YOGA as Science

The word yoga means ‘unity’ or ‘oneness’ and is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘yuj’ which means ‘to join’. Yoga is a science of right living and it works when integrated in our daily life. It works on all aspects of the person: the physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual. Yoga signifies ‘integration of personality’ at the highest level. It includes various practices and techniques which are employed to achieve the development of such integration. These practices and techniques are collectively referred as ‘Yoga’ in yogic literature. The western culture also is accepting it as a healthy from of scientific exercise. The Nature of Yoga is to gain a general idea of the subject of Yoga, seeking its place in nature, its own character, its object in human evolution. Yoga contains the practices of yama, niyama, asana, pranayam, pratyahara, kriya, mudra, bandha and meditation. These practices are helpful to keep a person physically fit, mentally alert and emotionally balanced.

The Essence of Yoga

The true essence of Yoga revolves around elevating the life force of ‘Kundalini’ at the base of the spine. It aims to achieve this through a series of physical and mental exercises. At the physical level, the methods comprise various yoga postures or ‘asanas’ that aim to keep the body healthy. The mental techniques include breathing exercises or ‘pranayama’ and meditation or ‘dhayana’ to discipline the mind. Bhagavad-Gita says, “A person is said to have achieved yoga, the union with the Self, when the perfectly disciplined mind gets freedom from all desires, and becomes absorbed in the Self alone.”

Importance of Yoga

Yoga is not a religion; it is a way of living whose aim is ‘a healthy mind in a healthy body’. Man is a physical, mental and spiritual being; yoga helps promote a balanced development of all the three. Other forms of physical exercises, like aerobics, assure only physical well-being. They have little to do with the development of the spiritual or astral body. Yogic exercises recharge the body with cosmic energy. Yoga is one of the most powerful drugless system of treatment with its own concept of wellness which has been scientifically understood and presented by many. This facilitates:

1. Attainment of perfect equilibrium and harmony.
2. Promotes self-healing.
3. Removes negative blocks from the mind and toxins from the body.
4. Enhances Personal power.
5. Increases self-awareness.
6. Helps in attention focus and concentration, especially important for youngsters.
7. Reduces stress and tension in the physical body by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
8. The aspirant feels rejuvenated and energized. Thus, Yoga bestows upon every aspirant the powers to control body and mind.

Benefits of Yoga

1. Yoga helps in controlling an individual mind, body and soul.
2. It brings together physical and mental disciplines to achieve a peaceful body and mind.
3. It helps to manage stress and anxiety and keep you relaxing.
4. It also helps in increasing flexibility, muscle strength and body tone.
5. It improved respiration, energy and vitality.
6. It can do much more for your body from the way you feel, look and move.

Specific Benefits of Yoga

1. Yoga provides some benefits that have no clear comparisons to exercise.
2. The bends and twists in yoga massage and work our internal organs to aid digestion and internal functions.
3. Several yoga poses affect different glands in our body that activate our endocrine systems to balance hormone levels.
4. Yoga improves the respiratory system through correct breathing practices and it reduces stress by the soothing of the nervous system.
5. Yoga provides a practice that works with our body rather than against it to reach a healthy balance between our physical, mental and spiritual systems, whereas exercise uses opposing forces to build strength.

Meditation

Meditation is a yogic practice where an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness either to realize some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that content or as an end in itself. This makes the mind and body relaxed. It involves concentrating on a breath, a mantra, a word or an object. The practice of Dhayana (Meditation) helping in self-realization leading to transcendence in considered as the essence of Yoga Sadhana (The Practice of Yoga).

Classification of Yoga Sadhana

Yoga works on the level of one’s body, mind, emotion and energy. This has given rise to four broad classifications of Yoga:

• Karma yoga, where we utilize the body;
• Bhakti yoga, where we utilize the emotions;
• Gyana Yoga, where we utilize the mind and intellect; and
• Kriya yoga, where we utilize the energy.

Each system of Yoga we practice would fall within the gamut of one or more of these categories. Every individual is a unique combination of these four factors.

Yoga Education

Yoga Education was imparted by knowledgeable, experienced, and wise persons in the families (comparable with the education imparted in convents in the west) and then by the Seerts (Rishis/Munis/Acharyas) in Ashramas (compared with monasteries). Yoga Education, on the other hand, aims at taking care of the individual, the ‘Being’. It is presumed that a good, balanced, integrated, truthful, clean, transparent person would be more useful to oneself, family, society, mation, nature and humanity at large. Yoga education is ‘Being oriented’. Details of working with ‘being oriented’ aspect have been outlined in various living traditions and texts and the method contributing to this important field is known as ‘Yoga’.

School Achievements and Activities in Yoga

In the last years, working under the yoga Subject, the students of the school were made aware of Yoga and prepared to perform Yogasan. As a result, Students performed well in competitions organized by Vidya Bharti and increased School reputation. A student represented Vidya Bharti in artistic yoga Competition (SGFI). In addition to Yoga competitions, students of the school are practiced Yogasan, Pranayam, and Surya Namaskar regularly. Besides it, students are told in detail the terms of Yoga. Students were prepared for Yoga performance in various cultural programs that took place in the previous years. Very difficult solo asan, group asan, deep yog and various type of rope asanas. By successfully implementing students have constantly increased the importance of Yoga and the values of the school.

In Previous years, Demonstration of school Student’s at regional and national level Yogasa competitions implemented by Vidya Bharti.