Can we not remember the original names still? This morning while I was walking in the park, there were many people practicing yoga. A daughter father duo whom I passed by were talking about a group of guys practicing and the daughter said “this is“boat pose” and it struck me hard that we are not using the original names even when talking amongst ourselves!

That’s what prompted this post. Yoga is from our country and each asana has a name. We have somehow developed a knack of shunning our own culture, practices and everything Indian. Why!

And when the West popularises or claims our practices or knowledge, we crib. Every year there are thousands of foreigners who come for yoga teachers training to India and they learn everything about yoga and all terms included. So what’s our excuse for not learning the names and practicing it regularly?

Let’s change that right now ☺️. Let’s begin with the names and benefits of ten common asanas.
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#InternationalYogaDay2025 Sanskrit Name: Adho Mukha Svanasana

English name: Downward Facing Dog

Benefits:
1. Stretches the hamstrings, calves, and shoulders.

2. Strengthens the arms and legs.

3. Calms the brain and helps relieve stress and mild depression. Energizes the body.
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History keeps repeating itself only because we don’t learn our lessons. And to learn lessons, we must first know our history.

Mughals ruled over India for 300 years and erased our temples, diluted our languages, converted Hindus to Islam through sword, massacred perhaps millions, put a ban on our arts and culture and yet even today we refer to them as “The great Mughals- connoisseurs and patrons of the arts.”

The Chola Dynasty was one of the longest-reigning Indian dynasties, ruling for over 1500 years. Their contribution to the architecture is manifold. The temples had fully developed Dravidian Style with Ganas, Dvarapalas or guardian figures at the entrance to the Mandapa (hall).

😏Do you know the Shiva Temple of Thanjore/ Thanjavur, the largest and tallest of all Indian temples was built during Chola period?
1/4 #HistoryMatters The Pallavas emerged as a formidable power in the South around the 4th century AD and were at the height of their power in the seventh century AD. They were able to sustain their rule for about 500 years. They built great cities, centres of learning, temples, and sculptures and influenced a large part of Southeast Asia in culture.

😏Do you know the Shore Temple at Mahabalipuram and the Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple at Kanchipuram are famous temples that were constructed during the reign of Pallavas?
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Do you know about Peter Padukas of Goddess Meenakshi?

This happened more than 200 years ago. Rous Peter was the collector of the temple town of Madurai from 1812-1828. The famous Meenakshi temple also was under his administration. He respected other religions, so went about the temple administration also with great respect and sincerity.
1/5 Every day, on his way to his office, he crossed the temple. He would get down from his horse, remove his hat and boots, offer his salutations to Sri Meenakshi and carry the boots in his hands till he crossed the temple.

This noble trait earned him the popular nickname ‘Peter Pandian'. The title ‘Pandya’ is associated with the dynasty of the great kings who ruled in South India, with Madurai as their capital.
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1. I’m one of those people who believes in going to the source. This book is a must read for all, irrespective of the political affiliation, ideology, religion or region 1 is from. This is well researched as vouched by its Index of references.
#MyFrozenTurbulance #Kashmir #India 2. Recurrent famines, floods, incompetent n lazy rulers from within, exploitative rulers from outside, n the regular changes in the state religion moving b/w #Buddhism, #Hinduism, #Sunni Islam & #Shia Islam make Kashmir a hotbed of unrest over centuries with millions of deaths!

Advaita Vedanta philosophy, one of the 6 philosophies of #Hinduism states the threefold learning discipline for students. I was surprised to find about these 3 stages in learning in philosophy
as I realised how deep&evolved our education system was thousands ago! #Education 1. Sravana: This was the proper listening to whatever was taught to the student. What is fascinating is that it included seeing and feeling aspects too. So we had #empathic #ListeningSkills in place thousands of years ago already.

1. It was #Holi on 11th March 1990 when I travelled from Jammu to Delhi. I’d unfamiliar faces, smells, sights, behaviours, language&environment around me.

I was traveling but I was not on a vacation. This was the second phase in my #Exodus journey #KashmiriHindu #MyStory 2. As we neared Delhi, some people started to lower the glass windows which I found puzzling as the weather was nice and breezy. But I soon realised it when I saw water balloons bursting on the window with coloured water designing the glass temporarily.
#Memories #LostChildhood