Friday, September 14, 2007

Another New School?? (Nithya Yoga Series 2)

'Yeah, another school of yoga, what's new in this one?' - this is the obvious question that one would ask if someone reads my previous blog post in Nithya Yoga series. And I agree this is a valid question.

So lets go back in time, thousands of years ago to see how it all originated ...

Patanjali, an enlightened master and the father of Yoga, wrote Yoga Sutra thousands of years ago. He introduced to the world then, what is called Ashtanga Yoga. It was not like there were no yogis before Patanjali or there were no yogic practices before Him. Patanjali for the first time gave the world a complete 360 degree approach through Ashtanga Yoga. For the first time, someone made a proper documentation of what it takes to be enlightened, how to get enlightened. Swami Nithyananda says Patanjali's Yoga Sutra is one of the rare books, which gives a complete solution.

Over the years, there have been innumerable number of yoga schools and gurus with different chains of thought. Swami Nithyananda says, 'they were developed keeping the human consciousness in mind at that point in time.' Here we are not referring to the pseudo yoga schools with fancy names but the schools which were developed by enlightened masters. Each master saw a certain need for overall human consciousness at that time and accordingly designed yogic practices to elevate the human consciousness.

Now coming to the present, let me answer the obvious question...

Eminent cellular biologists and doctors, like Dr. Bruce Lipton and Dr. Deepak Chopra, agree that the human biological system has changed over the last hundred years both physically and mentally. New synaptic connections have been formed in our brain called cerebral layer which helps us cope with the fast paced lifestyle that has developed over the last century.

Swami Nithyananda says, 'we need something really really strong to remove the negativities which we continuously accumulate in our system due to our lifestyle.'

He says, 'Nithya Yoga is yoga for jet age generation...'

Swami Nithyananda understands both Patanjali and the modern man very well. Through Nithya Yoga, He brings Ashtanga Yoga as it was intended to be keeping in mind the state of current human consciousness.

In the next post, we will see what this is in greater detail. For now enjoy this short entertaining video, which we will show later is directly connected to Nithya Yoga.

-- Sri Nithya Arpanananda

5 comments:

Anupsar said...

Could you also explain further on the concepts of (for a very common man)
1. consciousness
2. enlightenment
3. Why should one work towards enlightenment ?
4. For normal people physical well being, looking better and feeling nice are obvious results from any method. So any method which will give them want should be good from their point of view - nah ?

Sri Nithya Arpanananda said...

Hi Anu

Valid questions there..but answers or definitions to these points that you asked will be mere words.

Anyways, let me answer the last questions first :)

Why should one work towards enlightenment?

Very valid question! As a human, the greatest advantage that we have got has also become the greatest disadvantage - CHOICE, CONSCIOUS CHOICE. An animal does not have a choice. It does something because of an instinctive reaction.

We humans are given the greatest gift of all - a conscious choice to do or not to do. We know that there is something beyond out there. Now it is upto us to go and find it or live in our current state. And mind you, with the latter, you are stuck in the same plane forever (although one can fool himself/others to be enjoying that state) but with the former, you go beyond all planes.

So yes to answer your question, if someone doesn't wish to work towards enlightenment, it is choice that they are making with their LIMITED INTELLIGENCE. So be it.

Your next concern for 'normal' people - exactly what Swamiji says, we are not normal humans. He says, 'We are spiritual beings having a human experience not human beings having a spiritual experience.'

The whole essence of Yoga is to be able to rise ourselves, our consciousness, get ourselves out of this pathetic state. That is the truth, how much ever we love and like what we are doing, we are in a pathetic state because we do the same mistakes, we keep worrying about the same things, we cry about the same things.

The whole point of Nithya Yoga is not to degrade a great science to mere physical exercise because it suits our mentality.

The exact definitions of first two questions I really cannot answer because I am not yet enlightened :) but I am definitely striving towards it because that is MY conscious choice :)

Anupsar said...

OK, Great... Thanks for that.
In essence :
1. Working towards enlightenment is nothing but working towards human evolution.
2. Different methods employed are yoga, meditation or combination of them, reflection, watching the mind etc etc.
3. Side effects of methods being, physical health, emotional and mental health, and most important of all the person achieves everlasting, eternal Bliss.

;)))woow.

Vikram said...

Going through this blog for the first time. Wonderful content and messages. You guys are doing a great job!

Beat Regards,
Vikram

Sri Nithya Arpanananda said...

Dear Vikram

Thanks for passing by our blog. Hope this blog helps you.

In Nithyananda
Arpanananda