Yoga has survived and thrived from the ages of yore, to the 21st century and will continue to do so. Even in this chaotic survival system that man has come up with, yoga does not fail to deliver serenity and peace to anyone who has taken up on this journey.
Even now, when we roll out our mat to perform yoga, we know that the 1 hour of practice is going to keep us fresh and productive throughout the day, minus the emotional baggage that humans have collected for the sake of feeling anything at all. Well this is what happens when we create a system that is monotonous in so many ways and neglects the human desire to evolve and to create newer things.
We do not wish to create a newer system for ourselves because the systems that we work for has provided for us and our families, but what should one do about how monotonous it gets every now and then? Yoga has been a ray of hope for our parched spirituality. With yoga anyone and everyone who practices it has been able to walk a little closer to their spiritual selves.
But how does practicing yoga bring us to this? And what is the true purpose of yoga? Especially being a practice created 5,000 thousand years ago?
The true purpose of yoga was and to date remains the same, the evolvement of the spiritual self through physical practices, meditation, pranayama and more. Ancient yogis in India dug deep into the human psyche to understand the being within a man; which could not be measured and was beyond form, and beyond materialistic and worldly definitions. This was the spiritual being of a man. They understood that evolving the spiritual self was the only way that lead to the true sense of freedom and growth from that state of being, moving ahead to create further possibilities.
They realized that the only way to even reach that state was by evolving and practicing the key things that were common within all human beings.
The movement, the breath and the consumption of food were things that were common to all beings. So they created asanas that work a lot with one’s breathing patterns, stretching the horizons of comfort while performing complicated postures.
The movement that yoga brought about in one’s body, gave them a sense of the natural rhythms and how each rhythm was different to the other, and made them realize that in a larger sense, these rhythms were common within the human species.
The ancient yogis wrote an elaborate book about this finding which can be found in the Vedas (books that are ancient and hold a cultural importance to the Hindu community in India).
As the years passed by, the practice of yoga started to thrive, not only in India, but slowly all across the seven seas. People all over the world realized the repose that this wholesome practice brought about to their lives. And the change was undeniable. There was no fluke in this ancient practice and holds ground even till date. And will hold ground till as long as humans have a body to live in.
The 21st century may as well be the best time to involve in soul searching. And the chaos is pushing us closer to this practice because the chaotic, stressful manmade system has stolen what little authority and control we had over our spirits. The plastic surgery that has been performed on our spirits has made us forget what our spirits looked like before all of this happened.
Hence to understand the true purpose of yoga, one must be willing to get involved in it, give into the ancient knowledge and believe in the changes that this practice brings along as they take over their journeys. There can’t be a better way to immerse you into the practice of yoga, than to practice it in the place of its origin. People come in search of places where they can immerse themselves into the enriching journey of yoga, in their own time and space. Hence they can find luxury yoga retreats all over places in India. A lot of yoga retreats are conducted in Rishikesh, (which is in India) also the Yoga capital of the world. So there is something for everybody.
The next time you are planning on a yoga vacation, head to India for an authentic experience into this holistic journey.
