www.aypsite.org, like 'Yoga in a Box'
Type the word yoga into a browser bar, hit the <enter> key on your keyboard and up pop millions and millions of links, links to every imaginable yoga variety, yoga postures, gurus, gods and goddesses, ancient texts, and yoga esoterica of a dizzying variety.
Yoga is very confusing. Yoga is older than dirt and, like a thousand year-old tree, has spawned many branches, some of which are so far away from the trunk that they are difficult to trace. It’s no wonder that some people just turn to other pursuits when faced with what I call the ‘yoga monster,’ as it might appear to those with little or no understanding of its inherent simplicity, as evidenced in Putanjali’s second sutra: “Yoga is control of the thought-waves of the mind.”
Following that sutra, translated as ‘thread,’ Putanjali puts forth a system for achieving that aim, and is broken down into eight components, known as ‘limbs’, of which only one is concerned with what we in the West know as yoga, the poses that we do in yoga class. The other seven limbs cover other endeavors that ideally one must follow to facilitate movement to the beautiful stillness that results from controlling our thoughts. For most, including me, these other chores just did not resonate with my lifestyle, seeming to require a level of time and devotion that I just could not even think of meeting.
I view yoga as a buffet. There are many different choices, any one of which can help make this life a little more manageable and joyful, and I was happy to just concentrate on just a few pieces of yoga—the asanas, breathing(pranayama) and meditation--and expected that this would be the focus of my yoga activity for the rest of my life…until now.
Yogani has changed all that. A self-described retired engineer with a wife, three children and 35 years of experience with yoga, Yogani has released an astounding system for tending to all eight limbs of yoga, devised to fit within the framework of the 21st Century lifestyle. Like ‘Yoga in a Box’, his methods, which are shorn of many of the ‘ornamental’ aspects that we expect from a yoga site, are contained in a website free of ads or any cost whatsoever. In it, Yogani presents clear and understandable explanations, in a modular format one would expect of an engineer, the eight limbs of yoga, as well as a number of other facets that he believes warrant the attention of folks who are serious about furthering their spiritual lives through yoga. It’s a comprehensive and prodigious work deserving of your attention if you have any interest in pursuing even one helping of the yoga life.
While Yogani, who prefers anonymity, launched his website several years ago, he recently began using YouTube as a vehicle for promoting his website. In addition to audio presentations of his yoga modules, there is an interview with Yogani from a Cincinnati radio station. In it, the content and Yogani himself are what you would expect of a program about yoga, but the host of a program, while quite knowledgeable about yoga, has a 'Top 40' disc-jockey delivery. It's hilarious!
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