What Does All This Yoga Jargon Mean?
You may feel a bit like you have jumped in at the deep end. There are a lot of technical words in Yoga, many of which originate from Sanskrit so it can be difficult to understand and follow instructions as a beginner. This is a quick but detailed explanation of some of the more common Yoga terminologies to help you getting started.
Asanas
No doubt you will hear and read this word many times when researching Yoga or attending Yoga sessions. Asana means “pose” or “posture” and is the name given to all Yoga postures. This is why all of the yoga postures you will encounter end in “asana”. For example, Tadasana means Mountain Pose. When someone refers to a Yoga Asana, they are really just saying “Yoga Pose”. Yoga texts mention around 840,000 Yoga postures and up until recently only around 20-30 of these used in daily practice. Now over 200 Yoga postures are being used by Yoga students across the globe.
Patanjali
Patanjali is the legendary founder of Yoga teachings. Patanjali is said to have to lower body of a serpant and be the bringer of philosophy, language and medicine to India. Although mythological in appearance it is accepted that Patanjali was in fact a historical figure and it is estimated he lived around 220 BC. Patanjali developed the Yoga Sutras.
Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras (otherwise known as the Yoga Aphorisms), is an authoritative work developed by Patanjali in which Yoga is said to consist of eight “limbs”. These eight aspects are all equally important and inter-related with each other.
1. Yama – Five Universal Commandments of not harming anyone, truth, non-stealing, godly, chaste life, greedless.
2. Niyama – Five Personal Disciplines of cleanliness, contentedness, self discipline, study, study of the scriptures and dedication to God.
3. Asana – Devoted practice of the Yoga Postures.
4. Pranayama – Practice of breathing control.
5. Pratyahara – Detachment of worldly activities.
6. Dharana – Concentration.
7. Dhyana – Meditation.
8. Samadhi – Trance or state of bliss.
Iyegnar
Although you may hear Iyegnar Yoga mentioned a lot with regards to Yoga, Iyegnar is not a terminology. B.K.S. Iyegnar was a revolutionary pioneer of Yoga who developed a series of Yoga techniques based on the traditional works of Patanjali with the added bonus of accessibility for people of all levels of Yoga. Iyegnar Yoga refers to Yoga postures that have been influenced or taken directly from Iyegnar’s works and are generally an indication that they are beginner friendly or have beginner friendly variations.
Pranayama
Pranayama is the advanced stages of Yoga mastery where Yoga postures are practices to control breathing. Pranayama is not to be attempted without first mastering the Yoga postures and many insist that it should only be carried out under expert supervision. Pranayama incorporates breathing techniques and exercises into your Yoga regime.
Yoga Tools
No, you don’t need a spanner before you start to learn Yoga. Yoga tools are certain household props that may be required to help you complete certain postures. Thanks to the work of Iyegnar, many Yoga postures were developed with variations that use tools to help beginners complete the posture.
Related Posts
Tags: Asanas, Dharana, Dhyana, Iyegnar, Niyama, Patanjali, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Samadhi, Yama, Yoga Aphorisms, Yoga Sutras, Yoga Tools
October 29th, 2009 at 5:36 am
yoga for beginners…
You may feel a bit like you have jumped in at the deep end. There are a lot of technical words in Yoga, many of which originate from Sanskrit so it can be difficult to understand and follow instructions as a beginner. This is a quick but detailed expla…
October 29th, 2009 at 5:36 am
yoga for beginners…
You may feel a bit like you have jumped in at the deep end. There are a lot of technical words in Yoga, many of which originate from Sanskrit so it can be difficult to understand and follow instructions as a beginner. This is a quick but detailed expla…
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:54 am
yoga for beginners…
You may feel a bit like you have jumped in at the deep end. There are a lot of technical words in Yoga, many of which originate from Sanskrit so it can be difficult to understand and follow instructions as a beginner. This is a quick but detailed expla…
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 am
yoga terminology…
You may feel a bit like you have jumped in at the deep end. There are a lot of technical words in Yoga, many of which originate from Sanskrit so it can be difficult to understand and follow instructions as a beginner. This is a quick but detailed expla…
November 20th, 2009 at 4:13 am
Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…
December 6th, 2009 at 12:15 am
It sounds like you’re creating problems yourself by trying to solve this issue instead of looking at why there is a problem in the first place
December 20th, 2009 at 4:26 am
Splendid article . Will definitely copy it to my blog.Thanks.
December 30th, 2009 at 4:44 am
Great articles & Nice a site?.
January 3rd, 2010 at 5:16 am
really loved the article added to my favourites
January 9th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Thank you for the information. I appreciate it. You have a very good website.
January 29th, 2010 at 8:29 pm
nice info
thx
January 31st, 2010 at 8:47 pm
Morning I am just poking around the internet, looking for some entertaining sites to enjoy and bumped into your site.
February 15th, 2010 at 10:41 pm
Great info. Thanks for sharing.
Regards
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:51 pm
I always start my day with yoga. Nothing better.
March 6th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Doesn’t it take up a lot of time to keep your blog so interesting ?
March 14th, 2010 at 8:03 am
Hello – I must say, I’m impressed with your site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs and information was very easy to access. I found what I wanted in no time at all. Pretty awesome. Would appreciate it if you add forums or something, it would be a perfect way for your clients to interact. Great job
March 20th, 2010 at 12:14 am
I love to end my day with Yoga. The stress of it all just goes away.
March 23rd, 2010 at 10:11 am
Hello – I must say, I’m impressed with your site. I had no trouble navigating through all the tabs and information was very easy to access. I found what I wanted in no time at all. Pretty awesome. Would appreciate it if you add forums or something, it would be a perfect way for your clients to interact. Great job
March 24th, 2010 at 7:38 am
Found your site on delicious today and I really like it.I bookmarked it and will be back to check it out for some more later.
March 30th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
My name is Piter Jankovich. oOnly want to tell, that your blog is really cool
And want to ask you: is this blog your hobby?
P.S. Sorry for my bad english
April 3rd, 2010 at 2:40 am
Do you plan to keep this site updated? I sure hope so… its great!
April 8th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now. Keep it up!
And according to this article, I totally agree with your opinion, but only this time!
April 21st, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I am unquestionably bookmarking this page and sharing it with my acquaintances. You will be getting plenty of visitors to your web site from me!
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:27 am
Iyegnar Yoga refers to Yoga postures that have been influenced or taken directly from Iyegnar’s works and are generally an indication that they are beginner friendly or have beginner friendly variations.
April 24th, 2010 at 12:46 pm
insightful post
April 25th, 2010 at 8:08 am
I Will have to come back again when my course load lets up – however I am taking your RSS feed so I can read your site offline. Thanks.
April 29th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
Of course, what a excellent site and informative posts, I will add backlink – bookmark this site? Regards, Reader.
April 30th, 2010 at 3:34 am
I found this post while searching for downloads. Thanks for sharing will be sure to follow this blog regularly and will email this article to my all my friends.
May 11th, 2010 at 2:43 am
Not everyday do you stumble upon good writing with fun information like yours. You are really updated on the topics you compose which is very useful to many. Carry on the great work so we have something to expect.
May 11th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Great Blog. I add this Post to my bookmarks.
May 11th, 2010 at 10:33 pm
You will need to put a number of much more ads in your web site as you could potentially likely make a lot of dollars. This really is fantastic writing.
May 13th, 2010 at 10:22 am
Couldn?t be written any better. Reading this post reminds me of my old room mate! He always kept talking about this. I will forward this article to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thanks for sharing!
May 16th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Amazing, truly excellent information. Your blog is really awesome. I bookmarked this and will come back once again. . . .
May 20th, 2010 at 6:03 am
hi it is my first post on this website and at first I would like to thank you for the great information, which I found in this and all previous topics , it really helped me very much. I will definitely iclude this blog on my rss reader
Also, I would like to ask – don’t you mind if I will quate some information from your website because I am writing articles for the Helium, Ezine and other articles directories (this is my part time job)? It would really help me with some of mine articles. Of course, I will mention your blog title or URL (not all articles directories allows URL’s , so I can’t 100% promise that you will get a direct backlink to your blog).
May 20th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Sure Go ahead
May 21st, 2010 at 2:36 am
Awesome post.
May 21st, 2010 at 8:55 pm
I am brand-new to blogging and actually enjoyed your site. I am going to bookmark your web site and keep checking you out. Thanks for sharing your website.
May 22nd, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Hey, I searched for this blog on Bing and just wanted to say thanks for the excellent read. I would have to agree with it, thank you again!
May 23rd, 2010 at 3:52 am
Very interesting post..Iam very much enjoyed by reading your site..this article has provided a useful info..Thanks for the info given..
May 23rd, 2010 at 12:56 pm
Thanks for taking this opportunity to discuss this, I feel fervently about this and I like learning about this subject. If possible, as you gain information, please update this blog with more information. I have found it really useful.
May 23rd, 2010 at 2:24 pm
Hey there, I searched for this blog on Yahoo and just wanted to say thanks for the great read. I would have to agree with it, thank you again!
May 24th, 2010 at 6:46 pm
Amazing article! I was looking for something entirely different when I came across your site. I thoroughly enjoyed the thought you put into this writting. i will bookmark to return later.
May 25th, 2010 at 6:44 pm
You can depend me in for a Digg. Thanks for posting this on your website!
May 25th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
That is very sublime stuff. Never new that beliefs could be this varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to extend such helpful information at this site.
May 26th, 2010 at 2:33 pm
Usually when I search through these blogs I just skim over them, but yours caught my eye and I was impressed. I just wanted to drop you a line and tell you thanks for it.
May 31st, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Bookmarked your web site. Thank you for sharing. Definitely worth the time away from my homework.
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:41 pm
I really like your site and i really appreciate the excellent quality content you are posting here for free for your online readers. Can you tell us which blog platform you are using?
June 3rd, 2010 at 11:52 am
Finding websites with as much information as this one is always a pleasure I wll be sure to come back and visit again real soon, keep up the good work.
June 5th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you
June 7th, 2010 at 2:58 am
Hi…
I saw this really great post today….
June 7th, 2010 at 8:45 am
Hello please let me know if its okay for me to link back to this url. I think that alot of members from my blog would find this very informative. regards, Jenna
June 9th, 2010 at 12:57 am
Interesting read, perhaps the best article iv’e browse today. We learn everyday cheers to you!