Yoga- Advantages and pitfalls

4-5 days ago there was an article at a well known literary site stating how obsession with Yoga had landed the former well known social activist khairnar in ICU.

Well around Asiad time in 1982 there used to be a famous yoga program on TV( we had only one channel then). The teacher in that program said that the headstand(“Shirshasan”) has the effect of 2000 Asanas. Having a very stiff body at that time and young of age, I thought it was an ideal short cut as one just had to do a balancing act. I overdid it and lost my sleep completely. Later, most yoga teachers that we came across told us that we should be careful while doing it. Two said of their own accord that it should not be done at all. The weight of the body is supposed to fall at the forehead- that is something everybody must ensure.

My grandfather tried to teach me by taking a wall as a support with disastrous results.(like learning TA, derivatives at seminars) Yoga also has an inbuilt hedging- after each aasan you are supposed to the opposite or upasan. If you do it the wrong way, you might have to rectify it by doing too much yoga the right way ( “Tumhine dard diya hai tumhi dava dena”)

Last year around this time, I tried something called laghushankprakshan for the first time. It involves continuous exercising and defecating for three hours and is like a complete engine overhaul. One almost feels light and energetic like Vipasana after that. This time of the year is ideal for that.

One of my uncles who came a couple of months ago told me how the life of Ramdev Maharaj ( the person who organizes camps of hundreds) was under threat from doctors(nobody can take a career setback; no wonder stress prone students commit suicide) whose practice he had messed up. Wonder whether its true.In my view conventional medical science is better for injury. For disease , it is a good short term measure.

My wife finds yoga extremely boring. To me it is like health investment(instead of buy, exercise and hold) for life. Young people would find bodybuilding more attractive but in practical life yoga proves more useful when one deals with worldly problems- conflicts, politics, fatigue etc. That apart it can give you a rosy, Punjabi personality.

Talking of boring, I find surya namaskar boring and once told a yoga buff who’s a family friend and she replied that instead of that I should do a cabaret in the morning. Then she demonstrated with ranging market movements from top to bottom and told me that if I did it for 2-3 minutes, my whole body would become loose. I found that to be true. Imagine yoga and cabaret together is almost like expecting ranging and trending market simultaneously. Stock market irrationality is everywhere.

Karo yoga ki warm up exercise Aisi
Jaise ranging market me move karte hai lever, Gail or ACC
Shareer me sfoorti aaye trending market/bullish stock jaisi
Stiffness/boredom ki ho jaaye aisi ki taisi

Jokes apart, all that glitters is not gold and vice-versa. Aawla and karela are good for health but taste bitter. Sugar and salt are tasty but can prove fatal at times. Trading is thrilling but risk prone; investment is safer- yoga likewise though seemingly boring is very useful.

As a child, I thought every Japanese was a karateka. I read that it was the other way around; the Japanese think that every Indian is a yogi.