Of the Body, Mind and Soul
Feeling bored and void of verve? Is the monotony of life hitting harder each day? Did you in the recent past wish you could pursue a fascinating venture rather than your current one? If you did answer yes to any of the above, take a break and read on.
The mundane lifestyle is catching up with people in a rapid pace and its effects are proving to be deleterious. Stress levels are on a high and happy times spent trifle down to be momentary. However this seems a boom for the various firms promising so-called “stress-busting-packages”, most of which effect contrarily. Nevertheless there exists an eternal faction of patrons who unfortunately fail to realize a simple truth – the solution lies within!
Yoga – a way of life
Introspection, self-realization and in essence, understanding oneself is the fundamental objective of the renown science of Yoga. Deriving its name from the Sanskrit root word “yuj” (meaning ‘to control’) is a time-tested (definitely! references to it are found to exist in the Rig Veda) tool offering a holistic solution to revitalize the body, mind, and soul; and all this with no side-effects.
Yoga is a way of life, a conscious act, not a set or series of learning principles. The dexterity, grace, and poise you cultivate, as a matter of course, is the natural outcome of regular practice. You require no major effort. In fact trying hard will turn your practices into a humdrum, painful, even injurious routine and will eventually slow down your progress. Subsequently, and interestingly, the therapeutic effect of Yoga is the direct result of involving the mind totally in inspiring the body to awaken.
Element-ary approach
The five elements of a human being are the body, mind, soul, life and intellect. Each of them is illustrated by an aspect of yogic philosophy namely-
- Annamayakosha - Body
- Pranamayakosha - Life
- Manonmayakosha - Mind
- Vignyanamayakosha - Intellect
- Anandamayakosha - Soul (Bliss)
A hale and hearty life is that which encompasses a balance of the pancha-koshas. Achieving this is no colossal task. It takes a bit of dedication coupled with determination. As Hari had rightly mentioned in his article reducing weight and staying healthy, “Diet and exercise are two vital components of the fitness regime”. A Sattvic lifestyle with a regular routine of Surya Namaskar and Pranayama are all that is needed to stay fit-body and mind 
Surya Namaskar is a sequence of postures done with synchronized breathing It is the easiest way to start with Yoga, to keep fit or simply stretch muscles in the body, first thing in the morning. Pranayama, on the other hand, involves a range of techniques to control and regulate breathing.
Be prudent to practice the regime, which you have decided to take on, ONLY after advice from an instructor. Enjoy the power of Yoga and feel the energy pulse through!
Welcome back amigo! Check out the homepage for latest posts or the archives for older posts.
You might also want to read..
Tagged as yoga + Categorized under Lifestyle, Health | »
Great Post
, best i’ve read so far. I always wished some one would post about Yoga. better late than never. I would like to explain about ” Sattvic Lifestyle” a bit more.
Yoga is all about uniting the body with mind and Ayurveda states that the food we eat affects both our body and our Mind. Yoga and Ayurveda together asserts that there are three qualities of nature- SAttva, RAjas and TAmas. At any point of time these three qualities interact with each other and all our thinking and emotions are Effected by the Predominance of these 3 qualities.
SAttvas- Purity
RAjas – Excitability
TAmas – Confusion
There are more to these qualities, i’ve just cited an example. The Inner peace can be obtained by following “SAttvic Lifestyle” which includes mindfulness, discipline, spiritual practices like prayer, yoga and meditation, and cultivating virtuous qualities such as honesty, non-violence, compassion, contentment, selflessness, following a Sattvic Foodstyle and so on.
The easiest of all is to follow a “SAttvic Foodstyle” which consists of Vegetarian Food.
Meat is said to compose of the other two qualities.
Ever wondered why some people avoid Onion and Garlic? Because they lack the SAttva component.And why some people don’t eat Onion on certain days? Thats because those days are beleived the best days to Purify our Body and mind (Detoxification by Fasting or eating Sattvic Food and avoiding the other types which includes Onion and Garlic).
So there’s a reason on why certain types of foods are avoided on certain days.
@Anand: Thanx
.. Nice comment with an interesting piece of info on Sattvic Foodstyle!! Was intending to write about the SAttva, RAjas and TAmas qualities in my post on “Pranayama”. 
WOW!
kudos to ash for a great write up. I tried yoga for some months but gave up due to my laziness,but if done regularly it can do wonders in your way of life. And anand’s follow up was very informative too.Way to go fellas 
@Hari: Anand’s publishing here soon. Did you notice his listing in the homepage authors list?
Superb write-up Aish
@Anand: To add to tat info the best satvik food is Ashgaurd (pushinikai) followed by all types of greens!
@Hari: Another one of ur kind here
As aish mentioned it needs a bit of dedication and determination which i lack in any case 
@Karthik: I’d be happy to add you as an author here if only you were not such a lazy ass
@Pras: well said