The image that most readily comes to mind at the mention of the word ‘yoga’ is that of people stretching or holding their body in various postures.
Yoga is a good way to improve one’s flexibility and strength, and just about everyone can do it. Yoga is much more than physical postures or breathing techniques; it is a holistic discipline that leads to not only a healthy body, but also a strong mind and an empowered soul.
In the Bhagwad Gita, a treatise on yoga, Krishna tells Arjuna, “Perform action being steadfast in yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called yoga.”
Later on, Krishna says: “Endowed with wisdom -- evenness of mind -- one casts off in this life, both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote thyself to yoga; yoga is skill in action.”
If the mind and soul are stabilised, the choices one makes, and the actions one performs, will naturally be beneficial for the body.
The root of most physical ailments is deficiencies in the form of vices such as lust, anger, gluttony and laziness. Medical scientists acknowledge that more than 80 per cent of all diseases are psychosomatic, that is, they are caused or aggravated by a mental condition.
When vices exert great influence, the person’s actions and lifestyle will tend to lead to diseases. Yoga, when practised in its entirety, strengthens the very foundations of health by making the soul the master of the body and ruler of the senses.
The Gita says, “The senses are superior (to the body); superior to the senses is the mind; superior to the mind is the intellect; and superior even to the intellect is the Self.”
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