YOGA A WAY OF LIFE

Yoga Therapy and Diseases It is absolutely true that every thought we think has its corresponding effect on the whole or some part of the human anatomy. Therefore, the mind can both create and cure diseases. - Dr. Charles Davis Endless invention, endless experiment, brings

knowledge of motion not stillness, knowledge of words and ignorance of words. Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T.S. Eliot Hurry and Rush are the order of the day. Worry,

overwork, anxiety, fatigue exhaust us completely. They affect us singly or in combination besides this we also indulge in bad habits and abuse us mentally and

physically.

Evidence

is

gradually

emerging

that

psychological factors and personality traits contribute to specific diseases, e.g. are Cancer, Asthma, Migraine, Ulcers, Chronic Joint pains, temporary Blindness,

Parkinson diseases etc. are a few. Even the modern medical doctors are aware that treatment has to be holistic - mental, emotional and other psychological problems and not in compartments just taking care of the physical aspect alone. With the recent interest in psychosomatic medicine the relevance of yoga as a therapy is gaining momentum. But the approach for only cure is wrong as it limits the greatness of this vast ocean of knowledge. Yoga is not a therapy but a process of education of the total personality, helps in steadying the mind and thus helps in the management of disease. Yoga is an evolved system of living by great yogis to have a stable mind and to channelise full energy for the realisation of truth and used by the mind and body for the highest purpose of life - self-realisation - so it is right living

and right thinking. Freedom from diseases is a by-product of an enriched way of living. In the management of diseases yoga remains nonspecific in its approach modern medicine is symptomatic but yoga aims at the removal of the basic cause. It helps a person to integrate the personality and steadying the mind with healthy routines, right habits, change in values and priorities, a change in attitude and motivations. Thus becomes a way of living. Today even though the awareness is there most of the people turn to yoga only when some health problem is faced, in which medical treatment could not give satisfactory results. Yoga looks at a disease from the personality point of view. Problem lies in the individual and the solution also lies in him. Yoga tries to re establish the inner balance by various means working from the gross to subtle. On the physical level its uses are: (a) Asanas - energize the organism, create awareness of the body, its function and stabilise the mind.

(b) Kriyas - hygienic procedures to support the bodys cleansing mechanisms and to draw the mind towards it. (c) Pranayama - Breathing technique with very subtle influences on the whole organism. (d) Diet - Change in diet can stimulate the whole system. (e) Simple Nature Cure System of water, air, sun, massage, etc. as support treatment. The second line of therapy is to work on the mind Mental disturbances can cause many diseases. (a) Relaxation - Both Mental and Physical. (b) Conditioning - Meditative postures to calm the mind and look at self. (c) Bhavanas contemplation. Yoga can help us in many ways to live a healthy life even under adverse circumstances physical, psychological

social and spiritual. Yoga recommends techniques for greater awareness and insight about our own personality and better functioning of the body, mind complex. Yoga explains that disease is ignorance. To live at peace with the outer world and ourselves we need to be in harmony from within. To seek this balance remains our worthwhile aim, for the future as has always been in the past. Yoga has claimed that tension is disease and relaxation is health. Yoga purifies both the body and mind complex. As we have seen the expression of the spirit increases in proportion to the development of the body and mind in which it is encased. So yoga prescribes methods to train and develop the physical body and mind. The highly trained body must be strong and healthy. Yogic teaching aims at developing concentration in sight into hidden realities, and to awaken the spiritual potentialities. As we go deeper into the realisation of the body mind complex one becomes subtler and that both act upon each other. By controlling the body we can control the mind and vice versa.

In the modern system of medicine the treatment is based on the symptoms of the problems. However in the present day it is been realised by all that the body and mind are very much related and any problem in one will lead to other and even the doctors prescribe yoga and its practices to release the tension, which are responsible for many of the problems. It has become very clear with experience that in order to control the body and mind, we have to first take the help of certain physical exercises and thus control the body first then train the mind after which concentration power increases and get the insight into our own self. This is where the Shat karmas come to our help which should be practiced on empty stomach in the morning before we do the asanas. These are the internal cleansing kriyas.