what was missing,

what should be,

what might have been,

all of those things.

It was a release of that internal demand to make things better for myself.

And in its place was a deep appreciation for being alive
without asking for anything else.- Catherine Ingram

Yoga has many different flavors, but the most widely known, or Classical yoga is called “Raja Yoga”.  Raja yoga consists of 8 limbs, one of which is yoga asana, or the physical postures. The other 7 limbs deal with behavior, breathing or pranayama, cultivation of awareness, meditation, and so on, all aimed toward the ultimate purpose of Raja yoga, which is stillness of the mind.

In our culture, we tend to focus less on the stillness of yoga and more on the ‘doing’ part.  On first thought, we generally associate the word  ‘yoga’ to refer to the asana, or postures, which are just one of the eight limbs.

Many yoga studios find that advertising the strength of ‘power yoga’ or workout toward getting fit, is better marketing than advertising a quiet mind, although in all types of yoga, generally both benefits apply over time.  Even the yoga magazines in grocery stores portray the thin or most fit bodies.  It is rarely noted that this appearance of health may come equally from a healthy mind as from a good asana practice.

Perhaps this is so because we are culturally programmed to achieve and to strive and to get somewhere quickly, qualities that relate to a different yoga concept, “Rajas”.  In Yoga, Rajas is one of the three gunas, or attributes of life, and it relates to activity and movement.  Rajas can be used to break up lethargy and stagnation (part of the guna called Tamas) but in excess, can lend to over-activity, over-doing, agressivity and ambition that quite simply, wears us out.

In recent months, the news media portrayed yoga as a potentially hazardous exercise, noting participants who suffered from neck or spinal injuries due the incorrect practice of yoga.  Again from this quality of “rajas’, the over-doing, over-exerting, striving, qualities that stemmed from Rajas, not qualities that are traditionally part of the quiet awareness of yoga in an ancient sense.  The New York Times even followed up with one drama-ensuing article portraying as yoga as a tantric cult, again inappropriately feeding on the distortions caused by the fact that sensational drama creates revenue in the world of media.

I did not note in any of these articles a mention of the healing benefits of yoga in a therapeutic sense, nor the awareness that one cultivates which contributes to a positive increase in mental well-being and the development of purity in consciousness.  Perhaps this would all be too boring!

What is important in all this is to realize the source of our actions, our reactions, and how they may be influenced by the Rajasic energy imbued in our culture.  When we practice stillness in our daily life, being clear minded, striving for less and just feeling connected, we indirectly cultivate that which requires the ultimate strength, to contribute, through our actions, to the conscious evolution of the world we live in.

-Gianna