Yoga: Correcting the Sedentary Lifestyle
Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 09:44PM II. 46 Posture should be steady and comfortable.
II. 47 [Such posture should be obtained] by the relaxation of effort and by absorption in the infinite.
II. 48 From this, one is not afflicted by the dualities of the opposites
-From The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, by Edwin F. Bryant
In these three sutras, Patañjali summarizes the implementation of asanas, or postures, that aspect of the Indian discipline of yoga most readily recognized by non-practitioners. Originally developed to keep a yogi’s body fit and healthy so that he could spend the rest of his day seated in deep concentration, seeking with his mind the ultimate goal of his yogic practices, illumination, asanas are now performed by millions of Americans for their health benefits.
At the beginning of the yoga documentary Enlighten Up! a variety of opinions regarding yoga’s age is presented by prominent American yogis, with the range falling between 40,000 and 2,000 years old. But, according to the book Yoga in the Modern World, an excerpt of which is found at The Magazine of Yoga’s website, yoga as we know it in the United States is a relatively recent creation, which for most practitioners takes the form of Modern Postural Yoga (MPY).