Talk on Application of Yoga in specific Health Problems

The next Swadhyaya Talk is on the Application of Yoga in specific Health Problems.
The talk will be taken by Mrs. Pallavi Shanbaug.

Date: Sunday 11th Dec 2011.
Time: 11:00am- 12:00 noon
Venue: The Yoga Institute.

All members are invited.
If you wish to become members or renew your membership, you can do so before the meeting.

About the Speaker
Mrs. Pallavi Shanbaug completed her yoga teacher training course in 1997.
Since then she has taught in the TTC and takes children's yoga classes at The Yoga Institute.

PLEASE NOTE: 
Swadhyaya is planning a 2 day trip for all members to Devlali on 8-9 January 2012. The details will be put up soon. 
As booking needs to be made well in advance, please contact us at swadhyayatyi@gmail.com if interested in joining us.
Members can also give their names during the next meeting. 


See you on Sunday!

Healing Through Dance

The founder Shri Yogendraji, brought yoga to us householders. He also introduced simple breathing techniques in the Yogendra Pranayamas. He was a great lover of music.

Shri Yogendraji 

On his 114^th birthday this year, The Yoga Institute was graced by a very talented teacher and dancer par excellence, Ms. Aparna Ramaswamy. She is a hypnotherapist, trained in EMI techniques in cases like depression, schizophrenia, etc. She is also a qualified Reiki healer. She’s currently pursuing healing through dance, specializing in Bharat Natyam.

Ms. Aparna covered three aspects, first being a little demonstration of the dance. She then connected dance and its movements to the principle of Ashtanga Yoga. Lastly she explained that as Samadhi is the final step in yoga, in her life through dance, she believes one’s life purpose should be to utilize one’s skill/ knowledge to help and heal others. She started her dance with the traditional Namaskara, seeking blessings from Mother Earth, following a graceful invocatory dance for Lord Ganesha, seeking his blessings for a successful completion and inviting the divine energy to enter the stage.

Bharat Natyam physically involves perfect form and it can thus be likened to the physical aspects of Yogasanas, Pranayamas, Yamas, Niyamas, etc. Dance also involves experience i.e the transition from the external world to internal preoccupation…Pratyahara. While physically dancing, breath awareness is as important as Pranayama (correct breathing) is while doing Asanas. There is a Shloka in Bharat Natyam:

“Yatho Hasta Tatho Drishti, Yatho Drishti Tatho Manaha,

Yatho Manaha Tatho Bhavo, Yatho Bhava Tatho Rasaha”

This Shloka literally translates as: Where the hands go, the eyes will follow; where the eyes go, the mind will follow, thus followed by Bhava and finally the dancer achieves complete immersion into the dance.

The purpose of Natya (dance) is therefore complete immersion of the Self. The dancer’s job is to listen to the music. The emotion and the Bhavas harnessed from that music tap into the energy from the dancer’s organic body, keeping the mind isolated. The eyes of the audience are thus engaged by the dance, the ears engrossed by the music, the brain captured by the language of dance, thus taking the audience into a meditative state.

Yoga and dance are the integration of the practitioner’s energy. If the physical self is dominant, the dancer is self-conscious, so it is impossible to focus fully on the dance. On complete Ishwar Pranidhan there is intense manifestation of Dharma. She also explained that the road of the dancer is not to act but to BE. viz. it is difficult for an audience to connect with a rasa if the dancer fakes the emotion.

One can use Natha (melody) to achieve balance in emotions and harmonize one’s energy. It can help transcend one’s anxieties. Ms. Aparna urged the audience to know how to manage their human emotions as a currency, positively, and get over them. One should ask whether that frame of mind actually depicts his true self as God made him.

- A Report by Vyoma Chauhan

"Teaching Yoga in Schools" Talk by Mrs. Sudarshan Saigal, 13th Nov 2011

An ongoing battle between students and yoga has proved to be a great challenge for most yoga teachers. How does one maintain discipline and generate an interest in children towards yoga? How does one bring forth the message of yoga to those who have a pre-conceived notion that yoga is boring?

Find out at the next Swadhyaya talk which will be held on Sunday, 13^th November, 2011.

Topic: Teaching Yoga in Schools

Speaker: Mrs. Sudarshan Saigal

Time: 11am – 12 noon (after Satsang)

Venue: The Yoga Institute, Santacruz.

All members are welcome. Those who wish to become members or renew their membership, please read the membership details on the blog by clicking this link- http://swadhyayatyi.blogspot.com/p/membership-details.html

About the Speaker:

Mrs, Sudarshan Saigal completed her Yoga Teacher Training course in 1989, following which she travelled to Kuwait to design a sponsored yoga program. Then, since 1990 till today, she has been teaching yoga to secondary school children of J.M.L. Secondary School, Khar, Mumbai.

She has also travelled to Madhya Pradesh to teach yoga at a cement factory, Haryana and Rajasthan for yoga workshops and has taught yoga to MTNL employees. She co-ordinates and teaches in the Hindi 7 Day Health Camp. She also conducts classes for ladies at the Guru Nanak Mandir on Linking Road and has experience in teaching a Parkinson’s Disease patient, a Cancer patient and a patient with an operated spine. 

Important Note:

Due to the new TRAI regulations, many of our members have stopped receiving SMS announcements from Swadhyaya as their numbers are registered in DND. If you wish to start receiving the messages again, please visit this link- http://site6.way2sms.com/jsp/dnd.jsp

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Regards,

Swadhyaya Managing Committee.

Talk on Basic Understanding of Chakras

Swadhyaya is happy to announce the much awaited talk on:

"Basic Understanding of Chakras and Why to Keep Them in a Balanced State" 

Speaker: Mrs. Jagruti Thaker

Date: Sunday 9th October, 2011

Venue: Yoga Institute, Santacruz.

This talk will give us a basic idea on: What are our 7 major Chakras? How are they formed? What are the areas of our body and mind they have effect on and why it is necessary to keep them balanced. 

About the Speaker

Mrs. Jagruti Thaker, age 46 is a Trained Yoga Therapist from the Yoga Institute. She has completed 3 years in Foundation, Diploma and Advance Yoga from Mumbai University and Passed four Examinations in Clinical Hypnotherapy.

She is also adept at Crystal and Spiritual Chakra & Aura Healing and Distance Healing.

She conducts workshops on Self Chakra and Aura Management, How to Understand the Power of Our Mind and use it for our best...

Hope to see you on this Sunday for a fruitful learning experience.

P.S. Those members who have registered for DND on their mobile phones cannot receive our sms announcements for the talks. We request you to de-register from DND if you wish to continue with our sms updates. 

11 Sept- Talk on 'Challenges & Rewards of Teaching Yoga in India & Abroad'

Swadhyaya, The Yoga Institute Alumni Association, is proud to announce the next talk which is an interesting, informal interactive session on ‘Challenges & Rewards of Teaching Yoga in India &  Abroad’ by Daniel Fonseca and Jeenal Mehta Fonseca.

Date: Sunday, 11^th Sept, 2011

Venue: The Yoga Institute, Santacruz, Mumbai.

Time: 11:00 am – 12:00 noon (After Satsang)

ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:

Daniel Fonseca

Daniel Fonseca was an adept of Martial Arts and Artistic Gymnastics, which helped him to build up physical strength, agility, sense of coordination and balance at very young age. He started performing yoga techniques spontaneously during his teenage years and eventually was introduced to the precise Hatha Yoga system and also the fluid Vinyasa Style. When he found that yoga was more than just physical exercise, he started studying the Ancient Philosophy of Yoga while still in Brazil, his homeland. He spent a few years in Europe and after a long pilgrimage throughout Northern Spain in 2005 he made his way to India where he is living since 2006. Daniel has a graduation degree in Tourism. He is married to Jeenal Mehta Fonseca and together they have founded the Wise Living Yoga Academy.

Jeenal Mehta

Since a young age Jeenal Mehta was interested in Bhakti Yoga and started studying and applying this philosophy in her life. She qualified as a Personal Fitness Trainer in 2000. For 2 years she trained clients with challenging histories of obesity, diabetes, arthritis, hypertension and postural disorders, etc. at “Talwalkars” in Mumbai. She is also a Certified Personal Counsellor from Heart to Heart Institute of Human Technology, a successful trainer to clients for anti-smoking and an addiction-free lifestyle. She then qualified as a yoga teacher from The Yoga Institute.

  

About Wise Living Yoga Academy

Wise Living Yoga Academy is an educational body affiliated to The Yoga Institute, Santacruz. It offers yoga training & counselling for individuals or groups, yoga for the corporate sector, organizations, yoga seminars, workshops and wellness retreats, Yoga Teacher Training Courses and other Certification Courses. The sessions include Classical Yoga philosophy, conditioning & meditative practices, abstraction & concentration, asanas (postural training & exercises for body awareness, strength, stamina & flexibility), pranayamas (respiratory practices for bio-energy control), kriyas (Yoga physical hygiene), yoga mental hygiene, relaxation practices & meditation for development of perfect health - physical, mental, moral and spiritual. For more information on the Academy, visit: http://www.wiselivingyoga.com/index.html

A Karma Yogi Amongst Policemen

Of late, the present police administration in the city of Mumbai has decided to give training in the science and art of Yoga to the police personnel of various ranks through The Yoga Institute at Santacruz, Mumbai so as to relieve a part of the enormous stress that they have to undergo in the course of their duties. And so it feels apt that a life of a real karma yogi who lived amongst their own rank be highlighted.

The person referred to is Arvind Patwardhan who had served the police with rare distinction in not too distant a past.

Patwardhan came from humble beginnings. He had lost his father when he was very young and therefore he and his younger brother were brought up by their widow mother in the house of their maternal uncle who was a police prosecutor at Kolhapur.

After he graduated in science, he joined the police as a sub-inspector when the administration recruited graduates for the job and after an initial training of a short duration, posted them in Mumbai. This was some time in 1948. Soon after we had won our independence from the British. In due course he also graduated in law on his own and had further training at the police training college at Nasik.

Soon after he was posted in Mumbai and had been provided residential quarters, he decided upon bringing over his mother and younger brother for his education under his watchful eye. Unfortunately the brother developed truancy and hence the mother decided to take him back to Kolhapur. Patwardhan felt that he had failed in his duties to his mother and younger brother and therefore as an act of retribution, decided not to start a family of his own and therefore remained a bachelor all his life.

He was, however, extremely committed to his job and had made investigations of frauds in Banks and other corporate bodies - his speciality in the C.I.D. where he spent most of his tenure. He was also put in charge of the police computer division when they first started computerization of police working in the city,

He led the life of a real karma yogi and never expected any reward for the work he was doing though he spent almost 18 hours every day in the work entrusted to him and thousands knocked on his door for help in all sort of police matters in which he was adept.

He had simple habits and mostly ate one meal a day and that too when he was totally free of visitors at the Sardar Graha, opposite the office of the Police Commissioner and the C.I.D. where Lokmanya Tilak used to stay when in the city.

He slept on a bare mat and did not have any belongings except a few books and a pair of suits of clothes for daily necessity.

He was decorated with both the President’s Police Medal for meritorious service and the President’s Police and Fire Services Medal for distinguished service and had also earned the Chief Minister’s Medal for the best investigation of a year. He also rose to the rank of the Dy. Commissioner of Police prior to his honorable retirement.

He was a good penman and had scripted two books namely “Me Mumbaicha Police” and “Me Mumbaicha Inspector” and was also editing the police magazine brought out by the State Police for a long time.

He was also called upon to give talks on detection of frauds at various banking institutes and other such professional bodies and did so unremittingly. On his retirement, he was also appointed by a bank as their legal advisor and served them too with distinction almost till his late age and disablement, without expecting any reward or gain for himself.

Needless to say that he was totally free of corrupt practices and being used to a life of thrift, used to donate large sums to worthy causes and left a large part of his savings in the form of National Savings certificates for posterity.

It is only to be hoped that those policemen visiting The Yoga Institute would draw inspiration from the life of this illustrious son of India and mould their lives accordingly in the spirit of Yoga.

- Contributions by Amrut Desai, retired Asstt, Commr. of Police, Mumbai and a Sadhak of The Yoga Institute.

Plateau Of Flowers- A trip on the 30th Sep-2nd Oct 2011

Swadhyaya is planning a trip of 3 days to Kaas Plateau, Satara,Maharashtra from 30th Sep - 2nd Oct 2011. As there are limited seats available please confirm with the commitee members or email us as soon as possible. This is the last batch going to visit the Plateau this year.

Visit http://natureindiatour.blogspot.com/ for complete details.

We apologize for giving a short notice.