Imbibe yoga in our daily lives for our physical and spiritual perfection.
By Rakesh Agrawal
On the occasion of the second International Yoga Day, the entire world, especially India, is going gaga over this ancient Indian form of self realization as a multi-dimensional approach of attaining higher consciousness as it means yog (addition) where an individual united the principles of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), brahmacharya (continence), aparigraha (non-possession) and aterya (non-stealing) to unite atman (self) to the parmatma (Universal Self). Yoga, without these principle, is just a form of physical exercise that is promoted today through high decibel demonstrations.
However, even this form of yoga as it is widely practiced all over the world, is a synthesis of art and science as explained by Siegfried Bleher who holds a PhD in physics from the University of Maryland and is a certified Intermediate Junior II Iyengar Yoga instructor.
He mentions that people initially take refuge to yoga for help for a physical ailment, or hoping for mental tranquility. But, yoga is a multilayered and integral part of our lives.
Yoga as Science is the technique, or the method of practice, and there is the underlying theory. The method of practice of Iyengar Yoga includes at least the following elements: linking, sequencing, timing, alignment, and the iterative nature of refining a pose and the information I generate as a practitioner, which is mostly subjective, may or may not satisfy the needs of an empirical study of the benefits of yoga. And, although empirical studies generate valid and reproducible information about the benefits of yoga for various conditions
And yoga is also an art as good art inspires and yoga inspires us to search for our best and develops a mathematical way of conceptualizing our multidimensional nature: artwork that has a greater dimensionality tends to appeal to more aspects of the self than artwork that has lower dimensionality.
So, yoga is both an art as it inspires and a science as it illuminates.
(See: Iyengar Yoga National Association of the United States
https://iynaus.org/yoga-samachar/fall-2009winter-2010/art-and-science-of-yoga)
Also, as meditation is an integral part of yoga, there exists a perfect science of meditation . Yoga meditation science deals with all levels of ones being, and provides a vast array of detailed explanations and practices and provides a blueprint for the architecture of consciousness, and a roadmap to the center of consciousness. Meditation also goes alongside music as a professional musician practices the art and the science of music, so does a yogi who practices meditation for his soul cleansing (see: traditional yog and meditation of the Himalayan masters http://www.swamij.com/yoga-meditation-what-artscience.htm )
Hence, on this International Yoga Day, let’s go beyond the high voltage public theatrics and imbibe yoga in our daily lives for our physical and spiritual perfection.