First of all I would like to congratulate the government of India, especially our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for taking the initiative for drafting the proposal of International Yoga Day in United Nations. Yoga was acknowledged worldwide prior to the official marking of International Yoga Day. Nonetheless, it was necessary to present it on a global platform by accrediting the disciplic succession (Sampradayas) of Rishis and gurus who brought down this
advanced science of ancient India to present day. It has to be one of the leading achievements of the NDA government entailing promising steps of leadership in government. The draft was passed with a remarkable consensus. International Yoga day received a historic mandate with 176 countries voting in favour of celebrating yoga internationally. A moment of sparkling virtuosity for India.
As it happened so, before writing this post, I was preparing to look into life accounts of people who had undertaken yoga as a part of their lives. Owing to its multifaceted benefits of physical discipline , mental well being and spiritual science. I decided to join multiple Facebook groups related to Yoga to gain more insight on the experiences of people. I got to read positive motivational stories to read of how people discovered yoga through different means and it inadvertently it transformed their lives to the present day whence they practise it with refreshing candor.
Amidst of the inspiring tales of pursuing yoga. I got a message from one of the admins of a Yoga group. The lady asked my reason of joining. I introduced myself as a blogger looking into the research papers and stories of people in the group. The group was fairly composed of Americans. After a brief consideration of 3 minutes, I was denied. It was actually funny to think in a way a brown guy getting disapproved into joining a Yoga group. I chuckled to the thought of my lineage looking down upon me in grave disappointment.
Continuing to my research, I watched TEDx Talks of white people talking about importance of breathing, art of breathing, how breathing can heal our bodies so on and so forth. It was then I realised how much India as a nation is lacking in the sphere of promulgating the profound knowledge of yoga at the expense of commercialisation of our heritage. It is difficult to keep the frills and fads out of the pop culture. The poster image gives a weird sense of twisting bodies in awkward positions until one learns about asanas and its effects on our energy channels of our body. There’s so much of knowledge that goes beyond the basic understanding of breathing exercises and body postures that gets limited to the frivolous news of yoga pants getting banned for being too distracting or religious fanatics raising questions over chanting Aum as they think it stands against their religious. The list of trivial offences goes on and these activities.
An initiative like this making a huge impact on the world should be carefully handled. The responsibility of the government doesn’t end on paper. While the government has set up AYUSH ministry under which it has placed Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unnani, Siddha and homeopathy medicine for holistic development. It is to be noted that the work allotted to these ministries seriously lack reach on grass root level. There needs to be more disbursement of funds for research and collaboration, health awareness drives and institutes that promote yogic lifestyle for general well being.
AYUSH accredited Yoga Centres
The AYUSH ministry had announced that it is going to offer graduation courses in Yoga and Indian medicine to ensure credibility and the authenticity of Yoga teachers. It also promised to certify institutes of Yoga centres to check the quality control but that seems to be far from what's happening. For last three days of the week the official website was down temporarily and when it finally went operational. It boasts of 256 professionally certified yoga teachers that clearly shows the amount of discretionary will of the ministry to successfully implement plans for engaging people. These professionals could be outsourced to build stronger socio-economic and cultural ties between countries. It needs a lot of work to reach there.
Cutting slack for these activities act as a major roadblock in shaping the world. There is a huge responsibility on shoulder of India and the world is turning to us to meet their expectations. It is time for us to embrace these challenges and stride on as the leading light taking upon the role of Vishwaguru to address these challenges.
Yoga for Health
The prime reason why people practise yoga is health. Yoga is yet to reach every village in India. Although, the fabric of the culture is such that people with simple tasks of Bhakti (devotion) carry out many Asanas without any reckoning of the health benefits it possesses like bowing down in front of sun and doing Surya Namaskara, Dhayana practise by focusing on unified consciousness as Ishvara and so on. It is important that yoga is not only a part of school's curriculum just for the sake of 21st June Yoga celebrations but there the experience of yoga is inculcated in each one us to develop healthy practises from an early age for a competent human resource.
Yoga for Economy
As we mentioned before, Yoga has been commercialised to it's core. India is yet to bank in on the opportunity. From yoga pants to yoga mats. Yoga has opened new avenues for generation of wealth and income. It has become quite easy for people to pick up Sanskrit terms from the sacred mantras and come up with fancy Yoga studios that decorate their place with imagery Hindu gods and goddesses. The term Yogipreneur is being floated around on Internet for those entrepreneurs who see a huge profit margins in yoga business. It is important to keep the economic aspect in check because more than a money making scheme it plays a much deeper role on personal level. The ultimate business should be the human well being.
Yoga for Tourism
India is blessed with a beautiful geographical location. However, it has not been able to attract the desired amount of tourism it is capable of producing. More than that it has produced genius calibre that the world has tried to emulate. The land of seekers has attracted people from all across the globe for it's vibrancy that reflects in the culture and it's festivities. There are a lot of sacred places that are consecrated for perspicacious activities. Kumbh festival is one such example of largest human gathering on the planet. Likewise, there are more such important places in pursuit of yoga that offer profound experience.
Yoga for Sustainable development
Yoga is much more than a physical regimen. It takes us to the stage of self awareness that actually gives us perspective of our higher purpose. When we are Self Actualised we are more equipped to deal with issues that are concerning the world. Yoga can literally bring us to that stage where we can experience the world as one. It is the union between the mind, body and nature. When this realisation is achieved it is natural for an individual to be inclined towards the socially sustainable and culturally appropriate healthy and seasoned lifestyles.
Yoga for World Peace
The big challenge of attaining world peace looms largely ahead of the United nations. There can't be a better practise than yoga to transform the lives of people to establish peace and harmony in the world. Peace, can't be achieved through slogans or seminars. It is when each and every person is peaceful in their own nature, a peaceful world can be attained. Every major ceremony mantra in yoga ends with a mantra of Shanti (world peace) Yoga holds the key of transforming the nature of individuals by bringing right balance of mind, body and spirit then what will manifest outside will be soaked into oneness of our being.
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