Yoga benefits in longevity

P Jadumani Singh *

1st International Day of Yoga celebrated by AMAND, Pune on 21 June 2015 :: Pix - Ajit Salam

World Yoga day falls on 21st June every year and is being celebrated in a befitting way by Modi government throughout the country in every school and colleges. The General assembly of U.N.O. adopted a resolution in December, 2014 in New York declaring this day as International Day of Yoga, an ancient Indian exercise which keeps mind and body peaceful and healthy.

In Delhi prominent citizens including the prime minister and government officials will celebrate this Yoga Day with pomps. Dietary scientists say that we will lose weight by doing physical exercises with a programme of eating low fat foods for five days and two days dieting (eating special less food to lose weight) in every week. We should be physically active by doing physical activities which will protect us from diseases like obesity, blood pressue, heart problem, diabetes, arthritis etc and avoid sedentary life.

Every step in walking or running is a part of our journey to good heart health. Brisk walking and running lower the risk of high blood pressure, high cholestoral and diabetes, according to a new study conducted by the Californian national laboratory. American department of Health and Humane Services and American Cancer society recommend that walking one hour daily, or cycling five hours a week or running for twenty minutes a day will achieve greatest longevity benefits.

Regular exercises on the above items will give benefits to people above sixty years of age. Exercise science says that a person without physical activities will have their bones becoming weak. If we do physical exercises against the gravitation of the earth like the weight lifting, we get benefits in our bones.

The longest-lived female and male are respectively Jeanne Calment of France (1875-1997) who died at 122 years of age and Jiroemon Kimura of Japan (1897-2013) who died at 116 years of age. And the longest living female and male are respectively Jeralean Tally of U.S.(b.1899) and Sakari Momoi of Japan (b.1903). We may select one or two regions of the world for case study on the longevity of the people in respect of life style and food habit.

1- Okinawa, an island of Japan, has world’s largest population of healthy centenarians. Widespread gardening provides an opportunity of the people for exercise, sunlight and nutritious food. Every body eats food upto 80 % of their full capacity.

2- Ikaria, a Greek island, is a place where most of the people live more than 90 years. The Ikarians eat lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish and wild greens of very high level of antioxidants. They drink morning and evening herbal tea which lowers blood pressure all the time.They nap half an hour daily and do physical activities through this hilly region.

The Rishis, Maharishis, great sages etc. were the founders of Yoga, which was born several thousand years ago in India. They were genuine Yogis because they had complete control over body and mind. In the early periods, knowledge prevailed in the monasteries, ashrams, caves of the Himalayas and in the deep forests where these divine people lived with dharana (concentration of mind) and dhyana (meditation).

Now Yoga is no more restricted to this community of hermits, it has taken its place in our everyday life. The western people have started practising Yoga and studied the sacred books of the Hindus like the Vedas (knowledge of religious, philosophical, cultural ideas of the Hindus), Upanishad (teaching that destroys ignorance), Puranas (dealing with the legendary lives and deeds of the divine incarnations) and Tantras (preaching of knowledge to provide a way towards the realization of supreme goal). Yoga is a practice by which the animal-man ascends through the stages like Man-Man, Super-Man and Divine-Man and a systematic process for complete physical, mental, intellectual and spiritual development of the human beings.

Hatha Yoga Pradipika states that “The younger, the old, the extremely aged, even the sick and the infirm obtain perfection in Yoga by constant practice. Success in Yoga is not obtained by mere theoretical study, or talking about it, or reading the sacred texts. Constant practice alone is the sacret of its success”. What we require in our body is flexibility of the muscles and mental stability without stress. Not doing any sort of mental and physical exercises is an invitation to the diseases and health problem and also a cause of life shortening. We should spare sixty minutes out of twentyfour hours every day for doing any sort of exercise for our good health anf balance mind. This should be our unbreakable promise in everybody’s life. A sick life is an useless journey.

Yoga may be classified into three types, namely Patanjali yoga, Hatha yoga and Modern yoga. The yoga developed by Patanjali, father of yoga, is called Astanga Yoga. Patanjali emphasised that harmonious development of body, mind and soul can be obtained through eight practices i.e. 1. Yama(control and discipline), 2.Niyama(rule and principle), 3.Asana(physical posture of the body), 4. Pranayama (control of prana or breathing exercise), 5. Pratyahara(avoidance of undesirables in taking action for calming of mind), 6.Dharana(concentration of mind), 7. Dhyana (meditation) and 8. Samadhi (separating the soul from the body to merge into godly world).

Hatha yoga, widely practised and liked by the majority population of the world, was first introduced under the directives of Swatmaram’s Hathapradika (a book compiled and written by Swatmaram in 14th century). It is based on asanas (postures), pranayama (breathing exercise), Dhyana (meditation), mudras (hand and finger gestures) etc. The dynamic asanas of Hatha Yoga keep the spine, nerves, muscles and glands in healthy condition and give vigour to the whole body.

Modern Yoga is an enhanced Hatha Yoga and efficacious in the treatment of many ailments. In this Yoga type, some mild aerobic exercises (for loosening muscles and joints etc) are added to the items practised in the Hatha Yoga. In the modern Yoga, apart from the above items of exercises, sets of selective asanas, pranayama, meditation etc are seen being practised for different ailments separately. There are many other types of Yoga developed in the 19th and 20th centuries by Indian and foreign practitioners for specific purposes and problems of the health and mind.

Some of them are Sanyasana Yoga (Yoga of renunciation), Dhyana Yoga (Yoga of meditation), Budhi Yoga (Yoga of wisdom), Prenatal Yoga (Yoga for pregnant women), Jivamukhi Yoga (Yoga of chanting, vegetarism, non-violence, devotion to god etc developed by Sharon and David in 1986 in U.S.A.), Vinyasana Yoga (Yoga on co-ordination of breath and movement), AyengarYoga (yoga of physical therapy) etc.

Two most effective modern Yogas are: 1. Bikram Yoga, introduced in Kolkata in 1970 by Bikram choudhary and very popular in America now, is practised in a room heated upto 40 degrees centigrade. The 26 asanas with one or two breathing exercises give the benefits of physical strength, more flexibility, mental concentration and normal blood pressure. 2. Kundalini Yoga, introduced by Swami Sivananda in 1935 and made popular in America by Yogi Bhajan in 1960s, consists of some prescribed asanas, pranayama, mudras, body locks, chantings and meditation.

Kundalini is a psychic power or body latent power symbolised by a serpent coiled at the base of the spine and is aroused as a result of the Yogic asanas, pranayama, meditation etc. Regular practice increases greatly our level of sexual energy. A person who practises regular Kundalini Yoga correctly, can indulge in excessive sexual activities, due to which he may even be inflicted with tuberculosis. Kundalini yoga is the best practice for staying young and retarding the ageing process.

Ageing is a phenomenon where cell destruction predominates over the reconstruction/growth process. Yoga does not go against this natural process, but the speed of the degeneration can be slowed down by regular practice of a balance set of asanas, pranayama, relaxation, meditation, chantings, cleansing exercises etc. With the stages of ageing, some associated physiological changes are loss of muscle mass, bone density, flexibility, joint disorders, lowering of circulatory system and sleep disorder.

Some few Indian Yogis who maintained excellent health till their old age were Trailanga swami who lived over 300 years of age, shanker Mal Jiew who died at 120 years of age and Devraha Baba who was believed to have lived to over 250 years. The Yoga practices for staying young and retarding the ageing process are
i) Asanas-padmasana, siddhasana, vajrasana, pada hastasana suptavajrasana, salabhasana, mayurasana, dhanurasana, halasana, chakrasana, pawanamukhtasana, sirsana, savasana etc;
ii) Pranayama – anuloma viloma (inhaling exhaling), yogic breathing consisting of three parts namely the abdomen, the middle part of the chest(thorax) and upper part of the chest or collar bones(clavicle), nadi sudhi, brahmari, cooling practices etc;
iii) Kriyas (cleansing technique)- kapalabhati(expulsion of carbon dioxide from abdomen, lungs etc and stimulates the brain cells), neti (clearing the nasal passage), dhouti(cleansing the intestinal tract upto the stomach), trataka (eye exercise) etc;
iv) Pre meditation- nadanusandana (chanting with the merging of the mind into the sound) and
v) Meditation (mental exercise for relaxation and to be free from uncontrolled thoughts).