Bikram Beginning Yoga Class

In this Bikram’s beginning yoga class, Bikram choudhury himself guides you to perform the 26 postures. This book can be your first step to know and experience the power of yoga. This not only teaches you about 26 poses but also gives a feel of an actual Bikram’s yoga class.
It includes both standing series and floor series. It helps in easy understanding of the yoga pose. While doing pranayama, it is essential to make sure that it is done at a particular speed and not very fast. The way of exhaling and inhaling with specified time period are all standard and if they are done in wrong manner it can lead to minute health problems. But – follow the instuctions in Bikram’s Yoga Book and he will guide you safely through each exercise.

This book makes sure that everybody understands it well and does yoga and pranayama as per the specified way by the great yogis. Bikram says: “Never too late, never too old, never too bad and never too sick to do this yoga and start from scratch again.”

Hatha Yoga Books

History Of Hatha Yoga – Hatha Yoga Books

Hatha Vidya, otherwise known as Hatha Yoga has been practiced since it’s introduction by Yogi Swatmarama in India in the 15th Century CE. This style of yoga brings about the purification of the physical body in order to make it ready for spiritual meditation.

Unfortunately many people these days regard Hatha yoga from a purely physical perspective. That is, they use it to bring health and fitness to the body but forget about any spiritual attainment. Hatha is really about the joining and unifying of two different energies, that of the sun and the moon. Hatha quite literally means sun(Ha) and moon(Tha).

You can find yoga books for every age group and person. Pregnant women often like to perform yoga to keep their body healthy during childbirth but you can also find yoga books and poses for children and the elderly. It is also of great benefit to those who want to learn yoga but are a little shy doing so in front of a class.

Often you will find illustrated Hatha Yoga poses in good books. They will show you with detailed descriptions how, when and where to do each pose. If you join a yoga class it’s easy to forget the lessons learned as time goes by, but if you have a book to remind you of the poses you can always pick it up again where you left off.

Hatha Yoga books will focus on the strengthening and cleansing of the body. In this way the body becomes equipped and able to hold a higher level of spirituality. You will want to find something that explains to you all the postures as well as how to purify the interal organs and detailed descriptions of different deep breathing exercises which are a vital part of cleansing the body.

Whether you attend a class or learn from a book you will find that one pose will merge into another. I mean that the initial poses you learn will help you to perform the more complex, more advanced poses. If you are learning from a book make sure it is illustrated or has an accompanying DVD so you can clearly see how to perform the poses.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika

Hatha Yoga Pradipika is a Sanskrit manual for hatha yoga written by Swami Svatmarama. It is the oldest text on hatha yoga. It was written in 15th century CE. It is derived from old Sanskrit texts and swami’s own experiences. English translations of this text are also available.

Hatha yoga pradipika consists of four chapters which contain information about asana, pranayama, chakras, kundalini, bandhas, kriyas, Shakti, nadis and mudras. It is dedicated to lord adinatha (a name for lord Shiva – lord of destruction).

FAILURE IN YOGA results due to 6 reasons – over eating, exertion, talkativeness, talkativeness, eating at night, company of men, unsteadiness.

SUCESS IN YOGA results due to courage, daring, perseverance, discriminative knowledge, faith, aloofness from company.

ASANAS –

- PADMASANA – Place the left foot on right thigh and right foot on left thigh. Place your hands on respective knees with the spine head being in straight line. This asana is destroyer of all diseases.

- SIMHASANA – sit on your toes with both knees on the floor. Keep your hands on respective thighs with fingers wide open. Keep your mouth open.

There are many asanas like these. If one practises with concentration and dedication one can attain success within a year.

PRANAYAMA –

Pranayama is breathing exercise which eradicates all the diseases. It makes the skin and face glow. It reduces fat extensively. One example is kapalabhati pranayama (kapal – forehead, bhati – shine). As the name says, it brings a glow to your face. It is done in a sitting posture. METHOD – Sit straight on a mat. Focus on “exhaling”. Inhaling happens normally and automatically. EXHALE PROCESS- throws out the air from nose with a force that your stomach goes in. Keep repeating this and inhaling will happen automatically. Exhale as long as you can. It can be done for 5 minutes. As you exhale, the abdominal muscles contract.

Thus hatha yoga pradipika is a complete manual on yoga through which one can attain physical and mental stability. You can find the book here.

Hatha Yoga Illustrated

Hatha Yoga Illustrated presents 650 colour photos to visually demonstrate 77 standard poses. Individual poses are shown step by step on how to attain that position. It helps you to get the most benefit out of every pose you do. It focuses on body, mind and spirit. The asanas performed have been practiced for a long period of time. BRANCHES OF HATHA YOGA ARE – Iyengar Yoga, Kriya Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga, Bikram Yoga, Viniyoga yoga, Jivamukti Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, Power Yoga, Sivananda Yoga and Forrest Yoga. The important part of Hatha Yoga is the way of controlling and regulating breathing which is called as pranayama. People of different age groups practice Hatha Yoga ranging from children, teenagers, pregnant women to the elderly.

BENEFITS –

- Increases strength and stamina.

- Reduces stress and anxiety.

- It reduces blood pressure and increase flexibility.

- Increases blood circulation.

- Helps in reducing fat.

- Enables a person to focus and concentrate.

- Clears negativity from mind.

- Improves overall flexibility.

- Makes the spine stronger.

CONTENTS – Hatha Yoga Illustrated teaches you to effectively practise yoga and get benefits. It teaches to meditate. It has information about standing postures such at the ‘Mountain pose’ or ‘downward facing dog’ etc. It explains about balancing postures like the ;tree’, ‘boat’, ‘half moon’ etc.

It has information about arm balancing postures example inclined plane, crane etc. It consists of inverted postures example shoulder stand, head stand etc. It has chapters on backward bending postures, twisting postures, forward bending postures, sitting postures, reclining and relaxation postures and hatha yoga routines.

Thus hatha yoga illustrated explains the way of practising yoga in a detailed and safe manner.