As the popularity of yoga continues to increase, many of the yoga students, especially the most serious and passionate, choose India as their preferred destination. They have two objectives. On one hand, they want to deepen their practice and on the other, they want to know India first and feel its deep spirituality.
Here are 10 reasons why you should go to India to practice yoga:
1. Yoga was born in India.
Who needs a better reason?
No one exactly knows when yoga originated. But if yoga is at least 5000 years old and has spread across the world, then you may ask – How could it travel far and wide?
The answer to this is ‘Because it works’.
2. Indian yoga teachers.
Only someone who has grown up in the right environment and has “breathed” those values can transmit them. It goes beyond “understanding”, it is a process of integration, it becomes a part of you.
Yoga is not taught, yoga is transmitted.
3. Ashrams
Yoga centers in many places have primarily a recreational purpose. Yoga is a complement but not the main objective.
However, ashrams in India are not designed with the objective of being comfortable, but rather with the objective of being efficient in transmitting the values and knowledge that lead to having a full life.
4. Indian Culture
You have to have lived in India for a certain period of time to realize how certain spiritual values have permeated into society. It has nothing to do with religion, it is not dogma or doctrine, it is a deeper understanding of life, and it is the ancestral knowledge of “other” factors that play a role in our existence.
5. India People
The Indians are open and tolerant. They have accepted and often integrated other ways of viewing life.
Hinduism is not a religion as understood in the West, it is a way of looking at life. In fact it is said that in India there are 33 million gods. One more point to be noted is that they do not feel threatened by other religions.
6. Autentic Yoga
The new “fads” of yoga have little influence in India. In India you access yoga as it has always been. Yoga has been improvised in India over centuries, but without losing sight of its purpose -to harmonize the body, mind, and spirit.
7. Total immersion
Only when we challenge ourselves is there a real possibility of change.
That is why undergoing an intensive yoga course and doing it in India, outside our comfort zone, gives us an opportunity for the experience to be unique and transformative.
8. India
The diversity and intensity of life in India are unmatched. India does not leave anyone indifferent. India always changes you.
Depending on how you process that energy, you either fall in love or you can’t stand it. Yoga is the way to intensify that energy and channelize it to access better ways of living life.
9. Indian philosophy, meditation, pranayama
Yoga is not considered to be a science separate from the others. You cannot understand yoga without learning meditation or breathing techniques or its philosophical foundations.
In a yoga course in India, you imbibe a holistic ancestral knowledge for which there are no independent aspects of existence. Yoga means “union”.
10. Reasonable prices
If you compare prices with other locations you will see that you can come to India, take the course of your choice and travel a week around the country and still pay lesser than courses in other parts of Asia.
In India, more importance is placed on having good teachers than having luxurious rooms.
Conclusion
I could have found many more reasons such as the food, landscapes, palaces, temples, etc. but if your main interest is yoga, the previous 10 should be enough to help you decide.
It is important to have clear ideas about what one really wants, set the goal and pursue it until it is accomplished.
India and yoga have made me much stronger and more determined. I feel that on one hand, I accept what happens much more normally, without the need to react to everything, and on the other hand, I have more control over my life and my level of satisfaction has increased considerably.
I traveled around in India for almost two months and then took a 200 hr yoga teacher course at a Yoga Alliance registered center in Goa and that made all the difference.
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