Prana Yoga
« Yoga and more | Prana Yoga |Prana-Yoga in Marrakech!
In Morocco Prana Hatha Yoga is teached by Godavary Devi Laila Elkarti, who learned her profession during visits in the Ashram of the founder Swami Vignanananda in Berkeley/Calif. and India.
Yoga – Basics
Yoga’s origin lies in India. It is a method to bring body and soul into harmony, which grew over many thousand years and helps to clarify the question “Who am I?” The word yoga is an old Sanskrit word and means unification of body, intellect and soul. This unity can be realized by several ways. That is why we find until today many different ways to reach this goal. Some of them focus on spiritual techniques, others more on physical practices. Base for the yoga systems we find today are the yoga sutras (Sanskrit: Aphorisms) of the Patanjali (approx 300 A. D.), which describe the 8 parts of yoga (Sanskrit: Ashtanga Yoga):
8 parts of yoga (Ashtanga Yoga)
-
Moral Restrictions (Sanskrit: Yamas)
Five rules in order to dismantle unnoble ambitions
- no violence
- be honest (in what you say, what you think and what you do)
- no not steal
- temptation in all matters of life
- do not focus on possession (things, persons, locations, etc)
-
Commandments (Sanskrit: Niyamas)
Five commandments in order to develop positive qualities:
- cleanliness
- contentment
- abstinence
- study of religious texts
- to be concious of the presence of God (Allah)
-
physical exercises (Sanskrit: Asanas)
-
control over breathing, breathing techniques (Sanskrit: Pranayama)
-
pull senses away from reality (Sanskrit: Pratyahara)
-
focus your mind on one point (Sanskrit: Dharana)
-
Meditation (Sanskrit: Dhyana)
-
State of unification / total consciousness (Sanskrit: Samadhi) = goal of Yoga
Hatha Yoga
Hatha Yoga is the kind of Yoga which is best known to the western world. It is focussing on the physical aspects of yoga. Hatha in Sanskrit means sun (Ha) and Moon (Tha). It wants to cause the unification of Sun and Moon, which – according to yoga science – are part of (wo)man. The right part of the body stands for the sun, the left part stands for the moon. That means: the unification of the opposites (male / female, warming / cooling, feeling / intellect, etc) is going to be realized by means of physical exercices within the framework of Hatha Yoga. Within the 8 parts of yoga (Ashtanga yoga), Hatha Yoga focusses on physical exercises (Sanskrit: Asanas) and breathing techniques (Sanskrit: Pranayama). Also, it focusses on solving blockations of energy (Sanskrit: Bandhas) and certain exercises for hands (Sanskrit: Mudras).
Prana (Hatha) Yoga
Thanks to Swami Sivananda, the famous yogi from Rishikesh im Himalaya (India), Hatha Yoga is very popular today. End of the 1950′s, beginning of the 1960′s, he sent many of his students into the West in order to spread out yoga. His student Swami Vignanananda, the founder of Prana (Hatha) Yoga, went to Japan in order to popularize Yoga there. Beginning of the 1970′s he settled down in the US and founded the Prana Yoga Ashram in Berkeley / California, where he teached Prana Yoga and spread it wordwide. In March 2008 Swami-ji went to Mahasamadhi (that means he left his body, his body died). His confidanteand secretary, now master of yoga Saraswathi Devi, took over the administration of the Ashram.