When most people think of yoga, they might picture a mystic-eyed instructor deftly leading a class through a series of exotic, back-bending poses.

On International Yoga Day, around 30 people participated in an educational yoga lesson sponsored by the Iowa State student group Hindu YUVA, and they learned that yoga is much more than controlled breathing and limb-trembling stretches.

“The very meaning of the word ‘yoga’ is ‘to unite,'” said Viraj Shah, the newly appointed president of Hindu YUVA.

Yoga has been a part of Shah’s life since he was a child in India. He’s currently a graduate student at Iowa State, pursuing a degree in computer engineering.

“To me, yoga is not a practice,” Shah said. “It’s my lifestyle. It’s about what I eat, when I wake up, when I sleep and how I act morally.”

This lesson was defined throughout the 90 minute session multiple times. Ashwanth Lalithaa Padmanabhan, outreach coordinator for Hindu Yuva and graduate student in molecular biology, calmly lectured the class as he led them through simple poses.

“Yoga is harmony within oneself,” Padmanabhan said. “It’s harmony with nature. It’s not something that is just poses and postures.”

Padmanabhan led the class with help from others from Hindu YUVA, as well as Nora Hudson, assistant director of fitness at Iowa State. Hudson has practiced yoga for 20 years, and has partnered with Hindu YUVA since 2012 to work on a “shared goal.”

“Hindu YUVA has a mission to connect health and fitness to everybody, not just Hindus,” Hudson said. “They offer a broader perspective for what yoga can be.”

The combination of physical instruction and historical lessons provided the class with a unique exercise experience. Whether it was their first yoga lesson or their 100th, people walked away from the session feeling they learned something.

“At first I was unsure, I had never tried yoga before,” said Stacie Mallon. “I didn’t think it offered anything for me, now I’m hooked.”

Mallon was introduced to the Hindu YUVA yoga session by her daughter, Brooke Mallon, senior in architecture.

“This session was a lot different than regular classes,” Brooke said. “I learned a lot more about why people practice yoga, and they really focused on technique. It helped me understand the cultural side of yoga, that it’s not just stretches.”

According to Padmanabhan, the postures get a lot of attention in the mainstream for a very simple reason.

“It’s what you can see,” Padmanabhan said. “But that’s not what yoga is. The core value of yoga is unity with nature, it’s about achieving peace.”

For this yoga session, Padmanabhan, Hudson and others led the class through “Sun Salutations,” something that Shah has life-long experience with.

“When we salute the sun, we acknowledge its qualities,” Shah said. “The sun doesn’t differentiate between people and animals, it is the largest source of life we know. We aspire that these values come to us.”