Yoga Teacher Training in India

Yoga Introduction,
 
 " Yoga will emerge as a mighty world culture and change the course of world events."
- Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

“The yogi realizes that his life and all its activities are part of the divine action in nature, manifesting and operating in the form of man. In the beating of his pulse and the rhythm of his respiration, he recognizes the flow of the seasons and the throbbing of universal life. His body is a temple which houses the Divine Spark.”
- B. K. S. Iyengar.

 "Yoga means the art of communion, becoming one with the whole, dissolving yourself into the whole like a dewdrop slipping from the lotus leaf into the lake. The moment it falls into the lake it becomes the lake. It loses one thing — its small identity, its ego, its boundary — but it gains infinitely; it becomes the whole lake. The dewdrop was always in danger, the sun will rise and it will evaporate. Dewdrops are always on the verge of death, any moment death can happen. But once the dewdrop becomes part of the lake, death becomes impossible.

Man is just a dewdrop, and that’s why he is miserable, afraid; afraid of death, afraid of a thousand and one things, constantly trembling inside. And it is natural, understandable. The only way to get rid of all this fear, trembling, is to become one with the whole.

That’s what yoga is: the art of dissolving yourself into the whole, losing your boundaries, losing your ego, your identity. In the beginning it seems to be very difficult because that’s all we know about ourselves.

The function of the master is to help you, to encourage you, to seduce you, to push you to take the jump.
And if one loves the master, trusts the master, things become simple, very simple. That’s what sannyas is all about; it is just a trust. And in trust it is easy to take the jump; without trust it is impossible to take the jump. In doubt you cannot take the jump because you will always be doubting whether to take it or not and it will always remain an either/or, either/or, either/or.

And there is no way to decide through the mind because the mind has no way to know the unknown, it remains confined in the known. And you have never experienced the melting with the whole, so it is a gamble. The doubting person cannot risk. It really needs guts, great courage, to trust, to put all the doubts aside. In spite of all the doubts one falls in love with someone who has known, who has taken the jump, who has found. And in trust one takes the quantum leap. It is a single step. Once you have jumped, then nothing can prevent you. Even if you doubt on the way you can doubt — nothing to worry about. Now you will reach the lake; you cannot hang somewhere in the air.

So once somebody has jumped I don’t bother about it at all. I don’t even look — it is finished, I start working with somebody else, because there is nowhere in the air you can stop, you have to go to the very bottom. So my work is finished once somebody has taken the jump. And the moment you become one with the whole there is bliss. Life for the first time has meaning because for the first time there is no more death. For the first time you know you have always been here and will always be here, that you are indestructible. In knowing it there is rejoicing, in knowing it there is freedom from fear, in knowing it one starts dancing.

Then there is nothing else to do — dance, sing, rejoice!
Then this whole universe belongs to you because you are part to it."
- OSHO.

One of the earliest texts having to do with Yoga was compiled by a scholar named Patanjali, who set down the most prevalent Yoga theories and practices of his time in a book he called Yoga Sutras (“Yoga Aphorisms”) as early as the 1st or 2nd century B.C. or as late as the 5th century A.D. (exact dates are unknown). The system that he wrote about is known as “Ashtanga Yoga,” or the eight limbs of Yoga, and this is what is generally referred to today as Classical Yoga. Most current adherents practice some variation of Patanjali’s system.The eight steps of Classical Yoga are :

     1) Yama, meaning “restraint”  - refraining from violence, lying, stealing, casual sex, and hoarding

     2) Niyama, meaning “observance”  - purity, contentment, tolerance, study, and remembrance

     3)  Asana, physical exercises

     5)  Pratyahara, preparation for meditation,  “withdrawal of the mind from the senses”

      6) Dharana, concentration, being able to hold the mind on one object for a specified time

      7) Dhyana, meditation, the ability to focus on one thing (or nothing) indefinitely

      8) Samadhi, absorption, or realization of the essential nature of the self.

Modern Western Yoga classes generally focus on the 3rd,  and 4th steps.

 Yoga probably arrived in the United States in the late 1800s, but it did not become widely known in the west until the 1960s, as part of the youth culture’s growing interest in anything Eastern. As more became known about the beneficial effects of Yoga, it gained acceptance and respect as a valuable method for helping in the management of stress and improving health and well-being. Many physicians now recommend Yoga practice to patients at risk for heart disease, as well as those with back pain, arthritis, depression, and other chronic conditions.

Yogi Sivadas adapts these ancient philosophies to modern times

through his own unique style.