about yoga
The mind is like the wind, ever moving, never still. The goal of yoga is to transform the mind from its usual distracted state which is crowded with thoughts, feelings, fantasies and memories to a mind that is steady and peaceful. Patañjali (an ancient Indian scholar) in the Yoga Sūtra speaks of yoga as the containment of the minds activities, a tool for refining the mind. He offers a systematic methodology of working with the body, the breath and the mind to nurture physical health and mental stability.
Yoga was cultivated thousands of years ago in India and is now practiced in some form or another globally. For many people yoga is practiced simply as a system of physical exercises, however yoga is so much more than this. It is a physical, energetic and psychological discipline, layered with methods and techniques. When understood and applied with clarity and sincerity yoga is a means to know our self deeply.
The word 'sattva' in Sanskrit refers to clarity, understanding, and equilibrium. The entire practice of yoga should promote these qualities enabling the practitioner to experience physical health and mental clarity.
"And what is yoga? one might ask.
The state of mind wherein one longs to bask.
Clear of its activities, the mind focused inward,
Unmindful of all that makes it reach outward."
- D.V Sridhar & Alagu Muthu
