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Today's Daily Tip

Re-align with a Forward Bend

Yoga can be a wonderful healing practice for a variety of back ailments, including scoliosis. Not only will it eliminate some ... (continued)

Comments

pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Orbis Ignis

Readers left some good additional info, but I think the author did a good job of giving an *overview* (not an exhaustive list) of most popular yoga styles. It was helpful to me.

Deepti

If we are talking about Yoga just on the basis of who started it and where it is located, what is done....Then you have missed a very important school. Bihar School of Yoga. If one doesn't know about this school, then entire Yoga practice is useless. Books published by the school have proven several remedies for human sufferings.
I wish the writer was more educated in the different types of Yoga!!!
Well there is just one Hatha Yoga, rest all are a spin and marketing gimmicks for material gains.

N K Srinivasan

Excellent article explaining the different styles and flavors of yoga by various masters and yoga gurus in the west.
Back in India, it is just called Hatha Yoga and most people practice 10 or 12 poses only, as I did as a high school boy. There we give importance to bow pose [Dhanurasana],shoulder stand [sarvangasana] and head stand [sirasasana]. The last two were called "Queen" and "king" poses...essential ones. Friends will ask "Hey! Have you done your headstand today"...Yogis would practise Virata Karani for an hour or two, to control their sexual impulses.....All these have changed a lot in modern "brands" of yoga-- Srinivasan Iyengar

Anonymous

You've left out some options: Yin Yoga for example, Phoenix Rising therapeutic technique, etc.

Peggy Berg

Mr. Iyengar is not 80, but 93.

Gabriel

@ Chandresh:

So what should Sri K. Pattabhi Jois have named the Ashtanga Yoga system then? The Jois Method?

And by naming it Ashtanga Yoga, he's not crediting himself; rather, I think he's trying to draw focus to the 8-limbed path, but using the asanas as a starting point. Furthermore, by naming it the Ashtanga Yoga method and not the Jois Method (as many 'guru's do), he's giving credit to the entire lineage of gurus who came before him.

Maybe it's all a matter of perspective.

Easwaran R

I could not agree more with Chandresh. Ashta-anga means eight limbs -these being yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyhar, dharan, dhyan & Samadhi. Asana is only one of the eight limbs enumerated by Patanjali. Indeed in his classical treatise "Yoga Sutras", Patanjali dismisses Asanas with a brief "Sthiram Sukham Asanam" meaning Asana is a comfortable and Steady posture. So much for all those body contortions !

Mark LaPorta Roseland FL

Problem with such a list is that it loses comprehensive significance and begins to sound like marketing chatter.
A new reader might perhaps have been better served by giving an explanation of the elements of yoga and then "what questions to ask".

Chandresh Binduprasad

Namaste,

K. Pattabhi Jois should never had called his form of yoga ashtanga (in sanscrit this means 8). This system was put forth by the great Sage Patanjali a few hundred years B.C. All yoga is based on this system since Patanjali was the the father of yoga. By Mr. Jois calling his system Ashtanga Yoga has a does a diservice to all yoga students around the world.

Beginning yoga students would be better served in learning the fundamentals of yoga as put forth by the Sage Patanaji.

Furthermore, how does Mr. Jois have the audacity to call his yoga system Ashtanga? Did he not know that All yoga originates from this system and all yoga is in fact Ashtanga or 8 Limbed.

Mr. Jois has done a disservice and confused the entire system which Sage Patanjali has put together so beautifully.

In Kali Yuga, (the present age) many persons take credit for things that do not belong to them for name, fame and money.

Authentic Ashtanga Yoga was given to the Sage Patanjali by Divine means and for another teacher to use this name only confuses students of yoga.

This system was given by the Divine to the Sage Patanjali and does not belong to Mr. Jois.

Chandresh Binduprasad

By Mr. Jois using the name Ashtanga for his system of yoga only serves to confuse beginner students of yoga.

All yoga is based on Sage Patanjali's Ashtanga (8 Limbed System) This name never should have been used by Mr. Jois.

In the age of Kali, various persons take credit for things that do not belong to them.

This system was given to the sage Patanjali by Divine Means and does not belong to Mr. Jois. It was given by the Divine Beings to the Sage Patanjali.

Mr. Jois has done a disservice to the students of yoga for taking credit for Ashtanga Yoga when it fact it is Patanjali's System.

This is disgraceful!

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