Yoga: Different Disciplines

The discipline of yoga is considered to be the essence of a healthy life. For this reason, it has grown in popularity in the Western world. Yoga offers the habitual practice a healthy life and peace of mind. It is highly recognized as a stress reliever and has been proven to aid many chronic ailments. There are eight categories of yoga of which each combine poses with meditation and breathing Pranayams.

Bhakti Yoga:

This type of yoga expresses love and devotion to God. A person practicing this type of yoga learns how to express love, devotion and kindness to all living creatures around them, not just the Lord. Singing, praying, reading religious books and watching religious movies are all methods by which this is accomplished.

Hatha Yoga:

Hatha Yoga was founded in the 15th century in India by Yogi Swatmarama. It is about the mixture of two boundaries – ha, which is the Sun and tha, the Moon. The Sun is considered as Positive energy and the Moon is considered as the Negative energy.

Jnana Yoga: This form of yoga isolates the person performing it from the temporary things of life. The person is given harmony, wisdom, confidence, concentration and the ability to withstand and face any situation.

Mantra Yoga: Just as the name suggests, this form of yoga implements the use of mantras. By narrating the mantras in a thoughtful way, the person is able to obtain certain goals. This type of yoga offers peace of mind and concentration along with aiding in getting rid of mental illness, nervousness and stress.

Karma Yoga: This type of yoga purifies one’s heart, by committing all actions and their fruit to the Almighty. The goal of one who performs Karma Yoga is to serve the poor, sick and needy without expectations of money, recognition, authority or honor in return.

Kundalini Yoga: A person performing this type of yoga has a goal of drawing energy corkscrewed at the bottom of the spine by using the person’s mind, senses and body. This uses postures, meditation and chants to awaken the seven chakras of the body.

Raj Yoga:

This form of yoga is utilized to lighten a person from emotional and mental clashes. It is used as a tool to put a person in a state of peace and harmony. It is also referred to as the “Astanga” or eight limbed yoga.

Purna Yoga: This type of yoga is used as a tool to unite the mind, body and soul. It is also referred to as Integral Yoga. It is based off the karma of everyday life and uses meditation, Pranayama and postures based on alignments.

A keen yoga enthusiast and writer, Suresh Kumar loves to shares his yoga knowledge and experience such as 4 Major Yoga Classification and Yoga Balancing Poses for Beginners on Clivir.com.