Yoga and Us

Yoga is a form of exercise that dates back to the “long long time ago”, back when people really believed in God. It is said that Yoga was taught to the first disciples of Shiva by the great God himself. I personally believe that it was just some really smart sadhus who happened to know a great deal about the physiology of the human body back in the day and invented these postures for a salubrious living. But, our ancestors were smart in making up such good stories and knew people would follow them only when they thought that it was God who gave these sadhus some spiritual enlightenment. That’s why out of respect for Shiva many people started following this elite group (the Yogis) and this in turn gave way to the Yoga way of life. Thus Yoga prospered and expanded its influence throughout ancient India. It must have been taught, by word of mouth or rather since actions did speak louder than words even back then, by Yogis performing asanas before their disciples and making them do it, encouraging them probably with phrases like “twist a leg son” or something to that effect.

And now we come to present day where Yoga has been #scientifically proven to be….. (All good things). My first experiment with Yoga was during the 2nd standard since it was a compulsory activity in school. I just did it because I was made to do it little knowing or caring about its importance for a healthy life (our teacher probably did explain that but just as now I wasn’t paying attention). So I did yoga for two years, learning various asanas for the sake of getting good grades and I found myself pretty flexible being able to put my legs over my head and picking up the rest of my body on my hands (Bhujapidasana) and other such stuff (folks at school and back home were pretty impressed especially my grandparents who used to act like they thought such feats were impossible).

The yoga breathing techniques never failed to rejuvenate us at class and I still use them at times for calming myself in face of the irritating people I meet daily. I suggest everyone who reads this; enlighten themselves with this most ancient technique of achieving instant serenity and tranquility. These have been medically proven to be useful for heart patients so just watch a few videos on youtube, it ought to be easy enough. Well, life goes on and two years later for some reason I just stopped doing yoga altogether. But then, our nation got a great leader like Mr. Narendra Modi who respects our traditions and culture a lot. I learned (via WhatsApp so information not verified) that it was he who suggested that the 21st June be celebrated as World Yoga Day to the UN. Many societies and NGOs have arranged competitions and platforms for citizens to participate in Yoga.

The Yoga Club of our society (which basically consists of all our grandparents) following suit has planned to instruct the youth here on yogasanas tomorrow. Even as I write this article I have a feeling of trepidation, our grandparents are sure to be better at it than we are now and their being able to do more asanas than us will in a way be embarrassing.

Finally, it’ll be time for me to be impressed with my grandma’s yoga.

Rtr. Advait Javadekar