Communications Expresso – Starts 3 March
February 24, 2026
Shanti Yoga Teacher Training
February 24, 2026
Despite many global misconceptions, yoga is not about physical contortion or outlandish feats. Twisting the body into impossible positions, standing on one's head and generally torturing oneself with difficult and even dangerous activities—such as being buried alive for months at a time, sleeping on beds of nails, pushing skewers through one's cheeks or contorting the body and holding those contortions for months or years until the limbs become permanently fixed in unnatural positions—are all far removed from yoga. Yoga, often widely taught in the West as a series of physical exercises that promote suppleness, health, and beauty, is also a subject of the many misconceptions about yoga. None of these is correct.
What is Yoga?
Yoga is a fully integrated practice that affects all aspects of human life, harmonising physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of our existence. It delivers living life to the fullest, enabling one to express one's whole potential on all levels.
Derived from the Sanskrit word for "union" or "yoke"—the joining of two things—it is often taken to mean the union of the non-physical, spiritual aspect of the human personality with the physical, material aspect, a union where these two aspects cannot actually be separated. Yoga is best understood today as "awareness"—a conscious acknowledgment of both our material and spiritual selves, that coexist as equal players.
In an age obsessed with material acquisition and technological speed, we often find ourselves spiritually impoverished and physically stressed. We have become obsessed with possessions, to the point where they possess us. A lot of effort goes into acquiring more, and very often, the only standard of comparison between people is the things they possess - the material paraphernalia acquired through money, influence or power.
However, this is not sufficient. Material possessions are not the only things of consequence in life. While undeniabley, we need food, clothes, and shelter, as well as convenient transportation, we can only eat so much, wear so many clothes, or sleep in one place at a time. What we want and what we need are often completely different. Until we realise this, we will continue to focus our efforts on acquiring material things and ignoring spiritual ones.
The greater the progress our civilisation makes, the more our sufferings seem to multiply. We may have enormously increased our intellectual knowledge, yet we remain ignorant of ourselves. Fortunately more and more people are beginning to question the standard of values under which we operate. We must temper our wants with our needs. The time has come for us to make a concentrated effort in the direction of self-knowing. To achieve this, we must turn to yoga.
Yoga is a science. Simply put, a science is something which says if you do certain things in a certain fixed manner, you will get a particular result and that result will be in direct proportion to the amount of effort expended. It is not necessary to have anything other than a willingness to practice. No faith or belief is required, nor are any philosophical or religious affiliations. One can be a Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jew, Muslim an atheist or anything else and practice yoga with a clear conscience. Nothing in yoga will conflict with any system of religion, or philosophical thought, because there are no dogmas, no obligatory beliefs, no "have to's."
The aim of Yoga is the harmonious development of the whole person: body, mind and spirit. All genuine yoga paths have this aim; they simply differ in the means they use to attain it.
What does Yoga do?
Although, in the broad sense, yoga means anything which increases our awareness of our whole selves, over thousands of years it has come to mean a system of physical, mental and spiritual practices or disciplines.
Yoga offers a systematic path to self-knowing through several core pillars. These include:
- Foundational Practices
The foundations upon which a yoga practice is built are the moral restraints (yamas) and the observances (niyamas).
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Hatha Yoga & AsanasUnlike repetitive exercise, asanas are stable postures held with relaxation and concentration. They stretch the muscles, stimulate internal organs, and balance the body’s psychic centers (chakras), ensuring the mind has a healthy vessel through which to function.
- Pranayama (Breath Control)
Proper breathing is essential for purifying the blood and manipulating "prana" (life force). It corrects the shallow breathing patterns caused by modern sedentary lifestyles, leading to total well-being. - Nidra (Relaxation)
Since stress is a primary factor in modern illness, learning to relax is vital. True yoga cannot be practiced while tense; Thus, relaxation is a cornerstone of the discipline. - Dhyana (Meditation)
Meditation is the ultimate goal of all yoga practices. It provides the tools for self-realization, helping us understand who we are and our purpose in life.
Sanskrit
The language of yoga is Sanskrit. It is a very ancient language, and the original yogic texts were written in it. As the technical language of yoga, it is still used today to describe the practices.
The Foundational Practices upon which Yoga is built
The Foundational Practices upon which Yoga is built begin with identifying what you value most. The first step is to recognise the values in life that are most important to you. Once you understand your unique, true values and align every aspect of your life accordingly, you can create a life that is consistently inspiring and fulfilling. Your values are what make your life meaningful. To support this journey, Yoga suggests the five moral restraints and the five observances.
The Five Moral Restraints (Pancha Yamas)
- Non-violence (ahimsa): Resulting in an absence of hostility in your presence.
- Truth (satya): Ensuring that whatever you say comes true.
- Non-stealing (asteya): Allowing all abundance to flow toward you.
- Controlling the Creative Principle (brahmacharya): Gaining great valor and losing the fear of death.
- Non-covetousness (aparigraha): Attaining knowledge of previous and future births.
The Five Evolutionary Observances (Pancha Niyamas):
- Cleanliness (saucha): Leads to non-attachment to the body, cheerfulness, one-pointedness, sense control, and vision of the Self.
- Contentment (santosha): Results in unexcelled happiness.
- Austerity or Discipline (tapas): Destroys impurities so the body and sense organs attain perfection.
- Self-study (swadhyaya): Achieves union with the desired deity.
- Surrender to God/Self (Ishwara or Atman Pranidhana): Attains Samadhi.
Hatha Yoga
Hatha is a Sanskrit word meaning 'force' and refers to the practices characteristic of this method, which is often interpreted as physical activity. Body postures play a prominent part, together with breathing exercises and relaxation techniques.
Asana
The best known of these are the 'asanas'. 'Asana' is a Sanskrit word which means 'posture' or 'position,' and this distinguishes yoga from other forms of physical exercise. The physical part of yoga practice involves holding the body in a specific posture or position for a period while relaxing the muscles. Yoga is not a series of violent movements designed to build up muscles. Hatha Yoga differs from Western and contemporary exercise programs that aim to increase speed, strength, or physical skill. Yoga's muscular flexibility aligns with the tranquility of body, mind and spirit.
Asanas come with a whole range of implications. A complete translation is 'a state of being in which one can remain steady, quiet, calm and comfortable in body and mind'. To this end, asanas are practiced to develop one's ability to sit in one position without discomfort, during meditation.
The basic proposition of yoga is that the mind cannot function efficiently in an unhealthy body, and that spirituality cannot be adequately expressed if the mind is not healthy. So the first thing to acquire is a healthy body, which explains the emphasis on physical postures initially. The physical practice exercises muscles and joints, stimulates nerves, and massages glands and organs. This means that all of the body systems are helped to function as they should, inducing a state of physical health.
Thus asanas are also practiced for curative or health reasons. Gently stretching muscles, massaging internal organs and stimulating nerves throughout the body can greatly improve physical health and ease or even eliminate many disorders, including those considered 'incurable'.
Yoga asanas have deep meaning and value in the development of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual personality. They are completely different from and far more comprehensive than gymnastic exercises, weight-lifting and other body cultures. They are performed slowly with concentration and relaxation. This allows both external and internal systems to be influenced, encouraging the nervous system, endocrine glands, internal organs, and all muscles to function properly. Asanas have a physical and psychological effect that helps cure infirmities.
However, Asana offers more than that. As well as the physical effects, there are deeper spiritual effects. All yoga asanas, no matter how simple they seem, affect the body's psychic centres, known as chakras. These centres of psychic energy closely associate with mental formation (emotions), and physically stimulating them can produce profound effects on the spiritual level.
Pranayama, Breath control
Next is pranayama or yoga breathing. Without breath there is no life. With only half a breath, there is only half a life, and many people only half breathe, if that. Arising from poor training, laziness, and ignorance, breathing properly has become almost a lost art in modern, urbanised societies. Hunched over desks or machines at work, slouching when we stand or sit relaxing at home, we assume positions that nature never intended or our bodies would have been designed differently. We rarely give our lungs a chance to fill from bottom to top, and also never empty the stale, used air completely. If our lungs don't operate at maximum efficiency, our blood isn't purified properly. If our blood is impure, every one of the billions of cells throughout the body will fail to function properly, leading to disorder and disease. Yogic breathing focuses on correct breathing, using the lungs to their fullest capacity as intended. Correct breathing has a very significant effect upon the general physical health of the body.
Just as asanas have both a physical and spiritual influence on the body, so too does pranayama. While we may not know exactly what prana is, we do know it profoundly affects the physical and psychic bodies. If prana is absent, then life is extinct.
Pranayama is not just breathing; it is also and more importantly, the manipulation of prana within the body to produce physical and spiritual results. Correct breathing leads to physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.
Nidra, Relaxation
Relaxation is an essential part of any yogic practice. Tension is the single most important cause of many of the deadliest illnesses. Stress is a precipitating factor in heart disease and hypertension, depression and all the associated mental and emotional disorders, alcoholism, drug abuse and a whole host of other diseases and disorders of the body and mind. In fact, it could be said that a stress component exists in all physical and mental problems. Just living in today's urban environment is enough to cause stress-related diseases in some people.
If we are tense, practicing yoga properly won't be possible because, as mentioned above, yoga asanas are not physical jerks; they are postures, and holding a posture properly and efficiently requires the body to be completely relaxed. So relaxation is the most important part of yoga and much time and trouble is spent in teaching the most effective method of relaxation.
Dhyana, Meditation
Meditation is yoga, and yoga is meditation. Meditation is the way, the light, the experience. Every spiritual seeker, every yoga devotee, and every aspirant on any spiritual path should never forget that meditation is the way.
All yoga practices—asanas, pranayama, and relaxation—are directed towards meditation. They are all taught and practiced for one reason only - meditation. Meditation is the ultimate goal of yoga. Without it there would be no true realisation that we are not just a body drifting about on this earthly plane. Meditation means self-realisation: understanding who we are and why we are here. It provides the answer to the two questions: Who am I? Why am I here?
Yoga does all this, but it takes time. In this modern age of instant communication with far places, instant food, and jet travel around the world, we also want instant enlightenment, instant samadhi, instant self-knowledge. However, things just don't work out that way. It takes time to learn the practices, time to implement them, time for them to work. There is no hurry. The more we try and the harder we strive to experience the things promised, the less likely it is that anything will happen. If we practice carefully and consistently, we will not need to worry about whether we are making progress.
Are Yoga practices still relevant today?
Modern life provides countless resources for physical comfort and sensual enjoyment. Airconditioned environments, vehicle travel, sleeping on a thick, soft, mattress, going to cinemas, theatres and clubs, along with watching sports on television for recreation, using sleeping pills and wake-iup pills and all kinds of medicines and drugs in an attempt to get peace and rest and to counteract the negative effects of everyday life. However, instead of peace, contentment, rest and happiness we feel the increasing burden of physical, mental and emotional tension. We struggle to find skilful ways to unburden ourselves from life's frustrations and anxieties.
In this modern age of technological miracles, where countless aids exist to comfort life, it seems almost a contradiction—yet it's true—that very few people can enjoy these luxuries. Many people have wealth, but they live in poverty - poverty of will, poverty of strength to enjoy life and they only remember the happiness of childhood. In recent years, many people, especially young people, have turned to using alcohol, drugs, LSD, hashish, marijuana, amphetamines, heroin, ice, cocaine and so on to try to find meaning and order in their lives or to escape what they see as an impossible situation. Many others, young and not so young, turn to alcohol, tranquillisers, sleeing pills and tobacco to help them cope.
Yoga is the perfect way for all people to find meaning and purpose in life. The systematic practice of yoga leads to the ultimate goal: self realisation, beyond which there is nothing else.
Shanti Yoga
I developed Shanti Yoga—the Yoga of Peace—based on Patanjali’s teaching that "Yoga is the stilling of movement in the mind." Stillness is not emptying the mind, nor is it repressing thoughts, ideas and feelings, or stopping thinking altogether. It is a state where the mind is so still that a deeper faculty can take over. When one thought stops and another has not begun, there is the space for meditation.
Shanti Yoga focuses on achieving a state of stillness where thoughts subside, creating the space for meditation to occur. It integrates various traditional forms of yoga to help practitioners unburden themselves from modern life's frustrations and achieve lasting contentment. These teachings contain nothing new. The practices I teach come straight from the classical tradition as outlined by Patanjali.
Patanjali's instruction (anusasana) is systematic, ordered, and logical.
- The exercises and postures relax and still the body.
- The exercises and postures relax and still the body.
- Breathing stills the mind.
- Meditation helps us reach the stillness of a deeper consciousness, beyond the mind.
- Yoga is the union of body, mind, and spirit in stillness. This stillness is not a trance, it is accompanied by full awareness. Complete stillness, coupled with full awareness is yoga.
The practices of Shanti Yoga will help free you from the ailments that accompany civilisation, such as constipation, rheumatism, frustration and tension. With regular practice, you will have more strength and energy to face life's problems and responsibilities. Family and social relationships will automatically become more harmonious.
Yoga is a journey that requires time and consistent practice rather than a search for "instant enlightenment." By embracing these practices, anyone—regardless of faith or background—can find deeper meaning and purpose.
