Continuando sull'onda del bilinguismo di questo blog, di seguito l'introduzione al prossimo testo della Vivere altrimenti Editrice: Yoga from authentic Indian tradition che non puo' non avere come maestro di riferimento Smriti Singh.Below the foreword to the next book of Viverealtrimenti LTD: Yoga from authentic Indian tradition whose reference master is Smriti Singh
Benares 25/7/2010
Topic of this book is the ancient discipline of Yoga, with a particular focus on a specific school of Ashtanga Yoga (literally translated as “the eightfold limbs of yoga” and also known as “classical yoga”) settled in the hearth of Benares, one of the holiest town in India and, probably, the oldest living town in the world.
Founder and qualified teacher of the mentioned school (Om International Yoga Health Society) is Smriti Singh, born in Benares the 3th of December 1976. She will be presented with the deserved attention at the right time.
In this introduction it is more important to underline that the teachings of Smriti Singh, from authentic Indian tradition, made their way to Europe this year (Belgium and Holland) sponsored by Association Belge des Enseignants et Pratiquants de Yoga in the person of its President Vincent Destoop. It has been just a first step on the way of internationalization and in these days the staff of Om International Yoga Health Society are organizing a new European tour. Workshops of Ashtanga yoga will take place, very soon, in Belgium, Holland and Italy while students in Spain, France, England and U.S. are also ready to welcome their Master.
The spreading of these yogic seeds, from their strong spiritual Indian matrix, is coherent with a bigger phenomenon: the “irruption of India in the history”, the growing role of the country in the geopolitics of the world which can also represent a good presupposition for its deeper cultural influence.
The greatest historian of religions ― author of the bestseller Yoga; immortality and freedom — Mircea Eliade, prophesied, in the second half of 20th century, the political, economical and cultural centrality of Asia in the 21st one. Eugène Ionesco, dramatist in Académie française and very closed friend of Eliade, writing an “homage” in the sad occasion of his death, quoted the French scholar André Malraux who told: “21st century will be religious or will be not”. “It will be!” wrote Ionesco, “even thanks to the big work of Mircea Eliade” who, among other things, greatly contributed to the promulgation of ancient Indian wisdom, preparing the West to accept the reinforced worldly power of the Subcontinent.
It is commonly accepted, in fact, that Indian people are the most religious in the world.
The great Italian writer Alberto Moravia, author in 1962 of Un'idea dell'India (An idea of India) after a deep (even if not too long) visit in the country, presents It as “the country of religion”. Not of a particular one (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Islam) but of the “religion as existential dimension”. In other words, wrote Moravia, “everything is religion, in India!”.
Because of a more powerful presence of India in the world, can we hope the 21st century will be more religious than the former one? What I’m thinking is just that, probably, a religious 21st century cannot come out from Europe, U.S. and the secularized western world which has something different to offer to the global new man, for example the culture of social contract.
A more religious attitude in daily life, the achievement of “religion as existential dimension” can, instead, be the gift of India to future Humankind.
Benares represents, in the subcontinent, one fundamental tirtha (holy place), one jewel box where an ancestral spiritual knowledge has been preserved by what Mircea Eliade called “the corruption of the history”.
I think something from this treasure could be wisely invested in a necessary intercultural dialogue of post-modern age and a yoga-teacher of the level of Smriti Singh, who started to learn yoga before to learn to walk (from her mother, yogini as well), has all the resources to be among the protagonists of this difficult but suggestive mutual exchange.
This book develops in 5 chapters. In the first one we will provide an outline of Indian philosophy and a general introduction to yoga.
In the second chapter we’ll try to give basic information about the history of this ancient integral path of personal development, starting from the non-written sources, considering the work of Patanjali and other Indian authors, quoting without reserve the great contribute of the West to the discipline — through the mastership Yoga, immortality and freedom from the Romanian scholar Mircea Eliade ― as well as some important texts written by Indian authors. We will also consider the most relevant contemporary yoga teachers, presenting the today status of yoga discipline in western countries. Back to India with the third chapter, we will have the pleasure to narrate with crucial details the holy town of Benares, in the frame of which grew Smriti Singh and her Om International Yoga Health Society, protagonists of the ultimate two chapters. In the final one, many fundamental postures (asana) of Yoga, some breathing exercises (pranayama) and some simple but crucial gestures (mudra), performed by Smriti Singh, will be explained in their characteristics and benefits. In that case, the text will be supported by several photos made by a Canadian student of Smriti who is an excellent photographer: Eleonore Gauthier.
The frame of photos is the base of Dameka Stupa in Sarnath, around 15 kilometers from Benares, where Buddha had His first speech, in the sixth century B.C., “to move the wheel of Dharma”.
