Author Archives: yoga librarian

Is Yoga Hindu?

The question comes up regularly – in classes and in the media. Is yoga a religion? Is yoga Hindu?

Swami Nirmalananda, the founder of Svaroopa® yoga, recently posted a blog entry which may help answer that question.

“… there’s a lot of difference between Hinduism and yoga, which is completely dependent on your purpose: if you are practicing it (yoga or Hinduism) for the purpose of being prettier, younger, stronger, healthier, happier, wealthier, smarter, etc – it’s religion, or worse – just another way of trying to manipulate your body and your life. If you are practicing it (yoga or Hinduism) for the purpose of knowing Truth / God / Reality within yourself, it’s yoga.”

“… at the same time there is very little difference between yoga and Hinduism. They use common terminology (Sanskrit terms), are based in shared texts, are looking at the same realities, and have the same foundational understanding…”

Read Swamiji’s complete commentary on the Svaroopa® Vidya Ashram blog»

Mindful Eating May Help with Weight Loss

A small yet growing body of research suggests that a slower, more thoughtful way of eating could help with weight problems and maybe steer some people away from processed food and unhealthy choices.

This alternative approach has been dubbed “mindful eating.” It’s based on the Buddhist concept of mindfulness, which involves being fully aware of what is happening within and around you at the moment.

Read the article Mindful eating may help with weight loss – Harvard Health Publications.»

Spring Cleaning Revisited

The most popular posts on this blog was Spring Cleaning — 50 Things to Throw Out. If you loved that post, I have a poem that you may love as well.

I picked it a few months ago for my meditation reading for the week’s yoga classes. And by some quirk of the universe, several friends and several students that week mentioned their need to clear out things that were no longer needed, to clean closets, to reorganize their lives.

Clearing

There is a logic to clearing drawers
throwing out papers, used and forgotten.

There is a reason to clear desks and files
putting aside what has already given of itself;

There is a purpose, there is a logic
there is a reason for everything…

We clear out minds, our hearts, our souls
we give ourselves a chance to start again
we accept the unacceptables
cast aside the imponderables
it is good business, it is life and it is growth.

The poem titled “Clearing” is by Barbara Paul-Emile and appears in her book The Dance of Life – Poems for the Spirit. The book was a serendipitous find at the Library books sale.