Sanskrit words and phrases

Tran, Anh - Assignment #2 Question: What is Yoga? Critically define the four yogas, intention, style, focus, and personality. Which one would you think most suited to your personality? Explain why. Simply put, yoga is a form of moksha (liberation). It is a spiritual exercise that brings peace, balance, and calmness to oneself. There are four types of yogas. The first one is jnana or knowledge yoga. This type of yoga is intended for spiritual aspirants who have a strong reflective bent; it is the shortest and steepest path to unite with the Godhead through knowledge (Smith, 39). Jnana has nothing to do with factual information but the power to distinguish what is on the surface and what is deeper, out of sight (Smith, 39-40). This power can be proceeded through three stages: learning (from sages and scriptures the idea “that her essential being is Being itself”), thinking (by reflecting and realizing the oneness of Atman, the individual self, and Brahman, the Godhead), and “shifting her self-identification to her abiding part” by thinking of oneself as Spirit or in the third person (Smith, 40-41). The second type of yoga is bhakti, the most popular among the four yogas. Bhakti yoga is the way to divine realization through love (Smith, 41). Its biggest goal is to identify with God and love God genuinely (Smith, 41-42). There are three features of the bhakta’s approach: japam (the practice of repeating God’s name), ringing the changes on love (different types of love based…

The practice of yoga and meditation are proven to be a powerful source for many people around the world and can be practiced if you’re a beginner or in advanced yoga. Practicing yoga has many benefits that can change an individual’s life mentally and physically. Spiritual healing is one the benefits that has helped individuals live happier and healthier lives when they experience spiritual healing throughout time. Spiritual healing is defined by Merriam Webster of or relating to a person’s…

According to their viewpoint, yoga was intended to move between the layers of these three bodies. From the start of your first yoga class, you begin to integrate the mind, body and breath. With practice, you can go beyond the basic limitations of your physical form to unlock the true potential of yoga. What Is Yoga? The word yoga is from a Sanskrit word, yuj, that means to bind or yoke. This word can be used to mean union or to concentrate one's attention. In essence, yoga means the yoking…

How Yoga Has Influenced India So Far What is yoga? “Yoga” is union – the one that connects your mind, body, and soul at once. The term yoga (derived from the word “yuj” of Sanskrit) is used for connection of the individual soul with the universal spirit. Usually, by yoga, people understand some kind of physical exercise that involves stretches, twists, and deep breaths. However, it has a far broader horizon than most people’s imagination. It is an essential science aspect, which contains in…

In these three Hindu tales, I noticed that they were less about the creation of the world and more about the gods and where they came from. For example, in “How Ganesh got his Elephant’s Head” and “Hanuman, the Greatest” the stories were mainly about the activities the gods did and how they became the way they are now. In “Hanuman, the Greatest”, the monkey god, Hanuman meets the two sons of King Desaratha and finds out that one of the sons (Prince Rama) cannot find his wife, Sita. Hanuman asks…

“The finest of Seats” is what people called Karnak, an ancient complex of extraordinary religious temples located in Thebes, Egypt. (Bunson). The 250 square miles were filled with temples, stone pillars, statues and more gave Karnak the name for the “the most remarkable religious complex constructed on earth” (Bunson). No one has even attempted something like it’s size or scale until the pyramids of Giza. With the early Egyptian art and the remarkable architecture Karnak was known all around…

What is Kemetic Yoga™? Kemetic Yoga was re-discovered in the 1970, by Master Yirser Ra Hotep. Kemetic Yoga is African Yoga. It was practiced by the ancient Kamites for physical, mental and spiritual development. Kemetic yoga acknowledges the Ancient/Kemetic/Kushite origins of yoga and seeks to make a link between Ancient Egypt, the Indus/Kush civilization prior to the Aryan invasion and traditional African traditions of knowledge and spirituality such as the Yoruba. Rule of Four Breathing…

A sudden Nostalgia in a Yoga class. We, human beings, tend to build intimate and emotional connections towards various things we encounter or have and places that we visit. If, ever, our relationships with these things or places come to an end; we may well mourn their absence or go through an experience of remembrance. This emotional an existential remembrance could include the past; our past experiences, incidents we got through, actions, places we have been to and people we met. Despite the…

The Bhagavad-Gita is a rather small section in the overall massive text of the Mahabharata. However, the size of this passage had no effect on its ability to influence. The likes of Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Annie Besant, and Mohandas K. Gandhi were all inspired or influenced by this text. The Bhagavad-Gita wouldn’t be the inspiring text is it today if it hadn’t been influenced by many other religious texts that came before it. The Bhagavad-Gita takes ideas from other religious…

oga originated in India and has the purpose of stimulating both spiritual growth, mental wellbeing and physical health. Yoga contains many exercise programs, of which physical exercises, or hathayoga, is one. In the following the basic principles of hathayoga are outlined. An important part of physical yoga is the breathing exercises, or pranayama. This part is in many ways the most fundamental, because the basic type of breathing is also a part of the yoga postures - the asanas. The postures…