Opinion

Head-In-Right-Place Asana

It’s up to us to value Yoga the way we value and hold on to our other property—real estate.

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Head-In-Right-Place Asana
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This year’s Padma Vibhushan awards struck a chord with every Indian, Mashelkar for his work on revoking the US patent on turmeric’s healing properties and B.K.S. Iyengar, for healing millions of bodies and minds across the globe with his art of yoga. I had the opportunity to meet and interview BKS last week and it is heart-wre­nching to hear his stor­ies. He spoke of his classes being burnt down in the early days and waiting endlessly at Ganesh utsav mandals for an opportunity to get on stage for a couple of minutes to demonstrate asanas. It was only after 15 years of teaching that he got his first middle-aged student, till then it was considered to be a pastime of the old.

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Today, of course, the scene has changed and the young are flocking to yoga classes, sweating it out, all in the hope of that slim figure and flat abs. Asana practice however only employs muscles and is not meant “for the muscles”. It’s an art, philosophy and science of emp­loying the muscle to train the mind tow­ards higher goals in life, which you can reach with a waist of 26, 36 or even 56.

All that is required is sincere practice and learning under teachers who have the integrity to teach you with its philosophy intact. Thankfully, CSIR has equipped their ‘Traditional Knowledge Digital Library’ with yoga postures to stop malpr­actices rampant in the ‘yoga industry’ and to proactively fight the need to ‘patent’ traditional knowledge. Daily practice of asanas is India’s public property, now it’s up to us, the Indian public, to value it like the way we value and hold on to our other property—real estate.

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