What is yoga?

It is easy to say that one must have good health — mental, physical and spiritual — for all-round happiness, but how is one to acquire it? For any serious work — be it studies, sports, occupation — or just to be at peace with life one needs to have the solid foundation of a healthy body. Only then can one expect the mental equilibrium, concentration and faculty needed to cope with the task of living.

Physical exercises are good to keep the body strong and trim, but while building up the physique superficially, they tend to ignore the mental, intellectual, spiritual and, most important of all, the therapeutic aspects.

What we need is a system of exercises which will help the all-round development of the body, mind and personality. It should also help the body resist diseases, should be capable of being practised by men and women, children and old persons, by the healthy and the sick. It should be non-tiring yet invigorating, and it should suit the rich and the poor.

Such a system is Yoga asanas.

Yoga means to yoke or unite (a spiritual union with God). The system was evolved by the inquiring and enterprising people of the Indus Valley civilisation of the third millenium B.C. who realised the importance of a healthy body for intellectual and spiritual pursuits and developed and perfected
it.

Later, around 1200 B.C., it was systematised. Yoga exercises consist of asanas (poses), mudras (postures which produce currents in the body) and Pranayama (breath control). Together, they tone up the body by supplying the bodily organs with plenty of fresh blood, rejuvenating the ductless glands and other important internal parts, regulating the rhythm of breathing and soothing the nerves. All these help prolong life. If we add meditation to these three, it will increase our power of concentration.

Yoga has come to be recognised as a scientific culture for physical and mental development. It is meant not only for seekers of spiritual knowledge but also for those who want to lead a healthy and intelligent life.
There are simple asanas which can be practised by all easily. Nehru said: "I find asanas to be useful because I feel fresh and light afterwards — the test of the usefulness of any exercise." They bring lightness of limbs, agility, balance, vitality and endurance.

These asanas build up those parts which are hidden inside the body, like the ductless glands (thyroid, pituitary, adrenals, etc.), the viscera in the abdomen and, most important of all, the nervous system and the brain. They reduce fatigue, soothe the nerves and discipline the mind.

Most other physical exercises ignore these vital organs. Yoga asanas, without straining the heart, tone up the muscles and nerves, give them fresh blood supply, harmonise breathing and improve mental power. Says Sage Patanjali in his "Yoga Sutra": "The Yogic methods of controlling the vital breath (Pranayama) and steady pose (asana) are intimately connected with the mind."

As Yoga asanas keep these important parts and organs of the body healthy, diseases do not afflict it, and so we grow old less fast. Yoga attacks the root causes of diseases which result in old age and death. The curative values of Yoga asanas, based as they are on scientific observations, are vast, varied and wonderful indeed.

For example, obesity, the root cause of many illnesses of today, is removed and the body made trim and fit. Again, even the so-called difficult diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes, epilepsy, social diseases, etc., can be tackled by a regular practice of asanas. To a practitioner of Yoga asanas, colds, constipation, headaches, tiredness and other common ailments will be unknown.

But unlike the allopathic system of medicine, in which you can swallow a pill and perhaps feel the headache vanish (though you may later acquire some side-effects), Yoga asanas cannot be expected to effect any instant cures in twenty-four hours. What is required is patience and perseverance if you suffer from diseases, but Yoga asanas are sure to bring about the magic cure which the most modern medicines despair of.

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