Yoga bestows a lot of benefits on its practitioners. People get what they invest in. While Yoga is, largely a spiritual discipline, there are loads of non-spiritual benefits that accrue to the practice, as well. Fortunately or unfortunately, these days it’s the non-spiritual benefits of Yoga; people are more after, than the spiritual ones.
Let’s face it, what comes to your mind at the mention of the word Yoga.
People, most folks associate it with physical culture. Even though it is not, even though it involves more than just a set of physical postures, most people think of Yoga as just that, a series of inverted, convoluted, contorted, convoluted and twisted postures you wrap yourself into and unwrap from. Not that this isn’t a part of Yoga, it very much is.
But, this goes to prove how much people are after only the physical, material, and the non-spiritual benefits.
When we speak of non-spiritual benefits of Yoga we are mainly referring to the physical, mental and emotional advantages that accrue to the practice. These, by themselves, are very tempting, and enticing enough to start Yoga practice. You health improves, your state of mind improves, your sleep gets deeper, and you feel more and more fulfilled in your relationships. And all through the practice of a set of Yoga poses (asanas) and breathing exercises (Pranayama).
But the spiritual benefits far outweigh and surpass the most and best of the other 3 – physical, mental and emotional. Unfortunately, man lives in the body and resides in the region of the mind and heart. So physical sensations, thoughts and feelings are all we are able to comprehend, to grasp. The spiritual is a far cry from all these. They pertain to the domain of the spirit, also called the Self. The spiritual benefits of Yoga, to be specific are to be derived from such practices as Kundalini Yoga, Laya Yoga, prolonged Pranayama + Meditation and true Bhakti Yoga, the Yoga of devotion to the Self. The True Self.