As Mira has mentioned, we have joyfully stumbled into a wonderful occasion. The International Yoga Festival has been an amazing chance to learn from many yoga masters with many distinct styles and focuses. It really is everything that we hoped to experience on this trip, perhaps even a little more…
The big event today was a “108 Sun Salutations” charity event on the sacred Ganges River right by our ashram. 12 different instructors each led us through 9 repititions of a surya namaskar (sun salutation) in their respective yoga traditions. A sun salutation is a practice that is meant to welcome the sun, by energizing the yogi and giving thanks for the solar energy that enables life on earth. In most traditions, it is a very vigorous physical challenge, as it is meant primarily to awaken the body from sleep. Multiply that by 108, and you get extreme exhaustion! It was 3 hours long, basically a yoga marathon. I could barely move afterward! I was extremely impressed with Mira’s showing, she completed probably 90% of the poses, simply amazing considering that before last week her longest vigorous yoga class was a little over 30 minutes. 
What is Yoga?
(side note: Mira is continually making fun of me for putting structure into blog posts… you know, bolding and sections and topics and all that. But it’s my party and I’ll bold if I want to!)
In the West, most have a pretty incomplete understanding of what exactly yoga is. This is perfectly understandable, for yoga is merely part of a complex labryinth of science and faith that has evolved in India over millenia. I will try to distill the practice as best I can (using my favorite method of summary, and further feeding Mira’s argument for my overstructuring of things, here are some bullets)
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“Yoga” translates to “Union”, specifically referring to union of the One (person), with the Devine (whatever entity you consider devine, whether a classic God or energy or prana or whatever). That’s the flowy defintion.
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There was a ancient dude named Patanjali that wrote a pretty cool book called Yoga Sutras. In this important work, he lays out the 8 limbs of the tree of yoga. Climb these limbs (somewhat sequentially), and you will achieve union with the devine:
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(1) Yamas and (2) Niyamas – You need to get your life in order. Do good things, think good thoughts, etc.
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(3) Asanas / Poses – This is what most Westerners consider yoga to be. Pretzel your body into various crazy looking contortions. Really, the whole purpose of this practice is to prepare your body for meditiation, the next limb on the tree.
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(4) Pranayama – These are breath control exercies that regulate the flow of breath, or prana, throughout the body. As we learned in a great class yesterday, the flow of prana really is a proxy for flow of csonciousness. Here things start to get squishy. This is the limb we are sitting on now!
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(5) Pratyahara – Withdrawal of the senses in order to still the mind.
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(6) Dharana – Concentration. At this point, you have gained control over body, and now become able to control the mind.
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(7) Dhyana – State of pure thought and absorbtion in the object of meditation.
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(8) Samadhi – Superconciousness, yoga is now completely achieved. Body and mind are transcended and Yogi is one with Self. Good stuff!
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Within the Asana limb, typically practiced in the West, there are many different styles. My training has been primarily in Vinyasa, or Flow yoga, in which all poses are linked together into a moving meditation. More specifically, my favorite form is Power Vinyasa (a Western invention I believe), in which the Downward Dog pose is used as the rest or home pose. Power yoga works well for me because of my prior athletic training, and my desire for an intense physical experience.
Okay, enough lecture for one day! I hope all is well for everyone, and that the winter has finally begun to lift.
Namaste. (traditional greeting common in India and Nepal, means “I bow to you”, among many other things, used early and often, coming and going.)
