Yoga or Bhoga or Roga?
By Mehtab, Founder YOGA YOGA

Just when you thought you might know what this Yoga stuff is all about, we go and open a fifth Yoga Yoga center and it has a Spa for God's sake.

Isn't yoga about detachment from worldly pleasures, denial of the senses, and transcendence of the physical body? No, and furthermore (as my Sunday School teacher would not say), Hell No!

Yoga made a marked break with the ancient spiritual practices 900 years ago when it elevated the physical body as the temple of the soul and as the vehicle for self-realization. Body = Mind = Spirit = Good.

Does this mean a Yogi can have a Spa Day?

There is an important conceptual trilogy you need to learn that underlies the practice of yoga. These three ancient concepts are interconnected and co-exist by nature. They are: Yoga, Bhoga, and Roga.

Yoga is the transformational practice that takes us beyond form to the formless, to the eternal truth and nature of union. Bhoga means enjoying worldly pleasures and satisfying desires. Roga means taking time away from both Yoga and Bhoga and just doing nothing.

Yoga is incomplete without Bhoga and Roga.

Bhoga is not about sensual indulgence overload nor is Roga simply a do-nothing state of vegetation. They are the balancing aspects to the practice of Yoga. Bhoga gives us fun and pleasure and the ability to encounter and experience our desires. Roga gives us time to empty ourselves out completely, physically, mentally and spiritually, so we can fill up again.

The problem is in the proportion of these three aspects in your life. For many people, it's all Bhoga (or Roga) and no Yoga. For most modern yogis, it's probably something like 70% Yoga and 15% each to Bhoga and Roga.

And ideally, your practice of Bhoga and Roga, just like your practice of Yoga, is done with a positive sense of self-awareness. Sensory indulgence and emptying yourself out can be done in a healthy way or in a destructive fashion. Most of us have only see the destructive practices of Bhoga and Roga in our past lives. Eating chocolate ice cream in front of the tv set while sitting in Lotus Pose is not Bhoga and Roga and Yoga at their best.

So enter the Spa Day with the optimum balance of Yoga, Bhoga and Roga. Using the senses of smell, touch, sight and hearing, a yoga-oriented spa treatment indulgences the human need for Bhoga in a most healthy fashion. The 60 to 90 minutes on the massage table create an amazing space for Roga to occur, the complete emptying out of the mind and release of the body. And if you are feeling a little over indulgent, then take a yoga class right before or after your spa treatment.

The body treatments we have decided to offer are Ayurvedically based on the ancient sister science of Yoga. They support and enhance your yoga practice and healing.

So what does have a Spa treatment have to do with yoga? Everything. Come get one.

Did I mention our new fifth center has a Spa? I thought I did. See you off the table and on the mat!