YOGA IN THE GHOSH LINEAGE"Ghosh Yoga" is a set of values and traditions passed down from Bishnu Charan Ghosh. It shares a lot of history and values with other yoga systems, since most yoga traces its roots back to early texts and philosophies.
Generally speaking, the goals of Ghosh Yoga begin with health in the body and stillness in the mind. It is characterized by its use of stillness during and immediately following yoga postures. This system of tension and release emphasizes relaxation between periods of effort. (This is different from many modern styles of yoga that incorporate Sun Salutes between postures and link postures together.) PRACTICES Ghosh Yoga uses simple therapeutic exercises to mobilize and strengthen every area of the body, from the eyes down to the toes, including the internal organs and systems. In this way, it resembles physical therapy. It uses postures (asanas) to bring grace and control to the body and stillness to the mind. It uses breathing exercises (pranayama) and meditation to reduce stress and anxiety and begin on the path of spirituality. Over many decades, variations on these practices from the Bengal region of Kolkata, India, have been passed down through Buddha Bose, Gouri Shankar Mukerji, Monotosh Roy, Biswanath Ghosh, Karuna & Jibananda Ghosh, Bikram & Rajashree Choudhury, Prem Sundar Das, Tony Sanchez and Muktamala Mitra. In India and Japan, Ghosh yoga has always been individual and prescriptive. Each person/student has different needs and limitations, and the yoga teacher's job is to prescribe to each student the appropriate exercises, asanas and meditations to heal their ailments and develop their physical, mental and spiritual potential. When it came to the west with Bikram Choudhury in the 1970s, this yoga took on a slightly different form. It became asana based (instead of therapeutic exercises), physically challenging and sequenced. Bikram's Beginning Class 'prescribes' the same 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises for every person. All of Bikram's students---including those who are now well-respected teachers in their own right, like Tony Sanchez, Jimmy Barkan, Emmy Cleaves, Craig Villani and Esak Garcia---follow this model of sequenced asana practice. 113 ASANAS A survey of the prominent texts from this lineage finds 113 postures in total, plus about 115 therapeutic exercises that are still taught at Ghosh's Yoga College in Kolkata. This includes instructions from Bose's 1938 text, Dr. Mukerji's 1963 text, Ghosh's 1961 booklet, Monotosh Roy's 1970s book and Dr. Das's 2004 text. HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY Even though this lineage draws its name to the early 1900s, many of its philosophies are traditional, drawn from texts and schools of thought that have been around for hundreds or thousands of years. Some of the most obvious history is from the Gheranda Samhita, a traditional text from about 1700, thought to have been written in Bengal. This text describes 32 asanas, 23 of which are present in the teachings of Ghosh and his students. MODERN SCIENCE Some of Ghosh's most prominent students, namely Dr. Gouri Shankar Mukerji, were forerunners in combining yoga and western science. Technology has raced forward in the last 200 years with its ability to monitor and measure things like blood pressure, metabolism, heart rate, oxygen usage and brain waves. It is important for us as yogis to assimilate the knowledge of science, both where it reinforces traditional yoga practices and also where it contradicts them. |