Hyderabad/National, 24th January 2022: Heartfulness launched The Authentic Yoga originally
written by Shri P. Y. Deshpande with additional content by Heartfulness Guide –
Daaji, that includes the Foreword and a new chapter presenting the yogic
practices in the light of Heartfulness for everyone to benefit from Yoga
directly. The book gives a deep insight into the true state of Yoga in finding
unity within body, heart, and soul in totality that can rightly translate us
into being ‘human’.
The book is highly philosophical although written in a simple
language. It is also quite a departure for Shri Deshpande to write it in
English because he was originally a Marathi novelist. After meeting J. Krishnamurthy
in 1961, he started to get involved in spirituality and wrote a series of books
such as one on Bhagavat Gita and this one on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in
English. And the latter was one of the books that set him up on the
international stage as a great writer and as a highly regarding
philosopher. Daaji not only wanted to reprint it because it was out of
print but also to bring Deshpande’s school of Yoga to modern consciousness.
Daaji’s chapter in the book talks about how to take what Deshpande ji said and
translate it practically in modern-day life. It is also beautifully
laid out and easy to read unlike what it was in the ‘60s.
Daaji
says, “The benefits of yoga have been preached time and again. But there is
much beyond physical and mental wellness that people need to understand that
yoga imparts. There are emotional and spiritual aspects too that yoga elevates
one along with character building and very few are aware of this aspect of
yoga. To be one within oneself and with the universe is paramount for overall
well-being and this is what I have tried to bring into light through this book.
The idea was to bring Deshpande’s school of Yoga to modern consciousness. The
one chapter that I wrote at the end of the book not only talks about how to
take what Deshpande recommended as the proper method of Yoga, but also help
people translate it practically in modern-day life. What I have also worked at
through this chapter is removing the obstacles and the impediments that people
face in achieving the state of Yoga.”
While many other books on yoga revolve around the aspects of asanas and pranayama as
are the most commonly practised, Yoga begins with Niyama and Yama –
which is character development and how to lead one’s lifestyle. This is
followed by asanas and pranayama which are
about physical wellbeing and energetic body, then the contemporary practice of
yoga leading to Samadhi. Deshpande takes all of these aspects like Patanjali
did, but he does it in a very different way than the yoga gurus and traditions
from earlier times. An incredibly creative novelist that Deshpande was, meeting
with Krishnamurthi influenced gave him to take a novel approach by experiencing
Yoga himself from direct perception to Yogic perception. This is what makes the
book very deep and a great source to understand what yoga truly is.
Deshpande also understands what stops us from attaining the state of Yoga. Yoga means unity or oneness within. He describes this beautifully as he guides us through the sutras in what stops us viz., our desires, likes, and dislikes – in attaining the Yogic state. He is able to describe as a physicist would – the physical, the energetic, the absolute state of existence that exists in matter, the universe, and human beings and
he is able to describe how we can relate to the impediments, the
emotions, and complexities in our systems. It is also something that Babuji did
in a similar period in the 20th century, but not many yogis understand this and
he has done this just superbly.
While Patanjali spoke about what creates mental disharmony in sutra
format in short sentences with an essence, Deshpande ji expands the
complexities and entanglements in our system. What he doesn’t do and which
Daaji does in the last chapter of the book is recommending the practices to
remove them from the system.
Practising the form of yoga as suggested by Deshpande ji and Daaji
is very simple. A platform in Heartfulness known as Yoga for Unity has online
videos from experts from all over the world so people can do yoga at home. This
is not just for people who are adaptive and flexible, but also the many forms
of yoga offered on the platform suit everyone from beginners’ level or those
who are not fit or agile, and then there are breathing exercises and meditating
practices. The platform Includes Heartfulness Academy and others such as
Iyengar Yoga, Krishnamacharya Yoga, Shivananda Yoga, Bihar School of Yoga, etc.
giving practices to do what Deshpande ji is talking about in The
Authentic Yoga to create holistic well-being.
To sum it up, The Authentic Yoga is gold and a
treasure of well-being. It is just not well-known around the world. But by
accessing Yoga’s essence through the book, people get to understand this
amazing philosophy and psychology of living.
Website for the book is http://heartfulness.org/AY
About
Heartfulness: Heartfulness offers a simple set
of meditative practices and lifestyle changes, first developed at the turn of
the twentieth century and formalized into teaching through Shri Ram Chandra
Mission in 1945 in India with a goal to bring peace, happiness and wisdom to
one heart at a time. These practices are a modern form of Yoga designed to
support contentment, inner calm, and stillness, compassion, courage, and
clarity of thought, as the first step towards a purposeful life. They are
simple and easily adopted and are appropriate for people from all walks of
life, cultures, religious beliefs, and economic situations, who are over the
age of fifteen. Ongoing training in Heartfulness practices is going on at
thousands of schools and colleges, and over 100,000 professionals are
meditating in corporations, non-governmental, and government bodies worldwide.
More than 5,000 Heartfulness Centers are supported by many thousands of
certified volunteer trainers and millions of practitioners in 160 countries.
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