An Insight Into Seva Yoga

                    Yoga is a commonly known generic term for physical, mental, and spiritual disciplines which originated in ancient India. Hindu monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the West in the late 19th century. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a physical system of health exercises across the Western world. Many studies have tried to determine the effectiveness of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart patients. There are very many compound words containing yog in Sanskrit. Yoga can take on meanings such as "connection", "contact", "method", "application", "addition" and "performance". For example, guṇa-yoga means "contact with a cord"; chakra-yoga has a medical sense of "applying a splint or similar instrument by means of pulleys (in case of dislocation of the thigh)"; Chandra-yoga has the astronomical sense of "conjunction of the moon with a constellation", bhakti-yoga means "devoted attachment", etc. Generally put, yoga is a disciplined method utilized for attaining a goal. The ultimate goal of Yoga is moksha though the exact definition of what form this takes depends on the philosophical or theological system with which it is conjugated.
                      Seva Yoga refers to volunteer work or selfless service in the yogic tradition.  But I think the word is even bigger than that definition makes it sound. Seva, a Sanskrit word meaning “string,” symbolizes the interconnectedness between ourselves and others. As a practice, seva arises from two aspects of yoga: karma yoga (yoga of action) and bhakti yoga (yoga of worship inspired by divine love). By practicing yoga, we nurture ourselves physically and mentally so that we may be of service to others, invoking seva’s more common definition of offering service without the expectation of recognition or reward.