Types Of Yoga

There are 4 types of yoga:-
1)Bhakti Yoga (Deals with Emotions,Devotion)
2)Hatha Yoga (Deals with Breath Control) , Also know as Meditation or Dhyan Yoga
4)Gyan Yoga    (Deals with Spiritual Knowledge)
4)Karma Yoga  (Deals with Our daily activities)

1)In Bhakti Yoga:- Enlightenment/Salvation/Liberation is achieved by channelizing emotion towards God.

Note:- God with Personality/Attributes, because emotion and devotion cannot be reflected towards impersonal God or anything.
Example:- have you ever fallen in love with air,dirt or sky? Answer: Never, we have no emotional attachment towards impersonal elements.

So how can one love impersonal, invisible, unapproachable God?
Just shouting I love God  I love God, doesn't mean anything!

Therefore Practitioners of "Bhakti Yoga" Path worship deity/idol. Directing their emotion,feelings,devotion towards Personal God (Particular Deity).

2) In Hatha Yoga (Meditation):- Enlightenment/Salvation/Liberation  is achieved by "Breath Control" Practice that leads to Awakening of Kundalini energy from Muladhar to Sahasra. (As we know that there are seven Chakra in Human body.)

Practitioners of this path are generally Lifelong celibate. They live in seclusion away from society (In jungle, Mountains, secluded place).

Practitioner of this "Hatha Yoga" path is not required to worship God or believe in any kind of God (whether Personal or Impersonal God).

It is entirely based on self experience. So Anyone can practice it irrespective of religious tag, even Athiest.
Because "Breath Control exercise"has nothing to do with whether God exist or not!

3)In Gyan Yoga:-
Enlightenment /salvation /Liberation is achieved buy contemplating on the thought that "I am soul and I am not this body. Whatever we see in existence is Manifestation of 5 elements of Nature. Everything is temporary."

Practitioners of Gyan yoga path Continuously reflect upon reality of life,soul, matter, animate & inanimate elements. They study scriptures like Upnishads,Veda in depth.

""Practitioners of This Path know very well that Any Material Object is not desired by Atma(Soul). The Self(Soul) does not perform any activity nor is influenced by them. The self(Soul) is aloof from happiness, sorrow, pious, impious, religion, beliefs, thoughts, Knowledge,Everything."

Even Knowledge/Concepts/Thoery is Not desired by  Atma(Soul)

Living life with this consciousness leads to liberation.


4)In Karma Yoga:- Enlightenment/salvation/ liberation is achieved by bringing perfection in Activities, Lifestyle, Behaviour, Speech.
 In Nutshell, Becoming Ideal Human Being in society and living completely in tune with nature.
Example- As per scriptures, A king named Janak, achieved liberation simply by performing his Administrative duties honestly with Compassion.

Practitioners of this Path are generally householders who is living family life or social life.

Meditation

Meditation is a bath to your personality of noble thoughts, which you start calling from super conscious realm directing them in such a way that you gradually transcend the everyday level of consciousness.

Man today is living a life of utter chaos. After witnessing and encountering achievements of Science as materialistic means to give him utmost satiety as far as sensual pleasure is concerned, he finds himself at crossroads with no relief from dynamics of today giving him stress and strains.

Stress is a menace today killing silently maximum no of persons in society through psychosomatic ailments. Stress is inevitable and each and everyone have to face it in day to day life. Stress free life should never be imagined, as man is born out of stress only. Yogis and Sages of east knew this and they devised spiritual disciplines to modify stress, a physiological phenomenon, constructively, into a source of energy by harnessing dormant storehouse of pranashakti- kundalini (the serpentine fire)

Stress survival is something which eastern mysticism and spirituality mentions in scriptures as a part of day to day living. How negative emotions can be converted into positive ones and how ones’ immunity can be enhanced through meditation giving an eternal fountain of youth, is the lesson we’ve been taught since ages by Rishis of Himalayas in scriptures.

Patanjali Yoga Sutra and Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta are two such ancient books on yoga which teach one how he/she can stress-proof ones' life style by becoming a Yogi. Meditation is a process which one automatically learns by practicing it. Meditation is a bath to your personality of noble thoughts, which you start calling from super conscious realm directing them in such a way that you gradually transcend the everyday level of consciousness.

Meditation is a practice to bring back the state of equilibrium, which you have disturbed by your present way of living. To streamline the bizarre thinking process leading to lot of distraction and phobias, one needs to meditate every day. Meditation adds to ones creativity, alertness and opens vistas of mind-brain stuff which were lying hidden, unused - unopened till now.

Meditation as a therapy relieving one from destructive stress, making it constructive, is a process which needs constant learning. Once learnt and imbibed in consciousness, it becomes an automatic phenomenon. There are various procedures but each is intended to bring three results bringing complete relaxation of body, slowing down breath and calming the mind.

Meditation or Dhyan is an attempt to bring micro-cosmos closer to macro-cosmos. It can be contemplated by :-

1.  Tratak Yoga (Meditating on a symbol as early morning rising Sun or a light object as a lighted lamp). Gradually by closing and opening eyes and concentrating on light object one can practice how to direct wavering thoughts to one particular point. 

2. Jap Yoga (recitation of Mantras with meditation).

3. Nad Yoga (listening to various ragas or sound symbols and concentrating on them),

4. Soham Yoga (controlling breath, contemplating all the time on vedantic philosophy of Divinity residing in one self) or

5. Gandha Yoga (olfactory senses being utilized by aromatic  herbal therapy or Yagna- fumigation of medicinal plants inhaling and contemplating on them).

Kundilini Awakening

The word ‘Kundalini’ refers to the divine presence of enormous volume of evolutionary force in every human body but in a dormant form. Dharma and many other traditional beliefs compare Kundalini with a serpent that lies coiled while resting or sleeping. With references from many sacred texts of India and the world, this divine power is said to be lying coiled at the base of the spine. 

This supreme power isn’t a part of our physical body, like bones and muscles that can be easily touched and compute or scanned, but it is the untouched elixir living in the subtle body lying beneath the chakras and nadis.  The subtle body is the place where the energetic imprints of our pasts are stored along with the mental and emotional patterns that drive our lives.

What is Kundalini Awakening?
Kundalini awakening is said to be the process of ultimate union with the higher consciousness or in other words called the spiritual birth of a person. Yoga and deep meditation are the two primary ways that can awaken the supreme energy calmly and properly. There are several books and drugs available in the market claiming to awaken the Kundalini Shakti instantly, but one needs to understand these shortcuts will lead nowhere but complete devastation. This is the reason why all traditions agree on the fact that the awakening process should be done in the guidance and presence of a master or guru. 

Preparedness
The process of Kundalini awakening is not a physical force that can be initiated and stopped as and when desired, but is the movement of powerful emotional and mental patterns in the subtle body. Therefore, one cannot undergo an awakening without following the right steps of purifying the channels of subtle body. Beware!  Unpreparedness might cause devastating results as severe as a nervous breakdown during Kundalini awakening. 

Road to bliss 
Divine Mother Kundalini is present in all, no human can deny its holy existence. One just needs to awaken the Holy Spirit and let the power spread through the body. Once awakened, the divine power purifies both the body and the soul as she reaches the crown, passing through different nadis and chakras. From Muladhar chakra she rises by spreading her rings, crossing every chakra in her path to reach the sahasrara or the crown chakra. First she will regenerate the chakras and fix the damage, if caused, by your negative lifestyle. With this she will simultaneously wake up the deities bringing you closer to the spiritual enlightenment stage. 

Strength of this Holy Spirit
The strength of this divine energy is strongest among all the spiritual and physical powers of the universe. Once awakened, it can either create or destroy depending upon the way the awakening process takes place. 

There are two paths facing the stirred up spiritual energy — upwards and downwards. If she goes upward, the person is benefitted with great spiritual development. If she takes the downward turn, then it brings the person into the depths of darkness and eternal damnation. This is the reason why it is advised not to arouse Kundalini by force keeping her away from the downward path. 

Symptoms of Kundalini Awakening
The degrees of signs and symptoms of Kundalini awakening occurring in human body are different for everybody, and it depends largely on the emotional, physical and spiritual strengths of human bodies. The signs and symptoms generally relate to the conditions in which the above mentioned strengths are maintained.  The signs and symptoms could include tremendous sensations or vibrations, feeling of intense rise or drop of body temperature, spontaneous formations of yoga or mudra postures (even if you have not done them before), intense pleasure or bliss and sudden emotional shifts that are beyond normal. 

Risk factors associated with the transformation
At times, people are not prepared or the process gets initiated spontaneously without their knowledge. Such are the cases where people experience inner chaos, total breakdown or spiritual distress resulting in massive life crisis. The spontaneous awakening of Kundalini energy is a result of disgraceful fitness and lifestyle habits like intense workout, drug use, abusive or traumatic experiences etc.  

Once awakened, the extreme power of Kundalini Shakti energy changes the person's life completely. He or she might experience tremendous social and emotional change. Some might even experience the traumatic past experience or constant personality shifts. If guided properly by some well experienced masters and gurus, they would be able to overcome this inner trauma at rest but if not, the result would be beyond extreme devastation in the otherwise easy going life.

 

Hatha Yoga

Hatha Yoga:-
Mostforms of yoga in the West can be classified as Hatha Yoga. Hatha simply refers to the practice of physical yoga postures, meaning your Ashtanga, vinyasa, Iyengar and Power Yoga classes are all Hatha Yoga. The word “hatha” can be translated two ways: as “willful” or “forceful,” or the yoga of activity, and as “sun” (ha) and “moon” (tha), the yoga of balance. Hatha practices are designed to align and calm your body, mind, and spirit in preparation for meditation.

Hatha Yoga mainly deals with Breath Control & Body Postures.

Different Stages Of Yoga

Patanjali Yoga Sutras: The next major step came with Patanjali and his profound treatise ‘Patanjali Yoga Sutras‘. For the first time the practices of Yoga were codified, organised and Yoga was given a definition and structure that guides us even today. In fact all that we know of Yoga today is based on the tenets of Yoga (called Raja yoga) that Patanjali laid. The yoga sutras were passed on verbally from Guru to student and thus the knowledge was kept in tact; later to be printed in countless books.

The great yogi defined Yoga as such: “Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodhah“. In four eloquent, terse words he described the end-result of Yoga: ‘Yoga is the cessation of all modifications of the mind’.

He also laid out an 8-step process of attaining Yoga; which included
1)Yama (5 abstentions),
2)Niyama (5 observances),
3)Asana (meditative sitting posture; and not the physical postures we know today as asanas),
4)Pranayama (breath & life-force control),
5)Pratyahara (sense-withdrawal),
6)Dharana (single-pointed focus),
7)Dhyaan(meditation) and finally
8)Samadhi (liberation).