Does Yoga hurt?
A few weeks ago, TIME Magazine had published an article titled “When Yoga Hurts” which had some alarming statistics about how yoga-related injuries were on the rise in the US.
It�mentioned how people were getting hurt by either pushing themselves too hard or by taking lessons from Yoga instructors who didnt know enough about it.�
Yesterday, I was alerted to two letters in�the latest issue of the magazine that referred to the original article. They make some good points which deserve wider publicity.�I am reproducing them in full below (emphasis mine).
The first one (“When it doesn’t hurt”) noted:
As a yoga teacher, I was taken aback by the article �When Yoga Hurts� [Oct. 15]. I fear its lack of balance might scare people away from a practice that offers far more benefits than drawbacks.
Yes, yoga�-like Spinning and running-can be harmful if practiced incorrectly, but its more than 5,000 year history and its millions of practitioners worldwide attest to its benefits.
Besides building strength and flexibility, yoga has been shown to have a positive effect on depression, anxiety, insomnia and core physiology.
-�Dave Emerson, Cambridge, Mass. US.
The second one (“Gain with No Pain?”)�mentioned:
Yoga in its original form is a multi-faceted, millenniums-old discipline that spans physical, ethical, psychological and spiritual dimensions.
In our mass-market Western world, those aspects of yoga have largely been jettisoned, and the physical is marketed as a hot new form of callisthenics.
Used skilfully, the physical element offer benefits such as enhanced flexibility, agility and body awareness.
Used unskilfully they can, not surprisingly-damage muscles and ligaments.
Wise practitioners will proceed gently and carefully under a good teacher and eventually look beyond physical to yoga�s deeper potentials.�
-�Roger Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Psychiatry Department
University of California College of Medicine, Irvine, Calif. US.
Well said.
Image by Jospeh Renger via Wikipedia
Nothing unexpected from Time Magazine, which has a steady record of being anti-Hindu and anti-India. For instance, by depicting J&K as a separate country:
Sandhya Jain’s article India’s dissident intellectual elite. In the Pioneer (16th July 2002)
“Readers will be aware that it is not uncommon to come across offensive references to ‘India-held Kashmir’ or even ‘India-claimed Kashmir’ in foreign newspapers, magazines and news channels. However, the Time magazine has of late been depicting Kashmir as a separate country, in maps as well as articles. The magazine simply takes no cognizance of the fact that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of India. This is surely a new low.
I pointed out that the preparation of a map showing Jammu & Kashmir as independent territory would have been done in America, where the magazine is printed. This implies a mischievous editorial policy, which cannot be easily ignored. I asked how long an Indian correspondent could last in the United States if his newspaper published a map showing Texas as a separate country?”
(Above used to be here:
http://sandhyajain.voiceofdharma.com/articles/20020716.htm
For now try here: http://www.hvk.org/articles/0702/128.html)
Of course, it isn’t just Time ragazine that did that, as CNN has also *repeatedly* done the same – http://www.ivarta.com/Cause/IC12_CNN_IndiaMap.htm
If anyone is upset by this, the least one can do is to never buy Time or add to CNN ratings.
Dear Sir,
Yoga is something divine. Please! Please! do not misunderstand me! I am not being “Hindu” I am being human.
When a person is happy he is supposed to be happy and when he is happy, his happiness spreads, and that is what I meant, when I said is divine.
I had to amplify it as otherwise the “Christian Hindus and the Muslim Hindus (Seculars), will come down on me like a pile of bricks.
So after amplifying that let me proceed. The western concept of yoga is as usual a fad. They think that it is only contorting the body and saying that I am doing yoga.
That is not Yoga. Yoga is something that you play with your mind. the contortions (Yogic Asanas) are only one portion, whereas it is also controlling the mind and helping your body to rejuvenate, both mentally and phycically. It is also a study of the mind, and a vigourous form of meditation.
If you play with it for the sake of fun you will get hurt. If you play with fire one will get hurt. That is the universal truth.
Again you must understand that Time, CNN, or any magazine for that matter is a lot of journalistic clap trap. How can the western mind concieve of a form of exercise which will rejuvenate a body while helping you mentally also?
Possibly the reason for their “Objective news” may lie in the fact that the could not monetise it by patenting it!! So what is the use of yoga for the rapacious and greedy western mind.
Get rid of it and they will find something else, in some other civilisation to make money from!
Regards,
vck
yoga is divine, it has no religion according to Swami Satyananda Saraswathi of the Bihar school of yoga.
It is a complete sadana in which one comes out of their shell and try to know about oneself.
It is the synthesis of the body and mind.
No yogic practise which is done without the advise of the guru lands the lay man ina soup.
Any freakish accident which might have been caused by the practitioner may have been blowed out of proportion.
This is the genesis theory of yoga hurts?
From the Age of Pathanjali to the modern day yoga has survived and has gone to a paradigm shift , but in essence the spirit of yoga continues.
Learn it from a guru and it never hurts.
srisailapathy.b.s.
Yoga is in the root of Sanatan Dharma, Vaidika dharma, Arya (noble) dharma, Hindu Dharma. Bhagavan Sri Krishna is the Yogeswara (Lord of the Yoga), as declared in the Bhagavad Gita. And Sri Krishna appear as avatar through His Yogamaya. Those who are devout Shiva worshipers, Shiva is the Yogeswara. Shiva in most poses sits in Yoga ashanas and this goes back to over atleast 10000 years (recent excavations from Mehergarh, Pakistan).
Hindu is a dharma, not a religion. Religion is a narrow dogmatic word, it is exclusive, it is secterian. Dharma is righteousness, it is inclusive, it is non-secterian. So, don’t confuse dharma with religion.
Yoga is one of the six core philosophies of Sanatan Hindu Dharma. Those who propagate Yoga has no relation with religion, they are right but in wrong way. As they wrongly compare religion with dharma. Yoga has everything to do with dharma, that is Sanatan Dharma.
Those who practice Yoga, are simply practicing Sanatan Hindu dharma. And they are fortunate to practice this Eternal dharma. These days some so-called Yoga-gurus and swamis go to west and say Yoga has no relation with Hindu religion just to please them and earn money and rewards.
Truth must be preached and taught boldly, and not hide under the pack of lies. Anyhow, truth will unfold itself.
Bharat
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