Surya Namaskara

Surya Namaskara (Sanskrit: सूर्यनमस्कार, IPA: [suːrjɐ nɐmɐskɐːrɐ]; IAST: Sūrya Namaskāra) is a common sequence of asanas. Its origins lie in India where its large Hindu population worships Surya, the Hindu solar deity. This sequence of movements and asanas can be practised on varying levels of awareness, ranging from that of physical exercise in various styles, to a complete sadhana which incorporates asana, pranayama, mantra and chakra meditation. It is often the beginning vinyasa within a longer yoga series. Sūrya Namaskāra may also refer to other styles of "Salutations to the Sun". The Sun Salutation is regularly practised in many Indian schools.

History

Ancient

The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, the oldest known hatha yoga text does not mention "Surya namaskar" but mentions a sūrya-bhedana (sun-piercing) kumbhaka (II, 44 and 48–50) while the Gheraṇḍa Saṁhitā mentions sūrya-bheda kumbhaka (58–59). The oldest documented book with clear depictions of asanas is the Sritattvanidhi, though there is no mention of Surya namaskar in the text, it does describe the asanas "Sarpasana" (Bhujangasana), "Gajasana" (Adhomukh Swannasan), "Uttanasana" and series of asanas done in tandem, similar to Sūrya Namaskāra..

Salutation

A salutation is a greeting used in a letter or other written or non-written communication. Salutations can be formal or informal. The most common form of salutation in an English letter is Dear followed by the recipient's given name or title. For each style of salutation there is an accompanying style of complementary close, known as valediction. Examples of non-written salutations are bowing (common in Japan) or even addressing somebody by their name. A salutation can be interpreted as a form of a signal in which the receiver of the salutation is being acknowledged, respected or thanked. Another simple but very common example of a salutation is a military salute. By saluting another rank, that person is signalling or showing his or her acknowledgment of the importance or significance of that person and his or her rank. Some greetings are considered "rude" and others "polite".

Arabic

For formal correspondence, it is common to use:

For informal correspondence:

For more informal correspondence, Azizi if the reader is male, and Azizati if female. To address a group of people, A'ezza'e for informal correspondence, and in formal correspondence "Sadati" is commonly used and followed by Al A'ezza'a or "Almuhtarameen". To add more formality, it's common to begin the salutation with Ela (to), followed by the salutation and a full name.

Yoga

Yoga (/ˈjoʊɡə/;Sanskrit, Listen) is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline which originated in India. There is a broad variety of schools, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Among the most well-known types of yoga are Hatha yoga and Rāja yoga.

The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, is mentioned in the Rigveda, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements. The chronology of earliest texts describing yoga-practices is unclear, varyingly credited to Hindu Upanishads and Buddhist Pāli Canon, probably of third century BCE or later. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali date from the first half of the 1st millennium CE, but only gained prominence in the West in the 20th century. Hatha yoga texts emerged around the 11th century with origins in tantra.

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. One of the six major orthodox schools of Hinduism is also called Yoga, which has its own epistemology and metaphysics, and is closely related to Hindu Samkhya philosophy.