Yoga, A Competition?

Walking on the pavements of the main thoroughfare in the Thiruvananthapuram city, an advertising board caught my attention, “Federation cup yoga championship”. Decadence creeps into societies clandestinely, without anyone taking a serious note of it and is often taken for modernity. A philosophical system, which clearly mentions ways and means to still the mind in order to achieve an unconditional absolute peaceful state of being, is reduced to a mere contortion exercise competition. The saddest and ludicrous state of affairs is the wider meaning of yoga getting hammered and shaped as merely ‘posture’. Now yoga means a physical posture. In competition, there is rivalry, stress, shameless desire to beat the other, to excel the other in a materialistic sense, and then get drenched in the euphoria created by the sense of a win mixed with the sadistic joy of defeating the other. It is a tragedy, that yoga too entered this realm of competition.

Even if the metaphysical concepts of the practical philosophy of yoga seem impractical to follow for a householder, ever in the humdrum and turmoil of life, the asana or the posture part of yoga needs to be followed according to tradition. The asana part of yoga is given prominence in modern times for two main reasons. The first reason is that “postures” are visible, tangible and in the field of perception and experience unlike the other limbs of yoga that are ideas which must be brought to the realm of experience through intense mental training requiring drastic changes in the way one lives life, without any assurance of the desired state of altered higher consciousness which may occur in the life of the practitioner. The other and most promoted reason of yoga (posture) getting popular is for the maintenance and enhancement of health. This indeed is a great lure.

Health is a pleasant sunny experience till the perils of unhealthy state enters life. A life having moderate physical exercise and rest, wise eating habits and tolerable stress level may prolong human life span. The health which “hatha yoga” envisages is not merely a life devoid of diseases and disorders. In yoga, body is made disease less in order to achieve a profound, conflict free state of harmonious, elevating, profound meditative experience insulating oneself from the pleasures and pains of worldly life. Thus Yoga aims of attaining and maintaining a harmonious, calm and peaceful state of mind under all circumstances whether in a state of being healthy or unhealthy. This indeed is a lofty ideal but claimed and proven to be attainable.

The above mentioned yogic concepts might be dismissed off by the ever skeptical as mere fancies, hence their practice of mere postures and few breathing techniques (pranayama). I am not an advocate of religious yoga where mythologies, superstitions and irrational beliefs in society are laced with the yoga system.

But even in ‘asana yoga’, where postures are given prominence, there are clear guidelines in the practice of postures, without which the “posture practice” may become ineffective, even disastrous.

All yoga postures must be attempted very slowly without strain or application of excessive pressure. The mind must be consciously made free of any sort of judgment and analysis of the way one gets into the posture. The three phases of getting into the posture such as ascension, static condition and descension are to be attempted in a gentle unhurried manner which is impossible in a competitive atmosphere. An attitude of “effortless effort” must be adopted. This is to bring in parasympathetic predominance. Any movement which is faster and done with too much effort stimulates the sympathetic system, responsible for the “fight or flight” reaction. This in turn gives rise to restlessness of the mind after the initial euphoria. Asana is that which brings about steadiness and a sense of well being, “sthira sukham asanam” says sage Patanjali.  Similarly yogi svatmaram suri, the author of Hatha Yoga Pradipika, says “Kuryattadasanam sthairyamarogyam cangalaghavam”, Asana, is that which contributes to stability, health and suppleness,” resulting in absence of fickleness and instability (both mind and body), “Asanena rajo hanti”.

Sage Patanjali explains how the above mentioned stability and sense of well being can be achieved through asana. He says, this can be achieved by practicing asanas in a relaxed and slower manner, “prayatna-saithilyat ananta samapatti”, asanas must be done in a relaxed way directing awareness to infinity in order to keep away disturbing thoughts. This in turn results in “dvandvanabhighatah”, an absence of clash between the opposites. This absence of clash is both physiological and psychological. The correct practice of asanas leads to the removal of “angamejatva”- a disturbance in the tonic rhythm of the body. At psychological level, there would be reduction of opposing thoughts resulting in a harmonious experience.

The postures which are done in an intensive way with so much physical and mental strain, not only would be devoid of such positive results but also counterproductive resulting in sprains and injuries which may result in permanent disabilities.  Now in a so called yoga competition, where postures are gone through in a hurried manner, with strenuous effort to be in a most contorted body posture, the result would only be a highly restless mind and injury prone body. The contortionists approach to yoga result in sprains and fractures, some of them irreparable.

Thus the whole system of yoga comes to blame due to the over enthusiasm, often deliberate ignorance and fantastic notions of certain individuals or groups. 

Contortion competitions are welcome only if it is not christened as yoga. Hence, the importance of  cleansing the practical philosophical system of yoga both from the posture centric physical culturists and myth mongering religious fanatics, in order to   promote it as a rational way of achieving and maintaining a harmonious state of personality.

(The writer is a yoga teacher based in Thiruvananthapuram. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at bpraveendas@gmail.com)