SPLENDOR OF YOGA --- INFORMATION

SWAMI RAMDEV’S SCOTTISH YOGA RETREAT TO BE MADE IN TO A WORLDWIDE DESTINATION

The owners of an island in Scotland that is being used to promote yoga as taught by controversial guru Swami Ramdev, have said that they intend to make it a worldwide destination and a place where a family can enjoy a wholesome experience.

Glasgow care homeowners Sam and Sunita Poddar bought the island of Wee Cumbrae for 2.5 million pounds in July and have renamed it Shanti Dwipam, ( which in Sanskrit called as Peace Island).

Sunita credits Patanjali Yog with curing her of severe obesity and says she and her husband hope to turn the island into a popular yoga and meditation retreat.

"Our aim is to make Wee Cumbrae a worldwide destination with something for the whole family to enjoy," she told Sky News.

"Whether it is experiencing the rejuvenating and healing powers of Yog Pranayam and Ayurved, exploring the magnificent history of the island, enjoying the many walking trails, or experiencing the many gifts of nature this beautiful island has to offer, we want to make Wee Cumbrae accessible for everyone," she added.

Swami Ramdev's controversial teachings have earned a mass following.

Wee Cumbrae is a 700-acre island off the Ayrshire coast. Around 1,000 people are travelling to it to seek the blessings of Swami Ramdev.

A distinctive figure in saffron robes with his long flowing locks and beard, he has attracted criticism due to his controversial views and claims about the powers of his yoga.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA - PART - 21

YOGA FOR YOUR CHILD

DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO EXCEL IN EVERY FIELD HE/SHE CHOOSE?

Yoga can provide you with the guidance

Look in the right direction. That is why most people want their children enrolled into some physical activity, so that children can put that energy to good use. Of late, children have boundless energy. But all that needs to be channelised. Yoga for children has become a trend. You hear about it in clubs and even some schools. Experts believe that practicing some simple yogasanas can help children reign in their energies and use it to better their performance, posture, dietary habits, improve concentration and overall personality. It will be a good idea to start kids on yoga sessions early,when their faculties have developed well enough. In fact, watch kids at play and you will notice that most of them can twist and turn almost effortlessly, jump, bend and sit in any manner they fancy. Many of those movements can be found in yogasanas too. Do you know that children start performing yoga postures while in the moth er's womb itself? They love doing yoga and it is easy for them to do and it is a joy filled session. You can get them started as early as two years of age, beginning with postures!

Slowly introduce them to yoga series like sun salutations (suryanamaskar). They love doing sun salutations. Sun salutations give all the fuel necessary for your child to grow healthy,to be creative,to be centered and to be focused. It helps improve stamina, strength in bones and muscles, flexibility,co-ordination, digestion, assimilation, improves memory, concentration and dynamism. These 12 postures are good enough for overall health and fitness to your child. They can do upto 10 rounds! By the age of five they will be able to do 54 to 108 rounds, which most adults cannot! As you see them progress in these 12 postures of the sun, you can then introduce them to the art of breathing, relaxation and meditation. These techniques will teach them the art of living and life. They become intellectual, peaceful, creative and compassionate. They become more loving towards them selves, to family and to the society in general. May your child bring glory to your home, society and the entire world!.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA -- PART -- 20

LIGHT THE TORCH WITH PRACTICE OF YOGA
Yoga can help establish connection between mind and body through the nervous system, aided by spiritual awareness. Cultivating Light the torch with practice of yoga (Getty Images) spiritual consciousness requires the activation of the kundalini which is the Vagus tenth cranial nerve lying dormant in the Manipur chakra. A person meditates in stage-wise inverted poses such as the following: Shoulder-Stand Pose, Pelvic Pose, Plough Pose, Corpse Pose and the final Lotus Pose.
In the Shoulder-Stand pose, due to the vertical position of the legs and the trunk, the venous blood drains away by the force of gravity to the right side of the heart and then to the lungs for purification. The purification of the entire blood circulating in the body is the first stage of operation. In the Pelvic pose, the blood accumulates in the pelvic region; the local blood vessels get dilated and flush the gonads situated in this region. Due to gravity, the venous blood returns to the heart. There is a propelling of the whole process enhancing the secretion of sexual glands. It delays the ageing process and strengthens the body for meditation.
In the Plough Pose, there is a stretching of the vertebral column due to which the spinal cord located inside it and also the nerves issuing from it are stretched. It results in an indirect pull on the sympathetic cords that lie on both sides of the spine in the abdomen and are connected with the spinal cord by nervous strands.
Stimulation of the sympathetic system tones up the involuntary organs of the body. A chain of these activities finally activates the kundalini, directing it through a path going to the spinal cord to awaken spiritual consciousness. Thus, we tone up the spinal cord to make it fit to receive and to retain the subtle unconscious impressions dramatically. Along with kundalini, the other six chakras also get activated and start imparting the knowledge of eternal life, Brahmn.
However, at the end of inverted poses, the Corpse pose is essential to give recuperative time to the body muscles for relaxation as well as to give the body conscious rest whereby one can vitalise and control the activities of all involuntary organs of the body.
The Lotus Pose is the ultimate meditative pose in which case the foot lock resembles the petals of the lotus due to which flexors of the lower extremities are under pressure as a result of contraction. Therefore arterial blood gets accumulated in the organs of the pelvic region toning up the function of the gonads followed by absorption of the secretions. Now, the person can control his feelings and keep the mind away from worldly temptations. The mind is trained and stabilised to receive the waves of inner voices. One can concentrate on receiving Divine messages. This way, spiritual consciousness is awakened.
As soon as the kundalini is activated, there is a rise in a person's energy level. He can utilise this energy wherever he desires. This is not a miracle but a process affecting a reversal and reabsorption of secreted elixir of life followed by spiritual consciousness. It is an ecstatic breakthrough. If a person follows explicit perfection in the art of reverse yogic poses, he can light the torch of spirituality to reveal the path to the inner soul and the eternal world. One begins to experience the truth of Soham Brahmashri, meaning 'am that Non-Destructible World'.

The writer Mr.Nilkanth Maladkar is a scientist.You can contact him at E-mail: maladkarun@gmail.com

SPLENDOR OF YOGA ----- INFORMATION

YOGA.....HELPING CANCER SURVIVORS

A nonprofit organization has been linking cancer survivors with free yoga classes to help them rebuild their strength and healthy lifestyle in New Yoga helping cancer survivors rebuild strength (Getty Images) York.
Yoga Bear has been assisting survivors land free memberships to local yoga studios post-treatment in a bid to help them reclaim their energies.
The nationwide program has seen the involvement of more than 140 yoga studios, including 21 in the Big Apple.
Cancer survivor Stephanie Adams, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27, revealed how the traditional Indian discipline proved a blessing after two surgeries and endless chemotherapy treatments drained her of her previously high energy levels.
"I can’t go out and do pushups, I can’t go out and run and work out my upper body like I used to. [But] yoga allows me to slowly work my strength back up to where my body used to be," the New York Daily News quoted Adams as saying.
Tara Stiles, yoga instructor and Strala Yoga owner, said: "It’s an easy way to give back. It’s not hard to give up one spot in a class to make sure someone who has gone through so much regains their strength and wellness."
Adam, who finished chemotherapy in March and has won her battle against the disease, added: "Yoga has gotten me out of cancer land. Just having something to come to - and it not being about cancer but it’s about building yourself and getting well - is really nice."

SPLENDOR OF YOGA --- PART 19

THE WHOLE PROCESS OF ‘YOGA’ IS JUST TO GIVE YOURSELF

When say “give our self’, we may not know how to simply give our self. We need some kind of means to give our self. Whatever we may give in our life to anybody – we may give money, we may give food, or something else – all the things we actually give do not belong to us. Whatever we have today, the things around us, including our body – we gathered from this earth. And when we go, we have to give it back. We can’t take one cell of our body and go.

Whatever we have today with us is something that we have borrowed from this planet. It is not really ours. We can use it, we can enjoy it, but we really cannot own it. So, what doesn’t belong to us, we cannot give. There is really no giving.

Fundamentally, the only thing we can give is our self. But we do not know how to give our self simply. So we give through our money, food or something else. We are using a thing as a means to give. We are using activity as a means to give our self.

If we are not aware of this, then giving becomes a great problem. And if we don’t make our self willing to give our self, giving becomes a very painful process.

When we understand giving as giving only things, then naturally fear will come into us. This is because we tend to think, “If we give away everything, what will happen to us?” It is because of this understanding that we fear giving. Many have become stingy, miserly with their love, with their joy, simply because they only think in terms of – giving means things.

How many things can we give? “If we give away lots of things tomorrow nothing will be there.” So from this economy, slowly, we have become less loving, less joyous and less peaceful.

We can give only our self through whatever we do. So volunteering is a process of giving our self. It’s an opportunity to give us .We can simply sit here, close our eyes and give our self to the world. It is possible. But that level of awareness is not there in most human beings. Unless there is activity, people don’t know how to give themselves. They need action to give themselves towards something. So volunteering is a tremendous possibility in that direction which helps us gives our self. – We can really offer our self through our work.

Normally, in whatever little work we have to do, there are calculations. “How much should we do? Why should we do? What will we get out this?” In these calculations all the beauty of doing is gone. In these calculations the very process of life will become ugly.

Most of the things that we are doing in our life are things that we have chosen to do. In spite of that, in day-to-day activity, to do simple things, we struggle so much because we are unwilling to give. Some have forgotten that we have started this willingly. Whether it is our work, our marriage, our family, or whatever, we started all these willingly because we wanted them in our life. But once we started, we forgot why we started this, and now we have started giving unwillingly and it has become a painful process.

So volunteering is a way of learning to make our lives into a process of just giving. Volunteer means one who is willing. Not just to do this or that. He is simply willing. He is willingness

How to become 100 per cent willing? It is always best to start in a protected atmosphere, so that willingness can perpetuate into our everyday life as well and above all into we being so that we become willing.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA.......IMPORTANT INFORMATION.

SUPER BRAIN YOGA

Thoppukaranam (sit-ups with holding left ear with right hand and right ear with left hand), the traditional expression of devotion towards Hindu God Lord Ganesha practiced throughout India since centuries ago has now found a scientific interpretation.

A research by scientists of the celebrated Yale University School of Medicine has found that holding the ears in devotion and doing the sit-ups improved brainpower and the scientists named these sit-ups as Super Brain Yoga.

“SBY (Super Brain Yoga) stimulates neuro pathways in the brain by activating the acupuncture points on the ear lobes. Holding the left ear activates the right brain while holding the right ear activates the left brain,” Dr. Eugenius Ang Jr, YUSM told a US TV channel. According to Dr. Ang, SBY pumps up cells and neuron activities in the brain. Patients suffering from memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease and even kids showed improved results with SBY.

Raina kotebra, an occupational therapist in Malibu, said that SBY helped a seven-year-old ward of her who was suffering from acute emotional disorder.

Dr. Eric Robins, a physician describes SBY as a fast, simple and drug-free method of improving brain energy.

Choa Kok Sui, in his book Miracles on Pranik Healing has explained how the SBY helps in strengthening brain. “When the right ear lobe is gently squeezed with left thumb and left index finger with the thumb outside, it produces the necessary energy connection. This connection causes the left brain and pituitary gland to become energized and activated. Similar is the case with left ear lobe and right hand.”

More details have been posted at Superbrainyoga.org.

EYE YOGA

Veteran singer Sir Paul McCartney has picked up a unique new exercise routine from India- eye yoga.

In an interview on U.S. TV, the 66-year-old singer demonstrated his new exercise regime, which has him staring in different directions and holding for 20 seconds.

He learnt the exercise during his trip to India during last year.

An eye yoga expert at a hotel in India taught him the exercise, and the former Beatle indulges in an eye workout up to six times a day.

"He told me eyes are muscles (and) are just like any other muscles and they need exercise to keep them working properly," the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

"Spending so much time at computers or the TV or reading books, we are only using one set of muscles in our eyes. The yoga gives a workout to the other ones," he added.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA -- PART -- 18

TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION

Transcendental meditation was taught for the first time in the West about fifty years ago. It soon became very popular around the world because of its many positive effects. This particular meditation technique is independent of local values, religions, faiths and political convictions.

Transcendental Meditation not only improves your ability to focus but it stimulates creativity and works wonders for your physical health. It is proven that those engaged in regular practice of Transcendental Meditation have fewer medical problems than those who are not.

No other meditation technique has been so extensively studied and researched. During transcendental meditation, the brain falls into a theta brain wave pattern (akin to sleep and deep relaxation), which then carries over to the state of wakefulness. Physical benefits include increased mental comprehension, focus, retention and creativity. Another interesting benefit is the actual reversal of the aging process. In a study conducted by the International Journal of Neuroscience, the biological age of practitioners of transcendental meditation was, on average, twelve years younger than their chronological age.
The first three states of this technique of meditation are awakening, dream and dream sleep less. These states are usually the countries that can be achieved in many other meditation techniques, not just one. The fourth state is called the transcendental consciousness, which in time can be maintained that the person practicing the Transcendental Meditation technique goes on his daily life.

The benefits of meditation can be availed of by anyone who decides to practice this art. There are many misconceptions related to meditation such as it is exclusively for people who are on a spiritual search or that it is concerned with focusing or concentrating. Meditation is not concentration, though concentration can be a by-product and benefit of meditation.

The health benefits of meditation are astounding. The simple act of breathing properly in meditation (and the rest of the time, once you develop the habit) massages and relaxes our muscles and organs. This causes the chi to flow more easily through our body, cleansing and rejuvenating it. At deeper levels we can use meditation to focus more energy on specific organs or muscles to help cleanse them of disease and stress.

The benefits of meditation also include getting a handle on your emotions. A lot of the time we let our emotions run our lives, but we need to realize that most of these negative emotions are coming from obsessive thoughts about the future or the past. The past is over and we have no immediate control of the future so people need to learn to be present to get conscious, or in touch with their inner, true self.

BENEFITS OF TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
FOR MIND
It helps the meditator to achieve better memory, clearer and more orderly thinking, greater creativity and ability to focus, use of your whole brain and its full potential, sharper intellect, higher IQ, better grades, more alertness and expanded consciousness.

FOR BODY It helps relieve stress, attain more energy, better health, lower medical expenses, younger body, better sleep, lower blood pressure, reduced alcohol use. It can make you stop smoking, decrease tension, lower cholesterol and help you live a longer and healthier life.

FOR RELATIONSHIPS It makes you a better person if you have inner calm, more self-confidence, bigger perspective on life, increased tolerance, deeper appreciation for yourself and others. It helps to have the ability to feel better about yourself and enjoy life with less anxiety, anger and depression.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA --PART -- 17

YOGA POWERS

FITNESS FRENZY

YOGA IS THE GLOBAL MANTRA FOR THAT FABULOUS, LEAN, TONED AND SCULPTED BODY

LET’S JUST ADMIT IT; there’s something about a show-stopping celebrity that makes one long to be in his or her shoes……..at least once in a lifetime. Perfection personified, a beautiful, million-dollar body graced by an even more enticing face -- who wouldn’t want to be oh-so-gorgeously endowed? Whether it’s going gaga over their impossibly sculpted bodies or dreaming of toning up those loose ends to make heads turn, the operating word this season is YOGA.

Far from confines of trusted gymnasiums, youngsters have now started embracing YOGA as a complete package, a dual therapy of sorts that promises both fitness and happiness.

This also means that the therapies aka Power Plates and Pilates have made way for yoga and its bliss.

Its common knowledge that once you go to the gym, flexibility goes for a toss. You will always need yoga to regain that flexibility. To add to it, people who are constantly on the move or lead extremely fast-paced lives may not be able to accommodate the workout that a gym offers. By the time you’re done with it you have no energy to move on to the next thing on hand. WITH YOGA, IT’S THE ABSOLUTE REVERSE. You feel refreshed internally and externally and can immediately start jet-setting through life.

When it comes to women, yoga is definitely the discipline to opt for. Yoga can be practiced at anytime and anywhere, even during hectic schedules. In comparison to a regular workout in the gym, you will not feel fatigued.


FIND YOUR SPIRITUAL ENERGY

1) MEDITATE: Meditation is one of the best ways to help you understand your spiritual energy and tap into it. Meditation will also help you in your quest to find the right spiritual path. As you clear your mind, the answers to some of the most difficult questions can become clear. If you focus on spiritual energy within yourself, you will see the correct path.

2) PRAYER: Spiritual prayer is another way to tap into your spiritual energy. Prayer renews your faith and increases the strength of your spiritual energy tenfold. Take the path that will help you the most in your life. While the answer may not always be what you feel it should be, you will accept it.

3) NO NEGATIVE THOUGHTS: It’s easy to get depressed. Often our minds are overtaken by negative thoughts which can easily deplete our spiritual energy. It’s easy to feel yourself pulled off of your spiritual path. Shrug off negative thoughts and surround yourself with positive friends and influences.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA -- PART -- 16

LAUGHTING IS ALSO ANOTHER GIFT OF NATURE’S EXERCISE DICTIONARY………LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE

Researchers have found that laughter improves our mood, reduces anxiety, eases stress and adds years to our life.

The best things in life may not be free, but there is one thing which can do wonders, and it cost nothing – laughter. The adage “laughter is the best medicine” holds very much true even today.

Researchers have found that laughter improves our mood, reduces anxiety, eases stress, and is associated with creativity and emotional stability. Laughter helps lower blood pressure, adds years to our life and also helps one distress. SO WHY NOT LAUGH and through ALL OUR WORRIES AWAY.

A new study from the University of Maryland Medical Centre has shown that laughter, along with a healthy sense of humor is good for our heart.

Even though scientists yet to know why laughing protects the heart, but they have noted that mental stress is associated with impairment of the endothelium, the protective barrier lining our blood vessels. This can cause a series of inflammatory reactions that lead to fat and cholesterol build-up in the coronary arteries and ultimately to a heart attack. But scientists know that during laughter, hormones are released in the body which relax the mind and body. There is decrease in hormones which produce stress hormones adrenaline and steroids. There is also release of hormones dopamine and serotonin, which provides us with a feeling of well-being.

There are several laughter clubs in the world, even though it may be mechanical laughter, they help people distress and relax. Once there is decrease in stress hormones, there is reduction in diseases like heart problems, blood pressure and diabetes.

READ BOOKS..........BE FIT AND FINE.

When you start reading a book, you will sit properly, which is nothing but a Meditative posture. Then while reading your breathing will be regulated, which is good for the body and the mind. Finally, by concentrating on the book, you will reach a state of meditation. Some consider books more valuable than any thing. So, when you feel pressure, stressed frustrated or uneasy.....Start reading a book. Even the book has already been read by you, read again.

SPLENDOR OF YOGA -- MORE INFORMATION --THINK IT OVER

ENERGY CAN BE GIVEN TO ANOTHER
Modern day psycologists have proved that more than 80 per cent of diseases are psycosomatic. They originate from the mind and then come to the body. The root is the mind, not the body. In the body there are energy centres that get locked when the disease takes the root. If you can get the right technique to remove the blockage, the disease disappears.
But some of us may not be able to get the right technique and find time to meditate or may not be able to make enough energy to put in to meditation. For those kinds of people, somebody else who is a meditator, who is a master of meditation can meditate and pass the energy to the energy centres of the person who is suffering.
Here comes the question: How can energy be given?....There are few people who are ready to believe that energy can be created by meditation; but they are not ready to believe that energy can be given by somebody else.
Einstein says, "Whatever exists is energy." After Einstein's theory, many scientists have turned towards spirituality. Einstein, through his formula E=mc2, says that there is know borderline between matter and energy. The solid energy is matter;subtle matter is energy.
Matter and energy are one and the same in two different levels. Classical physicists declared that there are two states in an atom; one is static and the other is moving. Later, the understanding is changed to the same particle being static at one time and moving at another. Today, the understanding is the particle is static and moving at the same time. There is no space
or time gap. Therefore, whatever you call matter is nothing but energy; whatever you call energy is nothing but matter.
Whatever exists is energy. So, if matter can be given to somebody else, why not energy? If one give his glass to you, why can't he give energy also? Only thing one should know while giving is the right time and the right method of giving it. If a person knows the right technique of channelling and giving energy, it can be given and can be taken also.
The science of giving energy to the person who is in need of it is what spiritual healing is all about. It is a balance of the energy flow in the person's system so that his system heals itself.
Spiritual healing is channellng and radiating univesal cosmic energy. it is an easy and effortless meditation for the healer initiated by an enlightened master while energy is channelled into the person receiving the healing.
RELIEVE YOURSELF FROM ANXIETY,STRESS AND DEPRESSION.
BREATHING EXERCISES
Take a moment to close your eyes and focus only on breathing. Inhale slowly through your nose. Feel your diaphragm move up into your ribcage and extend your belly outward as you inhale. Each breath should take six seconds to cmplete. Spend three seconds slowly inhaling through your nose and the other three seconds slowly exhaling through your mouth.
LISTEN TO MUSIC
Sit back and relax with your favorite tunes. If you are feeling nostalgic, put on something that will transport you toanother place in time. Escape and think of nothing but the music. Try to play songs with a positive or uplifting message.
MEDITATE ON GRATITUDE
Take a few minutes to think about all the things you are greatful for. It could be as simple as feeling grateful for the food in your fridge or the way your puppy loves you. Take the time to appriciate as all the gifts you have in life and how lucky you are to have them. When you acknowledge the good in your life, more good will attract itself to you.