Is yoga for me?

Let’s first begin with the word “ME” in the above sentence. We have some difficulties with “ME”. Either we do not like the way we look, we do not like the problems we are facing or we are just carried away because everybody is doing Yoga and we think that, “even I need to do Yoga” and that is when we enquire about classes, the timings and what suits “ME” – these are very superficial questions.

Ask yourself this question,In this one sentence there are two main subjects. One is “YOGA” and the second is “ME”. So does Yoga deliver what I need, will Yoga deliver what I want, will Yoga help me become what I want. So, Yoga is just one of the subjects and the “ME” is a bigger subject. Probably when this question is asked that can Yoga deliver what I want right now this is what I want and that is why I have come for Yoga, at this stage Yoga is just 20% and the “ME” is 80% because the “ME” has a lot of expectations from Yoga.

So, when we start our journey with Yoga, Yoga is just 20%. 80 % is me. Today my shoulder is better, my hand is better, my spine is better. So, this “ME”, undergoes a change right from birth, the earlier years of Infant hood where one is trying to stand up & walk, one is trying to run, one is trying to use the hands for various activities. It’s like a new found discovery. The infanthood goes through discovery, probably childhood goes through discovery and youth is what is discovered so you have a little power, you can run better, you can achieve things and you start having small aims of achievements which if not fulfilled might make you dissapointed. What happens at that time is the child cries and says this is what I want. Later by teenage one is well acquainted with the body then comes emotions that also is a part of “ME”. Post teenage the emotions seep in deeper once you’ve gained control over the body and you feel okay yes this is it. Something more seeps in. When you feel that you are trying to gain control over emotions there are far more responsibilities within that “ME” then there is a social expectation, social emotions and so on and so forth. There is infanthood, childhood, young adulthood then there is adulthood, then there is old age and then there is further old age. It’s very interesting when we reach further old age you go back to taking control of the body like in childhood. What happened during infanthood, you were trying to stand, you were trying to walk, you were trying to hold and you were trying to do coordinated movements. The coordinated movements to eat, to take the hand and put it in the mouth, so that food doesn’t drop. so isn’t that childhood coming back in old age and there is a great difference in that and that is the mind. The difference is the way you look at things. If you could not do a thing properly in your childhood there was a tantrum and the tantrum was attended to. In old age if the tantrum still exists in various forms have you really grown wiser in old age? Have you really achieved something? Have you really seen things differently? If you could see things differently, I think we can label it as transformation. If you could not coordinate your movements properly in infanthood, childhood, it was a complete tantrum. If the same thing happens later on in life, one needs to use intellect and with that one needs to use a lot of patience with strength and I think this is where Yoga comes in.

My experience has been that whenever things go negative, people choose to come to Yoga. When all the doors close, the door of Yoga opens. When a student or a patient really reaches me, they have exhausted everything. They are exhausted financially, exhausted physically, they are exhausted but there is something that is there and that is the hope which brings them to Yoga. This hope is a fuel for transformation. They have physical ailments and want to transform and become healthy. If you have any psychological ailment you want to transform. I will not say ailments, I will say limitations and limitations are given names such as anger, frustration, jealousy and all together anxiety.

This is where Yoga comes in. I am not going to define the word Yoga today; we are going to look at it in a very practical manner. If this is what Yoga offers, is it for me? If Yoga can offer transformation, do I need a transformation? If Yoga can offer relief, do I need relief? If Yoga can help me go beyond my limitations?

If you ask the children between 8 to 15 is Yoga for me, what will be their expectations? What do they expect from Yoga? From age group 16 to 21, 21 to 23, there is remarkable change in the mind. What is the expectation one has from age 16 to 23? What will one expect from Yoga? Should I do Yoga?

Then comes the longer span of age group 23 to approximately 42. There is a tremendous change in body. From age 38 to 42 or 43 there is a great change in the mind and the body. So, there is a big transition that starts from 21 till 43, the body is not the same and there is a transition. What you feel in your twenties and what you feel in your thirties about the question “is Yoga for me?” is different. Then comes the age where there is a lot of excitement from 43 onwards to 50. 50 years is like the end of some journey. So, when you ask the question ” Is Yoga for me?”, the answer will be different. Then there is the age group 50 to 60 which completely is a different age group where you have a lot more expectations. There is a lot of confusion about if you should retire, if you should cut down on your work? You think you’re old, but you feel young. There is a lot of confusion. There is no clarity and then 60 onwards is a different chapter too. It is necessary to talk about each age group separately and explain it categorically because we have different expectations at different ages and to be able to understand this in better ways, each age group needs to be discussed separately.

Now let us look at the yogic side. Yoga of course works on the body and it penetrates to the central body and it further sends an enquiry towards the deeper aspects of the body called as the Karana Sharira or the causal body. No matter which age bracket you join Yoga, each one gets access to the subtle body. There are certain introspections about how one feels and there are certain mental levels one achieves where there are more experiences of quietude, compassion & forgiveness. But application of these qualities is defined by the age factor. Application of forgiveness in a 60-year-old is far more remarkable than a 20-year-old. Of course! There are some blessed ones who have the maturity of sixty at the age of 20 and there are some people who are sixty but have the mind of a 20-year-old who cannot still forgive. This is where Yoga helps as this 60-year-old that has the mind of a 20-year-old, where the emotions are concerned. It’s not the finances, it’s not the stability, it’s not the grounding, it is the emotion. The emotions of compassion, the emotions of forgiveness, the emotions of binding things together, the emotion of knowing that you are an adult in the society and taking responsibility for certain emotionally sensitive behaviour will be very different in a person who practises Yoga than in a person who doesn’t practice Yoga.

Probably this was not the actual agenda when you started Yoga in your thirties. It was not about forgiveness. It was more about being healthy so that the body is in a better shape organically. So, one could have longer working hours, that was the expectation and demand from Yoga. You don’t see the benefit of forgiveness or compassion at that time but as you age you see it and also practice it much better. It makes a great difference when you are in Yoga.

If you have started Yoga only in childhood the muscle memory of the practice also remains. So, if you have done your backbends and your Chakrasana and Sarvangasana at a young age, then you probably haven’t practiced for 20 years and you start doing Yoga in your thirties your body will still remember what you did in your childhood. The muscle memory is so deep down. If you have learnt asanas in childhood, that prepares the physical body so that you can dive deeper into the subject. Then when you start in your teenage years, it has a certain impact on you which will help you without you even realising it. If you start practice between 8-10 years, you will see the benefits in your thirties. If you are going to start from 11 to 20 you are going to feel the benefit much earlier and so on, so forth.

The physical benefit is tremendous because your metabolism improves and if your metabolism is working well, your consumption, evacuation and assimilation, the three components which are required for a healthy body, just happen to function very naturally. You don’t have to have an agenda that I am eating and it has to be assimilated properly. When we start doing Yoga, we don’t think of all this. We have this question: is Yoga for me? and that “Me” has a lot of demands. Your demands are directly related to your biological age first. Secondly, they are also related to your gender. They are also related to your situations in life. Situations in life always come third and then is the expectation. What is the level of expectation if you urgently need a remedy and that time probably you and your friend have joined the same session and you both had the same demand from Yoga but you realise that your friend has been blessed. He/she has got what he/she wants and you are not seeing any benefits for yourself. In such a situation, who is at fault – is it Yoga or is it you? The answer to that is a little abstract; it has to do with many more factors. As the answer stays abstract, we will not be discussing it today. I’m here to make you understand that no matter what stage of life you are in, it does have an impact on your complete personality from the physical body to the physiological body and to the psychological body.

So, the question “Is Yoga for me?” should really not be there because it is a lifestyle that should be inculcated into our daily living, in every household right from childhood. Just like we shower, eat & evacuate, doing 2-3 asanas everyday should become an upbringing in the household. If the grandparents practice, the grandchildren imitate the grandparents and there is happiness and laughter around it. This is how the journey of Yoga should start. The topic has to be introduced in a very playful manner like a playground sport. If you go to learn football, how is it taught? First you do so many games around it you get friendly with that ball. So, in the subject of Yoga and ME, you have to first get friendly with yourself and we are not friendly with ourselves because we only know our limitations. So, we are generally connected to the stiffness, the inability to perform and those are not standards. One should have a playful mind, should have an inquisitive mind and one should have the ability to start fresh and become a student.

When you have this question:Should I do Yoga? Should I start doing Yoga? YES, the answer will remain Yes, no matter in which phase of life you are, the studentship needs to revive. The “I” that is “I am Rajeshree” has to go down and I am a student of Yoga has to surface and that is why Yoga needs to be understood.

What is Yoga? How is it defined in various ways? How is the definition going to suit me? Because you know there are so many definitions, each one of us can adapt to various definitions. If you open the Bhagavad Gita, all the 18 chapters are about Yoga which is very interesting. Do I follow Yoga from chapter 1 or from chapter 12? Is chapter 1 for me or is chapter 12 for me? It’s very interesting and we are going to look into these things. We don’t need to go deep into the Bhagavad Gita but we have to touch upon it when we look into the topic of Yoga.

This is my opening statement – in the question “Is Yoga for me?” The main subjects- one is YOGA and second is ME and the answer to this is there is a transformation when you start Yoga because first there is a ME which is very prominent then that ME that gets mould-able just like you mould clay there is a lot of moulding happening on the ME. Then there is an intense attachment to ME, I am like this, I need my cup of tea like this. Slowly there is a transformation and that transformation is a detachment from ME. Then, only Yoga remains and the “ME” is not there. But to begin, both are important. Now we have seen what “ME” is. Tomorrow we shall see what Yoga is.

My small message to all of you: don’t try to fit that “ME” just do Yoga. You will discover yourself not only yourself but you will discover beyond yourself. You need to experience it. The more one talks about Yoga the more you don’t want to listen to it because Yoga is an experience. And everything we experience as ME does become very profound and then all the other things that you experience related to me starts subsiding. Then there is this pure happiness, pure contentment and fulfilment.

Shri Namaskar

-By Rajeshree