Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
The word yoga means different things to different people. Some say it is asanas, some believe it is the spiritual path and some talk about the health benefits.
Yoga is not just a physical exercise or asanas. Yoga is a complete science. It unites the body, mind, spirit and the universe. Yoga brings that much needed peace in every individual. It also makes a big difference in one’s behaviour, thought pattern and attitude. I would say yoga is almost indispensible. If you want to be sane, sensitive, sensible, strong and intuitive you have to follow yoga.
The benefits of yoga are multi-fold. The first is that it improves your health. Yoga provides us tools and techniques to lead a stress-free and tension-free life. Yoga is also the greatest wealth of humankind. What is wealth? The purpose of wealth is to bring happiness and comfort. Yoga is wealth in the sense that it brings absolute comfort.
A violence-free society, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul is the birth-right of every individual. Parliaments all over the world are striving to achieve this goal of human existence – happiness! We all want happiness for our people and yoga is a way for that much-needed happiness factor in life. We think yoga is some sort of exercise. In the ’80s and ’90s, when I would tour Europe, yoga was not easily accepted in mainstream society. Today, I am glad that there is an awakening and people have recognised the importance of yoga. The world over, yoga has become synonymous with relaxation, happiness and creativity. Even big companies in their advertisements put people sitting in a yoga position or in meditation pose to depict inner peace. Whether we like it or not, we are all born yogis. You do not need a yoga teacher if you observe a baby. Any baby in the world, from the age of 3 months to the age of 3 years, does all the yoga postures. The breathing, the way they sleep, the way they smile, everything is yoga. A baby is a yoga teacher, a yogi. That is how a baby is stress free, there is happiness – it smiles 400 times in a day. Another important benefit of yoga is that it changes the behaviour of a person because behaviour depends on the stress level in a person. It creates a friendly disposition and a very pleasant atmosphere in people. Yoga helps to improve our vibes. We convey a lot through our presence, even more than our words. Speaking in terms of quantum mechanics, we are all emitting vibes or wavelengths. When communication breaks down, we often say ‘Our wavelengths don’t match’ because our ability to communicate depends on our ability to receive communication from others.
Here, yoga helps us to have that clear mind. Yoga also helps in developing skills within oneself. The propounder of yoga, Lord Krishna has said in the Bhagwad Geeta – ‘Yoga is skill in action.’ Yoga is not just an exercise, it is how skilfully you can communicate and act in any given situation. Innovation, intuition, skills, and better communication: all these are effects of yoga. Yoga always promotes harmony in diversity. The word yoga itself means uniting; uniting all diverse aspects of existence, of life. Now, whether someone is a businessman or a public figure or a private individual, we want peace, we want to smile, to be happy.
Happiness is only possible when we look into the root cause of unhappiness. Unhappiness is due to lack of vision, stress and tension. The European Union has been talking a lot about GDH. From GDP, we are moving towards Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH). Here is something that can aid that and be a very useful tool. A large percentage of our population today is suffering from depression. Just popping a Prozac or anti-depressants will not help. We need something that is natural, as natural as our breath, that we can use and elevate our spirit. The purpose of yoga is to put a smile on you in spite of all the stress, tensions, and situations we face in our day-to-day life.
In conversation with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
* Sometimes people talk about the mystic element of yoga? What is that mystic element?
If mysticism is explained it no longer remains mysticism. It is something to be experienced. Mysticism is something that keeps life alive and fills you with love and energy which lasts for lifetimes.
* Is meditation a part of yoga?
Meditation is definitely a part of yoga. Yoga has to be meditative; else it will just become an exercise, gymnastics.
* In the Bhagwad Geeta, Lord Krishna has said ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam’. What does that mean?
This means ‘yoga is skill in action’. Yoga and skill are synonymous; if you are skillful it means somewhere you have followed the principle of yoga. And if you are doing yoga, pranayama, meditation, and following all the yama niyamas you will definitely acquire skill in your action.
* What is that skill that makes a person a yogi?
The skill is to see how you keep your spirit uplifted, your energy not drained and yet your job gets done. This comes only by yoga. Usually when you do some work you tend to drain yourself. And by the time the fruit of action comes you are so exhausted that you are unable to enjoy it. So yoga is that skill which keeps your spirit alive, your energy high and yet brings you achievement.
* How does one detach oneself from the result of an action?
When you have lot of enthusiasm and energy you are in the present moment. You take things as they come. You are not expecting something. Your action is an expression of joy rather than expecting joy out of a result.
* You say yoga is not about exercise. This is a contrasting picture of yoga as the world knows it. So what is it all about?
No doubt, postures and exercises are part of yoga. But it should not be limited or misunderstood as just exercise. It is a holistic development, expression and connection of human life. Every baby is a yogi. A baby exhibits all the qualities of a yogi – its postures, breathing pattern, perceptual ability, sharpness and the ability to stay in the present moment.
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