Dr Samir Kumar Saha :
International Day of Yoga is observed annually on June 21 around the world. On December 11, 2014 the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. The declaration came after the call for the adoption of June 21 as International Day of Yoga by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to UN General Assembly on September 27, 2014.
The first International Day of Yoga was observed world over on June 21, 2015. This year’s focus will be on the theme of Yoga for the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to Indian media reports, spiritual leader and Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is likely to lead a yoga session at the UN on the occasion of the second International Yoga Day this year.
Yoga is a 5,000-year-old physical, mental and spiritual practice having its origin in India, which aims to transform both body and mind. According to history, yoga’s teachings were first imparted not in a classroom or Gurukul, but on the battle field. In the epic Mahabharata, the sage, Lord Krishna is first said to have imparted the teachings of Yoga to his despondent student Arjuna. Around 1500 years later, another sage, Patanjali, went on to enunciate, for the benefit of humankind and eternity, the way to reach the summom bonum of life through a series of 195 aphorisms (sutras) in his epic treatise ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’.
The word yoga is Sanskrit (one of the ancient languages of the East). It means to ‘yoke,’ or unite, the mind, body, and spirit. In Yoga, you use your mind to perceive (diagnose) and guide (heal) your body. Yoga is best known as a set of physical practices that include gentle stretches, breathing practices, and progressive deep relaxation. These physical practices are intended to ready the body and mind for meditation as well as for a meditative perspective on life. These meditative practices also follow a sequence.
Yoga is also a lifestyle practice for which exercise is just one component. Training your mind, body, and breath, as well as connecting with your spirituality, are the main goals of the yoga lifestyle. In practice, yoga is an applied science of the mind and body. Practice and study of it help to bring about a natural balance of body and mind in which the state of health can manifest itself.
The physical part of the yoga lifestyle is called hatha yoga. Hatha yoga focuses on asanas, or poses. A person who practices yoga goes through a series of specific poses while controlling his or her breathing. Some types of yoga also involve meditation and chanting.
Yoga itself does not create health; rather, it creates an internal environment that allows the individual to come to his own state of dynamic balance, or health. Basically, yoga teaches that a healthy person is a harmoniously integrated unit of body, mind and spirit. Good health requires a simple, natural diet, exercise in fresh air, a serene and untroubled mind and the awareness that main’s deepest and highest self is identical with the spirit of God. As a result, to many devotees, yoga becomes a philosophy that offers instruction and insight into every aspect of life: the spiritual, the mental and the physical.
Yoga considers that most diseases are due to insufficient life force, either in the body as a whole, or a blockage of life force to one part of the body. This leads to a lowered body resistance or immunity to disease.
Those practicing yoga have learned many centuries ago that most diseases are due to reduced immunity. Medical science is gradually coming to the same conclusion. When the whole body has lowered life force, the result is a lowered vitality level, poor health and susceptibility to infection. No infections would occur if the body’s life force is high enough to fight off the infection. Pathogens (bacteria, viruses and so on) are a normal part of life and will only cause trouble when the body’s resistance is too low to keep them in check. The best way to increase the general life force of the body is by good nutrition, sufficient deep steep, a positive mental attitude and yoga.
Yoga has tons of benefits. It can improve flexibility, strength, balance, and stamina. In addition, many people who practice yoga say that it reduces anxiety and stress, improves mental clarity, and even helps them sleep better.
Complex disease like cancer can be cured at initial stage by practicing yoga while it can be brought under control at later stage. Anyone can gain longevity by practicing yoga, which is scientifically proven. Yoga is also getting popularity around the world.
Practice of yoga brings both mental and physical fitness while general exercise brings only benefits on external parts of body. Yoga also works better for keeping our nerve fit. Yoga is for better health and healing and it reduces stress and makes a man ever young. Change of life style and practicing yoga, which is scientifically proven, can help people overcome their health-related problems. Special techniques of the yoga combine all practices in simple and effective ways to keep people fit and bring about inner calm and tranquility to help increasing coping capacity of the toughest and challenging situation.
Ii is possible to cure many complicated diseases with the help of this system without taking any medicines. Complicated diseases such as obesity, asthma, diabetes, heart ailment, arthritis, spondylosis, gastritis, eye problem, mental disorder can be cured with practice of yoga. Yoga is very important for maintaining the fitness of the body in order to have disease-free health. The benefits of health fitness derived from yoga practices as reported by the practitioners are well-established now-a-days by the scientific research.
Yoga controls the weight of the body by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well-being and self-esteem. Yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise. Yoga helps improve body structure to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
Besides, healing all physical disorders, yoga also heals the grossness that exists inside a mind and soul. It helps in releasing them thereby maintaining a harmony all through the body. It helps a man to strike a balance between his physical, mental and spiritual selves.
Yoga is a part of Ayurveda, a natural system of treatment. Ayurveda is a natural healthcare system and its main objective is to achieve optimum health and well-being through a comprehensive approach that addresses mind, body, behaviour and environment. It emphasises health promotion, prevention and treatment of diseases. It is entirely holistic. Its adherents strive to create harmony between every unit of body system.
If we can develop Ayurveda in our country, we can derive a lot of health benefits. If the system could be patronized and developed further, our poor people can avail of health services at minimum cost. I hoped that all concerned will carry out research to establish Ayurveda as well as Unani, another branch of natural system of healing, in Bangladesh on scientific basis. n
[The writer is founder president of Ayurved & Naturopathy Association of Bangladesh (AYUNS)]
International Day of Yoga is observed annually on June 21 around the world. On December 11, 2014 the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. The declaration came after the call for the adoption of June 21 as International Day of Yoga by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to UN General Assembly on September 27, 2014.
The first International Day of Yoga was observed world over on June 21, 2015. This year’s focus will be on the theme of Yoga for the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to Indian media reports, spiritual leader and Isha Foundation founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is likely to lead a yoga session at the UN on the occasion of the second International Yoga Day this year.
Yoga is a 5,000-year-old physical, mental and spiritual practice having its origin in India, which aims to transform both body and mind. According to history, yoga’s teachings were first imparted not in a classroom or Gurukul, but on the battle field. In the epic Mahabharata, the sage, Lord Krishna is first said to have imparted the teachings of Yoga to his despondent student Arjuna. Around 1500 years later, another sage, Patanjali, went on to enunciate, for the benefit of humankind and eternity, the way to reach the summom bonum of life through a series of 195 aphorisms (sutras) in his epic treatise ‘The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali’.
The word yoga is Sanskrit (one of the ancient languages of the East). It means to ‘yoke,’ or unite, the mind, body, and spirit. In Yoga, you use your mind to perceive (diagnose) and guide (heal) your body. Yoga is best known as a set of physical practices that include gentle stretches, breathing practices, and progressive deep relaxation. These physical practices are intended to ready the body and mind for meditation as well as for a meditative perspective on life. These meditative practices also follow a sequence.
Yoga is also a lifestyle practice for which exercise is just one component. Training your mind, body, and breath, as well as connecting with your spirituality, are the main goals of the yoga lifestyle. In practice, yoga is an applied science of the mind and body. Practice and study of it help to bring about a natural balance of body and mind in which the state of health can manifest itself.
The physical part of the yoga lifestyle is called hatha yoga. Hatha yoga focuses on asanas, or poses. A person who practices yoga goes through a series of specific poses while controlling his or her breathing. Some types of yoga also involve meditation and chanting.
Yoga itself does not create health; rather, it creates an internal environment that allows the individual to come to his own state of dynamic balance, or health. Basically, yoga teaches that a healthy person is a harmoniously integrated unit of body, mind and spirit. Good health requires a simple, natural diet, exercise in fresh air, a serene and untroubled mind and the awareness that main’s deepest and highest self is identical with the spirit of God. As a result, to many devotees, yoga becomes a philosophy that offers instruction and insight into every aspect of life: the spiritual, the mental and the physical.
Yoga considers that most diseases are due to insufficient life force, either in the body as a whole, or a blockage of life force to one part of the body. This leads to a lowered body resistance or immunity to disease.
Those practicing yoga have learned many centuries ago that most diseases are due to reduced immunity. Medical science is gradually coming to the same conclusion. When the whole body has lowered life force, the result is a lowered vitality level, poor health and susceptibility to infection. No infections would occur if the body’s life force is high enough to fight off the infection. Pathogens (bacteria, viruses and so on) are a normal part of life and will only cause trouble when the body’s resistance is too low to keep them in check. The best way to increase the general life force of the body is by good nutrition, sufficient deep steep, a positive mental attitude and yoga.
Yoga has tons of benefits. It can improve flexibility, strength, balance, and stamina. In addition, many people who practice yoga say that it reduces anxiety and stress, improves mental clarity, and even helps them sleep better.
Complex disease like cancer can be cured at initial stage by practicing yoga while it can be brought under control at later stage. Anyone can gain longevity by practicing yoga, which is scientifically proven. Yoga is also getting popularity around the world.
Practice of yoga brings both mental and physical fitness while general exercise brings only benefits on external parts of body. Yoga also works better for keeping our nerve fit. Yoga is for better health and healing and it reduces stress and makes a man ever young. Change of life style and practicing yoga, which is scientifically proven, can help people overcome their health-related problems. Special techniques of the yoga combine all practices in simple and effective ways to keep people fit and bring about inner calm and tranquility to help increasing coping capacity of the toughest and challenging situation.
Ii is possible to cure many complicated diseases with the help of this system without taking any medicines. Complicated diseases such as obesity, asthma, diabetes, heart ailment, arthritis, spondylosis, gastritis, eye problem, mental disorder can be cured with practice of yoga. Yoga is very important for maintaining the fitness of the body in order to have disease-free health. The benefits of health fitness derived from yoga practices as reported by the practitioners are well-established now-a-days by the scientific research.
Yoga controls the weight of the body by burning excess calories and reducing stress. Yoga encourages healthy eating habits and provides a heightened sense of well-being and self-esteem. Yoga practice can provide cardiovascular benefits by lowering heart rate, increasing endurance and improving oxygen uptake during exercise. Yoga helps improve body structure to relieve back, neck, joint and muscle problems.
Besides, healing all physical disorders, yoga also heals the grossness that exists inside a mind and soul. It helps in releasing them thereby maintaining a harmony all through the body. It helps a man to strike a balance between his physical, mental and spiritual selves.
Yoga is a part of Ayurveda, a natural system of treatment. Ayurveda is a natural healthcare system and its main objective is to achieve optimum health and well-being through a comprehensive approach that addresses mind, body, behaviour and environment. It emphasises health promotion, prevention and treatment of diseases. It is entirely holistic. Its adherents strive to create harmony between every unit of body system.
If we can develop Ayurveda in our country, we can derive a lot of health benefits. If the system could be patronized and developed further, our poor people can avail of health services at minimum cost. I hoped that all concerned will carry out research to establish Ayurveda as well as Unani, another branch of natural system of healing, in Bangladesh on scientific basis. n
[The writer is founder president of Ayurved & Naturopathy Association of Bangladesh (AYUNS)]
