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Yoga (Sanskrit, योग Listen) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India. There is a broad variety of Yoga schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga.

Yoga gurus from India later introduced yoga to the west, following the success of Swami Vivekananda in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the Western world. Yoga in Indian traditions, however, is more than physical exercise; it has a meditative and spiritual core. (Full article...)

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Did you know...

... that in 2012, a three-day World Congress of Religions conference was organized by the Institute of World Religions to commemorate the 150th birthday of Swami Vivekananda?
... that Tao Porchon-Lynch, who studied under Sri Aurobindo and Indra Devi, has been recognized as the world's oldest yoga teacher at age 95?

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Welcome to Dharmapedia - an encyclopedia and wiki about dharmic religions, culture, history, philosophy and arts.

In this month...

April 7, 1920. Birth of Ravi Shankar
April 11 Varuthini Ekadashi
April 14 Solar New Year, Mesha Sankranti
April 18 Parashurama Jayanti, Akshaya Tritiya
April 22 Ganga Saptami
April 23 Sita Navami
April 25 Mohini Ekadashi
April 26 Gauna Mohini Ekadashi
April 28 Narasimha Jayanti
April 29 Vaishakha Purnima, Buddha Purnima
April 30 Narada Jayanti
Rama Navami (Hinduism)
Thai and Khmer New Year
April 1253 – Nichiren, a Japanese monk, expounded Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō for the first time, in effect founding Nichiren Buddhism.
April 1897 – The Ramakrishna Mission was founded by Swami Vivekananda to serve as the humanitarian counterpart to the Hindu monastic order Ramakrishna Math.

Today's featured video

Sarva Dharma Sambhav (Are all Religions the Same ?) - Dr. David Frawley - India Inspires Talks

In this talk, Dr. David Frawley raises very fundamental questions related to religious traditions across the world. He begins his talk by scrutinizing basic assumption that state - Are all Religions the Same ? or Is there a Sarva Dharma Sambhav? He finds that the view of Sarva Dharma Samabhava has been turned into a political principle in modern India. It has come to dominate the thinking of the country and has been turned into the main tool of trying to harmonize different, often conflicting religious communities. However other countries in the world, notably nearby Pakistan and Bangladesh, have not taken it up. Religions espousing an exclusive or final revelation like Christianity and Islam have almost uniformly opposed it. They do not think that their religion is just one among many but is the only, the last or the highest. They do not recognize genuine diversity in religious beliefs but divide the world into the true believers and the unbelievers. The disharmony between religion remains and in many instances has grown worse. Nor has this idea served to create an equality of views even within Hinduism where different sects still compete with one another. Therefore, one is compelled to examine this issue further. Is the equality of all religions a spiritual principle that is fundamentally true or a wishful statement designed to try to create harmony in spite of actual differences between groups? Can such mere wishful thinking eradicate real differences and contrary beliefs? And is it the real meaning of Sarva Dharma Samabhava?

Today's featured picture

Buddha.

~ Tokyo National Museum ~

Today's featured quote

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

~ Swami Vivekananda ~

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