“A mind free from all disturbances is Yoga.”
–The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
This Sunday, June 21, is International Yoga Day and while there won’t be an event on the bridge which was described as the dumbest idea by our Premier Christy Clark, you can partake in Yoga events around town including one at Surrey Guildford Rec Centre!
By Dr. Suresh Kurl
Amazing Mumford! It only took two Narendras and 121 years to put yoga, the 5,000 year-old physical, mental and spiritual practice on the pedestal of international attention. Exactly 122 years ago, on July 25, 1893, a thirty-year-old saffron-robed Hindu philosopher and yogi, introduced Vedanta and Yoga to a Western audience at the Parliament of the World Religions in Chicago. He was Narendra Nath Datta, popularly known as Swami Vevekananda.
Then, on September 27, 2014, another Narendra, also a Hindu philosopher, yogi a seasoned businessman and a politician, addressed the UN General Assembly in New York and called upon delegates to declare an International Day of Yoga. The UN adopted his resolution and declared June 21 as a Day of Yoga. He was Narendra Damodardas Modi, the current Prime Minister of India.
The second century B.C. sage Pantanjali defines yoga as, “chitta vritti nirodhah,” meaning, yoga is the removal of the fluctuation of mind. It is a process of psychological discipline by which one could attain isolation of the soul from the involvement with matter and its effects. Pantanjali puts his yoga disciples through ascetic living, prolonged body contortion in fixed positions, and controlled breathing, through which a yogi progresses to the contemplative state of being.
Among other conditions, practitioners can only eat vegetarian food prepared without killing what you eat. Yoga also discourages the eating of spicy hot foods and alcohol aiming for a diet that will help the mind stay calm and focused. The three basic pre-requisites of practicing yoga are purity (in mind and body), patience, and perseverance.
Mr. Modi spoke about yoga as the invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. “It embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfilment; 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 with self, 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.”
Both Narendras came to the West with a noble mission of sharing the tried and tested Indian techniques of physical, mental and spiritual practice. In between, India exported hundreds of yoga instructors, or say physical fitness gurus to the west. The majority came looking for real estate to build pipelines to extract wealth from individuals suffering extreme materialism. However, some of them were true yogis, who made genuine attempts to inject spirituality into spiritually parched lives emphasising upon the simple reality that yoga, individual faiths and materialism are and have to remain mutually exclusive from each other.
I was pleased to hear that premier, Christy Clark, had announced group yoga on June 21 in Vancouver to achieve harmony between chitta (mind) and vritti (thoughts and impulses) through nirodhah (removal or control). I wish her and all of my brothers and sisters a great success. But the venue, the Burard St. Bridge, made me feel uncomfortable.
The yoga-dharma is not to inconvenience, frustrate or irritate people who use an important downtown traffic corridor, but to keep them calm. Maybe it is my culture. I come from Haridwar, a city that sits in the lap of the Himalayan ranges by the holy Ganges. Maybe it is what I grew up with, watching yogis practicing by the rivers and lakes, on mountains surrounded with green vegetation and flowers. They were certainly not sitting in the lotus position on pavement amid concrete barriers and steel girders. The Organiser could have chosen Stanley Park, English Bay, Queen Elizabeth Park, Deep Cove or some other serene place, but they did not.
I did worry the fallout from this decision might result in a backlash against Vancouver’s yogis, not further understanding of their practice. It happened and resulted in cancellation of the event. I wish the event was not cancelled only the venue was changed. How sad!
However, not all is lost. My Muslim brothers and sisters in India, 15,000 kilometres away, will join a larger group of yogis at Rajpath, New Delhi on June 21, and invoke the name of Allah instead of chanting Sanskrit shlokas. What could be a greater demonstration of harmony than celebrating the first UN Yoga Day together?
Together the Muslims of India will seek the same liberation from the anguish of human condition through ascetical practices and meditation. To me, they are reaching the level of spiritual strength required to publicly say, “Yoga has nothing to do with religion, and everything to do with attaining inner peace.” Not only that, some the Muslim organisations have called those Muslims, who oppose yoga the “enemies of humanity.” It is the start of a very liberating practice for the entire world. And it makes me happy; very happy.
