Ashtang yoga is a spiritual and purifying form of yoga that combines breath with movement and concentration.
Patanjali’s eight limbs of yoga; Image Source: Ian Alexander
Ashtang yoga is an eight-limbed path of spiritual practices and conscious life that leads to self-knowledge, liberation, and the end of personal suffering. It is described in Rishi Patanjali’s yoga Sutras, compiled around 200 BCE. Its origins can be traced to Vaman Rishi’s old manuscript, the yoga Korunta.
Ashtang yoga Techniques
The first four limbs: Yam, Niyam, asana, and Praanyam are thought of as external purification methods. Pattabhi Jois asserts that flaws in external practices can be fixed. However, if the proper Ashtang yoga technique is not used, flaws in the inner purification practices like Pratyahar, Dharana, and Dhyan can be harmful to the mind. Vinyas and tristhan must be used in Ashtang yoga asana to be properly performed. Vinyas is a system of breathing and movements. One breath precedes each movement. Vinyas is used for internal purification. When breathing and activity are coordinated, the blood is heated, cleaned, and thinned in order for it to circulate more easily. Joint discomfort is reduced and disease and poisons are removed from the interior organs thanks to improved blood circulation. Impurities are subsequently expelled from the body via sweat produced as a result of vinyas’s heat. Vinyas helps the body become strong, healthy, and light.
The Bandhs (locks) are crucial parts of the ujjayi pranayam. Bandh’s function is to release pranic energy and distribute it through the subtle body’s 72,000 nadis. Anal lock is known as mula bandha, and lower abdominal lock is known as uddiyana bandha. Both bandhas seal in energy, giving lightness, power as well as wellness to the body, and generate a tremendous internal fire. At the base of the body, the mula bandha seals in praan so that the uddiyan bandha can direct it upward through the nadis.
The practitioner gains the mental clarity, physical steadiness, and nervous system purification necessary to start the recommended pranayam practice after practising asana for a long period of time with proper vinyas and tristhan. The mind is anchored in one place and conditioned to follow the breath’s flow using the technique of pranayam. Ashtang yoga’s internal purification techniques are built on the foundation of praanyama.
The four internal purification techniques; pratyahar, dharana, dhyan, and samadhi, control the mind. The six poisons that surround the spiritual heart are kaam (desire), krodh (rage), moh (delusion), lobh (greed), matsarya (sloth), and maad (envy). They will all fully go when cleansing is complete and mind discipline takes place, revealing the Eternal Self. This is how Maharishi Patanjali’s eight-limbed yoga is accomplished through the correct, consistent practice of Ashtang yoga under the guidance of a Guru with a suppressed mind free from the external and inner sense organs.
Benefits of Ashtang yoga
Ashtang yoga is known for its physically challenging pattern of poses and the multiple health benefits it offers. If practiced regularly for long term, it enhances breathing pattern, soothes the nerves, promotes mental strength, boosts strength, and improves psychological well-being, increases flexibility and much more.
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