Lokaha samastaha sukhino bhavantu’ – May all beings in every space experience happiness.

On this International Day of Yoga, I will try to address yoga, its relevance to the youth, its benefits, its role in bringing unity and harmony among individuals as well as in the universe, and the importance of ashtanga yoga – that is, the eight limbs of Patanjali Yoga.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his address to the UN General Assembly in September 2014, had asked world leaders to adopt an international Yoga Day, saying “Yoga embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. Yoga is not just about exercise; it is a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world, and the nature.

For millennia, our ancient Rishis have recognized the importance of controlling or subduing the mind in order to live a peaceful, harmonious, and unified life. Because the mind is the most difficult to restrain, control or silence.

Paramahansa Yogananda recognized the difficulty and compared the controlling mind with impossible incidents as follows:

“You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may learn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk in water and live in fire;
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.”

If the mind is that difficult to control, what can be done to quell, still or silence the mind. Patanjali Yoga Sutras written sometime between 500 BCE and 400 BCE. It contains four chapters containing 195 Sutras (aphorisms). The whole book hinges on the second sutra “yogah citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ.”(“Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind”). Yoga means of “joining the individual soul to the universal soul” or removing the barriers between the two souls to become one.

Yoga establishes harmony between mind, body, and spirit. It is joining the inner and outer nature. A person who does not possess physical, mental, spiritual, and social well-being is a danger for himself and society as well.

Yoga is that single universal principle which balances the entire universe. All elements, visible and invisible, as well as all stars, moons and sun systems, are entirely sustained by the balancing principle of Yoga.” Swami Maheshwarananda

Yoga and Meditation have many positive effects on physical and mental health, reduce stress and anxiety, improve educational achievements, mental growth, school performance and many such advantages.

In Cambridge University Swami Vivekananda explained concisely the nature of Raja Yoga: “Yoga is the science by which we may stop Chitta from assuming or becoming transformed into several faculties. As the reflection of the moon on the sea is broken or blurred by the waves, so is the reflection of the Atman, the true Self, broken by the mental waves. Only when the sea is stilled to mirrorlike calmness, can the reflection of the moon be seen, and only when the “mind-stuff,” the Chitta, is controlled to absolute calmness, is the Self to be recognized.”

Edwin Bryant states that, to Patanjali, "Yoga essentially consists of meditative practices culminating in attaining a state of consciousness free from all modes of active or discursive thought, and of eventually attaining a state where consciousness is unaware of any object external to itself, that is, is only aware of its own nature as consciousness unmixed with any other object."

Mayo Clinic asks a question, “is yoga right for you?” It says, “It is if you want to fight stress, get fit and stay healthy”. Numerous studies have well documented the wealth of information on the health and spiritual benefits of yoga. Yoga is credited with the reduction of stress and anxiety while at the same time it enhanced the mood and overall well-being. It helped reduce risk factors for chronic diseases, such as heart diseases and high blood pressure, alleviated chronic conditions such as depression, pain and insomnia. It is attributed to improved balance, flexibility in mind and body, range of emotions and strength. Benefits also include muscle strength and tone, improved respiration, energy and vitality, weight reduction, improved athletic performance and increased blood flow.

5347656630. The study conducted by Davidson at the University of Wisconsin revealed that consistent yoga practice led to a significant increase in the serotonin levels and a decrease in the levels of monoamine oxidase (an enzyme that breaks down neurotransmitters) and cortisol. He also reported that the left prefrontal cortex showed heightened activity in meditators, a finding that has been correlated with greater levels of happiness and better immune function. More dramatic left-sided activation was found in dedicated, long-term practitioners.

The NIH's Center for Complementary and Integrative Health says that yoga – like any exercise – "might improve quality of life; reduce stress; lower heart rate and blood pressure; help relieve anxiety, depression, and insomnia; and improve overall physical fitness, strength, and flexibility." The center also says "a carefully adapted set of yoga poses" may ease lower back pain.

School Yoga

Jessica Mei Gershen, a certified yoga instructor who teaches yoga to children at Brooklyn Yoga Project and founder of Yoga For All Needs, recommends making yoga playful and fun for kids, whether in the classroom or at home. In her yoga classes, Gershen weaves in fun games and stories with positive themes like compassion, gratitude, and strength.

“Yoga is really effective because it’s so tangible. Learning physical postures builds confidence and strength as well as the mind-body connection,” Gershen says. She also has found that the effects of yoga go beyond physical fitness and also allow kids to build confidence and awareness beyond the classroom. “Through yoga, kids start to realize that they are strong and then are able to take that strength, confidence, acceptance, and compassion out into the world,” notes Gershen.

Yoga will help the youth to improve fitness and physical health, reduce stress and anxiety, improve optimism, improve focus, and school performance, improve self-esteem and body image, encourage creativity, improved attention span, improved memory, overall academic improvement, and develop discipline and self-regulation,

“If you practice yoga every day with perseverance, you will be able to face the turmoil of life with steadiness and maturity” Iyengar BKS. Yoga: The Path to Holistic Health. London: Dorling Kindersley Limited; (2008).

In a recent book on yoga education in India, the author claims that “in a nutshell, yoga is a powerful medium for developing the personality of children and making them capable of facing the present-day challenges and problems” [(15), p. 3]. In her review article, “Effect of Yoga on Mental Health in Children,” one of the world’s most prominent yoga researchers, Shirley Telles, concludes that yoga improves children’s physical and mental well-being (16). Similarly, the Harvard professor Sat Bir Khalsa (17) finds that yoga in schools helps students improve resilience, mood, and self-regulation skills pertaining to emotions and stress. Thus, yoga is an important life skill tool for children and young people to cope with stress and self-regulation from a life-long perspective.

Research has concluded that Yoga's impact on physical and mental health has been established in ancient Indian literature as well as contemporary yoga literature. It appears that yoga would help you to develop self-esteem, self-disciple, self -development and self-reflection.

“Yoga means balance, harmony and unity. Universal balance, Harmony of body, mind and soul and Unity of the individual consciousness with the cosmic consciousness. The ancient science of Yoga readily equips humans to reinstate world peace, environmental sustainability, as well as harmony between individuals, communities, religions, and nations. In modern times, Yoga has unfortunately come to mean only physical exercise or posture, however that is only one aspect of this ancient science, the others are neglected. The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word ‘Yoga’ meaning union.

The word Yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word “yuj”- meaning to yoke, join or unite. It embodies the unity of body, mind, and spirit; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; and harmony between man and nature. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with oneself, the world and nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help in bettering our well-being. It is the integration of one’s thoughts, words, and actions to create a sense of wholeness. It is about exploring one’s inner world and becoming more aware of the world around us. By the practice of Yoga, our consciousness expands as wide as the universe and far beyond. All the systems of Yoga practiced up to now had almost the same goal and purpose.

Yoga for the Special Child, developed by Sonia Sumar, is designed to enhance the natural development of children with disabilities. The gentle and therapeutic style of yoga can be used for both babies and children with disabilities. Yoga for the Special Child incorporates yoga poses to increase flexibility and strength with breathing and relaxation techniques to increase focus and reduce hyperactivity.

A healthy body and mind are important for the development of all children. At all grade levels, from preschool through high school, students have shown improved academic and behavioral performance when yoga has been introduced in the school. The Association for School Yoga and Mindfulness continues to advocate for the inclusion of students with disabilities in school yoga programs, emphasizing, once again, that physical activity (yoga, in this case) is for everybody.

Yama and Niyama

Yama gives momentum to the development of a disciplined society. Yama is basically concerned with the social behavior of an individual. It underlines the social code of conduct for an individual, whereas Niyama underlines the personal code of conduct for an individual. Today persons violating personal and social code of conduct are involved in various self-centered behaviors. They are basically concerned with their own selfish ends and have nothing to do with personal and social values. They are not able to think beyond their selfish ends. The result is what we are witnessing everywhere in society as social diseases and social evils like corruption, crime, cheating, violence, terrorism, rape, sexual harassment etc. our media are over flooded with such news and views. The application of Yama and Niyama can play a major role in eradicating these social evils.

As a part of Yoga training for school children, we should emphasize the importance of Yama and Niyamas along with other limbs of Yoga. Yama teaches us to learn to believe and practice non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-possessiveness. Through Niyamas, they learn about cleanliness and purity of thought, word, and deed; contentment, inner abundance, and happiness; austerity to destroy impurities; Svadhyaya to find out the relationship between you and the divine; and surrender yourself to the Supreme Soul.

Super Yoga is being taught in the schools and it is being used to bring discipline and balance. It also improves mental energy, intelligence and creativity, memory, class participation, academic performance, behavior, social skills, and concentration.

A 2011 study by Harvard-affiliated researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) substantiated this. Meditation is associated with a thicker cerebral cortex and more gray matter. These are the parts of the brain linked to memory, attention span, decision-making, and learning. Thus, meditation is a means to increase brain power.

Samyama Meditation

In the Yoga Sutras, samyama does not appear until Book Three, Sutra 3.4, where Patanjali explains samyama as occurring when the last three of yoga’s Eight Limbs are practiced simultaneously. These limbs are dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (allowing one’s concept of “self” to be dissolved).

The fusion of Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi is Samyama – the path to Kaivalya.

In the Yoga Sutras, samyama does not appear until Book Three, Sutra 3.4, where Patanjali explains samyama as occurring when the last three of yoga’s Eight Limbs are practiced simultaneously. These limbs are dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (allowing one’s concept of “self” to be dissolved). According to Sutra 3.5, “by the mastery of samyama comes the light of knowledge,

Samadhi literally means "putting together, joining, combining with, union, harmonious whole, trance".

Samadhi is oneness with the subject of meditation. In Samadhi, there is no distinction between the actor of meditation, the act of meditation and the subject of meditation. Samadhi is that spiritual state when one's mind is so absorbed in whatever it is contemplating on, that the mind loses the sense of its own identity. The thinker, the thought process, and the thought fuse with the subject of thought. There is only oneness, samadhi.

All three (Dhyana, Dharana and Samadhi) practiced on a particular object or subject are called Samyama by Patanjali.

Samyama (the progression of dharana, dhyana, samadhi) constitute the final 3 of the ashtau angani (8 limbs), the antaranga or internal limbs, which are increasingly deep and silent states of (usually) still, seated meditation. The 1st 5 limbs, or baharanga, the external limbs, include asana, pranayama and pratyahara in order to prepare the attitude, body, breath and energy (prana) flow for samyama. One does not and cannot practice the physical sadhana (techniques) like drishti or breath control in asana (which is different from pranayama) concurrently with samyama. They are different tools for different purposes. The baharanga precedes the antaranga. Do not confuse the sequence of the ashtanga.

The more advanced we are, the more detached we will be with the results. Inner silence comes from within. If we practice the last three limbs, we will have all other five limbs manifest automatically. Samyama greatly strengthens our presence in the silence of pure bliss consciousness. It stimulates the nervous system to purify and open experience the bliss within. If we can't stop thinking and contemplating, and feel the physical presence in meditation, we are ready for Samyama. We should experience inner silence in order to enter the samadhi. Inner silence is also called yoga Nidra, stillness, samadhi, pure bliss consciousness, sat-chit-Ananda, void, emptiness and so on.

Individual Transformation is essential

13031. individual and society are complementary and supplementary to each other. Yoga plays a pivotal role in establishing the purposeful life among youth who can shape the future of the society. Yoga helps us to become physically and mentally healthy. Without healthy individuals, a healthy society is not possible. Without a healthy society, humanity cannot be at peace. The healthy and transformed individual, in turn, will build up healthy society without any discrimination of caste, creed, colors etc. The practice of Yama Niyamas makes them purify and clean. Therefore, the desirable personal and ethical values help to purify themselves and to transform society. The individual is constantly engaged in examining one’s values. One must recognize that the practice of Yama and Niyama values bring integrity, contentment and peace and bliss; while indifference to these values bring confusion, conflicts, miseries, and misfortunes to themselves and the society. Therefore, the application of yoga for social well-being and social transformation is essential. Practice of Yoga principles is even more important to live as a productive citizen of the country. Ajay Bharadwaj stated that, “When the sun of yoga will shine over the horizon of the world and society today, the social evils, all the immoral and inhuman behavior will disappear, and the dream of a peaceful, prosperous, blissful, and transformed society will be fulfilled. Yoga, indeed, immerses a person into the essence of Satyam-Shivam-Sundaram and Sat-chit-Ananda (Truth-Bliss-and Consciousness) and therefore, the society having such persons is like a heaven on the earth.”

Yoga is for the whole world and humanity

Yoga works on one’s body, mind, and soul. Therefore, it is known as the global art. When our body, mind and soul are healthy and harmonious, we will bring health and harmony to the world-not by withdrawing from the world but by being a healthy living organ of the body of humanity. Therefore, yoga is for the whole world and humanity. Human suffering is the same. We all are humans. Everyone needs physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing for a peaceful, prosperous, and blissful life. And yoga in fact, serves this purpose.

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