Saturday, December 26, 2015

93) Yoga and Vedanta - their respective role in the spiritual development of a person


We have today lot of Yoga Centres in many Cities all over India and all over the world . Various types of Yoga are offered - Sivananda , Iyengar , Ashtanga , Bikram , Vinyasa Yoga , Core Yoga , Dance Yoga etc and we also have many new age groups like Isha Yoga , AOL offering their respective Yoga and healing techniques . On the other hand we have lot of Vedanta Centres also coming up in various Cities and the popular are Chinmaya , Dayananda etc that Offer lectures on Gita and Upanishads . Very few Centres offer both i.e combine Yoga and Vedanta and only the Sivananda Organization founded by Swami Sivananda combines both these Sciences and that is why Swami Sivananda established the Yoga Vedanta Forest Academy in Rishikesh in the early 40s and one of his Chief Disciple Swami Vishnu devannada established the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre world wide that combined both these sciences . 
Uusally the common belief is that Yoga is practical and Vedanta is Theoretical and that is why most young and middle aged people prefer Yoga as it gives them immediate practical benefits in the form of a healthy body , calm mind and better sleep  and senior citizens prefer Vedanta as it involves juust listening to the lectures . Unfortunately this attitude is very wrong . Both these Sciences are equally important for the balanced development of an individual ir-respective of whatever age he/she may belong to  and having a preconceived notion that Yoga is only for the Young to tone  their body and Vedanta is for the old to just listen is not a good attitude .
It does not matter which Yoga style you practice - as long as you do it with body and breath awareness , all forms of Yoga will help you develop a healthy body and a calm mind and that sort of individual is fit to listen to Vedanta . In Vedanta there is a shift from the body , mind to the atma or consciousness .  This is a very big shift and as we are always immersed in  either our body , mind it is not very easy to shift from the body , mind to the atma and so lot of immersion is needed to develop this shift in attitude  and for that shift to happen one needs a strong body and a clear mind to listen to the Vedantic Teachings and assimilate them slowly and steadily .
So  need of the hour is that those who have taken to a serious Yoga practice must also start attending Vedanta Classes and those who keep attending Vedanta Classes must also practice some gentle form of Yoga to keep their body fit and relaxed  and this integrated approach is very much essential for a balanced spiritual life . Vedanta is not possible without a proper Yogic foundation and Yoga is incomplete without Vedanta and hence treat both these Sciences with respect and do not dismiss the other .