Yoga remains a difficult issue to discuss in this century. It is a pity that modern day globalization has caused this amazing ancient art to be viewed as a distant and mysterious concept. It is amazing to see the whole philosophy fuelling yoga’s methodology being reduced to a simple concept, justified by the need to make it easy for the layperson to understand.

Most westerners might find the contents of yoga to be rather complicated and hard to relate to. It is unwise to gain a shallow knowledge about a diverse topic and yet speaks about it from an expert’s viewpoint. Westerners often view yoga as a physical activity. Yoga has been cherished as a form of physical activity that has some beneficial effects on the mind in creating peace and serenity.

It is one of the six schools of Hindu thoughts has roots deep within the pages of the Hindu Holy Scriptures. Yoga as a part of India’s diverse culture and philosophy is actually a spiritual experience that includes some complicated physical moves. It is unfortunate that the western world would approach yoga as a mere physical activity. The strange symbols related to the yoga practice have created some awareness among the westerners that there is more to yoga than the physical aspects, but they are often misunderstood. This discipline is practiced as a popular sport. Nevertheless many have been attracted to yoga as a form of practice to achieve inner peace and balance. Additionally, people who desire inner tranquility would often find this practice to be beneficial.

This perception is often strengthened by the various claims made by the so called yoga masters. Fatal errors have been detected in the practice of yoga outside of India, showing the level of misunderstanding among the western practitioners. A closer look revealed that these errors were caused by the cultural influence of each race.

Different groups practicing yoga have its own cultural structure and these influences are responsible for those fatal errors detected in the practice of this ancient art. In order to truly understand this concept moments of quiet, peaceful times are necessary to contemplate on this philosophy, and that is certainly an element that is absent in the hectic lifestyle of the western civilization.

For instance, meditation is the crux of this philosophy but busy Americans do not possess the time to spend in a few hours of relative sessions every day. The Hindus have a different set of value system that is very different from the west, and places low importance in the mere accumulation of physical wealth. Perhaps the western man shall never reach the peaks of wisdom according to the parameters set by the Hindu religion and culture.

One needs to possess both time and patience to fully reap the rewards of a successful meditative session. Obviously, the people from the west have no endurance to fulfill such demands. Obsessed with the need to accumulate as much wealth as possible, therefore the thought of having to spend time in such sessions would be considered a mere waste of precious time.

Here, yoga as been practiced by those who desire to look good and stay in style. There are plenty of materials promoting it as a form of sports; you can practice yoga anywhere and anytime you want. There are famous people who embraced this practice and become fake gurus and still they have enough support from their followers. These followers have become the pillars supporting the growth of this false and wrong philosophy.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...

 |  Email This Post  |  Print This Post  |  Subscribe to It!
This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 5:10 am and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.