Can anyone tell me what, specifically, this term means?
The woman who’s teaching it could tell you 
Vedic may refer to a period of time in ancient India or directly to the Vedas, one of Yoga’s oldest sacred texts.
Teaching that which is in the Vedas would be vedic yoga, I presume.
Hi,
According to most histories on yoga the development of Yoga can be divided into 5 periods:
- Vedic Yoga
- Pre-classical Yoga
- Classical Yoga
- Post-classical Yoga and
- Modern Yoga
Vedic Yoga actually refers to a time period and not so much to a specific type or style of yoga, although there might be teachers who would like to call their style of yoga Vedic Yoga. Then one should differentiate between the style and period.
During the Vedic Yoga time period people used rituals, ceremonies and offerings to a great extend as they believed it connect them to the Spirit world. It was also a time when people turned mostly to the Vedic Yogis for illumination and guidance.
About the style, I can’t tell you much, sorry. As IA says ask the person who started it.
[quote=InnerAthlete;10986]The woman who’s teaching it could tell you
Vedic may refer to a period of time in ancient India or directly to the Vedas, one of Yoga’s oldest sacred texts.
Teaching that which is in the Vedas would be vedic yoga, I presume.[/quote]
I practice at home.
I have not been taught Vedic Yoga by anyone, I heard it on a yoga-demo video on youtube, but could not find anything about it anywhere else.
Why IA persumed it to be a woman rather than a person?
[quote=Pandara;10990]Hi,
According to most histories on yoga the development of Yoga can be divided into 5 periods:
- Vedic Yoga
- Pre-classical Yoga
- Classical Yoga
- Post-classical Yoga and
- Modern Yoga
Vedic Yoga actually refers to a time period and not so much to a specific type or style of yoga, although there might be teachers who would like to call their style of yoga Vedic Yoga. Then one should differentiate between the style and period.
During the Vedic Yoga time period people used rituals, ceremonies and offerings to a great extend as they believed it connect them to the Spirit world. It was also a time when people turned mostly to the Vedic Yogis for illumination and guidance.
About the style, I can’t tell you much, sorry. As IA says ask the person who started it.[/quote]
Know any good books on the histories of yoga? Or where else did you find this list of five categories? I’m extremely interested in studying it.
Namaste Suryadaya,
This info comes from photocopied pages which my own teacher gave me years ago when I started yoga and was also curious about the history. Unfortunately she never indicated from which books she has made the copies so I can’t really tell and I don’t have access to her anymore.
Most of my other info on the history of Yoga I got from bits and pieces in various books. There is one book which I recently read which also gave a short but interesting history of yoga in the preface and that is [B]Lectures on Yoga by Swami Rama[/B].
Try this link as well, I like their short history:
[quote=Pandara;11089]Namaste Suryadaya,
This info comes from photocopied pages which my own teacher gave me years ago when I started yoga and was also curious about the history. Unfortunately she never indicated from which books she has made the copies so I can’t really tell and I don’t have access to her anymore.
Most of my other info on the history of Yoga I got from bits and pieces in various books. There is one book which I recently read which also gave a short but interesting history of yoga in the preface and that is [B]Lectures on Yoga by Swami Rama[/B].
Try this link as well, I like their short history:
History of Yoga - A Complete Overview of the Yoga History[/quote]
Thank you very much!
[QUOTE=MBelleK;10985]Can anyone tell me what, specifically, this term means?[/QUOTE]
I have a dictionary on my computer & as per this dictionary exercise is a synonym for Yoga. This is not correct. Yoga is a philosophy.
See there are 9 major Indian philosophies. Major because there are also some other belief systems. These 9 philosophies are divided into 2 categories. They are divided on the basis of the goal, the aim of the goal & the Pramanas (literally means evidences) accepted as per the respective philosophy. There are 6 types of Pramanas. These Pramanas are actually the means of gaining knowledge or knowing the truth.
The 2 categories are Nastika & Astika. Nastika (Atheistic) philosophies are those that does not accept Vedas as a Pramana, these philosophies are: Charvaka, Jainism & Buddhism. The other 6 philosophies are Astika (theistic) that is they accept Vedas as Pramana or one of the Pramana, they are: Samkhya, Nyaya, Vaishesika, Purva Mimamsa, Uttara Mimamsa & Yoga.
Asanas are also practised by people who do not believe in Yogic philosophy.
The yoga’s roots lie in samveda which is bhakti and upasana kand. it tells how a human being by performing pious deeds can realise deeds. This knowledge of yoga of vedas was first written on tada patras by rishi patanjali, till then it was imparted verbally in Gurukuls of rishis in forest. All the realised seers were follower of vedas and did hard tapasya which means did astanga yoga to realise God following vedic path. Further vedas tell every human being to perform havan or yajana which is a science in itself, with veda mantras. Ancient seers, brahmins used to do sandhya to worship that formless creator who is the controller of this universe, who was realised by all samadhist yogi.
After the mahabharat war the impact of vedic teachings was reduced and it got restricted to brahmins and souls or sanyasis aspiring for realising God, that gives mystic touch to hinduism and yoga, as this knowledge is not to be given to everybody except a worthy soul. Further differeent Gurus or lineage teach same yoga but with there name and with their modifications.
You can check commentries of Swami Dayanand Saraswati at any arya samaj website as before leaving this world he had translated most of the mantras from vedas and scriptures for the benefit of hindus who had lost in touch with their roots and got entangled in casteism and superstitions.
You can see this website too www.vedmandir.com .
Still when we refer to any great souls like shiva we say om namah shivay i.e first we remember that creator whose name is OM and whose power works in all yogis.Incidentally people who follow vedas and have realised god are called devi/devta/bhagwan etc and non followers are called rakshas.
OM
Rashmi