Hasmukh Adhia
Most people think of yoga as asanas only – as physical exercise. Some think of yoga as postures and breathing exercise. Few know of yoga as a meditation technique. Yoga is really a technique of developing awareness of mind with a view to enjoy the fullness of life. Benefits to body is incidental.
Sage Patanjali defines yoga as ‘chitta vritti nirodhah’, the process of controlling modifications of mind. The Yoga Vashishta says ‘manah prasamanopaya yogah’, that is, yoga is a subtle technique to calm the mind. The Bhagwad Gita defines yoga as a state of equilibrium of mind: ‘Samatvam yoga uychyate’. Swami Vivekananda calls yoga a tool for condensing the process of evolution from human to cosmic being, that is, super consciousness.
Who is the raja, ruler of our life? The mind. Raja Yoga is so called because it is a technique of training the mind, which is controlling our life. Yogasana is quite different from any other forms of physical work-out. First, the purpose of physical exercise is to improve the body, while the purpose of yogasana is basically to control modifications of mind. When we do asanas as prescribed by scriptures, our mind becomes steady and quiet. Once you practice asanas for a long period, the mind learns to be steady in all situations. In this process, the body also becomes very flexible and toned.
In physical exercises, it is believed that the faster the movement, the better it is. But in asanas, slower the movement, better it is. Asanas are always performed with very slow movement of different parts of the body. The main benefit of asana comes in maintaining the posture in the final stage. Also, in yogasana, the coordination of breath with body movement has to be perfect. In physical exercise, we do not have to bother about this. Asanas become more beneficial if such breathing coordination happens. Breath is the carrier of prana, the life-energy of our body. The disturbance in flow of prana in our body causes restlessness of mind and disease in the body. Systematic breathing practice removes the imbalance. So along with asana, there has to be breathing coordination.
The third main distinction lies in the level of awareness. While doing asana, one has to keep full awareness in the body part which is being affected by the posture. One cannot think of anything else at that time. Listening to music while doing asana could also cause distraction. This is not the case with physical exercise. Most people workout while listening to music or watching TV. Yogasana has to be done in quiet and pleasant surroundings where one can link body and mind with awareness.
Hence yogasana is far superior as it benefits both body and mind. While both physical exercise and asana improve our skeleto-muscular, cardio-respiratory and circulatory systems, yogasana also improves the neuro-muscular system and endocrinal system which controls our sympathetic and parasympathetic reactions in case of perceived stress. Yogasana gives spectacular results in tackling lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, anxiety and depression.
Since happiness is a state of mind, our idea of ‘what makes us happy’ changes periodically, depending on how trained our mind is, to experience happiness. This technique of training your mind is yoga.
Hasmukh Adhia is former finance secretary, Government of India
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: Speaking Tree, 28th Jan,2019
Hasmukh Adhia
Most people think of yoga as asanas only – as physical exercise. Some think of yoga as postures and breathing exercise. Few know of yoga as a meditation technique. Yoga is really a technique of developing awareness of mind with a view to enjoy the fullness of life. Benefits to body is incidental.
Sage Patanjali defines yoga as ‘chitta vritti nirodhah’, the process of controlling modifications of mind. The Yoga Vashishta says ‘manah prasamanopaya yogah’, that is, yoga is a subtle technique to calm the mind. The Bhagwad Gita defines yoga as a state of equilibrium of mind: ‘Samatvam yoga uychyate’. Swami Vivekananda calls yoga a tool for condensing the process of evolution from human to cosmic being, that is, super consciousness.
Who is the raja, ruler of our life? The mind. Raja Yoga is so called because it is a technique of training the mind, which is controlling our life. Yogasana is quite different from any other forms of physical work-out. First, the purpose of physical exercise is to improve the body, while the purpose of yogasana is basically to control modifications of mind. When we do asanas as prescribed by scriptures, our mind becomes steady and quiet. Once you practice asanas for a long period, the mind learns to be steady in all situations. In this process, the body also becomes very flexible and toned.
In physical exercises, it is believed that the faster the movement, the better it is. But in asanas, slower the movement, better it is. Asanas are always performed with very slow movement of different parts of the body. The main benefit of asana comes in maintaining the posture in the final stage. Also, in yogasana, the coordination of breath with body movement has to be perfect. In physical exercise, we do not have to bother about this. Asanas become more beneficial if such breathing coordination happens. Breath is the carrier of prana, the life-energy of our body. The disturbance in flow of prana in our body causes restlessness of mind and disease in the body. Systematic breathing practice removes the imbalance. So along with asana, there has to be breathing coordination.
The third main distinction lies in the level of awareness. While doing asana, one has to keep full awareness in the body part which is being affected by the posture. One cannot think of anything else at that time. Listening to music while doing asana could also cause distraction. This is not the case with physical exercise. Most people workout while listening to music or watching TV. Yogasana has to be done in quiet and pleasant surroundings where one can link body and mind with awareness.
Hence yogasana is far superior as it benefits both body and mind. While both physical exercise and asana improve our skeleto-muscular, cardio-respiratory and circulatory systems, yogasana also improves the neuro-muscular system and endocrinal system which controls our sympathetic and parasympathetic reactions in case of perceived stress. Yogasana gives spectacular results in tackling lifestyle-related diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, anxiety and depression.
Since happiness is a state of mind, our idea of ‘what makes us happy’ changes periodically, depending on how trained our mind is, to experience happiness. This technique of training your mind is yoga.
Hasmukh Adhia is former finance secretary, Government of India
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it. Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
Courtesy: Times of India: Speaking Tree, 28th Jan,2019