Yoga and Self-Development

Preface

Yoga is India’s oldest scientific and spiritual discipline. It trains both the mind and the body. It offers simple remedies, easy techniques and healthy methods to assure physical and mental fitness to human beings. It shows the human beings to lead the life in a right path. The word yoga means ‘to add’ or ‘to unite’ the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness. It balances and harmonizes the body, the mind and the emotions with the help of Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha, Shatkarma and Meditation. They help to maintain a good balance among physical and spiritual world. The ultimate goal of Yoga is moksha (liberation), though the exact definition of what form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated.

Yoga helps to create an equilibrium between strength and flexibility in the human body. It teaches the art of living the life in its full volume and versatility in perfect harmony with the self and others. The practice of yoga especially in the form the ashtanga (the eight limbs of yoga) provide immense help in assisting an individual to seek his all- round growth and development. It helps the students in solving the problems of unhappiness, restlessness, conditional imbalance etc. It helps the man to evoke the hidden potentialities of a man in a systematic and scientific way by which man becomes a full individual.

Yoga refers to a science, which helps to receive an ideal body build-up, mental elegance and excellence of consciousness. It is the philosophy of enjoying a life filled with comfort and pleasure. With Yoga practice each and every part of the body is affected with positive responses and helps to maintain flexibility, stability and functional integrity of nerves, muscles, vessels and blood capillaries.

The book tries to throw some light on the importance and benefits of Yoga in human life. It also tries to explain the misconceptions prevailing in the society about Yoga practice. It tries to describe the classification, precautions and benefits of practicing Asana. It explains the benefits of Pranayama and meditation. It also tries to talk about the

therapeutic value of Yoga and finally throws some light on the practicing of Yoga for happy and healthy integrated personality.

I am sincerely grateful to my mentor Dr. Dahagam Samba Murthy for encouraging me to write the present book. I take it a great privilege and honour to express my token of gratitude to Sri Suresh Chandra Sharma, Managing Director, Neelkamal Publications Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi-Hyderabad for giving me a wonderful opportunity in bringing out this book.

We hope that this book would meet the needs of both the student-teachers as well as the teacher educators.

We look forward to and appreciate suggestions from the intelligentsia to improve this book.

– Authors