The Soma Yoga Connection

The Soma Yoga Connection

The practice of yoga has finally earned its place in the collective consciousness of the West. You can find it in practically all fitness gyms mushrooming all over the place. Expectedly, variations are being done. One of the more popular of these is Pilates. But before we go further, let us take a little historical check on the beginnings of yoga particularly its connection with the seed of a little known exotic plant called soma.

According to ancient records before yoga there was soma. Soma was a seed of an exotic plant found only in high altitude areas. This plant played a very special role in the life of the people that cultivated it. The soma seed was mainly used for religious purposes. They have discovered that with the ingestion of soma they were able to experience what we now call an altered state of consciousness leading to their claim that they have encountered the divine. When these highlanders went down to take possession of of the plains of India, the soma did not go with them. It was unable to adapt to its new environment. The community no longer had the opportunity to experience the presence of the divine in their lives which was only made possible by means of the hallucinogenic property of the soma. A substitute must be found or the people will die.

Through a long process of development yoga came to the rescue. The vacuum that soma left was gradually taken over by yoga. However, instead of an instant epiphany that soma was able to provide before, it could only now be done through a series of bodily exercises and postures designed to awaken the energy stored in the chakras or energy centers. Yoga therefore is just a means to an end, the attainment of an experience with the divine used to be played by soma during the ancient days. But it takes years before one is able to reach this level. Along the way, a lot of things were found to be necessary so that the desired end would finally be attained.

A very clever and creative innovation is now being introduced to make your yoga sessions more conducive to the development of the skills and ability to focus and concentrate. It is the introduction of yoga socks to enable the practitioner to heighten his focusing and concentrating abilities. During this most sensitive phase of the discipline all forms of distraction must be eliminated. Since sweating could not be avoided, it is now the role of these absorbent yoga socks to do the cleaning. It is therefore highly recommended that we use socks while doing yoga to enhance our concentration and to conserve the energy especially in our lower extremities. Above all, yoga socks are particularly designed to give maximum comfort and security to all levels of yoga and Pilates practitioners.