Beware of asana addiction

Since no two bodies area alike, no two bodies will look identical doing the same postures. Know the purpose of your practice before you begin each session. Examine how this purpose fits in with your larger goal of reintegration, and make the changes that will keep this immediate goal...

Despite people’s tendency to assign a general purpose to particular asanas, there is no standard intrinsic purpose for any asana. People hope that one posture will be the cure for a sore lower back; another, the remedy for constipation.

Vinyasa, as commonly understood, consists of moving from one asana or body position to another, combining breathing with the movement. This is a word popularised by my guru T. Krishnamacharya in his teachings and has become part of the yoga lexicon.

The science of Yoga is the link between the purpose and the type of practice. The art of Yoga is the link between the person (who) and their purpose (why) used to define their practice (what). This is because the specific means employed are likely to vary depending upon...

With today's technological advances and information boom, there are countless options to maintain good health. And yet, a dispassionate observer can clearly sense that, somehow, somewhere, something deeply fundamental is missing.

There is an ancient way of expressing the goal of yoga practice. It is part metaphor, part instruction. When we hear the word ‘heart’ in ancient yoga texts and the Upanishads, it does not refer to the physical organ pumping away inside our chests.

Yoga is something you do for yourself. No one else can do it for you, nor can you do it for someone else. In essence, it is an intensely individual pursuit. To this, add the fact that no one person is exactly like another in body and mind, and...

Yoga is a pathway to positive changes in body and mind. But most people practise it not because they have a specific transformation in mind but simply because yoga makes them feel good. Not all positive change in life necessarily feels good at the outset.

Yoga has come a long way from its ancient roots. The milieu in which we practise nowadays is vastly different from that of a thousand years ago. In the olden days, the yogi was practising alone. Now people practise in groups.

All the practices of yoga are directed towards the attainment of a steady state of mind. Transition to such a state of mind is not possible for ordinary people like us in whom the compulsion to act is deeply ingrained. Since we cannot stop acting, we must enter the...