zondag 15 november 2015

Yogi Lifestyle: which yoga fits you?

All of us are constantly living a life of yoga, which in spiritual terms is called a link or connection between two entities i.e. the one which remembers and the other one which is remembered. Examples of what we have yoga with could be a person or God (called rajyoga) or your actions (called karma yoga) or spiritual knowledge (called gyan yoga) or bhakti (called bhakti yoga) or your breath (called pranayama) or your physical body (called hatha yoga) or even a physical object like a candle flame. So, yoga is life and should not be limited to sitting in a particular posture for a few minutes at a particular time of the day. Basically, remembering anything or anyone is yoga. The word yoga should not be limited to exercise which is a narrow definition of yoga. Focusing on one’s own body is extremely important, but only one aspect of a yogi lifestyle. A complete or comprehensive yogi lifestyle is focusing on pure and constructive sources right through the day including God, because yoga means union or link, a union which will benefit the soul and body positively.
yoga

We all live our lives in search of peace, love and happiness and also inner powers which we as spiritual beings are lacking in. So yoga i.e. our mental energy correctly channeled and connected with something positive provides us with that. People also call performing actions as yoga which is called karma yoga, but only performing selfless actions with complete dedication nowadays with the stresses and strains of everyday living can be depleting on a mental energy level unless the karma yoga as it is called is accompanied by a mental union or link with the Supreme while performing the actions, which helps us in remaining unaffected by the stress caused due to being over-busy in those actions. That in the true sense is karma yoga i.e. selfless karmas performed in the remembrance of God. This link between me, the spiritual child and God, the spiritual parent, nourishes me continuously and gives me the strength to perform actions with complete accuracy and get the desired success filled result.
All of us are living beings with a mind and an intellect, which we use to connect to various objects, people and events throughout the day. This is called our mental energy. This mental energy travels extremely fast and can reach another person in much less than a second. Very often we focus our mental energy on the physical body for mental peace and physical fitness through the medium of yog asanas or yogic postures to attain the desired purpose. That for us is a way of letting go of our stresses and negative energies stored in the body. It makes our mind and body healthy. We also focus our mental energies on our breath through the medium of pranayama whereby flawless and smooth breathing is experienced which benefits our physical body immensely and also gives us mental energy.

Raja Yoga at the Brahma Kumaris

If you are new at the Brahma Kumaris, and if you are practicing yog asanas and pranayama for their physical and emotional health benefits, from before, you don’t need to stop them. This is because both these are extremely important mediums for this purpose and widely acclaimed and proven successful techniques which have saved many people from the most serious of illnesses and also reduced the intensity of many illnesses. There are lakhs of people all over the world who share their experiences confirming this. But the Brahma Kumaris add another dimension to this physical side of yoga – a spiritual yoga i.e. connecting the mind and intellect to the supreme source of spiritual energy or God, which is also called yoga or connection with a non-physical pure entity - God. So those who have been practicing yog asanas and pranayama, if they desire, can continue to do the same but add the spiritual yoga in their lifestyles. Those who have not been practicing yog asanas and pranayama concentrate only on the spiritual yoga, which not only purifies the soul but also has immense benefits for the physical systems of the body and helps in purifying them. This is because a pure mind means a mind full of the seven qualities of peace, joy, love, bliss, purity, power and knowledge, which in turn influences the main systems of the body and makes them free of illnesses.

Spiritual Yoga

The practice of spiritual yoga or connecting the mind with a higher source of spiritual power i.e. God, causes His spiritual energy to enter our mind and fill our minds with the seven primary qualities - peace, joy, love, bliss, purity, power and knowledge. These qualities nourish all our body systems and make them free of illnesses. Each time we experience an impure or negative emotion, its negative effect travels to all these systems and this causes the birth of illnesses in these systems. Spiritual yoga, which at the Brahma Kumaris is called Rajyoga meditation and is karma yoga, because it can be done while performing any action, does the opposite. Because Rajyoga is a yoga with the Highest power existing in the universe, it is given that name. This Highest power is God and He is the Highest because He is an overflowing source of all these seven qualities mentioned above. So a link with such a source gives us an experience of these qualities and as a result these qualities flow to each cell of all the systems of the body and causes these cells to heal and become full of pure spiritual and as a result physical energy. Also, each one of us has a target organ or system which is most prone to disease. What this organ or system is for each one is connected with the karmas of the soul performed in this and previous births, which reflect in the systems of the body. Rajyoga meditation, as taught by the Brahma Kumaris, because of the mechanism explained above, helps in keeping this target organ healthy and also brings with it mental peace and a stress life.
Lastly, as you follow the path of spiritual yoga, take care that physical health issues are also addressed since a healthy body finds it easier to meditate correctly and also perform actions in the remembrance of the Supreme Being with comfort. On one side the meditation helps in clearing up the negative sanskaras of the soul which are created in the soul when a negative action is performed either in this or previous births, and are the primary cause of all our illnesses. At the same time, on the other side care should also be taken of the physical body through the mediums of a right diet, exercise and sleep, so that the spiritual journey is smooth and obstacle free; a journey on which we welcome all of you.