Shiva Yoga
The foundation of yoga and philosophy is very deep in India, even before the creation of Yoga Sutras by Father of Yoga philosophy, Maharshi Patanjali. In Indian culture, Shiva has been considered as the Aadiyogi (First Yogi). He is the one who had laid the foundation of Yogic Science. If you deeply think about the spiritual practices in India, everyone has a single goal – Salvation (Moksha). Today, every person from west to east knows about the meaning of the word Moksha. Have you ever think, why is that? In fact, the foundation of shaping spiritual growth and human consciousness in India is due to the Aadiyogi, “Lord Shiva”.
Aadiyogi Shiva gave birth to all the possibility that, mankind can go beyond the boundaries of their present existence. He said, “live in worldly life, but do not stick to physical desires”. Very possible use of your body and mind is needed to live in this materialistic world, but there is no need to suffer from hallucinations created by the mind due to selfish desires.
In Yogic culture , Shiva is not worshiped as God. Shiva is considered as a Aadiyogi. It was Shiva, who sowed the seeds of Yoga Science in this world.
According to Yoga philosophy, 15 thousand years ago, Lord Shiva achieved Knowledge (Gyan) and celebrating this he dance ‘Tandava” in the Himalayas. After some time he completely calm down. Nobody knew about his unique experience. After all, people’s curiosity increased and they came to Lord Shiva to know about “what he had achieved by continuously practicing Yoga”. Lord Shiva was unaware of the arrival of these people because he was in deep meditation. People did not know what was happening around, they waited for some time and returned back. But seven of those people were curious and were keen to gain this knowledge from lord Shiva, they waited there.
In the end, They prayed to Lord Shiva and asked him about his experience. Shiva did not listen to them and said, ‘You people do not worth this knowledge, Even if you spend millions of years in Dhyana (meditation), you will not know this secret. It requires a lot of preparation.
Those seven people took this as a challenge and started preparations. Days, weeks, months, years passed and seven people kept preparing, but Lord shiva ignore them. After 84 years of long spiritual practice, the day of first full moon came when the summer solstice shifted to Sharad Sankranti, and the Sun moved from Uttarayan to Dakshinaayan. On that day of full moon, the Lord Shiva saw these seven ascetics and found that after doing sadhana they have gain consciousness so they are ready to gain Divine knowledge by practicing Yoga.
Shiva observe seven ascetics very closely for next 28 days and decided to become there Guru (Teacher) on the next full moon. In this way Shiva transformed himself into Aadi Guru (First Yoga Teacher). From then, the day was recognised as Guru Purnima. On going up slightly from Kedarnath, there is a lake, which is called Kanti Sarovar. On the bank of this lake, Shiva turned towards south direction and started showering his grace on people. In this way, yoga science started flourishing under the supreme guidance of Lord Shiva.