Spring Retreat in April

Mary and Heera are organizing a Yoga + You retreat at the Chau Son Catholic Monastery in Walnut Grove near Sacramento at the end of April. We will do yogaasan, pranayam & meditation. The day will also include low calorie vegetarian cooking demo. Lunch and recipes will be included at a low cost. Please let us know if you would like to go. It's about 34 minutes drive from Sacramento/Elk Grove. We will carpool from Sacramento. 

If interested Email Heera at heera dot kulkarni at gmail dot com.

Yoga + You classes

FREE Yoga + You classes are held every Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at Valley-Hi North Laguna Public Library located at 7400 Imagination Parkway, Sacramento, CA 95823, across from Cosumnes River College. Please enter through the side door and bring a yoga mat or a towel. Be prepared to immerse yourself into the practice of traditional yoga asanas and pranayam. Leave all inhibitions behind. Come one....come all, bring your friends.

Spring recess and furlough days: March 30th & April 6th. See you back at the library on April 13th at 9:00 am.

Yoga Sutras by Maharshi Patanjali: The WHY of YOGA

The word "Yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit word "Yuj" which means to join. In "yoga" we are joining the body, mind and spirit. And you thought that it was a fancy workout. Yoga is more than a stretching exercise for your body. This blog is dedicated to the practice of "Ashtang Yoga" or eight- limbed yoga.  

In this blog I will be writing about many aspects of yoga that I am wondering about and studying at the same time. At present I am studying the Yoga Sutras of Sage Patanjali which date anywhere between 5,000 B.C. to 300 A.D. So I hope to try to understand and write about all the 200 sutras. Believed to be the first scripture of yoga, the yoga sutras of Patanjali contain the 200 "sutras" of Maharshi or Sage Patanjali. The summary given here is adapted from the commentary by Swami Satchidananda.

Sutra means a thread. These yoga sutras or threads combine words that describe the entire science of Yoga.

अथ  योगानुशासनम्  II १ II 
1. Atha Yoganushasanam.

Now the exposition of Yoga is being made.

In these sutras, Sage Patanjali teaches us how to practice yoga, gives us direct instruction. 

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः II २ II 
2. Yogash Chitta Vrutti Nirodhah

The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is Yoga.

The goal of yoga is to achieve restraint of the mental modifications. You will experience "Yoga" when you can control the rising of the mind into ripples.