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Life at 'The Yoga Institute'

Yoga education was an entirely different education for me in terms of learnings and experiences. I remember my primary education system was like a horror movie and some teachers were like demons. Some teachers used to beat the children, punish the children,many students cried, some students cursed the teachers and also because of this going to school is like going to a ghost house.The whole system is just like a child trying to be corrected by a teacher who doesn't know whether he/she is correct or not. But students need not be corrected. They only need nourishment and encouragement. So after completing around 18 years of education, when I turn the steering wheel of my life towards right, the whole system goes towards left and vice versa. So I decided to find something that helps me to go in the right direction. After a lot of research on the internet I decided to join a Yoga course from ‘The Yoga Institute Mumbai’.                     ...
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Navavidha Bhakti- Nine types of Devotion

               Bhakti means devotion and Bhakti Yoga means the devotional path of Yoga. In Bhakti Yoga emotions become devotions and the spiritual energy of bhakta(the devotee) is channelled towards the Lord. The thoughts or actions or words that are completely directed towards the Lord and the outside or material world is completely shut off for the devotee. In this extreme stage of devotion,you don't care about what is happening around you, you don't care about your surrounding places and you may even forget about yourselves. Here all your activities are performed as an offering to the Lord. In Srimad Bhagavatam, nine forms of Bhakti are stated.          The first form of Bhakti is Shravanam which means hearing the names or glories of Lord. Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas Vishnu purana and Shiva purana contain stories and victories of the Lord. Hearing and understanding these stories helps you to get closer to the Lord...
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The four pillars of healthy living- Ahar, Vihar, Achar and Vichar

                    Health is often mistaken only as the physical aspect of your life. But having good muscle and shape or having no disease doesn't mean that you are a  healthy person. Your overall health comprises your physical health, mental health, emotional health and spiritual well being. The four pillars that support your overall health are Ahar, Vihar, Achar and Vichar.                   Ahar means the food that you eat. Food is necessary for our growth but there are certain important factors that need to be considered before eating your food. The interesting factor is that most of us don't know what to eat, when to eat and how to eat. According to the Yoga system, there are three types of food and these are categorized as  Satvik food, Rajasik food and Tamasik food.                   ...
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Badhak tatva and Sadhak tatva- Causes of failure and success in Hatha Yoga Practice

                The fifteenth sloka of chapter one in Hatha Yoga Pradipika lists six factors which lead to failure and success of a Yoga aspirant.These are important factors to keep in the mind of a Yoga student before starting  his Yogic practices.        The first one is Atyahara. Ahara means food and Atyahara means eating excessive food. Food is essential for producing energy for the cells and whole body. The right quantity of eating is in such a way that half of your stomach is filled with food, half of the remaining part is filled with water or juice and the other half should be left empty. If we eat more food,it causes lethargy or tiredness in our body. This leads to laziness and the aspirant finds it difficult to continue with the practices.           The next and the second badhaka tattva is Prayasa or excessive physical effort. Physical efforts decrease our energy and lead to tiredness in ...
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Difference between Yoga asana and other Physical exercises

                  Being stated as the third limb of Ashtanga Yoga compiled by Maharishi Pathanjali, Yoga Asanas play an important role in balancing different systems of the body such as the skeletal system, nervous system, muscular system, digestive system etc. However unlike other physical exercises, practices associated with breathing techniques in Yoga Asanas help to attain balance between your mind, body and emotions. The whole process of Yoga Asanas focus on non-violent, slow and non-competitive movements. Yoga Asanas are categorised as forward bending, backward bending, stretching,lateral bending, twisting and inverted postures. So these asanas affect all your systems and improve functioning of every organ both internally and externally.                    All other physical exercises such as training in gymnasium, athletics, gymnastics, swimming, circus etc mainly focus on longevity, fi...
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Qualities of a good Teacher

                Once a monkey challenged the tortoise that he is the most efficient animal in the forest. So they bet a game to bring an apple from the apple tree found far away. The first one who brings the apple will be considered as the most efficient animal in the forest. When the game started within a couple of seconds the monkey picked an apple and declared as the winner. All animals made fun of the tortoise. At midnight there was a huge flood that isolated the whole forest. All animals become afraid because they are unable to go outside to collect the food. They asked the monkey for help. The monkey looked at the apple tree but the whole tree was surrounded with water and he was helpless. Suddenly the tortoise jumped into the water and collected all the apples from the water and gave them to the other animals to eat. This helped the whole animals to survive that flood season. All animals apologized for making fun of the tortoise.   ...
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