Yoga International Conference Videos Published
Yoga Bharati organized a two day International Conference with over 35 speakers on three tracks - Yoga for Health, Yoga Philosophy and Yoga Research in the Bay Area at JCC, Palo Alto. Conference Report Read More
Below are are the video of some of the talks at the conference.
Yoga Sangam
(International Yoga Conference- 2012)
Program Video
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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8:00AM 10:00AM - INAUGURATION AND KEYNOTE Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Yogashree N.V. Raghuram Chairman,Yoga Bharati Professor VYASA, India | Yoga of Heart and Love Concept of Bhakti | This session presents a detailed understanding of our emotions, including love and bliss, while providing practical tips on how to practice Bhakti yoga so that it can enrich our lives and sustain these emotions.Video Link | |
| Dr. H.R. Nagendra Vice Chancellor, S-VYASA, India | Vivekananda's Philosopy of Education through Yoga | Swami Vivekananda codified yoga into Four Streams : Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga, JnanaYoga and Bhakti Yoga. In this presentation, Dr Nagendra will discuss the details, relevance and importance of his codification as well as the relevance of integrating the best of the East with the best of the West.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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10:30AM 12Noon PHILOSOPHY TRACK - Ramakrishna Hall (Freidenrich Conference Hall 4th floor) |
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| Acharya Prabodh Chaitanya Chinmaya Mission, San Jose | Developing Mental Immunity through Yoga | This presentation will encompass developing mental immunity utilizing the 4 streams of yoga and its relevance to society today.Video Link | |
| Jagat Guru Amruta SuryananadaMaharaja President, Yoga Portuguese Confederation | The quality of Training and Teaching of Yoga | The Portuguese Yoga Confederation in Portugal follows Yoga Teachers Training model that involves minimum training of 6500 hrs and a Yoga Masters program of 10 years course. The confederation believes that one needs to do intense sadhana before one can share one's experience. Yoga has many different aspects to it - physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual dimensions. Practices range from asanas, pranayama, kirtana,japa, bandha, mudra and samadhi. One needs to understand service (Karma Yoga) and follow the principle of Jiva is Shiva to become a yoga teacher. This presentation details the importance of such a model followed in Portugal.Video Link | |
| Swami Bodhananada Saraswati Spiritual Director and Founder, Sambodh Society USA | Yoga and Management | Management is the science of optimal utilization of material resources for human satisfaction. Yoga is the discipline of organizing human resources for individual fulfillment. This presentation will discuss the connection and inter-relatedness of yoga and management and the utilization of yoga to achieve excellence in management.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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10:30AM 12Noon - HEALTH TRACK- Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Dr. Nagarathna (Chair) Dean of Health Sciences VYASA India Smt. Ashwini Surpur Director of Yoga Therapy, Yoga Bharati | Yoga Therapy for Common Ailments | Dr. Nagarathna will explain the Yogic concept of Stress and its effects on human physiology. She will bring her immense experience from VYASA's wellness Center in Bengaluru and the Case Studies and Statistics related to Yoga Therapy and its effects in India. Ashwini Surpur will talk about how Yoga Bharati has replicated the VYASA model of Yoga Therapy in America.Video Link |
| Dr. Dillip Sarkar Executive Director School of Integrative Medicine Taksha University | Yoga for Hypertension and Cardiac Problems | Yoga Therapy has evolved as one of the most reliable, authentic and efficient health care systems available in society today. Evidence based yoga therapy as a treatment, is demonstrating efficacy and effectiveness of yoga in Cardiac patients. Dr. Dilip Sarkar will explain the mechanism of action of yoga therapy and will demonstrate how yoga can be practiced by anyone and in any condition and with regularity commitment and perseverance, one can reverse any disease, including heart disease.Video Link |
| Rev. Ellen Grace O’Brian Spiritual Director Center for Spiritual Enlightenment San Jose | How to have more Energy | Abundant energy allows us to live joyously and accomplish our worthy goals. Some people are naturally energetic, overflowing with energy from early morning to late night. Others struggle to get up and get going, have low reserves during the day and end the day exhausted. When spiritually conscious meditation is practiced and stress is removed from the system, the flows of vital force, or subtle energy, are enhanced. Rev. O'Brian will present the ways of increasing vitality and living in harmony with what is most meaningful to us.Video Link |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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10:30AM 12Noon - RESEARCH TRACK- Anveshana Hall (E104) |
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| Dr. Shirley Telles Director of Research Patanjali Yogapeeth, India | Yoga for Children The Indian Scene | Yoga can considerably improve the physical and mental health of children as well as improve their cognitive skills. Several studies through the years have shown that a 10 day yoga intervention can improve the performance of pre-teen children in a wide range of perceptual and motor tasks, while simultaneously improving their ability to focus and shift attention and to memorize both verbal and spatial information. A recent randomized controlled trial compared the effects of yoga with physical activity on the physical health, emotional well-being and performance in a task requiring discrimination and shifting of attention. An ideal solution would be to introduce yoga in schools. The research findings and reasons why yoga is not yet a part of the regular curriculum will be discussed.Video Link | |
| Dr. Sat Bir Khalsa Assistant Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School | Yoga for Mental Health Rationale and Research Evidence | This presentation will provide an overview of the scientific evidence and rationale for application of yoga for prevention and treatment of mental health disorders. The growing body of clinical research that is demonstrating yoga's efficacy in a wide variety of mental health conditions including chronic stress, depression, and anxiety will be discussed. | |
| Dr. Helen Lavretsky Professor of Psychiatry Semel Institute, UCLA | Kirtan Kirya in Stressed Family Dementia Caregivers Effects on mental health, cognition, telomerase, gene expression, and brain metabolism. | A randomized pilot study of Yogic Kirtan Kriya compared to a relaxation practice examined the potential of daily brief Meditation practice to improve mental health, coping, cognition, brain metabolism on PET imaging, and the activity of immune cell telomerase activity and change in gene expression in stressed family dementia caregivers. The study found that daily Kirtan Kriya practice can lead to reduced stress, improved coping, and cognitive function compared to relaxation. The details of the study and its results will be presented.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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1:30PM 3:00PM - PHILOSOPHY TRACK - Ramakrishna Hall (Freidenrich Conference hall 4th floor) |
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| Mr. Philip Goldberg Author & Spiritual Coach, CA (Author of American Veda) | Evolution of Yoga in America | The introduction, emergence and practice of Yoga in the United States has radically altered the way Americans understand themselves, their attitudes about religion and the way they engage the spiritual impulse. This presentation will illuminate the evolution of Yoga in America and its profound impact on its culture.Video Link | |
| Swami Prasannatmananda Vedanta Society, Berkeley | Yoga for Transformation of Consciousness as given by Swami Vivekananda | Swami Vivekananda suggested a synthesis of yoga's for the transformation of consciousness. This talk will present the nature of this transformation and the three stages for this synthesis to occur: Purification, Awakening of the Individual Self, and Seeing the Supreme Self in all beings.Video Link | |
| Dr. Prasad Kaipa CEO Advisor & Coach, CA | Yoga and Wise Leadership | The context in which organizations operate in the 21st century is marked by complexity, magnified by globalization and information technology. Science & Technology focus on models to bring efficiency and accuracy whereas spirituality bring us values and connect us to our passion and energy. In this session, we will understand how the Yogic ideals of transcendental and humanistic values, objective reality and subjective experiences can be utilized to solve corporate challenges.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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1:30PM 3:00PM - HEALTH TRACK Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Mr. Antonio Sausys Yogi Views, San Rafael | Yoga for Grief Relief | This presentation will discuss the physical symptoms of grief, its psycho-neuro-immunological basis and Yoga asnas that have demonstrated success in addressing grief and psychological transformation. A comparative analysis is made of the Western and Eastern models of the Psyche stating the importance of the psychic centers’ involvement (particularly the Heart Chakra) both physically and emotionally and especially in regards to the Yogic theory of attachment will be discussed.Video Link | |
| Dr. Christoph Garner Director, KWA-Klinik Stift RottalGermany | Yoga Therapy for Neurological Rehabilitation | In Neurological patients, brain malfunction causes deficits in body functions, emotions, motivation and cognitive functions. In addition to conventional methods, holistic rehabilitation uses other mental training methods like Yoga, Music-therapy, Mental training by special imaginations, psychotherapy and specific neuropsychologic training methods. Concerning Yoga-therapy, its found that besides conventional practices like specific asanas and pranayama techniques PET (Pranic energisation technique) developed by VYASA University, Bengaluru are very helpful to improve the function of paralyzed limbs.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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1:30PM 3:00PM - HEALTH TRACK Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Acharya Shunya Pratichi Mathur Founder and Acharya Vedika Global, Berkeley | Anti Aging, Immuno-modulatoryRasayana Therapy in Ayurveda | The Vedas have seriously considered the problems of aging as well as protection from disease. It was the cherished wish to lead not only a long life but also a healthy life and to live at least 100 years enjoying perfect health. This health positive outlook led to the development of Ayurveda's Rasayana Tantra - a full-fledged clinical discipline specializing in anti-aging immunity-enhancing, rejuvenative therapy. Ayurveda’s emphasis upon genetics, geriatrics, anti-aging rejuvenation methods, and concept of immunomodulation is remarkably ahead of its time and how it is attracting the attention of modern researchers in medicine today. The presentation will discuss the benefits of integrating Yoga Chikitsa with Ayurveda’s Rasayana Therapy protocols for enhanced health protection and promotion.Video Link |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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1:30PM 3:00PM - RESEARCH TRACK - Anveshana Hall (E104) |
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| Dr. Joan Vernikos Executive Director, TSHAI Taksha University | Sitting Kills, Moving Heals Solutions to Modern Health Hazards | Modern life with its technological advances has contributed to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle. This in turn has been shown to lead to a broad variety of health disorders. Though exercise helps, traditional exercise alone has not reversed, nor prevented this downward trend in health. Research in astronauts in space and in its ground simulation on Earth has emphasized the health benefits of using gravity in everyday movement as a natural solution to healthy aging. This presentation will discuss the utilization of Yoga for the reversal of aging.Video Link | |
| Dr. Naveen Visweswaraiah Associate Professor, VYASA, India Co-PI at ICMR | Psycho physiology of Meditation on the syllable OM | Meditation is a state of consciousness featured by deep relaxation and internalized attention. Traditionally, there are three different phases in meditation i.e., focusing (dharana), effortless mindfulness (dhyana) and a state of transcendence (samadhi). In this presentation the studies on meditation on a syllable OM will be detailed. OM meditation showed differential activity in the different subdivisions of the Autonomic Nervous System, some characteristics of activation and others of reduced arousals. Based on these results, meditation on OM can be termed as a state of ‘alertful rest'. The phases of OM meditation and their neurophysiological correlates will be discussed.Video Link | |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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1:30PM 3:00PM RESEARCH TRACK Anveshana Hall (E104) |
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| Dr. Senthamil Selvan Thomas Jefferson University, PA | Study on Yoga Therapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome | Irritable Bowel Syndrome is the most common functional disorder of gastro-intestinal tract affecting about 23% of worldwide population and about 15% in the USA. While drugs are used to temporarily relieve some symptoms of IBS, counseling is also used for psychological symptoms. Yoga has been considered as an alternate and/or complementary therapeutic tool to manage IBS due to its capacity to stabilize the functioning of various internal organs. This presentation will discuss the studies that have already been undertaken and their results, as well as implications for effective integrated management of IBS through Yoga. The current randomized clinical trial involving three IBS subject groups will also be presented.Video Link |
| Dr. Smita Vishvarupa Yoga Therapist, VYASA Houston | Yoga Therapy for Breast Cancer Patients | The results of research examining the effects of Yoga in specific physiological parameters in women with breast cancer undergoing radiotherapy will be presented. Research done both in M.D. Anderson Research Center and at VYASA will be shared.Video Link |
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Saturday, September 8, 2012 |
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4:00 PM 5:00 PM - MEDITATION – Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Swami Sitaramananda Director Sivananda Yoga Farm, Grass Valley Swami Bodhananda Spiritual Founder, Sambodh Society USA | Sivananda Style MeditationMeditation with Mantra | Meditation has proven to be a great stress relief tool. But for a beginner, meditation is only effective with a Guru. This workshop will be covering different aspects of meditation and it also gives a sense of experience through small sessions on different styles of meditation. Video Link | ||
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4:00 PM 5:00 PM - YOGA FOR STRESS - Ramakrishna Hall LIGHTER SESSIONS WITH KIDS (Freidenrich Conference Hall, 4th Floor) |
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| Yogashree N.V.Raghuram (Chair) Chairman Yoga Bharati Smt. Savitha Nanjangud Faculty Member, Yoga Bharati | Practicing Yoga with deeper understanding of the concepts helps us keep our minds calm through any external circumstances enabling us to achieve our highest potential in life. Yoga teaches us to live a balanced life. This session will give you the concepts of yoga and introduce you the practical techniques of managing stress. Video Link | |||
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5:00 PM 6:00 PM - Yoga for Social Transformation Panel Discussion in Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Sri Bidyut Bose (Chair) Founder, Niroga Institute Yogashree N.V.Raghuram Chairman Yoga Bharati Jagat Guru Amruta Suryananada Maharaja President, Yoga Portuguese Confederation Swami Sitaramananda Director, Sivananda Yoga Farm | The practice of yoga develops self-awareness among individuals leading to a positive transformation at the individual level. At the outset, it seems like an individual-centric practice. While yoga can help individuals in managing and reversing diseases and providing optimum health, it can do much more. Macrocosm (samashti) is the sum total of microcosm (Vyashti). Society consists of individuals. Hence a positive change brought at the individual level will contribute to the harmony at the cosmic level. This panel will focus on how internal transformation of people can result in social transformation. Isn't Yoga a Must for every Society then? Let us see...Video Link | |||
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7:00 PM 9:30 PM - CULTURAL PROGRAM Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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8:00 AM - 10:00AM - KEYNOTE, GUEST LECTURES & FELICITATIONS Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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Keynote Speaker |
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| Dr. Nagarathna Dean of Health Sciences VYASA India | Yoga Therapy and Global Health | An overview of 25 years of Research at VYASA in Yoga and its applications will illustrate the journey treaded to establish the efficacy of the holistic modules of yoga culled out from traditional scriptures. Studies and guidelines for future work to move towards freedom from disease, all round personality development and global peace will be presented.Video Link | |
| Dr. Shirley Telles Director of Research Patanjali Yogapeeth, India | Yoga Research in India | Yoga research in India began thousands of years ago, with the experiences of the great sages. Actual studies in the laboratory began in the 1920s by a sage, SwamiKuvalayanada, who had an ideal blend of medical and spiritual knowledge. Through the 1920s until the 1960s the world over people wanted to study extraordinary powers of exceptional yogis. Exciting experiments were conducted. However these experiments seemed to suggest that the effects of yoga required years of practice with extreme sacrifice. This changed when in the late 1960s Maharishi Mahesh Yogi introduced transcendental meditation to the world. For the first time changes were seen in University students after a short duration of practice. This led to research at VYASA and other institutions which published and are publishing some of the most rigorously controlled trials on the therapeutic effects of yoga. The results of this dynamic research will be presented.Video Link | |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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10:30AM 11:30AM - PHILOSOPHY - Ramakrishna Hall (Freidenrich Conference Hall 4th floor) |
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| Dr. Christopher Chapple Doshi Professor of Indic & Comparative Theology, Loyola Marymount University | The Sevenfold Yoga of Yogavasistha | Yogavasistha was compiled in longer and shorter versions over the course of several centuries, most likely from the end of the Gupta period (ca. 500 C.E.) until it reached its expanded form in Kashmir by the eleventh century. Its philosophy combines aspects of Mahayana Buddhism with Advaita Vedanta and served as the foundation for the later school known as Emergence-through-Thought. It was a favorite of important figures in the development of modern day Hinduism, including Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Sivananda. In chapter 62 of the Nirvana Prakarana, the final section of the 29,000 verse work, the Vedic sage Vasistha teaches the sevenfold Yoga to Sri Rama. In this workshop we will examine these seven aspects of Yoga: disenchantment with the world; deep thinking that results in concentration, meditation, ethical behavior; non-attachment, experiencing the world as if it were no more than a dream, a state of deep peace, liberated while in the body and the final phase of dissolution and return to universal consciousness.Video Link | |
| Smt. Prabha Duneja Geeta Society, CA | Ashtanga Yoga as per Patanjali Yoga Sutras | Patanjali Ashtanga Yoga is an expanded and simplified form of yogasutra collated and written down by the great sage Patanjali. Starting with yama and niyama such as simple ethical values of Ahimsa (non-violence), Satya (Truthfulness) one can follow systematic steps and climb the ladder of yoga to reach the highest state ofSamadhi.Prabhaji will take us through the journey of this eight-limbed yoga with theory and a small practice.Video Link | |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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10:30AM 11:30AM - HEALTH - Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) |
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| Dr. Sudha Rajan President VYASA, Houston | Yoga Therapy for Diabetes | A detailed understanding of Diabetes from both the Allopathic and Ayurvedic / Yogic perspectives will be presented. Research will be discussed connecting Yogic principles and practices toward the prevention and cure of this dreaded disease.Video Link | |
| Dr.Nagarathna (Chair) Dean of Health Sciences VYASA , India Smt. Savita Joshi Faculty & Treasurer, Yoga Bharati | Yoga for Women | The physiology of a woman undergoes many changes through out their life. Stress is natural for women during these changing times. Yoga has profound influences on the health of a mother and the unborn fetus. The effects of yoga on the cycle of life: conception, prenatal, labor and delivery will be discussed. Dr. Nagarathna will cover some of the common conditions that women face and how yoga helps while SavitaJoshi will cover her expertise and experience with prenatal yoga.Video Link | |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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12:30PM 1:30PM - PHILOSOPHY - Ramakrishna Hall (Freidenrich Conference Hall 4th floor)) |
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| Yogashree N.V.Raghuram Chairman Yoga Bharati Professor, VYASA, India | Bhagavad Gita - War or Peace? | Critics of Bhagavad Gita have often accused Krishna that he is a war-monger and have provoked Arjuna to kill. One has to look at the entire situation to be able to understand Bhagavad Gita in a proper context. Bhagavad Gita does not strictly fall in the realm of good and bad. Krishna introduces a concept of Life as a spectrum – the lower end is the material plane, the body and the upper end is the consciousness, the Atman. As it happens to Arjuna at the end of Bhagavad Gita, we too get the clarity to take our own decision in the battle of life. Let us explore this conceptVideo Link | |
| Sri. Bidyut Bose Founder, Niroga Institute, CA | Is Yoga Secular? | There is a growing perception in the West that yoga is “not secular enough”. The perception that yoga is somehow separate from the practice of mindfulness is borne out of ignorance at best. Religion involves institutional teachings and traditions associated with specific teachers and books. Spirituality, on the other hand, involves universal secular questions of the human spirit: Who am I, who are you, and what is the relationship between us? Does this make yoga a religion? Bidyut Bose explores the dangers of such a mis-perception of yoga.Video Link | |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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12:30PM 1:30PM - HEALTH - Vivekananda Hall (Dining Hall) |
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| Dr. Naveen Visweswaraiah Associate Professor, VYASA, India Co-PI, ICMR | Yogaksema - Stress & Lifestyle clinic: A Working Model of Integrative Medicine in Bengaluru, India | Integrative medicine is the healthcare provider's dream of tomorrow. A patient walks in with an ailment and gets the treatment that he/she needs, be it allopathy,Ayurveda, Acupuncture, Yoga Therapy - one or a a combination of all of these. Yogaksema is one such clinic in Bangalore, India with an integrated approach to healthcare. In this session, you will see how this integration is done, what it takes for a health care provider to provide such a model and how it helps the patient heal faster.Video Link | |
| Yogashree.N.V.Raghuram Chairman, Yoga Bharati Professor VYASA, India | Concept of Prana & PranayamaPractice | The concept of prana, as given by the ancient Indian scriptures makes such profound sense. Prana is the cause for life. By relaxing and transcending the physical body, one can go to prana level. All the practices at bio-physical body level are essentially to facilitate us to detach from the physical level. Prana itself cannot be perceived but its effect in the form of respiration or pulse or some other sensation goes on. Prasna Upanishad says that very thing in this universe is governed byPrana. In this presentation, we will see different classification of Prana and howPranyama helps us transcend both Prana and Mind. A brief session on concept will be followed by a practice of Prayanama.Video Link | |
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Sunday, September 9, 2012 |
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1:30PM 2:30PM - Closing Panel Discussion Vivekananda Hall (Main Hall) Karma Yoga & Bhakti Yoga for World Peace |
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| Yogashree N.V. Raghuram Chairman Yoga Bharati Professor VYASA, India Dr. H.R. Nagendra Vice Chancellor, VYASA, India Swami Bodhananda Saraswati Spiritual Founder, Sambodh Society, USA Dr. Prasad Kaipa CEO Advisor & Coach, CA | As Brahmasutra says - We are lucky to be born as humans; and we are luckier to be having the mental faculty to pursue spirituality that takes us towards higher states of awareness. This panel explores what I can do to expand this inspiration in our little hearts so that the entire humanity benefits from this. This can only be possible if we plunge into action with true Karma yoga spirit infused with deep compassion and Bhakti in our hearts. The torch that Swami Vivekananda lit has to be carried forward so that million hearts alight and burn with the light of knowledge, which acts as "the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal."Video Link |