Yoga mumbo jumbo

I normally hold on to the thought of live & let live, it takes all kinds to make this world... & such views. However, having done a session of Bharat Thakur's Artistic Yoga, I feel strongly that this is NOT yoga. Its aerobics on a yoga mat.

Ok, to clarify, yoga is for the purpose of stilling, quietening the body & mind so that we can see clearly whats happening within & around us. To be more aware. its a discipline, an education system that lets you understand yourself & your world, both internal & external. The body is a tool to be used towards this goal. Making it strong, healthy helps in preparing for living. It is a means to an end. But when you make looking good an end, something is certainly wrong in our perception. Its a superficial way to look at yoga. After all yoga is a way of life. Your attitude reflects it.

Dont get me wrong here, i loving looking gud :)spent a lot of time (and money!)pursuing this interesting aspect of life. Yet, when its yoga we are talking about, its feelings, emotions, viewpoints, mental states that takes importance. Body is a way to explore all this. Like in shavasana or corpse pose, we try to figure out where we hold tension, stress in our body. Relaxing the body part by part takes you deeper, gets you in touch with the body,which leads you to whats causing the tension. After all, our bodies are a reflection of our thoughts. When we understand our body, our thoughts & accept them harmony pervails. Thats why we do yoga asana. You feel good, confident about yourself & can deal with the external world, harmonising with it.

We cant skim the surface and get any valuable information. It would be too trivial, superficial. Ofcourse the way we look shows how much we care for it. The thing to ponder on is are we taking that much effort in improving, knowing our mind along with our body? Whats really important to us? Why is being attractive such a big deal?

Coming back to Artistic yoga, there was no time to think of anything as i was simply trying to get my breath in some rhythm. The background music was distracting & the shouting from the instructor very jarring, meant to be encouraging but was absolutely unartistic. The point here is that this is an exercise routine, as called by the instructor, Not yoga. So please stop calling it that.

The seal is harmonising with his stony environment. Practising yoga.