What does it mean to say that yoga is your past, present and future? Yogic wisdom teaches that practicing “Asana” primarily affects your relationship to your past, “Pranayama” affects your relationship to the present and “Dhyana or Meditation” primarily affects your relationship to your future. How? Let’s dive in… [More...]

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about the word Tantra. The moment you hear this word in the West, you may immediately think about tantric sex, and if you hear this word in the East especially in India, you may immediately think about black magic. So what is the truth? Let’s understand step by step. [More...]

Here is a general guidelines for food to a yoga practitioner. [More...]

Yoga is the practical application of the Tantra. Tantric practice without Yoga is not Tantra. In Tantra, there are several types of Yoga seemly weaved together in a practice with many tools and techniques, thus called Tantric Yoga. Some of the commonly practiced Yoga in Tantric Yoga is following [More...]

Ayurveda is the sister science of Yoga. Based on Ayurveda and Tantra, one should be mindful of following during eating. Some points might make you smile, to some you may strongly agree anyway. Enjoy... [More...]

The Bhagavad Gita helps those in trouble. In the Gita there is a conflict. Arjuna is unable to take a decision and to resolve this, he turns to Krishna and listens to him. It is important to realize that Arjuna is not just listening to Krishna, but that he is in a state of meditation. [More...]

Nataraj Asana is called the representation of cosmic dance of Shiva. So who is Nataraja and what it means? In Sanskrit, Nata means Dance and Raja means King. So Nataraja literally means the King of Dancers. Shiva is represented in the form of Nataraj dancing over a demon or dwarf (representing ignorance). So Shiva or Nataraj dances on the demon Apasmara, which represents his victory over ignorance. It also represents the passage of spirit from the divine into material. [More...]

Mind is the product of thoughts which are difficult to restrain for they are subtle and fickle. A thought which is well guarded by a controlled mind brings happiness. In order to understand the mind, we need to understand how it works. [More...]

The Sanskrit word Vinyasa stems from the root word NYASA which means "to place" and the prefix VI, in this case, means "in a special way". This could refer to placing your arm in a special way while in triangle pose, or it could mean placing a sequence of postures in a special way to reach the desired result. For example, the desired result could be a sequence to help improve digestion, relieve back pain or reduce chronic fatigue. So Vinyasa can be flowing from one asana to the other, or flowing in your practice in a special way from asana, pranayama to meditation for a defined purpose. For example, - popular Vinyasa Yoga classes which mostly based on a set of sequenced asana practice for a particular theme. [More...]

You may come across different kind of people, happy, compulsive and lazy. Ever wonder what makes their behavior. The same changing behavior we can see in our self, it may be changing from one to another on a given day. Let’s understand this tendency or nature. These tendencies are called gunas, and born out of Prakriti. In other words, changing tendencies of Prakriti or our Outer Reality is called Gunas. It is important to stress this fact that Guna is the tendency not an action in itself. As a guna takes a predominates the corresponding characteristic is observed. [More...]

As per Sankhya philosophy, each of us and everything in this universe is made up of an Union of two poles – Purusha and Prakriti. [More...]

I was reading Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, came across this beautiful knowledge. It explains about Practice, and what makes someone's practice pure. There are three qualifications for practice. [More...]

Pranayama is generally defined as breath control. The word pranayama is comprised of two roots: Prana and Ayama. Prana means life force. It is the force which exists in all things, therefore, pranayama should not be considered as mere breathing exercises aimed at introducing extra oxygen into the lungs. The word yama means ‘control’ and is used to denote various rules or code of conduct. But Ayama is defined as extension or expansion. Thus pranayama means extension or expansion of the dimension of Prana. The techniques of pranayama provide the method to activate and regulate beyond the one’s normal boundary or limitations and attain a higher state of vibratory energy and awareness. [More...]

Have you wondered on different techniques used for meditation to simply calm our mind? There is variety of meditation techniques; for example one can simply focus on breath, sound, or an object to meditate. It is always recommended to find a comfortable and quiet place to sit in an easy pose or half/full lotus posture with back straight. Following are the commonly known meditation types; first four are preferred for anyone to start with. The last 2 types should be only practiced under guidance of a teacher. [More...]

There are many different school of Yoga, and each of them came up with their own style to differentiate and focus according to their philosophy. In my understanding, each Yoga School took the same basic postures and modified them to fit to their style. For example some schools perform yoga slow paced with gentle flow, some will move from one posture to another forcefully and some even use heat as a tool. If we search the web we can come across more than 40 styles of Yoga, however mainly 4 styles are commonly popular and adopted by most of the yoga practitioner. Following are the major (popularly known) styles of Yoga. [More...]

In Sanskrit, Meditation is referred as Dhyana, it is a practice of dissolving the mind. It can be also defined as a process of purifying the mind, making it one-pointed, inward and tranquil. It is a state of consciousness that brings - serenity, clarity, and bliss of transcendence. The main purpose of doing all the physical practices of Yoga is to bring your body into a state so that it can easily sit for meditation. The practice of - asana prepares our body, pranayama prepares our mind, meditation prepares our mind to transcend, and get in touch with pure consciousness or bliss. In the simplest word, through the process of meditation, we give deep rest to the mind. [More...]

We meet a different kind of people in our daily life; some are friends, family members or acquaintances. We experience that each of them behaves or act differently. Sometime some of them may act in such a way that in few moments we simply lose peace of our mind or we do not know how to handle them appropriately so that our peace of mind stays intact. Here is a way to first determine the type of a person and then utilizing the right key for our own peace. [More...]

In Sanskrit Bandha means to lock, to hold, or to tighten. It also refers to a lock in and of itself.There are 3 principle bandhas in the body, and a fourth that ties them all together. The ancient yogi philosophers said, that when you master the locks, your master the yoga practice, the practice on the outside -- floating in and out of asanas, holding for long periods of time, and managing new positions – and the practice on the inside – consistent single pointed concentration, steady and long breath, and a calm, clear mind.  And in a straight-up modern, western sense, the bandhas help you regulate and control all your internal systems, hormonal, sexual, metabolic, digestive, and more. [More...]

As per Hatha Yoga Pradipika, Kriyas are cleaning techniques. It is used to purify the body and mind. Thus, it opens the pathways of body, the nadis (energy channels) of energetic body and mind. So, these are yogic kriyas to clean various internal organs of the body. [More...]

Mudra is a gesture or position , usually of the hands used in Yoga, that locks and guides energy flow and reflexes to the brain. By curling, crossing, stretching and touching the fingers and hands, we can talk to the body and mind as each area of the hand reflexes to a certain part of the mind or body. Here are simple Mudras to provide good health. Each one focuses on specific part of the body. [More...]