Two things every yoga and meditation practitioner should know.

 By Yogi Baba Prem Acharya

As yoga becomes more popular in the world, students should consider taking time to use two additional powerful tools that come from the Hindu system.  One is ayurveda, and the other is Vedic Astrology.

Ayurveda is a key component to wellness in the yoga tradition.  Ayurveda comes from two words: 1) Ayur (life), 2) Veda (Knowledge).  Ayurveda is a system of understanding the health processes of life.  It is formally known as an upaveda, or secondary vedas.  It is a comprehensive system for balancing the body and mind, as well as maintaining the harmony of the mind and body.  This is important, especially as yoga is moving away from comprehensive lineages established in India, and becoming more of a mix of different techniques and styles.  This increases the potential for imbalance and physical disharmony amongst yoga practitioners. 

Knowing ones constitution allows one to manage different pranayams, asanas, meditations, and mantras in a more harmonious way with their particular body and mental disposition.  A modern example of this would be chanting “OM”.  This is probably the best known and most widely chanted mantra in the world.  But in some cases, too much chanting of OM will result in increased ether/air in a yoga practitioner.  This, overtime, can have long-term physical effects that could actually harm the practitioner, as vata can afflict the nervous system and numerous other important systems.  Additionally, breaths such as bhastrika (fire breath) can have an unbalancing effect on pitta if practiced too much, or if cooling techniques are not used to compensate for the increased pitta generated during practice of the technique. 

Vedic astrology is a vedanga or limb of the vedas.  Vedic astrology, commonly known as Jyotish, provides deep insight into our karmas.  By better understanding one’s karmas, one can select yoga techniques that are more compatible with their chart.  This powerful system can provide insight into which systems of yoga are most beneficial to one’s particular karmas. 

By understanding ones karma’s, they are empowered to work through various issues, challenges and tap opportunities more efficiently.  Considerable time should be invested into understanding one’s karmas as indicated by the Vedic astrology chart.  Utilizing this powerful system allows one to work smarter when it comes to karma as opposed to harder.

These two systems, Ayurveda and Vedic astrology, provide important and powerful tools to yoga practitioners of all levels.  They are an important part of the yoga tradition that are often ignored or overlooked by modern society.  But in reality, they provide important elements to the physical wellness, health, and mental well-being of yoga practitioners and are an important part of every yoga practitioner’s life and sadhana. 

 

Copyright 2010.  All Rights reserved.  

Note Yogi Baba Prem offers Ayurveda and Vedic astrology consultations.  He is one of the few westerners that has studied and trained in both fields.  For information on these sessions email us at universalyoga@cfl.rr.com