YOGA THERAPY

The concept of yoga therapy is as old as yoga. The basic principles of yoga and yoga therapy are same. At the same time the way of application is different in case of yoga therapy. The role of yoga in therapy was very well accepted by all the sages in Ayurveda. In fact, they didn’t try to explain mind separately in Ayurveda, but accepted the concept about the connection between body and mind directly from yoga. They put yoga under swasth vrita (maintenance of health). Without yoga, Ayurveda is incomplete.

Sage Vasistha explained distress, disease, psychosomatic ailments etc. very simply and clearly in his scripture Yoga Vasistha. Even though the modern medicine accepts that the root cause of many ailments is the stress in mind, modern society has failed when dealing with psychosomatic ailments. It is mainly due to the ignorance of vital energy-called prana and right understanding about mind. Prana is the bridge between body and mind. Any imbalance in pranic level can affect body and mind. Strong and balanced prana influences the immune system. Mind itself is divided into two according its quality. The imbalance between these two planes is the cause of distress. In Yoga Vasistha the definition of distress is; ‘Aadhi (distress) is the extremely speeded state of mind’. This happens due to the weak vijnanamaya kosha of the mind.

In order to get rid of psychosomatic ailments completely, we have to work on all levels of existence. Panchakosha tattwa, explains these five sheaths in Taittiriya Upanishad. Yoga therapy works on these entire five sheaths for a sustainable curing. So it is called comprehensive therapy. Different tools from yoga like asana, pranayama, kriya and meditation combined with different concepts from different scriptures, yoga therapy is effective in treatment of all ailments. As the normal yoga practices like dhyana, asana etc. are difficult for ill people, yoga therapy offers different special techniques for patients. Practices like prana channelizing, mantra resonance technique and cyclic relaxation are very much consoling to the patients of cancer, multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy where the modern medicine fails. Yoga therapy is effective in psychosomatic ailments as well as for post surgery rehabilitation of the patients.

In learning process, one gets good understanding about how the different facets of our existence work together and learn how one can live wisely and happily. Yoga therapy emphasizes the role of ‘real knowledge’ (wisdom in English & ‘vijnana’ in Sanskrit) in therapy application as well as in daily life. In yoga therapy, one can see the beautiful combination of theory and practice useful for our daily life. In short, yoga can be interpreted in two ways: yoga for self-realisation and yoga for daily life (yoga therapy/individual yoga).