Today, body postures or Asana as they are called, have almost become synonymous to Yoga. But If you look back the way Yoga has progressed over centuries, this predominant emphasis on Asana seems to be a very recent trend, may be hardly a century old.
Most Yoga Gurus keep referring to Patanjali. They even make you chant praises about Patanjali in the beginning of their ‘Yoga’ classes. But Patanjali talked very little about this physical avatar of Yoga, that we see all over the world today. Most people are so emotionally attached to this view of Yoga that they would rather throw out Patanjali, but not these physical exercises😉
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi is credited with pushing the idea of observing International Yoga day. Almost the entire world observes this day now, with lot of enthusiasm. But what they celebrate as Yoga is the physical exercises or the Asana or ‘the twisting and turning’ of the body 😉. Sorry, that is not my word, that is the word used by Mr. Modi in his first International Yoga day speech, way back in 2015.
Let me play some clips of his lecture in Hindi, interspersed with rough English rendering. This is what he said.
“Jyaadaatar lOgOnke dimaag mei YOg yaane Ek prakaarse anga mardankaa kaaryakram hei. Mai samaztaahoon ye sabsE bade galtee hei. YOg ye anga upaang mardan kaa kaaryakram naheen hei. Agar yahee hOtaa, tO sarkas mei kaam karnevaale bacchE yOgee kahEjaatE. Aur isliyE, sirf shareer kO kitnaa ham lacheelaa banaatE hei, kitnaa mOD dEtE hei, vO YOg naheen hei.”
A rough translation would be
“Many people think that Yoga is some kind of body exercise. I think that this is the biggest mistake. Yoga is not exercising of the body. If that were the case, then every youngster in a circus would have been called a Yogi. That is why, just how much we twist our bodies and how much we make it supple, is not Yoga.”
Mr. Modi in his own characteristic style gives the example of how the musicians tune their instruments before a concert begins. He continues to say
“jis prakaar sE sangeet shuroo hOnEse pehalE ye jO taar thOkkaa kaaryakram hOtaa hei aur baad mei Ek sureelaa sangeet nikaltaa hei. ye taar thOkavalaa kaaryakram poorE sangeet samaarOh mei bahut ChOTaa hOtaa hei. yE aasan bhee pooree yOga avasthaa mei utnaa bhee uskaa hissaa hei. Baakee tO yaatraa bahut lambee hOtaa hei. Aur isliyE useekO jaan naa aur pehachaan naa bahut avashyak huvaa hei. Aur ham us dishaamE lEjaanEkE prayatna kartE hei.”
Once again, let me do a rough rendering. What he says is that
“Before a music concert starts, the musicians tune their instruments so that they can produce melodious music. But in the entire concert, this tuning of instruments is just a small part.
In the same way, the role of asana in the entire Yoga journey is small. The journey further is quite long. That is why we need to know and understand the entire process. And we are trying to take you in that direction”.
If you look into Yoga Sutra of Patanjali – the seminal work of this great Yogi, you will find hardly a couple of sentences about Asana. Patanjali defines Asana as just
“sthira sukham aasanam”
That means
“Whatever is stable and comfortable is Asana”
-- Yoga Sutra 2.45
Neither the Yoga Sutra, nor most of the later Hatayoga texts, talk about the hundreds of Asanas propagated by modern Yoga teachers these days. Obviously, these seem to be recent additions to Yoga.
But are these really beneficial as often claimed and believed?
Most people think so. They believe that Yoga improves their health and most Yoga promoters too enforce this strong belief. But is it just a belief?
Though there is almost no evidence that links a specific way of stretching and contracting the body to claimed health benefits, many research findings do report health benefits of Yoga in general. How does one explain that? Is it just a placebo effect?
In most research studies, yoga is reported to minimize stress in an individual. Since stress is one of the prominent causes of health problems, Yoga does seem to help in health enhancement. But does that effect directly point to a specific way of stretching the body or balancing it, as we do while performing the Asanas?
Probably, most people disagree with me if I say that health benefits are not really dependent on how exactly you manipulate your body. At least there is no evidence to that effect, except in the cases of problems arising out of skeleto-muscular conditions. In that case, how do these Asanas contribute to reduction in stress and indirectly to health enhancement? Is there any neuroscience in this case too?
Of course, that is the topic of this episode 😉
As you probably know, there are many types of Yoga propagated these days. I would not like to mention specific names, but I can safely say that there are broadly two categories of Asana oriented Yoga. One of them lays lot of emphasis on exact way the body is manipulated, and the other lays emphasis on the breathing rhythm followed while these manipulations are done. Since both these branches had the same origin, obviously they have overlap in many ways.
Let us look at the first category that lays lot of emphasis on body manipulation. This style of Yoga insists on exact positioning of body parts with respect to each other, the exact way the body is balanced, exact sequence of movements, and so on. As you can see, this style forces one to closely observe the body and each of its minute movements. You probably guessed it. It is an extension of Buddhist practice of Kaya Sati. Though in Buddhist Kaya sati, there is no willful manipulation of the body but just its passive observation.
But our modern Yogic equivalent not only has willful manipulation but also closely observing the changes. While the willful manipulation makes the process interesting for most body-oriented people, it also adds mystic touch to it. Besides, these stretches and contractions, with associated balancing have exercise aspect as well, which has lot of benefits for people with sedentary life style. Or it gives an opportunity for ‘physical’ people to let out their energy 😉
In the other category of modern Yoga, there is also some exercise component, but more emphasis is on breathing rhythms. You are made to closely observe your breathing which is synchronized with body movements. Even here, you are unknowingly doing an extension of Anapana sati of the Buddhists.
As we saw in the previous episode, both these Kaya sati as well as Anapana sati help in attaining a focused mind. That is when the neuroscience comes in. A focused mind means reduction is stress as we saw in the previous episode. So, the effect of improving health, comes more from attaining a focused mind, rather than manipulating the body in a specific way. Of course, body exercise is always beneficial with or without Yoga. And the mystic Sanskritized names given to these exercises add to the special effects 😉
But just having a focused mind does not free us entirely from building up stress. The thoughts would still spring up. You may thwart them with a focused mind, but the best solution would be to prevent unnecessary thoughts altogether. Otherwise, there would be continuous battle between the thought generation and their suppression 😉. We need to address the root cause of these conflicting thoughts. How do we do that?
That is what we would be discussing in the next episode.
No comments:
Post a Comment