{"id":2913,"date":"2023-09-30T14:14:09","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T14:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/?p=2913"},"modified":"2023-09-30T14:18:33","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T14:18:33","slug":"report-of-international-seminar-on-yoga-theory-and-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/?p=2913","title":{"rendered":"Report of International seminar on &#8216;Yoga theory and practice&#8217; on 21st and 22nd February, 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Report of the International seminar on \u2018Yoga theory and Practice\u2019<br>Yoga should not&nbsp;be&nbsp;practiced&nbsp;without understanding its&nbsp;theory as explained in&nbsp;Patanjala&nbsp;Yoga-sutras. This was&nbsp;said by Prof&nbsp;Madhusudan&nbsp;Penna, Vice chancellor of&nbsp;Kavikulguru&nbsp;Kalidas&nbsp;University while inaugurating the two day International Seminar on Yoga&nbsp;\u2013 Theory and Practice organized on 21st and 22nd February 2023.<br>&nbsp;<br>This Seminar was&nbsp;organised by the&nbsp;Department of&nbsp;Sanskrit, University of Mumbai as a part of the ongoing Diamond Jubilee&nbsp;Year Celebrations.&nbsp;Prof. Penna\u2019s&nbsp;thoughts were&nbsp;echoed by most&nbsp;of the&nbsp;participants. While Prof.&nbsp;Penna discussed other yoga theories during&nbsp;Shankaracharya\u2019s&nbsp;times and Kashmiri yoga mentioned by&nbsp;Abhinavagupta&nbsp;in 10th century,&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Ganesh Rao&nbsp;elaborated on the three dimensions of yoga \u2013 the practitioner, the teacher \/ researcher and the therapist. He further said that&nbsp;yoga&nbsp;is aimed at the&nbsp;transcendence of body and mind whereas&nbsp;well-being of&nbsp;mental and physical health are&nbsp;just its by-product. His lucid way&nbsp;of&nbsp;explaining serious yoga philosophy&nbsp;enriched the listeners&nbsp;and his quote, \u2018Every sutra by&nbsp;Patanjali&nbsp;has practice incorporated in it\u2019, encapsulated the crux of the seminar.&nbsp;<br>Dr.&nbsp;Mickey Mehta, Global Holistic health guru and&nbsp;corporate&nbsp;life coach explained how&nbsp;asanas&nbsp;are the lowest&nbsp;denomination of yoga. He explained holding straight seating posture effortlessly and practising will&nbsp;eventually&nbsp;help&nbsp;to transcend&nbsp;yourself to reach to no-mind state or&nbsp;samadhi.&nbsp;<br>12 papers were presented by scholars across the two days.&nbsp;Different references of yoga were explored ranging from Ayurveda,&nbsp;Bauddha&nbsp;and&nbsp;Jaina&nbsp;Philosophies,&nbsp;Shakta&nbsp;traditions &amp; Upanishads. A few papers dealt with various facets of Yoga right from&nbsp;samskaras&nbsp;to challenges and from transcendence to&nbsp;cosmophycism.&nbsp;Yoga&nbsp;Ratna&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;R.S.&nbsp;Bhogal&nbsp;spoke on Meditation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Jayaraman Mahadevan&nbsp;elaborated on the importance of&nbsp;Jyotsna&nbsp;commentary on&nbsp;Hathayogapradeepika.<br>&nbsp;<br>A completely fresh approach to yogasutra was given by&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Graham&nbsp;Schweig,&nbsp;professor&nbsp;of religion at Christopher&nbsp;Newport University,&nbsp;Virginia. He translates the word&nbsp;chitta&nbsp;(most used concept in&nbsp;yogasutra) as whole-heart rejecting the traditionally used translation.&nbsp;Dr. Graham&nbsp;said, \u2018heart is a&nbsp;seat on which soul or atman sits&nbsp;and heart takes the atman to the supreme beloved\u2019.&nbsp;In preparation for his translation and interpretation of the Yogasutra, to come out with Yale University Press in 2023,&nbsp;Schweig&nbsp;has discovered layered realms of the heart, hidden expressions of bhakti and&nbsp;shakti, and the Sutra&#8217;s raw conceptions of divinity and grace, when interpreted with elements from Vedanta, the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and the&nbsp;Bhagavata&nbsp;Purana.<br>Prof Uma Vaidya, winner of President Award&nbsp;and the former Vice Chancellor of&nbsp;Kavikulaguru&nbsp;Kalidas&nbsp;Sanskrit University,&nbsp;Nagpur&nbsp;in her&nbsp;valedictory&nbsp;address discussed&nbsp;the word&nbsp;yoga&nbsp;used in day to day usage, astrology&nbsp;etc&nbsp;along with their&nbsp;meanings.&nbsp;Dr.&nbsp;Shakuntala&nbsp;Gawde,&nbsp;Head, Department of Sanskrit, University&nbsp;of&nbsp;Mumbai,&nbsp;while summing up the seminar announced&nbsp;that the department will begin a Masters Course in Yogashastra from the next academic year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2917\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bhogal-RS-1.jpg 1599w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ganesh-rao.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"678\" height=\"432\" src=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ganesh-rao.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2919\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ganesh-rao.jpg 678w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/ganesh-rao-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mickey-mehta.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"585\" height=\"404\" src=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mickey-mehta.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2921\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mickey-mehta.jpg 585w, https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/mickey-mehta-300x207.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 585px) 100vw, 585px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Report of the International seminar on \u2018Yoga theory and Practice\u2019Yoga should not&nbsp;be&nbsp;practiced&nbsp;without understanding its&nbsp;theory as explained in&nbsp;Patanjala&nbsp;Yoga-sutras. This was&nbsp;said by Prof&nbsp;Madhusudan&nbsp;Penna, Vice chancellor of&nbsp;Kavikulguru&nbsp;Kalidas&nbsp;University while inaugurating the two day International Seminar on Yoga&nbsp;\u2013 Theory and Practice organized on 21st and 22nd February 2023.&nbsp;This Seminar was&nbsp;organised by the&nbsp;Department of&nbsp;Sanskrit, University of Mumbai as a part of&nbsp;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2913"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2922,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2913\/revisions\/2922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanskritbhavan.mu.ac.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}