Review > Why Everyone Needs to Have the Bihar Yoga App

There are plenty of yoga apps out there. Some are free while others come at a nominal cost. You can take your pick from guided yoga routines to detailed instructions for specific poses, relaxing meditations and even asana based workouts for weight loss, strength training, core building et al. But my affinity to the traditional teachings of the Bihar School of Yoga led me to their app: Bihar Yoga.

The seemingly simple interface includes a wealth of information in print as well as guided practices, chants and meditations. Most of the printed text is from the bestselling book Asana Pranayama Mudra Bandha. Even if you possess the book it is just very convenient to have it on your phone/tab for a quick reference. But what I love most about the Bihar Yoga app are the guided practices of Satyananda Yoga Nidra and Meditation. These are crystal clear recordings in the voices of Swami Satyananda Saraswati and Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati. Available in English as well as Hindi I really think these are priceless!

Satyananda Yoga Nidra was devised by Swami Satyananda Saraswati as a deep relaxation technique. This simple practice has a profound transformative effect on practitioners, inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. Available in different variants for Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced practitioners I would highly recommend everyone to take the time out to just lie back and follow the guided talk. Especially in today’s times when most lifestyle diseases stem from stress and inadequate sleep, Satyananda Yoga Nidra proves to be a very powerful antidote. Even if you feel that kicking back with a book or watching television with the family are relaxing activities, they are mere sensory distractions. In Yoga Nidra, the state of relaxation is reached by turning inwards, away from outer experiences.

For more details about this powerful technique you may buy the book, Yoga Nidra by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. But for now let me suffice by saying that enough research has gone into proving the therapeutic effects of sleep. Yet, unless you are free from muscular, mental and emotional tensions you can never truly relax. The practice of Yoga Nidra is the scientific method of removing these tensions. During the practice of Yoga Nidra, one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness, leading you to the state of dynamic sleep. It is thus a more efficient and effective form of psychic and physiological rest and rejuvenation than conventional sleep.

I could go on and on about the benefits of this fantastic practice, but I hope you are already inspired to experience its wonderful effects on yourself.

Yoga > The Importance of Bandhas and Mudras Explained Very Simply

As a dedicated practitioner of yoga for more than 15 years now, I have always been very partial to one of the 8 limbs of yoga - asanas. A few years ago I started enjoying pranayama. And although I do practice certain mudras and try to incorporate bandhas in my practice I had never really understood the importance of the latter two. This is fine because mudras and bandhas are usually introduced after some proficiency has been attained in the practice of asana and pranyama. 

But the latest issue of the Yoga magazine, published by the Bihar School of Yoga helped demystify the mudras and bandhas. Understanding how they impact our energy body, and hence our complete entity, motivates one to understand these subjects deeper and also make them a part of our regular practice. 

Mudras: In the article entitled 'Hatha Yoga' by Swami Niranjananda Saraswati, it is explained that mudras and bandhas are ways to enhance the workings of the energy body. As observed by various scientific experiments under Kirlian photopgraphy (a camera that captures the images of our energy body) it has been seen that even simple mudras of the hand (some mudras even involve the whole body in a combination of asana, pranayama, band and visualisation techniques) help to preserve and reabsorb the energy that may otherwise get dissipated or wasted. To give you an example, in the jnana mudra, the hand gesture of joining the tips of the thumb and index finger, it was observed that the energy that would have dissipated from the hands, re-enters the body. In other words when one practices mudras in accordance with yogic scriptures and under the guidance of an experienced teacher, the energy can be recycled within our body.  

Bandhas: The same article explains the application and importance of bandhas very simply. Bandhas are locks in the physical body that impact the pranic or the energy body. Bandhas are applied in the three major areas of our body where there is a large mass of nerves. One group of nerves is in the neck region, another is behind the navel in the abdomen and the third is near the rectum. Physically, these are centres that collect sensations from the body and deliver them to the brain. But when you apply a bandha, these sensations are contained in one region and the energy flow is limited only to one place! "Why must we do that?" you may be wondering. 
Swami Niranjananda explains this through an example. "When a running tap is closed it builds pressure. Gradually the pressure increases. Then when the tap is opened, the pipe throws the water swiftly through the tap, and the water pressure normalises. Similarly, the use of bandhas unites the energy by blocking it, then by releasing the bandha the energy is distributed more evenly."

For more details on Mudras and Bandhas refer to the book Asana, Pranayama, Mudra, Bandha by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.