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The word Yoga is by now well known outside India. In fact over the last five decades we have seen it quietly and steadily taking root within our Western culture and language. Yet if you ask any number of people what Yoga is you are likely to get many different responses. Furthermore, these responses are mostly diverse, sometimes contradictory and often confusing. Such as confusing Āsana as Yoga as if they are one and the same, which of course they are not, or talking about Yoga and Meditation as if they are different, which again they are not. To summarise, you could say that Āsana is a stepping stone onto the path towards Yoga and Meditation is walking on the path towards a personal experience of what Yoga can ultimately offer. |
Here, Yoga Practice and Yoga Study was seen by T Krishnamacharya as embracing three interwoven threads:
– Firstly Śakti Krama or Yoga as a means of Self-Empowerment
Yoga can be used to link the body and the mind. It is the ability to achieve something through intense physical and mental effort or Śakti Krama, through either Śikṣaṇa Krama (Practice with No Compromise), or Sṛṣṭi Krama (Practice for Children and young adults).
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For instance, to cultivate and maintain a state of energetic attention or to develop the body and the breath through the refinement of various postures and breathing techniques. The consequences are power over and within the energies of the body and the mind.
As such, Yoga can be seen as an art and offers a fascinating and helpful pursuit for many people looking to develop these qualities. |
Traditionally this aspect is only a means towards a more important goal.
– Secondly Adhyātmika Krama or Yoga as a Self-Inquiry
Yoga can also be used as a tool for a deeper understanding of ourselves by inquiring both into and beyond what we view as the everyday self, its actions and its motives or Adhyātmika Krama (the Journey towards our Essence).
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Here Yoga as a meditative process can be utilised to cultivate and sustain a subtle quality of attention. This quality offers a space that can allow our actions or especially reactions to be less influenced by the more usual patternings within the mind.
With a more sensitive and consistent attention we can lessen the effects of our conditionings. As a consequence, we can experience a profound sense of being and cultivate a potential for action with a greater awareness within our life, work and relationships. |
Yet we all experience problems, poor health or illness from time to time.
– Thirdly Cikitsā Krama or Yoga as a Self-Healing
Yoga, as restorative recovery or preventative healthcare, can be a therapeutic process to help us work at changing or anticipating the effects of personal problems and illness in our lives, through either Cikitsā Krama (Restorative Recovery), or Rakṣaṇa Krama (Preventative Healthcare).
Here the approach must be different for each person as our potential to practice Yoga will be affected by the problem or the problem by our attitude towards working with it.
Also, according to traditional Indian medicine, those diseases that are chronic and cannot be cured by medicine alone can also be helped by using appropriate Yoga practice techniques. So Yoga can be used as a support alongside, or complement to, other forms of healthcare.
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Utilising Yoga concepts it is possible, within careful individual Yoga teaching, to introduce practices that both respect the problems or illness and support our intention to reduce their negative effects in the future.
However, practising Yoga as a means of therapeutic healthcare also presumes that we are willing to accept responsibility for making changes within our own situation. |
These three aspects of Yoga Practice and Yoga Study, as self-empowerment, self-inquiry or self-healing, are mutually supportive in helping to sustain physiological vitality, enhance psychological clarity and support spiritual purpose within the commitment and challenges of life, work and relationships.