Whither Yoga?

It is once again – Yoga day. Many of my Indian friends feel proud of the fact that the entire world has acknowledged India’s one of the greatest contributions to the world namely Yoga. 
 

But when I see how this word Yoga has been torn to pieces and made into a totally ill defined system, from what originally was a very well defined science, I feel sad.

Just the other day, I was talking to my Indian doctor friend. He is a highly qualified allopath, but nevertheless open to any system of medicine. I asked him why he does not try Yoga for his long time diabetic condition. One of the most popular Yoga teachers in India today, namely Baba Ramdev claims that he has recorded evidence of curing hundreds of thousands of diabetic patients just by making them do Kapalabhati – one of the ‘Yogic breathing techniques’ he has been trying to popularize. I asked my doctor friend’s reaction to these claims.

My friend simply smiled and said “in that case, Baba Ramdev should be awarded a Nobel!”

Very true. If curing diabetes were that simple, world would have been too grateful to him and got rid of one of the most menacing health problems these days. 

Baba Ramddev very confidently asserts that any disease can be cured or even prevented by simple breathing techniques he is propagating in the name of Yoga. The irony is that none of these techniques were ever talked about by the well known ancient proponent of Yoga namely Patanjali. But Baba Ramdev projects then as if they are part of Patanjali’s Yoga system!

Probably, there is a silver lining in the cloud. People like Baba Ramdev would help in drawing wider attention to Yoga from more and more people. More attention means more critical analysis sooner than later. Ultimately that would separate chaff from grain. Hope so.