Yoga for Health, Happiness and World Peace-4. Sri Swami Chidananda

16/02/2018

It is said that it is much better to avoid getting your clothes dirty by not going into a dirty place, rather than getting your clothes dirty and later on having to come home and wash them with soap, hot water and clean them. If you kept off from dirt and kept your clothes clean, there will not be any necessity of this process. In the same way, Dato’ K. Padmanaban Ji, said, you all know that prevention is better than cure. Rather stay healthy and prevent disease than become ill and try to get yourself treated to get cured of your illness. He said that in this ancient science of Yoga, we have a preventive system of avoiding falling ill and keeping healthy; and in this context, he had an interesting point to make that great many of the really serious types of modern illness that twentieth century man is subject to (which are even called killer diseases that take away human life more than many other types of illnesses) have their origin in tension and stress.

Stress and tension lead to high blood pressure and with high blood pressure one can suddenly be afflicted by symptoms similar to a stroke and have partial paralysis, lose the use of limbs and speech even though there is no cerebral haemorrhage or embolism. But yet they almost have the same result. You all know that high blood pressure is also very bad to the central nervous system. Stress, strain, anxiety and tension can also give one stomach ulcers, insomnia and also bring about non-allergy types of asthmatic attack. There is no known system to deal with it in a positive manner. Therefore, the modern doctor gives sedatives or tranquillisers or barbiturates of various kinds like Valium and Diazepam. So this is symptomatic treatment; not going to the root of things.

Dato’ K. Padmanaban Ji made a point by saying that Yoga had unique benefits of bringing about a state of total relaxation. Yogasanas and also Pranayama bring about relaxation and a reduction of stress and tension. It is called Yoganidra, the art and science of absolute relaxation. How do they bring this about? That is another interesting point. You all know the general Latin adage: ‘A sound mind in a sound body’. The ancients knew exactly why it is so. How is it that body and mind, body being physical and gross and mind being subtle and invisible, have a point of relationship? How is it that they are inter-related and interact upon each other?

To be continued ...