Yogic Pranayama

Yoga is one of the gems of acient India. It's history is unique and its benefits are immense. I had a fascination for this "art" since childhood. Initially, it was for the complex poses that I had to strike, but more recently, it has been in trying to study the essence of it.

Here is some history to digest- In 200 B.C. Indian yogi Patanjali formulates Ashtanga Yoga in his book Yoga Sutra. The Ashtanga Yoga describes 8 paths of yoga:

•Yama (dos)

•Niyama (don'ts)

•Asana (postures)

•Pranayama (breath-control)

•Pratyahara (sense withdrawal)

•Dharana (one-pointedness)

•Dhyana (meditation)

•Samadhi (union with universal consciousness)

As of now, I don't believe I can reach to the level of understanding the final four paths, but I shall try to put some thought in the distant future. Asana is the one that everyone talks about nowadays. Clever marketing spun around imaginative variations has made it a money minting opportunity. Unfortunately, only the Patanjali form of yoga is the true way of performing this art. Each asana had been carefully studied to understand its effects on the human body and mind. Pranayama, is however the most difficult next step . It's something that many of the yoga promoters are not capable of achieving or fail to perform.

•Pranayama has been practiced for centuries by ardent students of Yoga in remote ashrams in India. •Until recently, this art and science of Yogic breathing was almost completely unknown to the common man like many other ancient Indian arts. •The breathing process involves two activities, viz., inhaling (Puraka) and exhaling (Rechaka).

• The state when these two activities are made to halt is given the name "Kumbhaka". The halt after inhaling is called "Abhyantara Kumbhaka" and after exhaling is called "Bahya Kumbhaka".

•It has three variations - Quiet Breathing, Deep Breathing and Fast Breathing. The other methods that form a part of this complex process are Mudras (Symbols) and Bandhas (restrain or hold the energy and dissipate it through the body).

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This entire regimen is usually practiced in the form of asanas and pranayamas combined with mudras and bandhas. As one can imagine, it requires a lot of patience and a lot of time in one's schedule- Something that cannot be expensed by many.

The combination of these methods provide, in my opinion, one of the greatest control of human beings over body and mind. This is in effect, some of the greater lessons of Hinduism and shall form the story for my analysis of "what makes a nation progressive? what is a developed nation? How do you define it?".

The Mystical Great Lakes!

Since 2001, the first time that I came to the United States, I've visited the Great Lakes on several occasions. Calling them as "lakes" is probably a great injustice to these mighty oceans. Lake Superior is my favorite and I've watched it from the Western Coast in Minnesota and the Southern Coast in Michigan. The lake has sparked my interest in the mystic creation of God, the hobby of collecting pebbles (rocks) and the history of the Native Americans. The picture in this post was taken by a good friend of mine from Business School. It is the untouched splendor of the amazing Lake Superior taken from the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (http://www.nps.gov/piro/). The sandstone cliffs and beaches provide a spectacular snapshot of nature's beauty. This place is a rich source of minerals formed from millions of years of volcanic activity that created them in the first place, a reason why miners arrived at Lake Superior in the 18th century. Check this link to have a look at Miner's Castle and Grand Portal Point in the Upper Peninsula- http://www.lakesuperiorphoto.com/miners_castle_collapse.html
Information on some of the amazing rocks that one can find near lake Superior, including the agates, can be found in this site - http://www.superiortrails.com/rock-hound.html. I feel lucky to have made this trip as part of a socializing event in business school called 'MTrek'. It sure was an unforgettable experience. I shall talk exclusively about my interest in Native American history in a different post.