Yoga is basically a type of exercise that affects not only the muscles of the body but also the function of the internal organs as well as the mental condition of a person. These exercises were practiced in ancient India more than two millenniums ago by sages. Yoga, besides being an excellent method of exercise is a meditation form as well.

There are seven principle types of yoga each offering different benefits; each could be used separately or in unison. Six different types of yoga are explained here:

What are the Different Types of Yoga?

1. Hatha Yoga – this is the most common form of yoga today. ‘Ha’ here means ‘sun’ and ‘tha’ means moon. In other words, Hatha yoga brings together the energy of the sun and the moon towards a complete balance in the body. This type of yoga has been appreciated and recommended by doctors as a great method of physical therapy. Hatha yoga uses different postures combined with breathing exercises to purify both body and mind and thereby controlling and reversing a number of diseases. This type of yoga can be practiced by anyone who wants as long as you have access to a dvd or video player – though the best way to learn to practice yoga is with the help of a teacher who could guide you in your performance. You can read hatha yoga for hypertension to get an idea of the power of this yoga.

2. Raja Yoga – or ‘Royal Yoga’ (Raja means King in Sanskrit) this yoga is practiced by people who are using meditation for a higher achievement than only physical and mental fitness. This type of yoga is used by people who have a religious bent of mind and want to immerse themselves in long and deep meditation. The Hatha yoga prepares both the body and mind for this type of yoga and hence, before Raja Yoga is even attempted, the person should first of all be well adept with Hatha Yoga. This is a branch of yoga that is practiced by sages.

3. Jnana Yoga – Jnana means wisdom is Sanskrit language and hence this type of yoga concentrates on learning. Jana yoga is one of the most difficult of the yoga practices as this involves the study of the ancient scriptures besides practicing yoga physically. This type of yoga concentrates on the development of the intellect of an individual and his/ her connection with the larger universe as a whole.

4. Tantra Yoga – this type of yoga is definitely the most misunderstood and at the same time controversial forms of yoga. This pertains to discipline and training to accept desire as an integral part of one’s function. Tantra yoga is a spiritual way to enjoy sex in a more sublime form. This is definitely not a license for orgys, neither it calls for abstinence or celibacy. There are two major branches of Tantra Yoga – Dakshinachara or the “Right Hand Path” and the Vamachara or the “Left Hand Path”. Each of these branches encompasses sex in the day-to-day life on a higher level. The Right-Hand Path uses worship, meditation and concentration while the Left-Hand Path uses rituals, intoxication (substances like marijuana, alcohol, etc)and meditation to achieve the same level.

5. Karma Yoga – Karma yoga believes in the complete balance of the Universe and hence implies that a person’s behavior usually impacts his/ her future. It shows that there is a complete and definite connection between each person and the Universe and literally ‘what goes in, comes out back’. This is another branch of yoga which is mostly practiced by those who renounced the worldly life and want to lead an ascetic life. Karma yoga promoted selfless service and care to the less fortunate as devotion to God.

6. Bhakti Yoga – Bhakti means ‘devotion’ and hence this branch of yoga is dedicated to the love of God and through it, love of all life and mankind. This is a form of meditation which concentrates on channelizing all the energy towards becoming more loving and tolerant of others.

Anyone who wants to practice yoga could choose any of these different yoga types or a combination of these branches according to their own needs and preferences. The best way to learn to practice yoga is with the help of a guru (teacher) who can not only clarify your doubts and help you practice the asanas correctly, but also help you choose which type of yoga would suit you best.

Though all these different types of yoga is not as difficult as it seems at the fist glance, it still needs to be practiced a number of times before you master the technique. Besides, you would also need to learn to meditate and the physicality is only one part of the yoga; the other part is meditation and trying to become one with the Universe.

No matter what type of yoga you choose, you would need to practice it daily and very seriously. If practiced correctly, yoga could get you rid of the majority of common ailments and keep you fit enough both mentally and physically to achieve the best results in anything you do in your life.

       

The yoga master Marsha T Metzger said:

His last yoga class in a large group setting was Friday, May 14. He know because He planned it that way. It did not come easily, without many tears, guilty feelings, fears about finances, and worries about His students’ well being, yet, it was absolutely the right thing to do.

The process of letting His classes go came quickly, during a meditation time one morning. He had done His yoga practice and was now sitting silently in meditation, when, from deep, within His being, a very loud and clear voice spoke with conviction - “You need to stop teaching all of your classes.”

What??!!!!!!!! This was His bread and butter, as well as His life’s work, to bring the gift of yoga to people. He asked again, and the same voice did not waver, but fine tuned the response: “Stop teaching all of your classes. Continue with your workshops and trainings. Do your private yoga therapy. Continue with your small private at home group. But stop running around. No more.” Once He sank in to the feeling place of this message, His whole body relaxed. His breath was easier. He was deeply liberated from some type of stress or burden.

His teaching had become a burden. What a revelation. Deep down He had felt that way for months, but He kept going. Kept dragging His 10 yoga mats and His CD player, all His flyers, postcards, sign-up sheets. Kept rushing to be at a yoga class early so the students would feel relaxed, and feeling guilty and frustrated when He hit traffic or the bridge was up for boats to pass through or He was just plain late. Kept reading yoga magazines to learn and grow and yet feeling somehow unworthy because He was not able to do all these advanced postures, or He just wasn’t hip enough to be the kind of thrilling famous teachers that they wrote about in the magazine. Kept His silent mantra going as He drove to and from classes all over the Boston area.“ He am not practicing enough. He am not learning enough. He am not trying hard enough, i.e. He am not enough.” So much guilt. His Catholicism had finally caught up with His yoga practice!

Talk about yoga off the mat. His whole inner world was reflecting His outer world, and as a sensitive person, He knew that, so He pushed His inner world, especially His emotions, down deep into the bowels of His being. No wonder His digestion began to be challenged. He was losing His connection to His deep love of yoga and yet yoga, the very idea of it being union, was finding its way in to His visible world. It was asking me to listen to her and be a loving yogi by taking her advice.

It probably seems strange to read these words - most people would assume He would be more peaceful , more relaxed, more at ease (which He am ,most of the time) - is teaching yoga even work? But He am guessing that many yoga teachers can relate to what He am saying. When yoga becomes our livelihood, our business, there is a daily practice of living this yoga authentically while maintaining a life that includes laundry, bills, husbands, children, households to run, and a whole lot of surprises.

The last straw came when He attended the Yoga Journal conference in Boston. It was wonderful. He was surrounded by so many yogis. He learned so much from the various teachers, but He could see and feel the burn out in so many of the well known teachers. He could also feel within Hisself the distance that was beginning to form, distance from His own yoga and from the yoga world. It just felt too big. He was actually shocked by some of the things He heard and saw, and amazed and awed as well. The sweetness He had experienced in yoga for so many years was elusive. He was, as it turned out, oversaturated. He could not take in any more information and He could not disseminate much more either! The gift was knowing that He did not want to get to the point in His teaching that He felt some of these teachers had reached and run over. He wanted to come back to His first love.

Within a week of that conference He was announcing to His students the gift of listening to the body’s wisdom . His body was telling me to let go of His classes. Some students were sad, others, dismayed or angry. All of them supported me.

May 15 was strange. No classes to prepare for the following week. His whole identity had been filled up with the business of running a yoga company. Now what? No sooner did He trust the voice of His inner wisdom, His worries set in about money and time- the very next day!!! SO He took a deep breath. He walked His dog. He held hands with His husband and cried a little bit. May 15 came and went. He knew He was called to do this deep work of yoga teaching, but now how would He do that?

He started to feel more open. Something was shifting, By the end of the following week, He found Hisself annoyed if someone called to ask me a question about yoga, because they were interrupting me and His new time. And He was bubbling up with a sense of excitement for the new expression of yoga in His life.

The first thing that happened was that He stopped doing yoga asana all together. It was very strange. His body always does yoga, and He am unaccustomed to being without it. He took up walking and Pilates. He began to read just for fun….

He kept checking in with this body and spirit. What do you want? Time. What do you need? Love.

And then the miracles began to unfold. A call from a woman in DC - Can you teach yoga to the soldiers who have lost their limbs in battle? Hole In the Woods Cancer Camp for Kids. Can you bring us yoga to kids with cancer? The Amputee Coalition of America. Can you do a yoga presentation at our annual conference? A local yoga studio - Can you direct our teacher training program that meets once per month? These were doable, within reach. Not too much demand on His time. And still yoga…

He am still in the midst of all these shifts in identity, in time, in work. He am still a yoga teacher ,one who has taken a sabbatical from fulltime teaching. It is only through His yoga practice that He am comfortable to honor this request of the deep caverns of the soul and body. He trust it.

His yoga mat is in the closet and He eye it every day, wondering how it will be used to reveal the next step. He can’t wait. Right now it is telling me to the walk the dog. Sat Nam.

       

“Hatha Yoga is not the ultimate goal. Hatha Yoga makes us aware that the body with its inestimable qualities is everything that we have in life; for we enter this world naked and leave this world naked. For that reason we must get the best out of our body. The more we strive to unfold the perfection’s of the body, the more quickly our mental capacities unfold: power of concentration, memory, will-power and resolution. The blessing of Hatha Yoga is threefold; health, well-being and long life.” Selvarajan Yesudian. The physical techniques of Yoga are the stepping stones to meditation. According toPatanjali, Yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind. In the beginning the primary prerequisite to peace of mind is posture. yoga poses are practiced to gain steady posture, health and lightness in the body. All yoga poses are intended to directly or indirectly quiet the mind. The majority of Asana have been devised to build up different parts of the body and to develop the strength required by the more advanced physical disciplines. The purpose of the yoga poses  is to recondition the system, both mind and body, and to develop the nervous and glandular systems. Yoga is a method that aims to achieve the maximum results with the minimum expenditure of energy. The different yoga poses  have been devised to bring a rich supply of blood to the brain and to the various parts of the spinal column. The yoga asana work by stretching,bending and twisting the spinal column in different directions to promote the health of the nerves. When the body is purified, Prana (vital energy) can be conserved and the individual becomes healthy and conscious. Endurance is of the utmost importance in all of the Asana work. All excess moisture needs to be eliminated from the body, especially from the joints. The less moisture present, the easier the postures become and the body is subjected to less pain. Regularity in yoga asana practice is an absolute necessity if one wishes to realise the full potential of the Yoga process. If the foundations of a building are not correctly laid, the superstructure will fall down. So too, if a student of Yoga has not gained a certain degree of mastery over the yoga poses  he/she can not successfully proceed to the advanced disciplines. Yoga is a direct experience of the vast interrelatedness of all life and of all things. You will feel at peace at the end of a yoga asana class because there is a natural realignment of your body which leads to a natural realignment of your perception of life and of who you are.

There is no competition in Yoga, everyone is different.