hat most Westerners picture when you say Yoga, is an Indian guru in cloth shorts or a long flowing robe, twisted up in a some sort of a pretzel pose. You may picture the Yoga practitioner in peak physical shape, as well as, being a very peaceful human being. It is attaining this goal that is the aim of Yoga, but what most of people don’t realize, is exactly how much goes into achieving this state. Yoga time honored teaching on how to achieve physical health, psychological well being and spiritual peace. This can be achieved by concentrating for hours in a state of complete focus, know as meditation. While mediating, the practitioner assumes various body positions known as asanas, that allows for maximum circulation of the body. By quieting the mind and placing attention on the breath and on the movement (and stillness) of the body the idea is to achieve a state of mind where he experiences total health and feeling of well being. The word Yoga as a term, literally means “union”, the aim of Yoga is to integrate and harmonize all the various human faculties--mind, emotions, body, and spirit. In India, where it originated, this process of harmonization takes many forms: the yoga of devotion, of meditation, or selfless service, of knowledge and study. Although are advantages and disadvantage to all types of Yoga the scientific community maintains a belief through many years of study that Yoga has definite medicinal value in the maintenance of health and treatment of disease Overall benefits of Yoga The practice of Yoga encompasses many different forms--e.g. Karma, Bhakti, Jnana, Raja, Hatha, Kundalini and Tantra). As Sri Krishna Prem so eloquently stated, Yoga is not a synthesis of all the separate branches of the tradition; it is the prior and undivided whole of which the branches represent partial formations. Yoga exercises (physical, mental or spiritual) based on eastern metaphysical assumptions designed...
