Sivananda yoga teaches 4 paths of yoga: karma, bhakti, raja and jnana yoga, and requests the student to practise all four and eventually to pick one as their main focus. Sivananda Yoga teachers are all graduates of the Sivananda Yoga Teacher Training Course. The Sivananda training system aims to teach an authentically Vedic system of yoga and believes that retaining the vitality of the body is a byproduct of the discipline and not the goal. The system philosophies are summarized in 5 principles: A session of training typically starts with every practitioner resting in "Savasana", and begins with Pranayama (breathing exercises) Kapalabhati
Hinduism karma, cows and caste"; and Bhakti or devotional Hinduism, where intense emotions are elaborately incorporated in the pursuit of the spiritual. Michaels distinguishes three Hindu religions and four forms of Hindu religiosity. The three Hindu religions are "Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism", "folk religions and tribal religions", and "founded religions. The four forms of Hindu religiosity are the classical "karma-marga", jnana-marga, bhakti-marga, and "heroism", which is rooted in militaristic traditions, such as Ramaism and parts of political Hinduism. This is also called virya-marga. According to Michaels, one out of nine Hindu belongs by birth to one or both of the Brahmanic-Sanskritic Hinduism and