Make change your ‘normal’

When you see an accomplished mimicry artist, you may realise how a famous actor has easily recognisable patterns of speech and body language. Every actor has a way he or she is “normally” on screen. All of us have these patterns. it has nothing to do with fame.

Yoga is the practice of inner stillness. But modern life pushes us to the opposite. One of the main reasons for this is the feeling and habit of being rushed, of hurrying.

A beautiful chant from the Vedas, imbued with wholesome meaning. Consciousness is complete, boundless and timeless. The universe is complete too. From the union of the two arise infinite lives, complete in yet another way in its countless variety and change.

Foremost among ancient yoga texts is Patanjali’s Yogasutra, a text consisting of 195 terse aphorisms, or pithy sayings. Yogasutra, along with traditional commentaries on it, explains the practice of meditation and the psychology of yoga in detail.

What is common among these three? In all these three (mindfulness, absorption, and contemplation), you bring your attention to an experience or subject, and you sustain your attention on it, by your choice.

Ayurveda is a limb of Yoga. Ayurvedic medicine is made using a combination of natural plant products, such as roots, stems, leaves, flowers or fruits of plants, then transformed through a specific process of cooking. The same basic principles of medicinal preparation are applied in the preparation of food.

We have seen that the root cause of sickness is an absence of awareness. Used properly, pranayama can be an effective means to bring about the needed awareness. It is important to remember that the goal of Yoga is freedom, whether it be freedom from disease or freedom from...

This is about the vital role that breath plays in maintaining and restoring our state of well-being and Inner Ecological Balance or Svastha. In the ancient texts, breath was given a special status because it was understood as the link between the body, mind and the external world.

A mudra is a kind of “seal” in that its purpose is to seal a thought in our mind. Yoga mudra is also called cin mudra or jnana mudra. There is a well-known story behind this mudra. Siva, representing the Divine, once took the form of a boy of...

The prana or the breath is like a horse. The mind is the rider. If the rider does not have a sure touch or is inattentive, the horse may become restless and throw the rider off, especially when attempting an advanced manoeuvre. So it is with the mind in...