योग - एक जीवन पद्दति

 योग एक जीवन पद्दति है जिसका सम्बन्ध किसी धर्म, सम्प्रदाय एवं मत से न होकर सम्पूर्ण मानवता से है. यह कहना की यह केवल हिन्दू पद्दति अथवा Hindu way of life   है, त्रुटिपूर्ण है. इसाई धर्म में उपवास को महत्व देना, इन्द्रियो का दास न बनना, ईश्वर के अस्तित्व में विश्वास करना तथा सत्कर्म करते हुए परमेश्वर में विलीन हो जाना, योग ही है. जरथोस्ती धर्म का ‘अहुर वन’ – ईश्वर प्राप्ति की तीन प्रक्रियाये – ज्ञान, कर्म एवं मुक्ति – की साधना ही मनुष्य को मोक्ष का अधिकारी बनाती है. बौद्ध एवं जैन धर्म का आधार ही योग है जहाँ पर क्लिष्ट योग को आसान बना कर जा सामान्य को समझाया गया है. इस्लाम में नमाज केवल आसन एवं ध्यान पर आधारित प्रार्थना पद्दति है. पांच  समय का नमाजी प्रायः रोग मुक्त रहता है. कबीर का पूरा साहित्य ही योग पर आधारित होकर जन सामान्य को इसे अपनाने के लिए प्रेरित करता है. योग और प्राकृतिक चिकित्सा की व्याख्या अब्दुल रहीम खानाखान के निम्न दोहे से अच्छी और कहाँ हो सकती है :-

            रहिमन बहु भैषज करत व्याधि न छाडत साथ

            खग मृग बसत अरोग वन हरि अनाथ के नाथ

वन यानि प्राकृतिक वातावरण तथा हरि प्राकृतिक  शक्तियां – इनके अधीन, इनके प्रभाव में जो भी रहता है वह सदैव निरोग रहता अन्यथा अनेक प्रकार की औषधियां लेने एवं विभिन्न प्रकार की चिकित्सा कराने पर भी बीमारियाँ साथ नहीं छोड़ती  है.

इस प्रकार योग सम्पूर्ण मानवता की धरोहर है जिसका संबंध मात्र किसी विशेष धर्म अथवा सम्प्रदाय से न होकर अखिल विश्व समुदाय से है. मनुष्य के कष्टों का निवारण एवं कल्याण केवल और केवल योग जीवन पद्धति के अपनाने से ही संभव है.  

   

Acidity and cancer

Dr. Warburg was one of the leading biologists in the 20th century, and his study showed that acidity is the root cause of cancer. That means that the pH in the body is below 7.365, which is the normal level,and every value lower than this is considered to be acidic.

The doctor studied the metabolism of tumor cells and the respiration of cells and found that cancer cells survive in environment with a lower pH, as low as 6.0. The production of lactic acid and high levels of CO2 increase the acidity.

Dr. Warburg strongly believed that there was a direct connection between the pH value and the oxygen level. Any pH value higher than 7.365 is alkaline, is followed by a higher concentration of oxygen molecules, and lower pH value, which is acidic, means lower oxygen level… and healthy cells need that oxygen to survive.

In 1931 Dr. Warburg received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his amazing discovery. He outlined, “Cancerous tissues are acidic, whereas healthy tissues are alkaline. Water splits into H+ and OH- ions, if there is an excess of H+, it is acidic; if there is an excess of OH- ions, then it is alkaline”.

In his work, The Metabolism of Tumours, Dr. Warburg explained that “all forms of cancer are characterized by two basic conditions: acidosis and hypoxia (lack of oxygen). Lack of oxygen and acidosis are two sides of the same coin: where you have one, you have the other.” “All normal cells have an absolute requirement for oxygen, but cancer cells can live without oxygen – a rule without exception. Deprive a cell 35% of its oxygen for 48 hours and it may become cancerous.”

Dr. Warburg’s study showed that oxygen deficiency is the root cause of cancer, meaning that acidity increases as the levels of oxygen decrease. He also found that cancer cells are anaerobic (do not breathe oxygen) and cannot thrive in aerobic conditions, or in an alkaline state.

Yoga therapy is cure where we attain higher pH value by yogic diet and high level of oxygen through ‘pranayam’.

(Source-Healthy food house)

The physiology of ailments

The building unit of our body is cell. Again our body has an extreme fine balance of various chemicals and compounds. A homogenous group of cells is called tissue. Various tissues together form an organ and more than one organ make functional systems of the body like respiratory system, circulatory system, endocrine system, reproductive system, nervous system etc. The lungs, liver, kidney, pancreas, stomach, intestine, etc. are examples of organ whereas blood, skin, bone marrow etc. are tissues.

          The cell i.e. building unit of body, is made up of cytoplasm and nucleoplasm. The cytoplasm is encircled by cell membrane. The cell membrane is a selective permeable structure meaning only those material will pass inside and outside the cell which are essential for a particular cell. Thus cell maintain a fine balance of chemicals and compounds within itself.

          If under any circumstances, the selective permeability of cell is not maintained or altered or changed, the chemical balance of cell is disturbed and it fell sick. This is initial stage of disease development. All diseases or ailments start from the cell and when a sizeable number of cells become sick, the tissue is affected and which ultimately result in to sickness of organ. If the same trend continues, one or more systems of body is affected.

          It is important to note that in most of the diseases or ailments symptoms appear either at organ or system level or more later whereas disease initiates at cell level and proceeds unnoticed without causing any symptom. Sometimes, as in the case of cancer, the symptom appear in the last stage of disease development.

The yogic diet

Yogic diet concerns with the regulation of Diet as well as the regulation of Daily Habits involving the pattern of sleep, recreational activities and working habits. This helps in removing all those irritants that are responsible for the imbalance in the functioning of body-mind complex. A person rises to higher level of health only if he practices both positive diet and fastening. Eat only a natural food, adopt only natural life-style should be our motto. Human body is made up of the food what we eat. Food means five-fold food which contain all the five ‘pancbhutas’. The fruits and vegetables are the natural foods of the man. The man is basically fruitarian and requires one medicine i.e. balanced natural food. Food is medicine and medicine is food – the philosophy of Hippocratus is successfully practiced in ‘yogic therapy’.The whole aim seems to be to help maintain an adequate acid-base balance in the body that is conducive to assist a ready adaptability but neither add to an over irritability nor to lack of sensitivity.

The Naturopathy

Naturopathy is a system of curative science, which stimulates the innate power of the body to regain and sustain good health with the help of pancabhutas i.e. earth, water, air, fire and ether. It states that all healing power is within the body and insists on aiding the human system to remove the causes of diseases i.e. toxins, by putting out the unwanted matter from the body. It believes that all the diseases arise due to accumulation of morbid matter in the body and is cured by removing the morbid matter from the body.

          The methods of naturopathy include hydrotherapy, air therapy, fire therapy, space therapy, mud therapy, food therapy, massage therapy, acupressure, magneto therapy and chromo therapy.

          The results of hydro therapy depend on factors like temperature and duration of therapy. It can be employed in most of the disease conditions. Mud therapy is employed in treatment of various diseases like constipation, skin diseases etc. Mud is an old abhorrent, solvent and eliminator of toxins and it rejuvenate the body. In fire therapy different heating techniques are used to produce different specific effects on the body. Air therapy is employed with different pressures and temperatures for various types of disease conditions. Space therapy is applicable to avoid situations like congestion of body and mind. Acupressure is applied to get rid of the ailments, by creating pressures on different points situated on hands. Massage therapy is an effective substitute for exercise and is generally employed for tonic, stimulating and sedative effects. In magneto therapy, magnets of different powers and shapes are employed in treatment, by applying directly on different parts of the body or through charged up water or oil. In chromo therapy the energy of sun’s visible light rays is applied through irradiation of body.

(excerpts from my thesis) 

The Yoga

Yoga is ancient, traditional, science of India aiming at channelizing individual's energy, by uniting body, mind and spirit in such manner so that individual  attains  ‘samadhi’ i.e. unification with supreme. Therapy has never been a field of yoga in proper sense. Yoga signifies the ‘Integration’ at highest level i.e. unification of body, mind and soul. In order to achieve this goal, the psycho is cleaned by practice of ‘yama’ and ‘niyama’, and soma is made strong and sturdy by practicing ‘asanas’ and ‘pranayama’ so that body may withstand the enormous amount of energy released during the higher practices of yoga.

The ‘Practical discipline’ of yoga involves the practices of Asanas, Pranayama and Dhyana. Asanas involve the increased awareness of various physical and physiological processes influenced by controlled stretching, contraction and relaxation of various muscles, their co-ordination in balancing, during maintenance of posture. Pranayama practice similarly involves the manipulation of breathing mechanism along with the increased awareness of the pressure changes inside the cavities of chest and abdomen. Dhyana or the meditational practice increases the awareness of one's own mental processes including the thoughts, emotions, memory, etc. It can make one aware of how the constant restlessness at the level of mind contributes in the feeling of emotional stress, feeling of constant fear and insecurity. This increased awareness combined with the manipulative techniques of Dhyana practices, gradually restore the psycho-physiological functions back to its healthy, harmonious and balanced state of body and mind.

(excerpts from my thesis)

The interdependence of various appendages of Asthang Yoga of Patanjali

               The ashtang yoga of Patanjali is broadly divided in to two parts i.e Bahiranga Yoga and Antarang Yoga. The Bahirang Yoga consists of yama, niyama, asanas, pranayam and pratyahar whereas Antarang Yoga is  dharana, dhyan and Samadhi.

            Here a question arises that whether various appendages of bahirang yoga are inter-connected to each other or have no connection of any kind. Can we over step any stage and reach up to Samadhi i.e. final objective of yoga.

            As Patanjali described yamas are satya, ahinsa, asteya, aparigrh and brahmacharya whereas niyama are shauch, santosh, swadhyay, tapa and ishwar pran nidhana. A sadhak of yoga is supposed to begin with yama and niyama. The observance of principles of yama and niyama clean our psycho i.e. they have direct bearings on mental process of an individual. Our behavior is basically controlled by various psycho factors like sex, enmity, anger, love, greed, delusions, malice, partiality, pride, passions, jealousy, hate, sorrow, repentance, etc. Our mind and consequently body, both sharply react according to intensity of these manovikara and persistence of the manovikar ultimately leads to psycho-somatic disorders. If these negative emotions continue in our mind the dhyana is impossible.  Therefore before proceeding to higher stages of yoga one has to detach oneself from these baser emotions otherwise he will gain nothing.

            The asanas are the sitting poses. Their number equates with the animal categories living on the earth. However 84 asanas are important and 32 asanas are to be practiced daily. When we sit at asanas or a particular pose, the stress rests on specific part, organ, and tissue of the body. Thus every asana is linked with particular part of body where stress occurs.

Pranayam is the fourth appendage of Patanjali’s ‘ Ashtang Yoga.’  The shlok 49 of Sadhana Pad describes Pranayam as under:-

  II.49 tasmin sati svasa prasvasayoh gativicchedah pranayamah

            The pranayam is made up from the word prana and ayama. The ayama literally means dimension. Thus dimension to prana is pranayam. It is not mere breathing, inhaling, exhaling, or stops breathing, but systematic patterns of breathing where various dimensions are given to prana. The yoga shastra described eight types of pranayam i.e. suryabhedi, ujjayi, seetkari, sheetali, bhastrika, bhramari, moorchha, and plawini.

The ‘Prana’ means a type of universal-cosmic energy present in us. Our existence depends on certain definite level of energy-‘Prana’ in the body. In the Vedic literature term Prana is referred to the cosmic force. In fact Prana  is the oldest of all the terms used in the field of Yoga, e.g. in Kathopanisad we get the reference to the term ‘Prana’ as:

“Yadidam kin cha jagat sarvam Prana ejati nihsrtam.”

In this reference it is pointed out that the whole world owes its existence to the       vibrations of the ‘Prana’. Another term carrying the same meaning is ‘Spandana’. It also carries the same meaning as that of ‘Ejana’ i.e. vibrating, pulsating or radiating type of energy. So, in the word ‘Prana’ there is a concept of vibration, pulsation or radiation.

 It is the requirement of every cell, every organ, and every part of the body. Therefore it is mandatory that certain quantum of ‘Prana’ should reach to every corner of a cell. It is said that ‘Prana’ flows in the body through the intricate net of ‘Nadi’. ‘Nadi’system is very peculiar in human beings and all ‘Nadis’ originates from ‘Ida’, ‘Pingala’ and ‘Sushumna’. The ‘Prana’ flows within these ‘Nadi’ system and reaches to the most interior parts of a cell where it liberates energy in the presence of ‘Pran Vayu’. Without ‘Prana’ we are no more alive. We are declared dead as soon as ‘Prana’ leaves our body.

The Prana Vayu is not mere oxygen but all components of the universe which we inhale constitute Prana Vayu.

The ‘Prana’ is classified in two categories i.e. main prana and sub main prana. The ‘Pran’, ‘Apan’, ‘Udan’, ‘Vyan’, and ‘Saman’ are main ‘Pranas’ while ‘Devdatt’,  ‘Koormi’, ‘Kookar’ ‘Nrachi’ and ‘kripa’ come under sub main category.

  The prana and chitta are in constant contact with each other. They are like twins. The prana becomes focused where chitta is, and chitta where prana is. It is said that as long as the breath is still, prana is still, and hence the chitta is still. All types of vibrations and fluctuations come to a standstill when prana and chitta are steady and silent.

Our emotions control the breathing pattern. For instance if we are angry, we breath fast, long and ferociously. When we are cool, the breath is also cool and calm. The vice versa the breath control our emotions. For instance, if we do surya bhedi pranayam warmness comes in our body and very soon we start swatting. The sheetalee pranayam has the reverse reaction and it cools down us. The Swaroday Vigyaan further explains the phenomena that how breathing pattern control physiological, psychological and metabolical processes of our body and in turn our activities.

Now what happens when we sit on an asana. The particular part of our body gets stretched and the breathing pattern automatically changes accordingly. This can be witnessed if we stretch our right hand in front of us parallel to earth, we start inhaling from the pingala swar immediately and the ida swar start as soon as we stretch our left hand. Likewise when we sit on a particular asana our breathing pattern adjust accordingly.

Secondly when strain or stress comes in a particular part of body our dhyana is immediately diverted to that part and after sometimes stress or pain go away. Suppose we concentrate our dhyana on our fore hand for a few minutes initially we will feel some irritations and later on the feelings of lightness and weightlessness start appearing. This is because flow of prana start taking place in the direction of the hand and the portion of the body is specially energized and ultimately pain, stress, strains are over.

  The sitting on aasana, the particular part of the body is stretched and our dhyana reaches there immediately. The intensity and concentration of dhyana will in the proportion of observance of yama and niyama. If yama and niyama are not observed our mind will waver and flicker and we will fail in concentrating on a particular part of the body. Therefore flow of pranas in that particular direction could not be possible and stress or strain will continue.

  Thus it is evident that all steps of yoga ranging from pranayam to dhyana are compulsory for Samadhi and no step can be ignored or over stepped. By practicing asana daily the parana reaches and rejuvenate in all parts of the body and it remains perfect and healthy. Only a healthy body can withstand energy released during the process of Samadhi.