When body postures meet modern pills

For a long time now, the medical profession comprising of the dispensers of “English” medicine, or in other words the allopathy stream of medicine, looked upon yoga, alternative healing and its therapeutic practices as a subject not to be discussed. While therapeutic yoga is gaining currency in the west as a way to heal and cure chronic problems and as a wholesome practice for well being, the docs in India predominantly maintain silence on this topic.

The other day, some of them opted to speak out at the conference on ‘Synergies in Healing — An Integrative Appr­oach of Modern Medicine and Yoga,’ organised by the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM) in Chennai.

Organised by an institution with a history of healing through yoga since 1976, the conference saw leading physicians and surgeons coming together not just to endorse alternative methods and highlight the need for it (besides conventional treatment through tablets and surgeries) but also to raise questions on how the therapeutic effects of yoga were being documented.

Dr Ishwar V Basavaraddi, Director, Morarji Desai Nati­onal Institute of Yoga, New Delhi gave a larger framework of yoga which included the five yamas of Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya and Aparigraha and the five niyamas of Shaucha, Santosha, Tapas, Swadhyaya and Ishwara Pranidhana.

Pills are not the only cure for your ailments. This came from Dr Prithika Chary, neurosurgeon with the Apollo Hospitals and Director of EPICENTTRE, an epilepsy treatment and research centre. “Am I sick?” “Yes,” says your emotional quotient, backed by spiritual strength to prepare you to accept treatment. Spirituality is of great use in the treatment by firstly accepting disease, she says. Next comes the Spiritual Quotient in aiding transformational thinking. The IQ is the normal intelligence quotient which helps the individual to go through the process needed for cure.

In a flow chart on mind-body healing she showed four ways of restoring health — mind work, energy work, body work and spirituality and ritual.

Dr Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, a medical doctor and a yogacharya chairing the International Centre for Yoga Education and Research, Pondicherry, highlighted the importance of the attitude of gratitude. “The mind and body today are like a couple who hate each other, but are forced to live in a single bedroom apartment!” Heyam duhkham Anagatam — quoting a sutra of Maharshi Patanjali, he says yoga’s role is preventive. It prevents the sorrow of the future.

The three aspects of Patanjali’s Kriya Yoga (Tapas or living a life of austerity, Swadhyaya — studying about the self or the oneness within all creation and Ishwara Pranidhana — surrendering all of one’s thoughts, words and actions

to the uniting divine principle and adopting a lifestyle that incorporates the yogas

of karma, bhakti and gnana) help in creating the conducive atmosphere for good health as one moves gracefully in to the latter part of one’s life.

General surgeon and gastroenterologist Dr J S Rajkumar made an animated presentation integration of modern medicine with the spirituality of Tirumoolar of advaita or the non-dual consciousness that is present equally in all. Going on a crescendo with his explanation of the causes of disease, “Hurry, worry, curry and H-pilori” the doctor concluded with love and compassion of bhakti yoga as the ideal yoga for Kali Yuga — the iron age where disease and stress is the prevailing order.

The title of ‘Yoga Chikitsa Visharada’ was conferred on TKV Desikachar, founder of the KYM. The abstracts of the research work done by the institution in the field of yoga, reveal the therapeutic benefits. Simple asanas tested on 16 patients have indicated its usefulness in managing back pain. A study was conducted to explore the feasibility of yoga therapy to assist special children. The Minnesota Developmental Programming Systems Behavioral Scale used for assessing the 63 children before and after the training showed significant changes. At the end of the training, children tended to be less distracted than before. Their behavioural skills improved in specific and general areas as well. Yoga produced significant changes on the teachers as well. This contributed greatly to their confidence in teaching and its continuous practice produced significant changes in their health.

Studies on the role of yoga in stress and high blood pressure management, headaches, in schizophrenia, cardio-vascular disease and patients with epileptic seizures revealed encouraging results. (www.kym.org)

— swahilya.soulmate@gmail.com