Indo-Asian News Service
By Madhusree Chatterjee
They are getting tips on luxury liners in the open seas, refining techniques in austere huts in the hills, getting fit in air-conditioned gyms or just in the comfort of the neighbourhood park – yoga, the ancient healing and fitness art from India, is being practised by millions of people the world over to handle the stresses of modern-day living.
The millennia-old art has taken the world by storm. As lifestyle-related anxieties and pressure at home and workplace grow, more and more people are falling back on this traditional fitness regime enshrined in the Atharva Veda, an ancient Indian scripture, to cope with the ailments and angst of living life on the fast lane.
According to one estimate, nearly 5 crore people practise yoga in the world today, a sharp increase from the 1.5 crore recorded in 2003. Nearly 2 crore people practise yoga in the US alone.
Yoga schools have sprung up in almost every corner of the globe with nearly 10 lakh instructors and experts to guide practitioners.
Yoga is central to holistic living, a fad in both the east and the west; especially among the burgeoning middle class that has more disposable incomes but fewer hours of sleep every night. For the challenge of an uncertain tomorrow always lurks round the corner.
Understanding yoga, say experts, is as good as understanding the essence of life itself and conquering all that is stressful, tangible and ephemeral.
According to Vedic seer Patanjali, credited with developing the Vedic form of meditation or 'upasana' into a fitness code, yoga is a reunion of the self (jiva) with the absolute pure consciousness (Brahma). He codified the various yogic practices of his times by encapsulating them in the form of aphorisms in his Yoga Sutra in which he said that the purpose of yoga was to attain knowledge of the self.
Patanjali listed an eightfold path in attaining this ideal state of balance between the mind and the body: 'yamas' or eternal vows, 'niyamas' or observances, 'yogasanas' or yoga postures, 'pranayama' or breath control exercises, 'pratyahara' or withdrawal of the senses from distractions of the outside world, 'dharana' or concentration on an object, place or subject, 'dhyana' or the continuance of this concentration-meditation and 'samadhi', the ultimate stage of yoga meditation.
"In the modern perspective, yoga controls waves of thoughts by converting them into spiritual energy. It eases tension, rejuvenates the body and the soul, increases concentration, restores youth and has a cure for almost all diseases, when practised in combination with traditional remedies like Ayurveda, Unani, herbal cures and music therapy," said renowned yoga expert Guru Ramdev.
On a recent cruise aboard a luxury ship on the South China Sea, Ramdev explained the intricacies of the art to 1,062 yoga enthusiasts who had flown to Hong Kong on chartered flights from all over the world and then boarded the liner.
Over five days, the guru, who has legions of followers and even a television programme watched by many loyalists, held sessions with his many followers.
According to Ramdev, the basis of all forms of Vedic yoga is breath control.
Here's a ready reckoner, in Ramdev's words.
"Controlling one's inhalation and exhalation process calms the mind, emits positive energy and allows the person to absorb it in the body. It has therapeutic effect," he explained.
The first step to breath control is called prananyama – regulating the amount of fresh air one breathes in and the stale air one exhales.
Pranayama, the most popular form of yoga in the world today, according to Ramdev, controls 'prana' or life force through the regulation of breathing.
The five most popular forms of pranayamas include the bhrastika pranayama.
It is simple, said Ramdev. "Take deep breaths and then breathe out completely."
This should ideally be practised