Looking for roots to fly? Try yoga

Yog’ is understood in bits and pieces to mean ‘Yogaasans’
Looking for roots to fly? Try yoga
Looking for roots to fly? Try yoga
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By Dr.Shobha Shrivastava

Most publications now have a ‘Health and Wellness’ section to their publications. The WSJ reports that Boston Doctors have prescribed 20 minutes of Meditation x BID (Latin Acronym for doses twice a day). There is an Indian link to this global phenomenon. The Vedic Spiritual Heritage, India’s most exported soft power, is now impacting the world health discourse and arrived centre-stage. The West has begun not merely to accept, but ape ‘Yog’, and it now has several European and American centres catering to their home audience. Bollywood icons like Kareena Kapoor now engage ‘Ayurvedic’ Dieticians like ‘Rujuta Diwekar’. Devotional Music is now becoming mainstream music and faraway bands like the Argentine Band ‘So What Project’ have been performing ‘Yoga Rave Music’ with tub-thumping numbers with growing international support.

‘Yog’ is understood in bits and pieces to mean ‘Yogaasans’ or obtaining a few body postures which requires the flexibility of an Olympic Gymnast. However, ‘Yog’ (literally  ‘ADDITION’ or ‘SUMMATION’) is the addition of breath to the movements of the body, closure of eyes (in order to introspect and observe the patterns of mind) as the basic steps. The aspects of diet, ‘Din Chaarya’ (observance of daily routine in tune with nature, beginning with harmonizing one’s sleep with Sunset and Sunrise), ‘RituCharya’ (observing a dietary regimen in tune with the prevailing weather patterns to obviate diseases to body), ‘Yam’ (observing established personal norms), ‘Niyam’ (observing of norms of society) ‘Swaadhyay’ (Self Introspection) and ‘Tap’ (Penance, in order to sharpen the sense organs and achieve a command over one’s thoughts, feelings and thus behavioral patterns).  The individual, thus, moves on to be in perfect harmony with one’s surroundings, aspirations and requirements of modern life in tune with present times.

Spiritual scientists suggest that in Sanskrit, the world for health is ‘SWASATH’, obtained by congregation (‘Sandhee’) of two words ‘ SWA’ ( self ) and ‘STH’ (Sthapit), or one who is established in the self is ‘Swasth’ (Healthy). Mental health is an inseparable component and integral to health in the very nomenclature and definition as per Vedic Spiritual Sciences. This has been recently accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO).  Health as enshrined in ‘Yog’, is :-

A disease-free Body, a quiver-free Breath, a stress-free Mind, an inhibition-free Intellect, an obsession-free Memory, an Ego that includes all, a happy Soul.

Mother Nature intends for ‘everything and everyone’ to be light, nourished, cherished and happy.

Better Studies through Self-Management

Student Life is about collection, consumption, collation, and integration of information and establishing its connections with knowledge to develop its empirical facets to promulgate it into wisdom. The students need to manage better, evolve, manage and find solutions in the prevailing maze of Management Jargons. All the management philosophies, ranging from Time Management to Financial Management and Systems Management to Business Management, emanate from Self-Management. If we manage our emotions and reactions to people and situations, the rest of our life-journey starts to reflect one’s own positive disposition to the environment very soon. This ‘Yogyata’ is derived from ‘Yog’.

The different situations, which arise due to interaction of the ‘Jeev’, (Living Being especially Humans) with the ‘Sansaar’, (The World, namely the Class and Office Colleagues, Softwares, Surroundings, Machines and Other Beings) may cause loss of equanimity, which is a regular feature of human life. This may cause anger, lust, feeling of loss, jealousy, and other ‘Commotion of Emotions’ which tend to make one gravitate away from the ‘Centered-Ness’. This loss of ‘Centered-Ness’ leads to vitiation of thoughts and among other diagnostics, results into heavy breathing. This cycle can be corrected and reversed through ‘Controlled Breathing’ which regulates the quantity, speed and the direction of Air Element in the body.

Once this ‘Controlled Breathing’ is practiced and infused in the body at least once (in the prescribed manner) in a cycle of 24 hrs, it effectuates a regulation on the breath and finishes off any ‘dis-ease’ in the ecosystem of the body. This ‘ecosystem’ of the body includes the entire Mind-Body Complex. This is particularly beneficial to students who are also subjected to hormonal changes, changes of perception and generally witness a surge in emotional issues. A student has to balance, on an average, a much more varied number of issues than a housewife or an office-goer. Thus, in the Golden Era of yesteryears, it was during this stage, that the student was exposed to various ‘Life-Skills Upgrades’ by his Master. Usually, one had to enroll into hostels for few years called ‘GuruKuls’ (The Master’s Family) where ‘Life-Skills’ were regular and central themes of daily activites.

The ‘Controlled Breathing’ is called ‘PraanaYaam’ (‘Prana’ means the ‘Life Force’ and ‘Ayaam’ is the ‘Facet’). The ‘Pranaayaams’ oxygenates the blood cells, restores the bio-rhythms in the body and calms the mind. The recommended method is to present oneself for various workshops and courses offering these Life-Skills Upgrades. Usually it takes anything between 18-20 hours spread over three to six days to learn these ‘Pranaayaams’ under an experienced and qualified trainer.

Such ‘Happiness Programs’ alongside the ‘Praanayams’, deliver and integrate life-skills, playway-gupshup, energy building processes and meditations. Researchers at Harvard, AIIMS, NIMHANS and other top institutes are already issuing testimonies from their positive results from their research efforts. Established corporates and institutions like Boston College, Google, Humboldt University, Cornell, Virginia Tech, IIT Bombay and even the NASA and US Army are putting their resources through these transformational programs.

Student life is about experimentation, widening horizons and deepening of roots. Meditation is not merely a tool to better concentration, it is a comprehensive lifestyle aimed at becoming a student of life itself. In the modern world, such a skill set actually rocks for a lifetime

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