OM, Patanjali and Sweat on the Mat: How Does it All Fit Together?
Once you go beyond the mat and really start learning about yoga, you might soon realize that the number of kinds, styles and types of yoga is quite mind-boggling. How does one keep it all straight? Let’s back right up and look at the big picture and hopefully we can get some clarity.
1. The Big Big Picture
In the widest scope of what yoga is, the answer is simple: It’s all One. The raison d’être of yoga is to reawaken our reality to the fact that we are not separate from anything, we exist as a part of the whole and our suffering comes from the fact that we have ‘forgotten’ that universal truth. So, yoga practice is the attempt to wake up from our dream of separation and join the universe again as part and parcel. In the Big Big Picture, anything you do that helps your realization that you are truly one with the universe is Yoga.
2. Ways to Join with the Universe
Yoga is One, but the paths towards it are many. The goal is the same for all, but each person expresses it and explores it in their own individual way. There is no one right path. The only right path is the path that suits you as a person. This is called ‘Dharma’ (More on that in another post.) Over time, a few distinct paths have emerged that we can call ‘Types of Yoga’. Let’s look at a few of them:
Karma Yoga: The Yoga of Action. This yoga involves turning every action that you do in life into an expression that helps bring connection and harmony to everyone and everything. Helping the needy is a type of Karma yoga.
Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Higher Wisdom. In this yoga, philosophy and mind play the major role. The Jnana Yogi uses contemplation and philosophy to reorganize their reality to be an expression of yogic connection. Studying Patanjali is a type of Jnana yoga.
Bhakti Yoga: The Yoga of Devotion. In order to join the universe, we have to dissolve our separation. Through Bhakti, the Yogi immerses herself in the higher consciousness and forgets everything but the highest consciousness. Prayer is a type of Bhakti.
Mantra Yoga: The Yoga of Sound. Sound is the most subtle of the senses and Mantra practice can take the Yogi into a state of connection through harmonizing with the universe. Chanting OM until you get lost in it is a type of Mantra Yoga.
Hatha Yoga; The Yoga of Effort. Our reality is dependent on the situation in body, breath and mind. If our personal health and energy are flowing in harmony, we get the experience of ‘Yoga’, which is connectedness. This yoga refines the personal reality through movement, breathing, purifying and meditating to make connection a permanent situation.
3. Flavors of Hatha Yoga
Where people seem to get confused is between all the different yoga ‘styles’ out there. Yoga styles are the different approaches to (usually) Hatha Yoga. What differentiates Ashtanga Yoga from Bikram, Kundalini, Iyengar, Yin, etc? The answer is in their methods and use of the tools of Hatha Yoga. Some styles rank alignment as their main priority, while others elevate movement, breath or stillness as theirs. It’s kind of like the innumerable different styles of coffee available at your local cafe: the ingredients are largely the same but the method of putting them together is different.
In this modern age, the connection between the Big Big Picture and the different Flavors of Hatha Yoga seems to be growing thinner and thinner. Yoga exists to bring us into a larger and larger harmony, but many people are getting lost in the forest of yoga styles and personal gain.
Most modern styles have forgotten that the whole purpose is to create connection, and that the postures are tools to that end, not a competition to go deeper and deeper into a pose. The end goal is spiritual bliss, not putting your feet behind your head. The two can go together, but one can get too easily lost in the short term goals and forget what the practice is actually for.
Here is a challenge for you: Try to bring back some of the original principles of yoga into your practice. No matter what your preferred flavor of yoga is, can you use the yoga to forget your personality, thoughts and desires for a time? Can you broaden your experience so that you gain a different level of reality, one that is more in tune with the universe and less about yourself and your personal triumphs and failures? If you can do this, you are returning to the original roots of yoga and your entire being will grow into harmony and happiness. Try it!
Join Us on one of our many fantastic courses, led with heart and intelligence to help you learn. Our core Foundations of Swara Yoga 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training is a wonderful introduction to our system. The Prana and Pranayama 100 Hour Module explores breath and the subtle energetics of prana and our Yin Yoga Teacher Training explores Yin, 5 Elements of Chinese Medicine and Tai Chi (another type of yoga). Apply Today!
