranayama: it is the art of the Yoga respiration.

He consists in the regulation and in the refinement of the inspiration, the exhalation and the apnea. Learning to audit and canalize the vital breath induces an introspective and opens the doors of the spiritual knowledge.

The pranayama it is possible to learn only after reaching a good level of mastery of the asana. The breath is formed by the air raw element and from the prana, the vital strength what pervades the universe. The prana is the connection ring between the human organism and the cosmos. Since the prana is compound of energy, all the traditional witnesses on the Yoga warn practising the pranayama without a guide and before than the pupil am ready.

Pratyahara: it is the withdrawal of the senses from the outside world in the himself.
The outside distractionesses are not able to exceed the threshold of the internal world.

Dharana: it is a state of uninterrupted concentration, in which the mind is constantly focussed on a point or a particular object.

To reach this state, a constant practice is necessary.

Dhyana: it is the meditation.

The duration of the concentration increases till the mind reaches to melt with his object and admires it ceaselessly.

Subject and object become an All in one.

Samadhi: it is a state trascending further on the meditation.

The psychological processes stop and the conscience is completely absorbed in the soul. It is the truth and beatitude state. Samadhi is the peak of the Yoga practice, and reaches the himself of thin. It is divided into various levels of spiritual evolution, connected to ambits away more raised away.

The maximum level "Samadhi without seed" is defined: in the mind wishes are not several tracks of the shares; this state is also defined kaivalya, that is the isolation of the soul from the matter.

Raja Yoga – Gaining Complete Control of Mind for Deep Meditation

By Sacha Tarkovsky

Raja Yoga involves exact meditation techniques which lead to experiences of the truth and finally achieve liberation.

The basic breathing techniques of Raja yoga to gain control over the mind and experience deep meditation are outlined below.

Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, and Raja Yoga are considered the four main yogas, but there are many other types. (The word "yoga" – from the Sanskrit root yuj ("to yoke") – is generally translated as "union of the individual atma (loosely translated to mean soul) with Paramatma, the universal soul." This may be understood as union with the Divine by integration of body, mind, and spirit.

Raja Yoga involves exact meditation techniques which lead to experiences of the truth and finally achieve liberation, described in Hindu thought as moksha. ( or liberation from the cycle of birth and death).

Raja Yoga is a very practical guide for gaining control over the mind.

Raja Yoga getting control of the mind

Without this control, meditation is not possible, and therefore the goal of any yoga, unattainable.

Moreover in The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, "Yogas chitta vritti nirodhah," or, "The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga! Raja Yoga shows how to achieve this.

8 Principles of Raja Yoga

Raja Yoga is also known as Ashtanga (8 limbed) Yoga which refers to the eight principles which are:

Yama; or the Code of conduct – that is, self-restraint

Niyama; religious observances - commitments to practice, study and devotion

Asana: integration of mind and body through physical activity

Pranayama: regulation of breath leading to integration of mind and body

Pratyahara: abstraction of the senses, withdrawal of the senses of perception from their objects

Dharana; concentration, one-pointedness of mind

Dhyana: meditation (quiet and non-sensual activity that leads to samadhi)

Samadhi; the quiet state of blissful awareness, superconscious state

It must be remarked that although called eight-limbed, it is really a Royal Road to self-realization, with each limb leading into the next, ending with the goal, or Samadhi (and the union sought).

Raja Yoga taking control

More easily explained, first you must learn self-control.
Without it nothing that follows is possible. In conjunction with the self-control, you must practice religious observances, and seek to expand your quality of devotion. These two lead to Asana, or an integration of mind and body.

At this stage, you are ready to begin control over the breath, which is main life force that animates our existence.
As in each subsequent practice led the way to the next, so this stage prepares one for crucial stage of meditation.

Control of the breath is basic to this, and indeed, automatically assists in the next phase of Pratyahara, where you learn to turn off all the senses, and become internalized (not affected by sensatory stimulation).

This is the control you need to approach Dharana, or single-pointedness. From this point, meditation is said to begin. All the rest was preparatory for it and to it.

Raja Yoga getting to meditation

Finally one arrives at Dhyana, which is mediation. Your senses are internalized, your breath is controlled, your mind is thus free from the “stuff” that keeps it perpetually busy.

Once in true mediation, the road leads directly to Samadhi. In Samadhi you are in harmony with all creation, and non-creation, and are yourself the five principles or Yamas, which are:

Ahimsa - of the refraining from injury (non-life supporting action)

Satya – which is truthfulness

Asteya – of the freedom from stealing

Bramacharya – which is living within the Self (moderation; abstinence)

Aparigraha – or the freedom from attachment to possessions
Having attained this, you are considered in perfection and able to feel one with your creator. This is the goal of all yoga, but in Royal Yoga, the path is easily set out, and if followed without deviation, you may arrive just there.

Six Branches of Yoga

By Michael Russell

Yoga is an ancient tradition from the Eastern world, and these oldest practitioners tended to look at yoga as a tree with six branches. What all six have in common are the asanas (the physical positions and movements), Pranayama (the structured breathing or breath control), meditation and a strong moral code.

1. Hatha Yoga

In Indian, "ha" means sun and "tha" means moon. Hatha yoga refers to these twin energy channels in the body. Its goal is to prepare the body for the more pure state of meditation to come in the 2nd branch. Hatha yoga was brought to us by an Indian yogi attempting to purify the body to make it fit for higher meditation. Western yoga is almost completely the Hatha yoga branch, and Westerners find mental and physical comfort in the first branch alone.

2. Raja Yoga

Raja and Hatha Yoga are highly interrelated. Raja means "royal" in Indian, and in the royal tradition, this branch of yoga has eight included branches as follows:

- niyama - self discipline - asana - positions - pranayama - breath control - pratyahara - sensory deprivation - dharana - meditation - samadhi - ecstasy

Raja yoga is often practiced by religious leaders and monastery dwellers. However, anyone can find benefits in the practice of raja yoga.

3. Karma Yoga

The basic teaching of karma yoga is that what we do and how we behave today will influence our happiness and fulfilment in the future, or a future lifetime. Understanding this cosmic principle helps us to create our current environment with love and positivity in order to forestall negativity in our future. Practitioners of karma yoga lead a life of selfless devotion and service to those less fortunate.

4. Bhakti Yoga

Bhakti is a Sanskrit term meaning love of God and mankind. Practice of bhakti involves controlling and channeling emotions and having tolerance for all who come into our lives.

5. Jnana Yoga

Jnana yoga is the branch of the intellect. Practitioners pursue scholarly paths, usually those of yoga masters or other spiritual traditions. In our Western religious culture, the Jnana yoga practitioner may be likened to the Jesuit priest, the Kabala scholars or Benedictine monks.

6. Tantra Yoga

Tantra yoga prioritizes ritual as the best way to experience the divine. The Sanskrit word tantra translates to weave or loom. Rituals in everyday life lead to a recognition of the divine in everyday life which leads, in turn, to a reverent attitude in everyday actions.

Tantra yoga is the most misunderstood of the six branches. The ancient book, "The Kama Sutra" is a well-known example of this misunderstanding of the real goal of tantra yoga. It is a book of sexual positions and techniques, and in Westernized yoga tradition, tantra yoga has become associated almost exclusively with these published sexual practices. Worldwide, however, most schools teaching this branch of yoga recommend celibacy.

When finally understood by Westerners, tantra's ritualizations of everyday events appeal to them. Western civilizations tend to make rituals of everyday events anyway - births, deaths, weddings, going to church, forming clubs, and all the many various ceremonies and celebrations commonly held are all tightly related to tantra yoga rituals.

One of the best things about the six branches of yoga is that you are not limited to just one, or to a series. You can pick and choose what you want to practice when. Follow your own path using yoga as your toolbox.ka