Photo Courtesy: Outlook India

Let me begin with a note: those who are suffering from any disease, may please consult your doctor first.

As is well known, BMI stands for Body Mass Index. BMI is the ratio of body weight and height. It is a popular index of overweight and underweight bodies. Popularly, below 25 BMI indicates underweight and above 30 BMI indicates high BMI.

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Multi- Billion Dollar Global Industry

Yoga which is incorrect pronunciation of ‘yog’ is now a multi-billion-dollar global industry. It is sold as weight loss therapy. The advertisements will show skinny babes and babas doing yog aasans (poses). Though originally, it had nothing to do with weight loss. It was to prepare your body to engage with high order thoughts. It was to do with disengagement from worldly objects and their fleeting emotional resultants happiness and unhappiness. It was a process of self- discovery to live a completely healthy and purposeful  life.

Multiple Varieties

Yog is today sold in multiple varieties, to differentiate my product from your product, like all detergent, pharma and media companies have been doing. So, you may come across hot yoga, sahaz yoga, goat yoga, stone yoga and what not.

Yog- The Finest Gift of India to Humanity

Yog has its origin from India. Yog is a Sanskrit/ Hindi word which means adding , that is mathematically plus sign.

Adding or joining what, with what?

Adding or joining or connecting your mind to the origin of all, that unmanifest entity, called by people in various era and ages, by various names like Parmatma, Aum, Ishwar, God, Allah, Vahe Guru. The process is also known as self-realization. That is why more often than not yoga is defined as a process of self-realization.

14 Components

According to Hindu scriptures, each human being is made up of 14 components, namely,

5 sense organs like eyes to see, skin to touch, nose to smell, ear to listen, tongue to taste.

5 action organs, namely, mouth, hands, feet, genitals and organs of ablution.

1 mind (cumulative reaction or engagement of sense organs with worldly objects)

1 intellect ( power to discriminate between what is good or bad for oneself and others)

1 Ego ( I am me, different and better than others)

1 Atma (soul, mirror image of origin of all, unmanifest, Parmatma)

All those components are mortal except Atma. So, some argued that our real self is Atma only. Therefore, a worthwhile goal of life is to realize who you are? You are truly Atma.

Yog- The Method and Mechanism

Yog was devised as a method and mechanism to realize that you are atma. It was realized by yog practioners that the nature of that atma is unmanifest like Parmatma (and all its other names) and therefore most logically a mirror image of Parmatma.

Patanjali way

Patanjali an authority on yog defined yog as “chit- vriti nirodha’ meaning ending all worldly engagements of mind (or stilling the mind) and thereby achieving oneness or engagement of mind only with the unmanifest, Parmatma. He said, it is difficult, but can be achieved by constant practice. To facilitate the process, it has been traditionally  advised to retire to secluded places. But retiring to secluded places or jungles is no guarantee of stilling the mind.

Why is it difficult to still the mind and gain oneness with Parmatma?

Hindu scriptures explain that when any of the 5 sense organs gets engaged with the worldly objects, it produces a desire in mind, to acquire what you find pleasant and repel away what you don’t find pleasant. That desire leads to an action. If the result of that action is as per desire of the mind, you become happy, else unhappy. So as long as your sense organs are intact, live, working and engaged with the worldly objects, your mind will not be still and left engaged only with Parmatma.

First Step- Close your Eyes as in Meditation

First step to disengage your mind from worldly object is to close your eyes. That is a way to shut out the world. But if you still listen with your ear, smell with nose, taste with tongue and feel touch by skin, your mind is still engaged with worldly objects. Retiring to secluded places was one way to disengage your senses from worldly ways and objects as commonly recommended. That is necessary but not sufficient.

Yog is essentially engaging your mind with the unmanifest Parmatma which you may do without retiring to secluded places. While living in this world and doing your daily chores, if you have realized that there are two realities of life. One is manifest as you see around you and the other is unmanifest, though doesn’t show up to you tangibly. You have realized your real self.

How Does it Help?

To realize that your real self is atma, that is the mirror image of Parmatma, helps you in day-to-day life. First you understand that life is made up of two spheres, manifest and unmanifest.

If you fail to achieve what you desired, you may lay blame on unmanifest, without offending anyone as no one likes to be blamed in this world. It leads to less frustration, less conflict. It is quite practical as we fail more often than succeed. Let us count how many job applications we sent and how many we made it.

In a lighter vein, when a well-educated, economically self-sufficient, young lady was asked why you want to marry? She said, I cannot blame God for everything. I need a husband also to blame.

A famous Shlok (verse) of Bhagvad Gita ‘ karmain vadhikaraste…’ essentially tells you that you have control on your action but not on the outcomes or results thereof (because outcome is a function of manifest and unmanifest realty of life, which is not in your control). You may have faced similar situations when you faced a job interview or contested an election.

Hath yog

You may have seen yog teachers and students engaging in complicated yog aasans (poses) and you might have been put off thinking those are not for me because you are not that skinny who can mold and fold your body like that character in advertisement.

Yog for high BMI

Whatever your BMI, you are as good to do yog as any other skinny babe or Baba.

You may not sit in cross legged lotus pose, you may start sitting in a chair with your spine straight.

To begin with just do two exercises and one prayer as follows:

First exercise: Inhale, exhale deeply as many times as comfortably.

Second exercise: close your eyes and observe your breathing for as long as you comfortably can.

Prayer: say, may be in your mind only, please God give me what is kalyanakari (suitable for my well being) for me.

Based on my experience, I promise you will progress amazingly on the path of yog by these simple steps. Time required may be 10 minutes to begin with. Gradually, you start enjoying the process and spending more time. 30 minutes is good enough to prepare you to do your day’s work energetically. As it makes you alert and energetic, you take less time to complete your tasks. It saves you time. It makes you efficient and effective.

For any concerns, comments, questions, experience sharing, you are welcome to write to: writetospp@gmail.com

End Note: those who are suffering from any disease, may please consult your doctor first.

Further Reading:

Yoga Practice Improves the Body Mass Index and Blood Pressure: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Ashutosh Chauhan, Deepak Kumar Semwal,¹ Satyendra Prasad Mishra,² and Ruchi Badoni Semwal³

Int J Yoga. 2017 May-Aug; 10(2): 103–106.

DISCLAIMER: The author is solely responsible for the views expressed in this article. The author carries the responsibility for citing and/or licensing of images utilized within the text.