Websites worth a visit


This is mainly a copy of an article I wrote for Karmic Kuts (the SYTA magazine, now renamed Yoga Scotland) in 1998:
 

SURFING THE YOGA NET

You don’t need an Internet connection to enjoy your yoga, but there’s a lot of information out there that you might find useful, if you know where to look, or are prepared to do a bit of “surfing”.  For instance, when I was struggling with my most recent philosophy essay, I searched the Internet for articles on “samadhi.”  Among the dross I found one or two pearls, including a very handy summary of the relevant pages from Mircea Eliade’s out-of-print book on Yoga.  However, if you simply start up your browser and do a search for “yoga” you’ll be overwhelmed with a long list of sites to visit, most of which are a waste of time, so a quick guide to what’s there for readers of Karmic Kuts seems like a good idea.

There are more yoga sites than anyone would ever want to visit, and some are unfortunately not worth the bother. The following is a small selection of the ones I find most interesting, useful or worth another visit.
 

General Yoga Sites

YogaScotland
This contains information about the Scottish Yoga Teachers' Association - the main yoga association in Scotland.

Viniyoga Britain
An excellent introduction to anyone interested in viniyoga. Provides information about courses available in the UK; gives links to useful sites such as the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram in Chennai, India; has a few articles about viniyoga. This site is fairly new (June 2000) and still expanding. I know I'm biased, but I think it is very beautifully presented, with none of the silly bells, whistles and flashing signs that bedevil some sites!

Viniyoga Scotland
New in April 2002 - as the name suggests it provides information about viniyoga teachers and events in Scotland.

Yoga Village UK
Very useful site with an online magazine, information about forthcoming events, yoga things to buy, loads of links to yoga sites all over the world.

British Wheel of Yoga
This is the site of  the British Wheel of Yoga.  It is now a large and informative site, with loads of information about the BWY, articles, and links to other yoga sites.

Spiritual Response Therapy
This site is owned by Eric Scott, an American Spiritual Response Therapist. He has a links directory with many useful and interesting sites covering all sorts of alternative therapy, including yoga.

Sivananda Yoga Centre
This really is very good.  Covers all aspects – asana (with pictures), relaxation, diet (including a collection of recipes!), philosophy.  You can order books and tapes (from their London centre), get a regular e-mailing of events in the UK, even download (free) a screensaver of four yoga postures (stunning – I now use it as my screensaver) with the option to buy an even more stunning one.  You can even download yoga mantras to use as “start” and “exit” Windows sounds, but I found the sound quality of these rather poor.

Spiritweb
This is a good starting point with lots of links covering all aspects of yoga.  Includes a bibliography of yoga terms, talks about Vedas and Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita text translation and commentaries.

Divine Light Society
This is the home site of Swami Krishnananda Saraswati.  I have found it a very useful source of texts which you can download for free.  Current SYTA students may find – as I have – that some of them are helpful for essays on yoga philosophy.

Yoga Anand Ashram
This has lots of information on asana, meditation, philosophy, and a regular journal which you can read online or save to read in your own time.  It has the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali online.  It even has MOTION PICTURES (!!) of asanas, with instructions and difficulty rating.

 YREC

The Yoga Research and Education Center - "YREC is a network of Yoga researchers, educators, and practitioners around the world who value the oral and literary traditions of Yoga in their Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina forms. YREC's staff, academic advisory board, senior Yoga teachers council, and other affiliates include professionals in the fields of indology, history of religion, philosophy, psychology, education, and medicine." - to quote from their own blurb. Another site that is highly recommended. It was founded by Georg Feuerstein, one of THE authorities on Yoga today.

Spiritual Response Therapy

This site provides not only some interesting information about Spiritual Response Therapy, but also many, many links to yoga sites and sites of related interests in health and alternative medicine.

Yoga Spirit

Yoga Spirit - website of a yoga teacher in England with useful info about yoga books, in conjunction with the Lonavla Institute, India

 Meditation Sites

There are lots of these, often incorporated into more general yoga sites.  The one specifically on mediation that I like best is World Wide Online Meditation Center.  It provides definitions of meditation, as well as lots of different ideas to choose from: core meditations, relaxation meditations, healing meditations.  There are brief descriptions of what to do.  They also offer tapes for sale, with full descriptions of what they are.

 

Sanskrit

If you’re interested in really testing the grey matter by learning Sanskrit, there is one site that provides everything you need to get started, including a very useful introductory manual.  It used to be based at the University of Utah, but the up-to-date address is
http://sanskrit.gde.to/index.html

 

Ayurveda and Jyotish

Ayurveda (or "Science of Life") is the Indian system of medicine. It looks after the body as Yoga looks after the mind. Jyotish is Indian Astrology - which is closely linked to Ayurveda. For an excellent starting point, try
http://astrologydirah.hypermart.net/uk.htm

This is the official UK site of Dirah Academy International which offers a unique email correspondence course in Applied Vedic Astrology, tutored by Steve Hubball.  The site also offers a range of astrological services.

Newsgroup

There is a Newsgroup called alt.yoga which you might want to subscribe to.  Much of its traffic is pretty dull but occasionally there is useful information (and someone will always answer any questions you have yourself) and it is also a place where announcements of websites can be found.

You might be interested also in alt.meditation.  I tried it but found it a bit pretentious.
 
 
 

  Return to main yoga page