by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Panaji : The US military has adopted yoga into its training curriculum, Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik said on Monday.
“Western countries are showing much interest over yoga. In the US alone, nearly 20 million people are practicing yoga and these numbers are increasing by 5 per cent every year. The US military training has adopted yoga in its training curriculum,” Naik said while speaking at the inauguration of a two-day international yoga conference.
The Minister also said that countries in Europe had started recognising the benefits of yoga and that several modern medical institutes there had adopted yoga as an alternative treatment for many disorders.
“Yoga is growing more popular because of increasing lifestyle-related disorders and non-communicable diseases. Some of the non-communicable diseases are growing like an epidemic and there is an urgent need to check its growth.
“Yoga along with other drug-less systems were probably the only answer for preventing such epidemics,” Naik said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
M. Venkaiah Naidu
Mumbai : Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said that yoga adopts a holistic approach towards health and well-being and it has “nothing to do with religion”.
“Yoga adopts a holistic approach towards health and well-being,” Naidu said while participating in the Fourth International Yoga Day celebrations here.
“Yoga has nothing to do with religion and it is a holistic science embodying the basic principle of organic, interconnectedness of different facets of life,” he said.
“It is unfortunate that some people attribute religious overtones to this ancient scientific system.”
He emphasised that yoga should become a part and parcel of people’s daily routine to combat modern-day health problems, both physical and mental.
“There is also a misconception that yoga is only a sort of physical exercise meant to help the fitness of an individual… It is a holistic system where the mind and body act in unison and get completely rejuvenated as physical postures, breathing exercises and meditation help in overall well-being of an individual,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Akshar,
Smog, the choking threat which has landed the national capital in a pollution emergency, has been the cause of many respiratory problems in children and adults. When your daily commute feels like living on the edge, what are your other outdoor activities supposed to feel like?
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), it is dangerous to breathe when there is too much smog. Smog contains ozone particles, and elevated ozone levels can have a variety of negative effects on your lungs.
While it is advised to stay indoors when the air is toxic outside, a more practical solution would be to establish a habit of cleansing your respiratory organs through Yoga.
If Yoga has been shown to improve the quality of life of lung cancer patients, it could definitely do wonders against other respiratory issues. Here are a few asanas you could try to give you relief from chest congestion, respiratory flues and discomfort in breathing.
* Pranayama: This has proved beneficial for those suffering with bronchitis or lung congestion.
How to do it:
1. While performing pranayama one should make sure that his or her back is straight and should concentrate on the breathing.
2. Sahaj Pranayama, which is also called easy breathing, involves breathing a few times deeply.
3. Inhale through the nostrils for five counts and hold the breath for 10 counts.
4. Exhale through the mouth for 10 counts; this has to be repeated 10-12 times.
* Adho Mukha Svanasana: This posture strengthens the chest muscles and expands the lung region, increasing its capacity.
How to do it:
1. From table top position, tuck your toes, straighten your legs and lift your hips towards the ceiling.
2. Adjust your hands forward a bit, if necessary, and spread your fingers.
3. Keep your spine long, and your head and neck in line with your spine. Hold for one minute.
* Bhujangasana: This asana opens up the heart and lungs and gives them a good stretch.
How to do it:
1. Lie on your stomach; engage your back muscles in lifting your head and upper torso.
2. Align your elbows underneath your shoulders for support.
3. Open your chest and relax your shoulders away from your ears.
4. Look straight ahead and hold for one minute.
* Sukhasana: This heavy breathing seated position relieves yourself from stress, anxiety and exhaustion.
How to do it:
1. Sit erect, with the feet stretched out towards the front.
2. Now cross the legs in such a way that the knees are wide, shins are crossed, and each foot is placed under the knee. Knees must be bent, and legs should be tucked into the torso.
3. Feet must be relaxed, and the outer edges must rest on the floor while the inner edges must arch on the shins. Look down on your legs, must see a triangle formed by shins that are crossed and both the thighs.
4. Back must be balanced in such a way that the tailbone and the pubic bone are at equal distance from the floor.
5. Place the palms stacked up in your lap. Or you can also lay them on the knees palms up or palms down.
6. Elongate the tailbone, and firm up the shoulders. But make sure the lower back is not arched in such a way that it pokes the lower ribs forward.
* Marjari Asana: This involves deep breathing, which in turn expands the lungs and boosts blood circulation.
How to do it:
1. Begin with Adhomukhi Swanasana
2. Lean forward and place your knees down on your mat
3. Inhale, look up and relax
4. Inhale as you drop your knees
5. While navigating back, shift the body weight from the knees to palms and feet.
(Akshar is founder and course director of Bengaluru’s Akshar Yog. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at akshar@aksharyoga.com )
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News, Opinions
If RSS and other Hindutva organisations are so concerned about health and about religious morality, they should pressurise the government to observe an anti-drinking day. Let drinkers break their bottles on that day, and let the alcohol flood the canals of Delhi and Mumbai. Muslims will just love it, as it will remind them of the day when the companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) broke all the wine bottles iun Medina following the revelation of the verse of Quran banning alcohol.
Dr.Javed Jamil
With the celebrations for Yoga Day beginning soon, what needs to admitted is that Prime Minister Modi has been successful in combining His agenda of Hindu nationalism and corporatisation. Yoga Day will mark a milestone in the global corporatisation of Yoga. If the Government has made every attempt not to let the Day become victim of Hindu-Muslim divide with concessions on Surya Namaskar and chanting of Aum, it is less about respecting the sensitivities of Muslims and more about the demands of the large scale corporatisation of Yoga. Corporatisation always wants to expand its reach, and therefore avoids any kind of conflicts related to its products. If Modi has in recent times tried to woo Muslims through Ramadhan greetings and meetings with some Muslim representatives, it is also aimed at bringing unity on the cause of Yoga. Reasons may be right or wrong, but the Government has certainly looked to avoid divisions in society on the eve of the World Yoga Day. If he was seen inking it with Hindu religion, there was always a danger of many countries walking out of the celebrations and subsequent support to Yoga Market in their lands.
But if Yoga is about health, and the government is so much concerned about health, why not ban practices that destroy lives and bring diseases of all kinds to human bodies? The reason lies in the corporatisation of health system, which keeps economic interests ahead of health. In my book, “Quranic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Volume: Dynamic Paradigm of Health), I have compiled huge statistics to show how first the problems are commercialised, and then their solutions are commercialised.
Take the example of Alcohol. In my above mentioned book, I have shortlisted its effects on human lives:
“World wide, alcohol accounts for more than 2.5 million deaths15.
- According to Global Burden estimates, the extent of worldwide psychoactive substance use is estimated at 2 billion alcohol users, 1.3 billion smokers and 185 million drug users.
- In an initial estimate of factors responsible for the global burden of disease, tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs contributed together 12.4% of all deaths worldwide in the year 2000. Looking at the percentage of total years of life lost due to these substances, it has been estimated that they account for 8.9%16.
- In developing nations, alcohol ranks as the fourth cause of disability among men.
- Deaths attributable to alcohol form 1.3 percent for developed regions and 1.6 percent for developing regions.
- ‘The Global Burden of Disease’ study estimated that, in 1990, alcohol was responsible for 3.5 percent of the world’s total disability-adjusted life-years lost. This exceeds the tolls taken by tobacco (2.6 percent) and illicit drugs (0.6 percent) combined17. Among men, alcohol is the leading cause of disability in industrialised countries and ranks fourth in causing disabilities in developing countries (WHO, 1999).
- In industrialised nations, 14.3 % and in developing nations, 4.4% of total disability adjusted life years are lost.
- There are countries with alcoholics in the range of 10-36 % of total population. (Remember that alcoholic means an alcohol-dependent person, not the persons who take alcohol irregularly.)
- Cirrhosis is one of the ten leading causes of death in Mexico. Among men between the ages of 35 and 45, it is the number one killer18. In Mexico, Venezuela R.B., Argentina, and Trinidad and Tobago, cirrhosis deaths among men are as much as three times higher than the deaths among women.
- In 2002, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that 35 percent of all traffic deaths occurred in crashes in which at least one driver or non-occupant had a BAC of 0.08 percent or more and that any alcohol was present in 41 percent of all fatal crashes in 2002.
- Percent of traffic fatalities attributed to alcohol19
Chile 1970 46% (male traffic deaths)
Colombia 990s 60%
Costa Rica 1990s 46%
Peru 1990s 50%
- Alcohol was estimated to cause 41 percent of suicide cases among men in Australia, compared to only 16 percent among their female counterparts.
- Selected Health Issues by Alcohol Attributable Fractions20
Health issue Australian Canadian
Male Female Male Female
Liver cancer 0.18 0.12 0.29 0.16
Breast cancer – 0.03 – 0.04
Unspecific
liver cirrhosis 0.54 0.43 0.54 0.54
Chronic
Pancreatitis 0.84 0.84 0.84 0.84
Spontaneous
abortion – 0.04 – 0.20
Road injuries 0.37 0.18 0.43 0.43
Fall injuries 0.34 0.34 0.24 0.15
Fire injuries 0.44 0.44 0.38 0.38
Drowning 0.34 0.34 0 30 0.23
Suicide 0.41 0.16 0.27 0.17
Assault 0.47 0.47 0.27 0.27
- Drinking, along with poor condom use and sex with prostitutes, was found to increase by a factor of 15.6 the soldiers’ risk of acquiring sexually transmitted diseases21 More than a quarter (26 percent) of the women seeking counselling services in the urban areas of Mexico reported that their partners’ abusive behaviours were fuelled by intoxication (Ramirez and others, 1992). In the Solomon Islands, 32 percent of family violence offences were related to problem drinking (McDonald, 1995). Even higher rates were found in South Africa: 67.4 percent of domestic violence cases in Cape Town and 76.4 percent in rural areas involved alcohol use (Parry, 1995).
- In both Canada and Australia, 16 percent of child abuse cases could be attributed to alcohol. In Japan, 20 percent of abused children had alcoholic parents, and in Hungary 8.6 percent of child abuse cases in 1994 involved alcohol (Fekete, 1996). Alcohol has also been associated with a high proportion of child abuse cases in the UK (30 percent) and Norway (50 percent) (Moser, 1992).
- Alcohol use disorders present serious problems for the interpersonal relationships, health, and productivity of employed men and women. Of the $117 billion estimated as the economic cost of alcoholism and alcohol abuse in the United States in 1983, nearly $71 billion (61 percent) was attributed to lost employment and reduced productivity22.
- A new study finds that excessive alcohol consumption cost the United States $223.5 billion in 2006, or about $1.90 per drink. 23
- World-wide Deaths Attributable to Alcohol
Cause Total Pc Total
Of death deaths alcohol related alcohol deaths
Motor Vehicle 214,208 50 107,104
Accidents
Oesophagus Cancer 805,980 75 604,485
Liver Cancer 488,060 15 73,209
Alcohol Dependence 279,930 100 79,930
Syndrome Cirrhosis 2,094,110 50 1,047,055
Total 2,111,783
Some of the findings of a research report entitled, “ALCOHOL-ATTRIBUTABLE MORTALITY IN A HIGH PER CAPITA CONSUMPTION COUNTRY — GERMANY” by Ulrich John and Monika Hanke are startling. The report says:
- Based on data from Europe, increases or decreases of 1 litre of pure alcohol in the per capita consumption were estimated to be associated with increases or decreases of 1.3% in all-cause mortality rates (Her and Rehm, 1998)
- On this basis, for the USA, 4.5% of the total mortality was estimated to be alcohol-attributable (McGinnis and Foege, 1999)
- Restricted to middle adult age (36–64 years), in France, the rates are 19.1% of all male and 13.0% of all female death cases (Zureik and Ducimetière, 1996)
- Alcohol-related disease, accounting for 25% of the total mortality in males and 13% in females, is a substantial part of the total mortality in the most productive part of adult life.
In males, the median age at death in all alcohol-attributable cases is 7 years and in AAM1 cases 15 years below that of the male general population. In females, the median age at death in all alcohol-attributable cases is 10 years and in AAM1 24 years below that of the female general population.”
In India alone, apart from alcohol related deaths due to diseases, more than half of the deaths in road accidents are attributed to drunken driving.”
Why then not ban alcohol altogether. But this will not happen because alcohol market is one of the biggest of all markets in the world. Instead of banning alcohol, rehabilitation centres and hospitals treating alcohol related diseases are what swuits the market driven world.
If Yoga is being so sincerely pursued by Indian government, the answer lies not in their concern for health but their concern for the corporate gurus which are seeing huge market potential in Yoga.
An article on the increasing fondness of Americans for Yoga says,“A 2002 survey of Americans showed that more than half the population expressed an interest in practicing yoga, and a 2004 news report claimed that there were nearly 15.5 million yoga practitioners in the country. Nearly 77% of the practitioners of yoga are women, and half of the yoga enthusiasts have a college degree.
In the small college where I teach in rural Virginia, at which participation in at least one form of physical education is required, yoga classes are the first to fill up – not aerobic dance, not fitness walking, and certainly not weightlifting. Yoga Journal, the most popular magazine for yoga enthusiasts, now has a paid circulation of 350,000 and a readership of more than 1,000,000. Yoga has indeed been embraced by Americans.
But as yoga became more popular, and as the industry grew to be worth nearly $6bn, and as a variety of savvy marketers begin branding their “special” yoga techniques, it was hard not to notice that few yoga teachers and journals mentioned the origins of the practice and its connection to Hinduism. Yoga was “secularised” to rid it of any taint of a “pagan” tradition. The practice, the savvy marketers claimed, was “a spiritual path, but not a religious one”, to calm the committed Christian who wanted to hang on to Jesus while doing the “surya namaskara” (obeisance to the sun).” http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/dec/02/yoga-hindu-rebranded-wrongly
An article, entitled, “How Yoga became a $27 Billion Industry — and Reinvented American Spirituality” says: “In the more than 40 years since Khalsa (the firs Yoga Master in the USA to market it) opened his school, he has watched as yoga in America has evolved from a niche activity of devout New Agers to part of the cultural mainstream. Dozens of yoga variations can be found within a 1-mile radius of his studio in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, from Equinox power yoga to yogalates to “zen bootcamp.” Across America, students, stressed-out young professionals, CEOs and retirees are among those who have embraced yoga, fueling a $27 billion industry with more than 20 million practitioners — 83 percent of them women. As Khalsa says, “The love of yoga is out there and the time is right for yoga.”
“Perhaps inevitably, yoga’s journey from ancient spiritual practice to big business and premium lifestyle — complete with designer yoga wear, mats, towels, luxury retreats and $100-a-day juice cleanses — has some devotees worrying that something has been lost along the way. The growing perception of yoga as a leisure activity catering to a high-end clientele doesn’t help. “The number of practitioners and the amount they spend has increased dramatically in the last four years,” Bill Harper, vice president of Active Interest Media’s Healthy Living Group, told Yoga Journal.
More than 30 percent of Yoga Journal’s readership has a household income of over $100,000. As American yoga Master Rodney Yee remarked at a 2011 Omega Institute conference, compromising the authenticity of the practice and ignoring its traditions is “ass-backwards.” “It dumbs down the whole art form,” he said.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/16/how-the-yoga-industry-los_n_4441767.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in
With World Day for Yoga, the big industrialists must be having big plans to market Yoga and all its products, from clothes to juices in all countries, especially Western countries. Prime Minister Modi is an ideal partner. What else can be of greater importance to him than something, which combines his love for corporates and Hinduism? It will be pertinent to argue here that if Suryanamaskar was removed from the programme, it was not in respect to Muslim apprehensions, as has been publicised by the government, but to make sure that the marketing of Yoga in Christian-dominant West and other countries where some other religions are dominant, does not face any problems.
If RSS and other Hindutva organisations are so concerned about health and about religious morality, they should pressurise the government to observe an anti-drinking day. Let drinkers break their bottles on that day, and let the alcohol flood the canals of Delhi and Mumbai. Muslims will just love it, as it will remind them of the day when the companions of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) broke all the wine bottles iun Medina following the revelation of the verse of Quran banning alcohol.
- Dr Javed Jamil is India based thinker and writer with over a dozen books including his latest, “Quranic Paradigms of Sciences & Society” (First Vol: Health), “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet Not Enough” and “Muslim Vision of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”. Other works include “The Devil of Economic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of the Divine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam means Peace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”. Read more about him at http://www.worldmuslimpedia.com/dr-javed-jamil. Fcaebook page: https://www.facebook.com/javedjamil2015. He can be contacted at doctorforu123@yahoo.com or 91-8130340339.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, News, Opinions
Abdul Rashid Agwan
By Abdul Rashid Agwan for Maeeshat
The popular Yoga has generated several debates and created many myths in India and elsewhere as regards its veracity, universality and utility, when the United Nations General Assembly declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga on the suggestion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On the occasion of global celebrations of this day, with the main function in India on Rajpath in New Delhi, it seems pertinent to take stock of the whole concept of Yoga in its totality.
In his speech in the UN Assembly on 27 September 2014, the proposer of the day, Modi, said, “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness within yourself, the world and the nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us deal with climate change. Let us work towards adopting an International Yoga Day.” An examination of his statement makes it clear that he put many unrelated concepts and words together to underline utility of Yoga, right from unity of mind and thought to climate change. It is the same way in which the whole concept is being popularized by the advocates of Yoga.
21 June has been consciously chosen. It coincides with the death anniversary of the founder of RSS Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar. However, the argument floated in the UN in this regard was that 21 June is the longest day of the year being Summer Solstice and as such has great significance in many parts of the world. The global community agreed to the obvious justification.
Those who have some knowledge about Yoga can comprehend well what is understood in the popular parlance as ‘Yoga’ is not Yoga at all but only Asana (postures) which make only one component of the eight ones, taught by Patanjali in Yoga-Sutras. In fact, debate on Yoga is focusing on different Asana used in the exercise, popularly called as Yoga. The Ashtang Yoga of Patanjali (The Eight Limbed Yoga) comprises Yama (abstention), Niyama (observance), Asana (body posture), Pranayam (controlling breadth), Pratyahara (withdrawal of senses from the external world), Dharna (concentration of mind on one object), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi (oneness with the object of meditation). Evidently, only the third component of the Patanjali Yoga has been propagated as the Yoga in popular memory, whereas as it requires many things else.
Patanjali Yoga prescribes abstention and observance of some acts as essential for a Yogi. Important Yama integers for practicing Yoga are non-violence, truth and non-possessiveness. However, it is of common observance that those who are untiringly arguing for Yoga are some of the most violent sections in the country. So it denotes a mismatch of their claims and practices as regards Yoga. They also believe in the usefulness of false propaganda for achieving some material gains instead of stressing on the prevalence of truth and have hoards of wealth and properties while contradicting with the condition of non-possessiveness.
Out of the five Niyama one is Ishvara Pranidhana, i.e. complete surrender to God. The adherents of Yoga can be seen in India as the strong upholders of polytheism rather than being monotheists. Even the clear meaning of Ishvara Pranidhanam is sometimes distorted to suit the needs of nature worship. A number of well known yogis in the country consider Muslims as the enemies of their culture although Islam perfectly teaches complete surrender to the Almighty.
The condition of complete surrender to the Almighty God in the Patanjali Yoga is contradicted by the practitioners of Yoga who include Surya Namaskar as its integral part. Definitely the Sun is not a divinity in itself but just a creation of God and cannot be part of the object of reverence and meditation during Yoga. The words used in various postures of Surya Namaskar such as Savitri, Mitra, Ravi, etc in reverence are actually synonyms of God’s divine light and not of the sun. The first use of the root of word “yoga” in hymn 5.81.1 of the Rig Veda, is wrongly interpreted as a dedication to the rising Sun-god in the morning (Savitri). The very verse rejects this belief.
Arvindo interpreted the said verse like this, “The illumined yoke their mind and they yoke their thoughts to the illuminating godhead, to the vast, to the luminous in consciousness; the one knower of all manifestation of knowledge, he alone orders the things of the sacrifice. Great is the praise of Savitri, the creating godhead.” It is evident here that sun cannot be considered as the “knower of all manifestations of knowledge” being a non-living thing. Therefore, the understanding of the word “Savitu” in the verse can only lead to the one Who illuminates the entire world with billions of stars in billions of galaxies, including the star of our own solar system. The wrong inference of the verse points to the utter confusion of the bogey of Surya Namaskar in gripping with the real object of mediation in Yoga.
The essence of a complete Yoga is said to be the discovery of “I-am ness”, i.e. the feeling that ‘I’ exist. However, this discovery is not of much use in navigating through the worldly path. We all know that ‘WE’ exist. The key issue is why we exist? This can be informed only by the One Who created us with all love and compassion or by systematic investigation of the worldly facts. Unfortunately, the popular Yoga deviates people’s mind from this very question.
