About Yoga
'Yoga alone enables the practitioner to perceive and experience the world within and around himself,
to touch the divine joy of all creation, and then to share that nectar of divine wealth and happiness with his fellow beings'.
- B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Yoga helps us to get to know ourselves based on self-perception and practice: by banishing our ignorance about our body, exploring our thoughts and emotions, cultivating awareness of what we consider to be "me". Why? To see what's inside of us once we are less identified with the chattering of the mind. It's as simple as that.
'Only a silent mind can look within. Only a silent mind can hear the silence, the happiness that is always bubbling there.
It’s so subtle that with the noise of the mind you cannot hear it'.
- Osho
Yoga is not a promise, it's a suggestion. It is varied, it has options to offer, it invites us to decide on what serves us to develop an intuitive compass to navigate towards our mindless space.
There is Hatha Yoga - the path of purification, Karma Yoga - the path of selfless service, Jnana Yoga - the path of knowledge and discrimination, Raja Yoga - the 8-folg path of meditation and Bhakti Yoga - the Yoga of Devotion.
About Hatha
Sthira-sukham-āsanam
The practice of Asana should be stable and easeful.
- Yoga Sutras, Patanjali
The word Hatha consists of two parts. Ha: Sun and Tha: Moon.
Asana practice itself is a dualism. We long for stability and softness at the same time.
The physical Yoga is a symbolism for the search for the mindless space, a training ground to gain experience and to practice. By acknowledging that 'mind' is only one aspect of our being, we can become receptive to other layers: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Once their relation is understood, our practice shifts from a body-mind experience to a meditative state, where the duality of our physical experience (Prakriti) can be resolved.
'Asana offers a controlled battleground for the process of conflict and creation. The aim is to recreate the process of human evolution in our own internal environment. We thereby have the opportunity to observe and comprehend our own evolution to the point where conflict is resolved and there is only oneness, as when the river meets the sea.'
- B.K.S. Iyengar, Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
About Bhakti
'All prayers go on inside you spontaneously without ceasing.
In reality, all songs of gratitude and ecstatic lovemaking are resonating in every particle of creation at every moment. When you are established in this recitation, You are listening and hear them'.
- Vijnana Bhairava Tantra
Bhakti Yoga, the Yoga of devotion, is a direct approach to universal connectedness through the heart, through experience. Love is natural to all of us! Bhakti is about devotion, joy, connection. It has been called 'love for love's sake'.
When we stop fighting the dualities of life, when we stop feeling separate from the beings around us, we will be able to surrender to the idea of Oneness.
Bhakti is an accessible way to do that by the use of Mantra, singing in community (Kirtan), rituals, mediation, Asana, Mudra and more.
Whatever serves you and makes you feel love is your Bhakti!
