Power of Yoga

As our lives get more stressful, yoga is helping to restore the balance between the mind and body, says Anita Iyer.

The popularity of Yoga is certainly picking up pace with urban India moving around with yoga mats tucked under their arms. Television channels like Sanskar, Aastha, have made yoga gurus like Baba Ramdev a household name. Although mired in many controversies, Baba Ramdev is undoubtedly the idol for many yoga amateurs. Early in the morning, innumerable viewers sit glued to television sets waiting for Yoga Gurus to free them from disorders by performing almost magical postures.

The word ‘Yoga’ is derived from Sanskrit word Yuj, which means to unite or merger. It means uniting the mind, body and soul by the process of meditation. The main objective of performing yoga is to strike a balance between the mind and body and attain self-enlightenment.

Discussing various aspects of yoga, Yoga Guru Suneel Singh, a 45-year-old Yoga practitioner says, “I have been performing yoga since I was a teenager and yoga for me is the art of living. There is certainly a rise in the number of people taking up yoga to relieve themselves from anxiety”, he confirms. Explaining how the concept of yoga works for relieving stress, Mr. Singh adds, “When a person is nervous or stressed, his breath is shallow and irregular but when he meditates, his breathing is regulated and his mental fatigue is released and he feels relaxed. Meditation can be either concentrating on any object, word, the holy letter Om or maybe chanting of a mantra”. The benefit gained differs from person to person as the degree of involvement differs. Yoga steadies the mind to a great extent, decreases anxiety, relieves depression, mental fatigue and relaxes the human mind.

There are many professionals who have experienced peace by practising the tenets of yoga. Alex Antony, a 23-year-old media professional says, “The field of media involves long hours and sometimes I end up working for about 16 hours a day which leaves me completely exhausted. I started yoga about two years ago and practicing it for at least one hour on a minimum of four days a week helps in relieving mental fatigue and attaining balance”. Yoga as an art form originated and is practiced in India since the past thousand years. Yoga finds its reference in the Upanishads, the Bhagvad Gita, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and Purans of the Vedic and post-Vedic era. There are no age limitations for performing Yoga. It can be done whenever desired as it doesn’t require any apparatus. The saturation depends on the personal capacity of the person performing the Yoga and it helps in attaining physical, mental and spiritual stability.

Yoga aasans are instrumental in providing remedies to many ailments and can be divided into static and dynamic. In static aasans, the person remains in the same position for a longer period like Padmasan. This increases the blood circulation to a particular body part thereby reducing pain in the particular area. Dynamic aasans comprises of exercises, which burn calories by stretching the body. The internal organs are massaged in this process and toxins are cleansed from the body.

Suneel Singh has integrated age-old traditional forms of yoga with newer and other forms of exercise to suit the urban practitioner. He has been conducting workshops on health care solutions for ailments like obesity, diabetes, neck pain, arthritis, stress, insomnia, heart problems, mental tension and depression etc., yet he believes that yoga has its own limitations. “Although effective for various ailments, yoga has its own restrictions. Yoga is preventive and not curative as many today claim. If practiced on a regular basis many diseases can be averted in later stages of life. Yoga means disciplining yourself and restriction from vices”, he explains.

Contradicting the above statement, Ms. Shilpa Jain, a yoga consultant says, “It was about three years back that I started learning yoga and took it seriously after I was cured of cancer. I used to practice Pranayam for at least 2-3 hours a day and I attribute at least 80% of my recovery from the disease to Yoga. Later after learning the art, I took up yoga as a profession and today I am a consultant”.

In yoga, we synchronize the breath so there is more of oxygen intake in the body and greater amounts of carbon dioxide is released, thereby making you feel rejuvenated. Yogacharya Sneh Ganotra says, “We hold workshops specifically for curing ailments like asthma, migraine, joint pains etc. Here the emphasis is mainly on controlling the breath and performing aasans. Deep breathing infuses energy in the body, reaching the lungs and works for the betterment of the individuals”.

“Due to changing food habits and lifestyle, there is a greater need for concentrating on all the powers of the body and meditating to stay in touch with the inner soul”, she adds.

There are three pillars in Yoga- Ahar which means that we must restrict the intake of food and abstain from meat, alcohol, tobacco and fermented foods etc, nidra or proper sleep as an essential element and the third factor being brahmacharya which means refraining from materialistic gains and leading a satisfied life.

Yoga possesses a great healing power for maintaining both the physical and mental well being of individuals and is a way to a healthy and balanced approach to life.