71)Christmas—Its Spiritual Meaning by Swami Sivananda

Christmas is known to all men the world over historically as the memorable day of the birth of Jesus, the Saviour. Though it is true that Christmas is thus celebrated as the day of the advent of Christ into this world, yet it also symbolises a very deeply significant truth of the spiritual life. Jesus Christ lived and symbolised Divine Consciousness. He is the very personification of Divinity. He was born at a time when ignorance, superstition, greed, hatred and hypocrisy prevailed upon the land. The rulers were arrogant and unrighteous. The people were avaricious, indolent and heedless. Purity was forgotten. Morality was neglected. They were intent upon worshipping mammon than adoring God. There was no idealism.

In the midst of these conditions, Christ was born and He worked a transformation in the lives of people. He gave a new and a spiritual turn to the lives of man. There came a change upon the land. People started upon a new way of life. Thus a new era dawned for the world.

Those conditions of darkness, impurity and materialism that prevailed before the coming of Christ signify to you the inner state of the seeker’s personality before discrimination had dawned upon him and before a spiritual awakening had taken place. In that period the seeker has no thought of God or higher spiritual life. He is immersed in the pursuit of the material things of this external physical world. He is the slave of his senses. He has no spiritual ideal in life. He is desire-ridden. Arrogance, avarice and sensuality characterise his personality. He lives a life of lust, anger, greed, deluded attachment, pride and jealousy.

If this state of things must cease and the seeker must enter into a new life of spiritual aspiration, purity and devotion, then the Christ-spirit must take its birth within his heart. That is the real Christmas when the Divine element begins to express itself in the heart of the man. From then onward, light begins to shine where darkness was before. Ignorance gives place to the beginning of wisdom. Impurity is replaced by purity. Hatred ceases and love begins to blossom forth.

In his innermost core, man is essentially Divine. But upon this field of human personality two forces keep acting. They are the forces of good and evil, of light and of darkness. The Divine and the undivine both operate in the human consciousness of man. To completely overcome and eradicate the undivine elements and to fully manifest the supreme Divine element in all its radiant light and glory is to be achieved only through the living of the Christ-life, in the utmost faithful detail. This is spiritual life. This is Yoga. This is Sadhana (spiritual practice). This is the method of Self-realisation. This is the great Path which leads us to Immortality, Supreme Bliss and Eternal Peace.

If the Christ-life is to be lived, first of all, the child-Christ has to be born in us. Then only the real spiritual life commences for the aspirant. The first manifestation of the Divine urge in the form of spiritual aspiration and the recognition of the spiritual ideal signifies the birth of the infant Jesus within the seeker’s being. From hence starts the living of the Christ-life in all its spiritual details of sublime purity, faith in Divinity, mercy, compassion, love, selflessness, desirelessness, prayerfulness, etc. Hence starts the life of earnest Yoga and Sadhana, of self-restraint and simplicity, of unbroken serenity and peace, balance of mind, unflinching courage in the face of all oppositions and perfect dedication to the worship of God through the service of man. This is the spiritual implication within of the Christmas that is celebrated without.

With the advent of this Christ-spirit within the heart of the seekers, all human desires come to an end and they are replaced by pure higher Divine aspiration, Spirituality overcomes materialism. You break free from your slavery to the senses. You begin to live a new life, a divine life of purity, love, renunciation, humility, non-attachment and selflessness. Your life becomes sublime like the life of Christ. You begin to live a life of complete faith and dependence upon God. You always think of God, talk of Him and live for Him. Helping others becomes a real joy to you. You become a living witness of the Divine. All your life’s activities flow towards God.

Here a very small, but very beautiful, point of deep significance is to be noted without fail. It reveals a deep spiritual Law. It is the time and the manner of the birth of the Lord upon the holy Christmas day. Jesus Christ was not born in a grand palace. He was not born to very wealthy or learned parents. Also He was not born in the full blaze of daylight with the knowledge of all men. Jesus Christ was born in a simple lowly place, a corner of a stable. He was born to humble and poor parents, who had nothing to boast about, except their own spotless character and holiness. Also He was born in the darkness in the obscure hour of midnight, when no one even knew about it, except a few Divinely blessed people.

The above point of deep significance tells you that the spiritual awakening comes to the seeker, who is perfectly humble and “meek” and “poor in spirit.” The quality of true humility is one of the indispensable fundamentals. Then we find simplicity, holiness and the renunciation of all desire for worldly wealth and pride of learning. Thirdly, even as Christ was born unknown to the world and in the obscurity of darkness, even so, the advent of the Christ-spirit takes place in the inwardness of man when there is total self-effacement self-abnegation. Where self-aggrandisement and vanity abide, there the descent of Divinity cannot occur, for these expressions of egotism are ever a bar to the unfoldment of the Divine consciousness. Empty thyself and I shall fill thee—is the Divine admonition of the Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven within is for the lowly in spirit. Thus, true humility and self-effacement are the beautiful harbingers, the dawnlights, as it were, that herald the break of the joyous new day, the advent of the new era of a life in Spirit. When they appear within you, then the holy Christmas takes place. There is a new birth then.

This is the birth into a Divine Life. It was the secret of this birth that centuries ago the Lord Jesus sweetly explained to the good Nicodemus. The good man did not quite understand what precisely Christ meant when He taught that a man must be born again if he is to attain the Kingdom of God. “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. Then it was that Christ explains that this birth is inward, not of the body, but in the Spirit. Such inner spiritual birth is essential if the Supreme is to be attained, if true bliss is to be experienced. Rejoicing takes place only when Christmas has come.

O humanity! O modern age! Hearken to this significant inner message of Christmas. May the true implication of the Divine Christ Personality dawn upon your hearts! Realise fully that so long as the thirst for mammon and the arrogance of power infects the nature of man, so long the Christ-spirit of peace, blessedness and true happiness cannot enter into your life. When Christmas is being celebrated all over the Continent and in England, America and in the entire Christian world, may this be borne in mind that, “unless ye be born again, ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven,” and that unless the simplicity and the purity of heart of the little children come to indwell the hardened, unregenerate nature of the modern man, the advent of the Divine Grace as peace, prosperity, universal well-being and concord are indeed far, far away. As with the individual, even so with the nations of the world, the fundamentals of true faith, true charity, genuine humility and a spiritual rebirth alone can usher in true bliss and brotherhood upon this earth. It is when such a transformation occurs in the nations of men and it is when they renounce their policies of hatred and greed that the modern world will truly enjoy the blessings of the real, universal Christmas. Then will be the advent of the Blessed Christ into this despairing world. Till then Christmas will be but a travesty of the real glory of the Lord’s advent. Be born again and live anew, O World of Today! May the bliss and radiance of the Lord’s advent permeate the earth!

But seekers, mark this! When Divinity is to manifest, welcome it with open arms. Do not be so engrossed in the world and deny place to the Lord. At His blessed advent the land was so engrossed in counting men and reckoning of money that the inns and houses of Bethlehem were so crowded out that there was hardly any place left to receive the Lord. The census and the taxation signify the soul’s bondage to and preoccupation in earthly human relationships and attachments and its engrossment with lucre. Let the aspirant beware of these two vital mistakes. Turning away inwardly from all pursuit of earthly wealth and overcoming all attachment, be thou ever fully receptive to the expression of the Divine Spirit within.

Beloved seekers, usher in now the real and spiritual Christmas within your being, become desireless. Conquer egoism. Become embodiments of true humility. Develop meekness and lowliness of spirit by humble surrender unto the Lord. Be courageous to overcome all obstacles. Joyously renounce mammon. Welcome the descent of the Light of Grace within. Rejoice in the advent of the Divine. Thus celebrate the Christmas that ultimately leads you on the glorious climax of Transfiguration, Resurrection and Ascension. Be crowned with Divine glory. Attain immortality, perfect freedom and be for ever steeped in infinite bliss. Through Christmas realise the Christ-consciousness and the radiant light of Atmic (divine) Wisdom. Amen.

70) Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

Today i.e Thu 6 Dec 2012 , is the death Anniversary of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar , the greatest Enlightened Indian of Modern India .  Unlike other popular leaders like Mahatma Gandhi , Jawaharlal Nehu  , Dr.B.R.Ambedkar is not much known to the large educated public .If at all they know him , they know him only as the Father of Indian Constitution which is true but Dr.B.R.Ambedkar has done much more than drafting the Indian Constitution  and of which many are not known .

The following blog gives details of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar's life , his works , his speeches , his achievements etc .

http://drambedkarbooks.wordpress.com/about/

I am not an expert on Dr.B.R.Ambedkar and his works and in fact have only recently started to study the same and I share here one quote of Dr.B.R.Ambedkar that I found very inspiring :

Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person, whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One, whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one’s existence.
Dr.B.R.Ambedkar

69) Happy Deepavali

Today i.e Tue 13 November is Deepavali and I wish everyone a Happy Deepavali .

On this day ,I would like to share Swami Sivananda's Message on Deepavali

Many Deepavali festivals have come and gone. Yet the hearts of the vast majority are as dark as the night of the new moon. The house is lit with lamps, but the heart is full of the darkness of ignorance.

O man! Wake up from the slumber of ignorance. Realise the constant and eternal light of the Soul, which neither rises nor sets, through meditation and deep enquiry.

May you all attain full inner illumination! May the supreme light of lights enlighten your understanding! May you all attain the inexhaustible spiritual wealth of the Self! May you all prosper gloriously on the material as well as spiritual planes!

- Swami Sivananda's Deepavali Message

68) What sort of "Practice" will help in yoga ?

Couple of days back I read an article where an ex-Indian Hockey Captain who had won Hockey Gold medal for India in 1980 Olympics , blasting the current Indian Hockey team for playing poorly in the London Olympics 2012 claiming that the real reason why the Indian Hockey team is getting royally thrashed from all teams is due to the fact that Indian Hockey players "lack the basics"  and that they need to "learn the basics first "before they contemplate on entering the Indian team and all the basics must be learnt at a Junior level and not after they enter the Indian squad for Olympics .

Now Imagine an entire team going to Olympics with out proper skill in Basics and getting royally thrashed there from other teams . It is not that the Indian Hockey team were casual contenders for Olympics , they did prepare seriously and all of the players were committed but when it comes to competing with the best , all their loop holes were exposed and they turned out to be failures .

The same thing applies to even Yoga practice .  There is lot of talk on practice - "Ounce of Practice equals tons of theory "- Swami Sivananda , " Yoga is 99% practice ,1 % theory"- Pattabhi Joise  and this is mechanically being repeated by their respective followers and they enter in to a brute practice and while the smarter ones are able to do an intelligent practice and achieve success while the vast majority get injured and confused as to where the mistake is .

Practice no doubt is very essential to enhance the skill in any activity be it Sports , Cooking , Yoga ,Music etc etc but what sort of practice is what we need to understand .The quality of practice matters a lot than quantity . You can practice Yoga  99% wrongly and will reach only a dead end while another person even if he does  !% practice rightly will be able to take the next step to reach 2% level and slowly build up to 100% . This is where the role of a teacher comes in .The teacher must take care to see the student leans the basics first and be thorough with the basics before he goes to the next level . Now the question is what does "basics mean" in the context of Yoga ? It will vary from one style to another style and from teacher to teacher . This is a very subjective area and I see no consensus on this issue . That is one of the reason why I stick to the principles of "Anatomy and Kinesiology" when it comes to defining what is the basics with regard to movement . This is independent of any particular school of Yoga or of any particular teacher . This is my way of looking at things in Yoga . Other people will have their own interpretations on this issue .

If we look at the Videos of master Yoga practitioners we will see their perfect mastery of the entire body and lot of intelligence and grace in their practice .No doubt they had years of practice to fine tune their skills but even when the practiced , the practiced with "lot of intelligence" .They had their basics right and hence they could execute the postures with perfect grace and elegance . 

So in conclusion : Practice is necessary for perfection but that practice must be intelligent and must train the students in the basics first before taking him to higher levels . Mechanical and un-intelligent  practice will never help you master any skill perfectly .I conclude by giving the quote of the famous Yoga Teacher Derek Ireland on Yoga practice  : Your Yoga practice is less about how much you can do and more about how deeply you can do little .

So quality matters in the end .

67)Yoga or Movement Science ?

Recently I had an old yoga friend of mine who visited me and he was stunned to see the many books related toAnatomy , Kinesiology , Movement therapy along with the regular  books on Yoga in my book shelf and he surprisingly asked pointing to other books ( i.e Kinesiology , Movement therapy etc ) "What are they for ?" . I told him they are there to make me a better Yoga practitioner and better Yoga teacher . He asked me aren't the regular Yoga books/Yoga DVD  that I  have more than enough to give me   a solid knowledge to be a better Yoga practitioner and Yoga teacher and I told him that no doubt those books,DVDs  are very excellent but they have lot of gaps and those gaps are not the fault of the authors of those books but fault by the way Yoga is being taught .He could not understand by what I said .

I told him that when we learn a language say English , did we start reading the English Classic books  from the very beginning ? No . What we did was we first learnt to read the alphabets , then learnt to read   simple words  from the alphabets , then started reading simple sentences from those words and went on to read complex sentences , paras , then a single page , then a chapter , then simple books and slowly built ourselves to read Rich English Classics .Once we have learnt the fundamentals of reading a word , sentance , para , page ,chapter etc we do not require a teacher and we can read any book on our own .

But in Yoga how is the learning done ?

All Yoga are based on a particular style - Sivananda , Iyengar , Ashtanga , Bikram , Anusara etc and these have a set pattern and we start learning them from scratch directly and we need the guidance of a teacher for the same .Nothing wrong in this approach as long as the student has solid knowledge of the fundamentals of anatomy and kinesiology ,so that he is able to intelligently execute the postures without injuring himself  .But how many students have knowledge of anatomy and kinesiology to do this ? They are very much dependent on the instructions of the teacher and it is not possible for the teacher to give complete comprehensive instructions to each and every posture ( the Iyengar System follows the methodology ) and even if the teacher gives the student cant really follow all those instructions in real time ,with the result he gets injured while doing the posture and gets demoralized and stops coming to the class or moves to another teacher or another style .

But what if the student is taught the basics of Movement itself without referring to any particular style . This is what the Science of Kinesiology or Movement Science is . Start first by teaching the student how to lubricate his joints , how to move his spine , how to work on his core , how to unwind all the tense muscles ,how to strengthen the muscles , how to understand the limits of his body and limits of his movements, what are the dangerous movements  etc etc . These are the fundamental knowledge a student must be taught irrespective of which Movement he is going to practice i.e Dance , Yoga , Tai Chi , Pilates etc .Once this knowledge is there then the student will really enjoy his practice and which every yoga style he chooses to practice it does not matter as he has his fundamentals very clear and not only will he do a practice that is safe but there will also be lot of grace in his practice as he now practices listening to his body and there is lot of mindfullness and intelligence in the way he practices .

Most of senior Yoga  teachers advice their students to "listen to their bodies" while practicing in order not to injure themselves but then they forget  to mention the fact that "listening to the body" is not as simple a skill as it sounds and that it is "an art in itself" and while some people have the natural skills to listen to their bodies but for the vast majority this skill needs to be taught from the beginning .

I have watched the videos of many seasoned Yoga practitioners and I found that those who had lot of grace , elegance in their practice were those who really understood their own body inside out and those who came from a dance background had this quality in extra .

So in conclusion : If you have the natural instinct of understanding how your body works and moves then you are very blessed and can easily pick up your yoga practice and will have a fairly injury free practice but if you do not have this natural instinct then better acquire the knowledge of your body and its various movements through the serious study of Anatomy and Kinesiology or work with a teacher who has this knowledge, otherwise you will end up injuring yourself and will either keep jumping to various other yoga styles or yoga teachers without any success and finally drop everything in frustration . This applies not just to Yoga but any movement related science like Tai Chi , Pilates ,Dance ,Aerobics etc .So when it comes to teaching Yoga ,I would suggest that first students are taught the basics of Movement Science and then Yogic postures are introduced step by step .

As for myself ,I have no natural instinct to understand my body and hence started to seriously study the Science of Anatomy and Kinesiology to educate myself as to how best I can safely do my own practice as well as teach my students the safe way of doing . This is one of the reasons why I have cut off from most of my Yoga teaching assignments to invest time in my own self study and practice of   the Science of Anatomy and Kinesiology and related Movement therapies like Fieldenkaris Method , Heller Work , Pilates ,Tai Chi etc to equip me with the right tools and techniques that can help me understand my own body much better and also teach me the art of doing the postures safely and in a very efficient manner .

This is quite a tough and long journey and I am willing to go through it slowly and steadily .I will keep sharing my insights from time to time in this journey in this blog plus my another blog related to Movement therapy itself .

66) Enhancing Yoga Training standards

Few months back the entire Yoga Community was rocked by an article in the New York times tiled "How Yoga Can Wreck your body "by William Broad . There have been lot of discussions for and against that article . Being a Yoga teacher myself  my take on the entire issue is that the problem is not in Yoga but in the un-intelligent and un-scientfic ways Yoga is being taught and practiced .  It is high time that the Yoga Teaching institutes lift their standards of teaching and teach Yoga more from a Scientific point of view .

I have dealt about this issue in my earlier post No: 62) The Importance of BioMechanics for Yoga Practitioners and Teachers .

I am summarizing the essence of what I want to convey by quoting Shmuel Tatz , one of the experts in Movement therapy . 

"What I wish for yoga professionals to understand is that they must know the biomechanics of the human body. Also, they need to work with someone, as Glen Black did with me, for at least 5 years to learn about body pathology, mechanics, disease and injuries. Yoga teachers should be aware of all facets of the human body so that they do not themselves nor recommend to their students other than what is health giving and safe.  I studied yoga after I learned physical therapy. If yoga teachers have a basic education in physical therapy they will never do hyper-extensions of the spine because they will know the great damage it can cause the discs.

... most teachers have no training in biomechanics and there is, then, always the danger of injury to themselves and to their students."

For the complete letter refer to my post at No:62 .

Why I reiterate this point again is that there seems to be no serious efforts from most of recognized Yoga Institutes in equipping their students with the solid knowledge of bio-mechanics / kinesiology so that they can be better Yoga practitioners or teachers . This applies not just to Yoga institutes but also other fitness institutes which are mushrooming day by day in all major cities and towns . No doubt many of these institutes do teach some amount of Anatomy and Physiology but that is inadequate . They can give you the foundation but if a Yoga teacher is serious about lifting his standards then he /she must invest lot of time energy, resources in learning Kinesiology and use that principles to practice ,teach yoga .

Currently I have myself curtailed most of my Yoga teaching to invest my time and energy in learning Kinesiology and other Movement therapies beyond Yoga so that I have better knowledge and tools with me to enhance my own practice  plus also train my students to have a very safe and effective practice .

65) Self Investigation is Hard Work - J.Krishnamurti

But, you see, that (i.e  self investigation ) is tremendously arduous; it is hard work, and you do not like hard work. You prefer an easy, indolent existence—earning a livelihood, accepting what comes, and just drifting along through life. Or, if you don’t do that, you practise some system, some form of compulsion, discipline. You get up every morning at 4 o’clock to meditate—by which you mean forcing yourself to concentrate, compelling your mind to conform to a particular pattern. You drill yourself incessantly, day after day, and that you consider hard work. But that, it seems to me, is a most childish way of working. It is not the work of a mature mind. By hard work I mean something totally different. It is hard work to examine every thought and feeling, every belief, without bringing in your own prejudices, without shielding yourself behind an idea, behind a conclusion, an explanation. It requires hard, clear thinking—which is real work. And most of us do not want to tackle that kind of work. We would rather accept a senseless belief, belong to an organized religion, go to the temple, the church, or the mosque, repeat some words and get a little sensation; and with these things we are satisfied.                
  - J. Krishnamurti

64)To understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit

So, I must first understand the futility of resistance or effort in breaking a habit. If that is clear, what happens? I become aware of the habit, fully aware of it. If I smoke, I observe myself doing it. I am aware of putting my hand in my pocket, bringing out the cigarettes, drawing one from the package, tapping it on my thumbnail or other hard surface, putting it in my mouth, lighting it, extinguishing the match, and puffing. I am aware of every movement, of every gesture, without condemning or justifying the habit, without saying it is right or wrong, without thinking, 'How dreadful, I must be free of it,' and so on. I am aware without choice, step by step, as I smoke. You try it next time, that is, if you want to break the habit. And in understanding and breaking one habit, however superficial, you can go into the whole enormous problem of habit: habit of thought, habit of feeling, the habit of imitation and the habit of hungering to be something, for this too is a habit. When you fight a habit, you give life to that habit, and then the fighting becomes another habit, in which most of us are caught. We only know resistance, which has become a habit. All our thinking is habitual, but to understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit. You find out where habit is necessary, as in speech, and where habit is completely corruptive.

J.Krishnamurti
Collected Works, Vol. XIII,204,Choiceless Awareness

63) Be A Light Unto Yourself - J.Krishnamurti

To be aware is to watch your bodily activity, the way you walk, the way you sit, the movements of your hands; it is to hear the words you use, to observe all your thoughts, all your emotions, all your reactions. It includes awareness of the unconscious, with its traditions, its instinctual knowledge, and the immense sorrow it has accumulated-- not only personal sorrow, but the sorrow of man. You have to be aware of all that; and you cannot be aware of it if you are merely judging, evaluating, saying, "This is good and that is bad, this I will keep and that I will reject," all of which only makes the mind dull, insensitive.

From awareness comes attention. Attention flows from awareness when in that awareness there is no choice, no personal choosing, no experiencing... but merely observing. And, to observe, you must have in the mind a great deal of space. A mind that is caught in ambition, greed, envy, in the pursuit of pleasure and self-fulfillment, with its inevitable sorrow, pain, despair, anguish-- such a mind has no space in which to observe, to attend. It is crowded with its own desires, going round and round in its own backwaters of reaction. You cannot attend if your mind is not highly sensitive, sharp, reasonable, logical, sane, healthy, without the slightest shadow of neuroticism. The mind has to explore every corner of itself, leaving no spot uncovered, because if there is a single dark corner of one's mind which one is afraid to explore, from that springs illusion...

It is only in the state of attention that you can be a light unto yourself, and then every action of your daily life springs from that light-- every action-- whether you are doing your job, cooking, going for a walk, mending clothes, or what you will. This whole process is meditation....

-- J. Krishnamurti

62) The Importance of BioMechanics for Yoga Practitioners and Teachers .


For all Yoga Practitioners and Teachers the article below is very very important and useful . Couple of weeks back the entire Yoga Community was rattled by an article in New  York Times by William Broad titled "How Yoga Can Wreck your body " and while there was a big debate for and against the article ,I found the following letter by Shmuel Tatz  to New York Times best explains how we need to go about addressing the issue of injuries in yoga without getting overtly emotional about the original article .

The reason why I am posting this article here is that I found Shmuel Tatz speaking exactly what I have been silently attempting to do as a yoga teacher and yoga practitioner in the last 1 year  i.e learning the biomechanics of the human body  so that I become a better yoga teacher and yoga practitioner . Previously I was taking pride in calling myself a Certified Sivananda Yoga Teacher but now I do not want to be under any label i.e Sivananda , Ashtanga , Iyengar etc etc .I have respect for all the Traditions i.e Sivananda ,Iyengar , Ashtanga and found that each has its own merits and at the same time each has its own drawbacks if not done intelligently . So it all boils to developing body intelligence and for that one needs to have knowledge of bio mechanics of the human body . So instead of jumping from one style to another or being fanatic with regard to one style I found that the wiser way would be to first learn the biomechanics of the human body and develop my own person practice with regard to Ashtanga Vinyasa . I have been doing lot of research on this subject for the past 1.5 years and found most of the Yoga people were very uni- dimensional in their approach i.e strictly ashtanga , strictly sivananda or strictly Iyengar and had the opinion either 'my way or high way ' without learning to respect the bio mechanics of each human body and learning to adapt the practice accordingly while teaching to others or while practicing on oneself . I found no Yoga institution training its teachers on this topic of bio mechanics and that is one of the reasons why you find lot of injuries in yoga practice . The problem is not in yoga but in teachers / practitioners who are not informed of the Biomechanics of the human body and they take pride  in the saying : 'practice leads to perfection' or 'no pain no gain '. Practice leads to perfection only when the practice is mindful or intelligent and not just mechanical practice and there is no need for pain or injury if you do it mindfully or intelligently .Out of the vast yoga practitioners only few are competent  enough to do a mindful and intelligent  practice and rest keep on doing the same mistakes again and again and keep on hopping from one teacher to another or one work shop to another to understand where they are going wrong or why they are not improving . Some get fed up and leave one style to switch another or switch to other fitness forms ( like Tai Chi , Pilates etc ) but their frustration will still continue . Out of my research in to body movements  I found few extraordinary people who were looking at the body not from a uni-dimensional view but  from a multi-dimensional view and they were :

1) Moshe feldenkrais who founded the Feldenkrais Method 

 2) Emilie Conrad who founded the Continuum Movement 

3)Vanda Scaravelli ( a former student of BKS Iyengar and Desikachar ) who quit the Iyengar Method after 10 years of practice to start her own method of doing yoga postures based on natural body movements and not on the strict Iyengar method .

4)  Shmuel Tatz who was a student of Moshe Feldenkrais and has integrated all the best with regard to understanding the biomechanics of body  in his own teachings called Body Tuning .

 I very much resonate with Shmuel Tatz and hope to assimilate as much as I can about body mechanics so that I can become a better Yoga Practitioner and Yoga Teacher . Since I do not have the luxury to study personally with Shmuel Tatz in New York ,I have devised a plan of self study on this subject through books and DVDs  to enrich myself on this subject of Biomechanics . This is a long journey and there is no short cut in this and  I do not mind investing my time , energy and resources in this pursuit .I need to give the best to myself and my students and I am prepared to make any sacrifices for the same .

For others interested on this topic kindly go through the letter given below by Shmuel Tatz to New York Times as a rejoinder to the original Yoga article to understand the importance of Bio Mechanics for Yoga Practitioners and Teachers .

 

For more details about Shmuel Tatz ,kindly go through his site : 

http://www.nyphysicaltherapist.com/

This is the  letter to the editor of the New York Times article by William Broad: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body.
http://www.nyphysicaltherapist.com/blog/2012/01/my-letter-to-the-editor-of-the-new-york-times-article-on-yoga/ 
Dear Ms Glaser,

I am the Shmuel Tatz mentioned in William Broad’s excellent article: How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body. Glenn Black studied with me for 5 years in my ‘body tuning’ studio, and is an example to others of how a yoga teacher with knowledge of body mechanics can minimize the damage yoga can do.

Mr. Broad states that I “devised a method of massage and alignment for actors and dancers” which is not correct. What I have done is to create what I call ‘body tuning’ which is designed to tune every part of the body, just as a musician tunes his instrument. I have worked with actors and dancers, musicians and politicians, but my practice is devoted to anyone and everyone who has pain and discomfort in the body and seeks relief.

What I wish for yoga professionals to understand is that they must know the biomechanics of the human body. Also, they need to work with someone, as Glen Black did with me, for at least 5 years to learn about body pathology, mechanics, disease and injuries. Yoga teachers should be aware of all facets of the human body so that they do not themselves nor recommend to their students other than what is health giving and safe.  I studied yoga after I learned physical therapy. If yoga teachers have a basic education in physical therapy they will never do hyper-extensions of the spine because they will know the great damage it can cause the discs.

As for yoga students, in my opinion it is best to learn yoga first in private lessons just as a piano student begins with private lessons. In group classes teachers do not have the time to pay attention to each student’s specific problems. After you become adept at learning the basics of yoga practice you can take group lessons. Unfortunately whether you take private lessons or group lessons, most teachers have no training in biomechanics and there is, then, always the danger of injury to themselves and to their students.

Again, I think Mr. Broad’s article was an important one in alerting the many yoga practitioners that along with the good that yoga can do, there is also a downside which can bring pain and limit mobility.

Sincerely,

Shmuel Tatz

61) “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

When I reflect on my own life so far I feel that there are 2 main things - one, my own complain about why others are not behaving as they should behave and two ,others complaining about certain others not behaving as they should behave . We have complaints against our teachers , our parents , our relatives , our Political leaders ,our Cinema /Sport/Business Idols , our spiritual teachers etc etc .No doubt many of these complaints are valid and do have merit but how many of us are really working towards rectifying our own flaws ?  First of all many of us refuse to acknowledge that we do not have any flaws and even if we have we dismiss it as minor or give excuses that our flaws are due to the circumstances/pressures  in our own life etc etc But do we adopt the same rules when criticizing others ? Do we at least pause to  think what sort of circumstance or pressure is on the other person to behave as he/she is before commenting on him/her ?

I am not saying that Criticism is bad or should not be done . We all have a right to express our views frankly even if it means criticizing others but problem is that if we keep doing only this in our entire lifetime without taking time and energy to rectify our own faults / mistakes then our Criticism will look meaningless .

Here are some examples of how people behave in India :

a)I know of many Indian  people who talk ill of India as being dirty  and praise Singapore for its cleanliness but these people just throw their garbage bags from their Apartment balcony  from the third  floor on to the Garbage bins and 90% of the time their garbage bags will never fall in to the bin and will fall outside splashing the filth all around . Their excuse : The servant has not come to dispose the garbage and it is her duty to do it and also what does it matter if their garbage spills down when the whole city is dirty .

 b)There are some people who will cry foul when they see on TV reports of food grains lying in decay in Government Go downs but they will never bother to see how many of their food stuffs enter the garbage bins due to decay . They can save 25% of their food bills if they were wise enough in preventing decay of food stuffs . Their excuse : They have a hectic lifestyle and cant attend to these sort of minor wastage's and that these are inevitable in their life .

c) People complain about Politicians of using their influence to get various business deals etc but I know of many people who use influence at their own level to get admission for their Children in some schools ,collages , Corporate houses etc . Their excuse : Their children are worthy of the behind the scene admission process .

d)Then when it comes to Criticizing our sportsmen ,people say our Sportsmen lack Professionalism or Commitment to Excellence compared to those of American or Australian Sportsmen . Now how many of  Indians are professional in their work or have commitment to excellence in their profession or in  their own life ?  Their excuse : They have a hectic life  style  and hence cant focus on these things or their atmosphere is such that it does not encourage professionalism or excellence .

So like this it can go on .

Note : I was also a person who was one among the many Indians Criticizing India or Indians for what they lacked but then later on only I realized that I have only 3 Choices :

 1) Keep on Criticizing like this till the end of my life 

 2) Try to Change  Others to what I expect of them

 3)  Try to Be the change that you wish to see in the world.- the advice of Mahatma Gandhi

Choice -1 is what 90% of people do and it is a loosers choice and I dropped it .

 Choice -2 is what the balance 9% of try to do ,and some succeed to some extent ,but most of them end up dejected unable to change others and they end up bitter and I dropped that also .

 Choice-3 is what 1% of people attempt to do and they do it in silence and while it may not be tangible in results outside, but it is because of such people the world is still a sane place in spite of all its problems and I very much resonate with that Choice - 3 , the choice which Mahatma Gandhi gave as the Universal Mantra for the well being of the whole world .

If we want India to be like Singapore in Cleanliness, then  at least 1% of Indians  will have to be like Singaporeans in working towards this Cleanliness in their own apartment blocks first .

If we want India to be like America in Professionalism and Excellence then at least 1% of Indians will have to be like Americans in Professionalism and Excellence in their own personal life /professional life first before they start preaching it to others .

 Without 1% of a Country's population seriously committed to improving the standards of living /quality of life in their own personal / professional life first we cant bring about a major transformation in the Country just through Legislation or Government policies .We can keep on abusing Politicians ,Government etc but it is not going to help us .

So bottom line : “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” - Mahatma Gandhi

60)  On being "Effective " and "Art of Living"

 Recently I saw the tamil Movie "Nanban( friend )" which is the Hindi remake of the movie "3 Idiots " and that movie talks about how youngsters are treated like machines in colleges and how due to pressure from parents and teachers youngsters are forced to take up things that does not resonate with their heart and end up as failures in life ( in totality ) though they may be successful in their jobs etc . I do not want to put forth a new theory of how schools and collages are to be or advice others how to be . All I am interested now in how effective as a Human being I am and what are the tools I need to equip myself with to be a more effective human being .  The word "Effective" may denote different meanings to different people and each one will have their own interpretation to what 'effective" means .For me I define "Effectiveness " with regard to how much smooth and productive I am with regard to people with  whom I deal in my day to day life - my close family members , my close students , my closest friends and other general people with whom I have to deal with life on functional basis like in banks ,shops ,  during travel etc etc . Do these people feel comfortable with me or my behavior ? Do I radiate peace , happiness , harmony in their presence ?  Do they feel empowered or dis empowered in my presence or in my actions .These are the questions I ask myself daily . I believe in quality rather than quantity . One of the reasons why I take fewer students for my Yoga is I know for certain that my quality will get diluted when I take more students . For me Yoga is not just on the mat daily for 1 hr or when I teach but it extends all throughout the day 24 hrs , 7 days a week and 365 days a year .I do not know what Enlightenment or Moksha or Nirvana or Samadhi  is . Each scripture has its own definition for the same and I am sorry I do not want to vomit what those scriptures say .I am committed only to improving my own personal effectiveness daily and I consider that art of living to be the greatest of arts and I want to live my life in this true spirit of effectiveness and I know I am not perfect and do have lot of areas to be improved and fine tuned but willing to put my effort ,time and energy in the same .

I conclude here with a quite of J.Krishnamurti on "Art of Living " .

"The Art of living is far greater than any other art . We never have spent perhaps a day or two , or a month to find out what is the art of living . There is an art of living . One has spent years and years to become a scientist ; you go to monasteries and spend all your life there ; or you spend your whole life earning a livelihood which is a vocation of limitation . To become a surgeon , a doctor , we spend ten to fourteen years and we never learn or even spend a day to find out what is the art of living ."

59)Spondylitis striking India’s young
http://www.dnaindia.com/health/report_spondylitis-striking-indias-young_1647866

Shweta Arya was 29 when she first had a back problem. Ignored initially, her pain spread upwards and aggravated to a level where she was not even able to move her neck.

"Employed with an infrastructure consultancy, I used to work on a laptop with a bent neck," she said. Arya is one of the many young people suffering from spondylitis (a form of arthritis that affects your spine).

Doctors say a sharp increase has been noted in the number of young patients falling prey to spondylitis. Long working hours on the computer, a desk job, lack of physical activity, consumption of junk food and obesity are a grim reality today, and so are increasing back problems and spondylitis.

However, alarmingly the age factor with regards to spondylitis has come down by five years at least says spine surgeon, Dr Subir Jhaveri. "Current age group is between 25-40 years which is five years younger as compared to earlier times."

Orthopaedic and joint surgeon, Sterling Hospital, Dr Rikin Shah,says the popular term used for such pains is 'occupational and habitual hazards'.

"Youngsters in the age bracket of 25-40 years working in banks, corporate sector especially BPOs and KPOs are the ones who are most affected. Of the 10 patients I attend to, at least six complain of work related pains, especially back, neck and numbness in upper limbs which could lead to spondylitis in the future," says Dr Shah.

Nearly 40% patients who come to Dr Shah on a monthly basis are working professionals who are spondylitis patients.

Spine surgeon with Shalby Hospitals, Dr Pravin Saxena, saidshoulder, head and neck pains have become a common sight in the city.

“First, patients complain of shoulder pain which is followed by spasm in the neck or stiffness. I treat three to four patients a week for these problems.”

— With inputs from agencies
Published: Thursday, Feb 9, 2012, 14:31 IST
By Kinjal Desai | Place: Ahmedabad | Agency: DNA

58)Given a balanced diet, iron deficiency should not be an issue

http://www.thehindu.com/health/diet-and-nutrition/article2768180.ece?homepage=true

Eating properly is an essential part of keeping fit and healthy, and has long been a standard part of doctor’s orders.

Making sure you get enough iron is the key to doing so, although a few tips are in order.

“Iron sourced from animal products is more readily taken up by the body than that of vegetable origin. In the case of iron from animal products, take-up is between 15 and 35 per cent, whereas with vegetable iron it is just 5 per cent,” according to Petra Renner-Weber, a dietician based in Bonn, Germany.

Meat in some form or other should thus be on the menu two or three times a week. This can be augmented by consuming vegetable products rich in iron, such as beetroot, pulses and whole grain cereals. Fish is also a good source.

There are tricks to enhance iron take-up from vegetables. “Vitamin C, protein and organic acids like lactic acid promote iron take-up,” Renner-Weber says. “One should drink a glass of orange juice with a meal, eat a salad, or, alternatively, have yoghurt for desert.” She advises vegetarians to avoid drinking either tea or coffee after a meal, as the tannin they contain inhibits the body’s ability to absorb iron. The same applies to substances like phosphates and oxalic acid, which occur in rhubarb, spinach and cocoa.

With iron from animal sources, coffee and tea are less of a problem. “The iron contained in them is stable in the face of external effect, and the body is able to absorb it readily,” Renner-Weber says.

A diet rich in iron could look as follows: for breakfast, wholegrain muesli with dried fruit and nuts, accompanied by a glass of orange juice; for the main meal at lunch a portion of meat, accompanied by broccoli and potatoes; and for a light evening meal, wholegrain bread, some smoked fish and beetroot.

“If you eat a balanced diet there is no reason to go without coffee and tea,” Renner-Weber says. “And a cup of coffee after the midday meal is also fine.”

Keywords: balanced diet, iron deficiency