A mindful asana practice generates self-awareness and mental stillness, bringing the mind and its movements under observation and a fairly conscious grasp. Such conscious, inward focus is cultivated by focusing the awareness on body sensations, breath, emotional sensitivity and through visualizations. Deepening of self-awareness is facilitated by making the asana practice more conscious and mindful.
Why do we do asana in Yoga: Traditional Yoga schools did not look at asana as flexibility training but as a method of generating self-awareness and energy alignment.
The physical posture (asana) practice is just one part of the Yoga process. This is why we start the transformation process via the body as it is more accessible of the two. Whatever effects the mind will have its effect on the body and vice versa. The body is gross of mind and mind is the subtle of the body. Yoga essentially believes that mind and body are two sides of the same coin. Since between mind and body the variable of body is grosser, more physical, we start the transformation process with the body. The process of Yoga: The objective of Yoga is to refine the body-mind complex. Let us look at some ways in which we can consciously practice Yoga in its holistic sense and make Yoga a self-transformation process. Yoga is not just about physical exercise or a class but it is living a life of conscious transformation. It is a way of living consciously, working on our limitations and allowing life to unfold the optimum potential within us all. Thus, Yoga is much wider than a mere practice of physical contortions (asana). Liberation from limiting psycho-somatic tendencies that restricts our optimum potential is known as Moksha and the set of practices that help us in facilitating the liberation is called Yoga. Simply put, the True Self can be understood as our human potential operating in an unrestricted, optimized, peaceful and loving manner. This “something very profound” is known as the True Self (Atman/Shiva in philosophical sense). Once these limiting factors are transformed and eventually over powered we can live as something very profound and peaceful that we all are. Our day to day life is compromised by limiting psycho-somatic tendencies that restrict our thoughts and actions. The Rishis or the spiritual scientists of ancient India realized that we humans do not really live with total efficiency and effectiveness. Practicing Yoga in its entirety and not just as postures eases the pressures of the physical-mental (psycho-somatic) ups and downs generating a lasting sense of peace. Yoga is a holistic science that includes all aspects of our life. These issues have an effect on our body, posture, breath, relationships and life in turn. How many times have we suffered under bouts of repeated self-denial, guilt, regret and “poor me” syndrome.
How many times have we vouched to be calm only to be disturbed by a wave of anger that seemingly comes out of nowhere. It would not be wrong to call Yoga the philosophy and technique of correcting our own understanding and experience of ourselves.īut, is there a need for such liberation? I mean, ask yourself, how many times have we decided to do something only to be stopped by self-doubt. In its original sense, Yoga is the science of total mind-body transformation that releases us from the limiting perception and experience of ourselves and the world. Moksha, is not any mundane liberation but is the fundamental liberation from our erroneous perceptions of ourselves.
Moksha commonly means “liberation”, but one needs to understand Moksha in its deeper sense. Traditionally, Yoga is understood as “Moksha Shastra” or the science of liberation. Is Yoga only about stretching muscles and moving into seemingly elastic body manipulations? In this article, let us try to understand Yoga as something more than just a “class” and open ourselves to the deeper understanding of the holistic, life transforming benefits of Yoga. Modern world has been presented the idea of Yoga as physical exercise. But, when we think of Yoga, immediately an image of a bendy person doing some sort of a body contortion comes to our mind. Modern world has definitely realized the benefits of Yoga. Looking at the way Yoga has been embraced by the world in the last decade or so, one can safely say that Yoga has arrived.
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