| ver that can mean today, Yoga in plain language | | | | asana. Yogasana combines the benefits of physical |
| means opportunity or luck. For example, if you inherit a | | | | postures, in a scientific sequence, performed under |
| legacy totally in an unanticipated way, it is your yoga | | | | extreme concentration on controlling the mind and |
| that brought it your way. It is quite a common word in | | | | breath, for physical benefits. |
| its usage, meaning luck, in India. Sample this: ‘He | | | | Yoga and Exercises |
| had a bad yoga; he lost his business in the | | | | Yoga is a popular short word for yogasana after it |
| storm’. | | | | reached west. Yoga is practiced after proper |
| Then, How Come It Came To Be Known As A | | | | coaching like any other exercising method. Each step |
| Different Exercise Cult? | | | | in any posture is defined and regulated to precision. |
| It is quite simple. The four manifestations of yoga, | | | | When yoga is practiced, practitioners chant mantras |
| Bhakti Yoga, Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana | | | | which help practitioners hold the postures’ |
| Yoga, fundamentally preach different ways of attaining | | | | steps till the mantra ends. The steps can also be |
| ‘salvation or moksha’ or the eternal | | | | followed by chanting simple ‘OM’. |
| freedom; freedom from deaths and lives; freedom | | | | OM is believed to be the first sound the human being |
| from good and evil. Although there are deviations to all | | | | heard from the Creator. To chant OM, one needs to |
| four main forms of yoga, there is a common thread | | | | relax the mind beforehand and slowly chant for a |
| binding them in an innocuous way. That it is the means | | | | length of time, which is entirely decided by the chanter |
| of spiritual enlightenment. Taking a cue from here, | | | | to his or her entire comfort, which does not strain the |
| another relatively later manifestation called as | | | | lungs. The longest effortless single breath chant is the |
| ‘Hatha Yoga’, preaches the same thing | | | | naturally needed length of OM. Change your yogasana |
| as the other four, considered by ordinary people as | | | | step at the end of each OM and proceed further till |
| difficult to practice, but emphasizes more on physical | | | | end. |
| health. | | | | What we discussed is the simplest class of yoga. |
| Hinduism has a lot of literatures and treatises written | | | | Breath control is equally important for yoga to benefit |
| on all four forms plus the Hatha Yoga. Patanjali, one | | | | you in any way. Pranayama, which regulates the |
| prominent of them, is credited as being the proponent | | | | oxygen supplies to our blood, must be associated with |
| of yogasanas as yoga is known popularly today. The | | | | yoga practice. |
| word yogasana is a conjugate word of yoga and | | | | |