Q:

In the age of Mirror home gym and various form of online yoga classes what are your views on practicing Yoga through these media?

A:

Yoga practice (Sadhna) is a journey to Self. Yoga is a Work-IN and not a Work-OUT. There is a role and a place for everything.

1. Watching Yoga-asana/Meditation videos is a great resource for education and motivation but practicing as we watch can be misguiding as neither the outside or the inside teacher is present.

2. The most important component in Yoga-Sadhna is of the awareness/drishti/focus. If the awareness is externalized so is the practice. As per one of yogic texts, prana follows the mind and the mind follows the awareness. Prana in this case is thus externalized instead of being internalized, centralized, multiplied, and absorbed within.

3. Maximum prana is lost through eyes and speech. In Yoga, eyes become tratak (focused and unbroken gaze) and the speech becomes Sankalpa Shakti (promise or resolve for transformation) and/or Mauna (silencing the mind by maintaining external Silence). Such redirection of organs of sense (eyes) and organ of action (vocal cords) creates a laser beam of concentration and leads one to Meditative states (dhyana). Looking at something outside might create distraction.

4. A teacher is the soul of the pilgrimage called Yoga. Practicing under a teacher/ Guru is a catalyst to inwards growth. When we watch a Yoga session on the screen, the teacher performing asanas & pranayama becomes the role model and our focus is on imitating the same flexibility, strength or balance, which is contradictory to the Yamas of Yoga. It invokes comparison and competition rather than “Santosha” and “Swadhyaya”.

5. Yoga means union of body, mind and breath. I am strong believer that “Yoga is not a WORK-OUT but a WORK-IN”. Yoga-Sadhna session requires one to be constantly aware of the changes within the body, mind and heart as sensations, thoughts and emotions. Yoga is an intrinsic science where the body and mind of the individual performing are research areas and the self-inquiry begins with insight. The more we are focused outside, the less we are sensitive to changes within.

6. Know the difference between a resource, an inspiration and a teacher because there is one.

7. Keep learning in all possible ways but keep practicing with the most important ingredient- focus on Self!

8. May your sight become a vision of Yoga and may your focus become a gaze on Yoga.

I am not against any of the new forms of media and ways to bring yoga to you, all I am saying is to be conscious and focused when you do your practice!

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