Learning of yoga - history, kinds of yoga, finding the right school, costs of studies.
Learning of yoga - history, kinds of yoga, finding the right school, costs of studies.
How many kinds of Yoga there are?
There are four kinds of yoga that are the most relevant for Western people, such as Hatha yoga – static yoga, Kriya yoga – dynamic yoga, Pranayama yoga - breathing yoga, and Mantra yoga – yoga of sound and mental vibrations. Other kinds of yoga should be added to these four. With the International Open Yoga University you can study more than thirty different kinds of yoga, but you can’t have effective practice without these four. However, there are as many kinds of yoga as the are ways people can express themselves.
How the knowledge of yoga is given further and what is the process of learning like?
As far as we can see at the moment, the form of the transmission of the knowledge of yoga in ancient times was verbal. In other words, personally from the Teacher to students. In any case, nobody knows the texts that would be older than some time margin. Up to now in some schools of yoga the transfer also remains verbal. As it was in the days of the Vedas, when the student was demanded not just to memorize and learn by heart the sound of all the Vedas mantras in normal pronunciation but also "to remember" variant when syllables of these mantras were reversed according to the known system.
Later, when yoga started disappearing rapidly and there was a danger of loss of continuity of knowledge, a certain part of the teachings were recorded in the form of texts or made in other ways. This could be any kind of temple bas-reliefs, sculptures, and so on, i.e., in addition to oral transmission there was the transfer by means of other carrier.s Finally, there are schools of yoga that rely only on the texts without verbal transmission.
Can we find and read the most ancient sources of yoga?
It’s impossible to read and to find the most ancient originals, because yoga in ancient times was transmitted verbally for a very long time, and only later yoga was recorded in the form of treatises, aphorisms and explanations. The tradition of verbal transmission knowledge of yoga has been preserved to our days, that make it complicated to determine dating of recently printed texts.
People say that the essence of yoga is stated in the Vedas. All subsequent texts are only the interpretation of the Vedas.
Where did yoga come from geographically?
It is regarded that in ancient times yoga was spread everywhere among the most different countries and nations. Till our day ancient historical legends of many countries – from Russia, Nordic regions, through Europe to Egypt and the Middle East – show echoes of this teaching. But later due to unclear reasons, areal of yoga got significantly smaller to the size of ancient India and some of the surrounding countries. This is the territory of the modern countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Central Asia, modern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, South-East Asia. Currently this area has even got smaller and includes only the territory of modern India and the Himalayan countries.
It is not possible to make clear borders from where yoga is coming to West as, for example, country such as Pakistan till year 1947 was a part of British India and this doctrine had preserved in this territory. And this country probably just as modern India, can claim that yoga is coming from there.
At the same time, at the moment there are a lot of serious yoga schools, inside of which it is believed that yoga to Eastern countries was brought from the North. And it was unclear whether they meant North of the Himalayas or the region very far to the North, almost to the Arctic Circle. Here it would be appropriate to recall Hyperborea of the ancient Greeks. In yoga schools, where it is believed that the North is the far North, also argue that from the North the knowledge of yoga spread to the South down through the territory of Western Siberia and the Urals. Then the direction of propagation turned towards such countries as modern-day Iran, Iraq, and only then penetrated in India. According to their perspective, modern territory of Russia is the initial part of the path of yoga. And really, how can you not remember such historical artifacts as Arkaim in the Chelyabinsk region of Russia.
In any case, the final point in this historical mystery probably should be made by modern historians, linguists, archaeologists.
Why do you sometimes call OpenYoga school as school of Anandaswami?
Again it must be emphasized that these names appeared only to distinguish one school of yoga from another, and there is no other meaning. Sometimes school with the same name can create some schools with completely different names. Or, on the contrary, several schools can merge into one.
However, there is one thing that we constantly have to take into account. Lately in the West a lot of schools have started to appear claiming to be called Schools of Classical Yoga. Besides they want to bring their understanding of the term “Classical”. Sometimes this process reaches absurdities, for example, some admit the Vedas, but know nothing about "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali”, some don’t recognize the Vedas, some rely on their own texts that are not related with the East. All of this made our school to add more words in the title of the school to exclude misunderstandings. To avoid confusion it was decided to add the word "Anandasvami".
Named by one of the most respected Teachers who took himself it as nickname and brought invaluable contribution in the preservation and understanding of yoga. It’s considered that "Anandaswami" - is one of the names of Shiva. He was Hindu deity and according to the legend he gave yoga to people. In spite of this, there were times in history when a part of yoga was lost and later this part was rediscovered by yoga Teachers again. Ancient texts and oral knowledge of different schools tell us about abilities or capabilities of the followers of yoga. And when we analyze these texts, it’s easy to conclude that now we have only crumbs of the knowledge. That’s why the most important goal is saving of these crumbs of the knowledge. It means searching and publishing of the yoga texts of all survived traditions, also recording of verbal teachings, conservation of sculptures, sanctuaries and other monuments which are carriers of yoga knowledge. In future the mankind has to rediscover all these lost parts of yoga.
How do I determine what kind of yoga school is mine? Who could help me to understand this? Are there any criteria for determining which school of yoga is mine?
Unfortunately, nobody can help you in this. When you are in one or other school of yoga, you are required to feel that only this school is for you. Only your intuition can tell you this. There are a lot of worthy schools of yoga, but only you can choose suitable one, and no one else can do it for you. That’s why there are not external formal criteria to determine the right yoga school. But the following statement may be mentioned: "When a person finds his/her yoga school, he/she realizes it; it is not determined only by mind but also by feeling". Sometimes we have an intuitive feeling that we have found something that we were reaching for our entire life.Sense of harmony and inner acceptance without any violence against ourselves. When a person starts studying the theory of yoga, he/she realizes that always has thought so too, but just could not clearly and accurately express it in words. A person feels the joy when learning the theory and practice of yoga. Sometimes any concepts in yoga bring a real euphoria by its logic, completeness and beauty to people who are not prone to whatever exaltation in their daily lives and are used to strict limiting of own emotions. And, when the study of the theory is supported by the practice, person starts to feel that significant changes in the life are taking place.Sometimes it is a grandiose feeling.
It is necessary to highlight once again that here we are not talking about neurotic and insane people who are just looking for opportunity to experience uncontrolled emotions (exhalations). We are talking about normal, adequate people, who know how to keep themselves in control. But things may be differently, too. Anyway, only you can determine and feel if it is your school of yoga.
So, if you hear any tales, gossips or legends about any of real Yoga School, then it is like in case of secret services of the entire world it can happen accidentally or on purpose. Of course, there is difference between secret services and schools of the yoga. Often the secret services don’t have any moral-ethic limitations in their activities. But, the school of the yoga has to follow strictly the First and Second principles of yoga, i.e., the principle of kindness and the principle of common sense.
Finally, we can say that there is no possibility to find out what is the difference between our school and other yoga schools. Then we would have to analyze all these school at a full extent by the studying there for many years. We simply don’t have anybody who could do it. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the time to give people what we have in our school.
How much does yoga cost? How much money do I need to learn yoga?
The yoga is the system self-exploration. This question is not really appropriate. Indeed, you have to ask yourself about it. There is yoga aphorism „Nobody can teach you yoga, but everyone can learn it”. Nobody even for all the money of the world could do self-exploration for you because for reaching this goal this person should be you. The only thing that yoga Teachers, lecturers and instructors can do for you - to remove the obstacles on the way of your self-discovery. They can help you to master exercises and to explain the theory of the yoga.
We have to overcome many organizational and financial obstacles to fulfill all of this. We have to rent the premises, pay for cleaning, pay for various utility services, light, heating, etc. We have to make advertising to inform people about the place where they can practice yoga. It’s not cheap these days.
Also, our lecturers and instructors have to spend their own time and energy for organization and giving of classes. Our statistics show that 1 hour of actual work with students takes from 5 to 10 hours to prepare for this lesson. Accordingly, our lecturers and instructors can t devote this time for other work in full amount and won’t earn enough money. Many of them have to take care of their children and parents. You see, there is nothing bad and anti-yoga to wish to somehow compensate the time and energy invested in lessons. Also, there are some lecturers and instructors who teach yoga. Teaching of different kinds of the yoga consumes various amount of time for recovering of energy and preparing. So teaching certain kinds of the yoga can be more expensive in various ways.