Yoga, with a few jokes thrown in
A number of yoga teachers are taking the
exercise regime out of the realms of solemnity
and giving it a more down-to-earth feel with
levity and selfies, says Ashish Sharma
Dressed in a loincloth, Baba
Ramdev whips through a
series of yoga poses as millions
watch him on television.
The sun has just begun
to peep over the horizon but the hirsute
guru is already leading his charges. “If you
sweat this much in the morning, you will
never get old,” he says, the left eye winking
involuntarily. Ramdev says pranayama, the
art of breath control, can cure an array of
diseases. “Its practice leads to a surge in
kundalini energy,” he intones as his belly
makes waves with each sharp intake of air.
Around him, the men and women start
breathing in unison, eyes closed. Some
faces begin to show a near-mystical glow.
They are entering the ‘zone’.
Is yoga as pensive an activity as Ramdev
wants it to be? Not quite. Some yoga teachers,
in the true tradition of yogic postures,
are turning the exercise culture on its head.
They crack jokes, chant to peppy songs and
hang out with disciples once the sessions
are over. Garima Batra Sharma, founder of
The Yoga Lounge, believes in being less
solemn. “There is a perception we belong to
another planet. But I don't let people take
things too seriously in my class,” she says.
The idea is not attainment, she explains,
“flow instead.” Really? So, what about obtaining spiritual creaminess? “Very few
seek that. Most come to lose weight”.
These yoga gurus don’t claim to be saints
or prophets — or that they emit cosmic
energy. “I am a new-age yogini. I love to
dance, travel and dress excitingly,” says
Deepika Mehta, who coached actors Aishwarya
Rai Bachchan and Bipasha Basu for
Dhoom 2. Must the road to enlightenment
be paved in sincerity? Not all all. “Fun is
important. Once in a while, I crack a joke.
After class, I hang out with students. We
chill out, drink coconut water, get breakfast
and get silly sometimes,” laughs Mehta.
Television yoga guru Suneel Singh, 52,
too, has a tendency to lighten things up.
“There are two simple therapies. One is
laughter yoga and the other, clapping yoga,”
he says. “Everyone laughs. There’s no
judgement.” Singh believes ego is the enemy
of both humour and yoga.
The new bunch of yoga teachers do not
believe in “giving gyan”. “Not everyone is on
a spiritual path. Some are in search of a
social environment, too,” says Navneet
Joshi, who trains corporate clients of KairaliAyurvedic Group. Sharma remembers during
the early days of her studio when she
had shown the door to a man who had come
in search of phone numbers rather than
enlightenment. But Joshi believes there is scope for spiritual networking, and Sharma
allows social networking by way of yoga
selfies (self-photos). “I understand the
excitement that comes when doing the
headstand for the first time. I oblige them
with a picture that I email to them.”
Pune-based Jaspreet Singh, a yogi, cites
the tranquillity he has found after twisting
his body into knots. Sometimes,
he says, his third eye
itches. “Who your yoga teacher
is and what he represents
are no small matters in modern
life,” he says. “Once I fell
asleep in the middle of
savasana and started to snore
lightly (I was told). They just
left me there until the class
ended. I woke up to an empty
room and saw the teacher putting
away the mats.” But there
is no embarrassment here.
Singh says, “If we refuse to
feel embarrassed, liberation
is ours.’
Celebrity yoga teacher
Payal Gidwani, who coaches
star couple Kareena Kapoor
Khan and Saif Ali Khan, says
there is no need to feel ashamed,
even when some poses
force wind out. This is the purpose
of yoga — to relieve suffering,
and flatulence.
“Relieving wind is illusory,”
philosophises Singh. “You are
not the body, and therefore not
the karta (doer).”
Yet the fear of being embarrassed
refuses to let go. As
Gidwani points out,
“Thousands of years ago, yoga was practised
only by men. It was designed by men,
for men.” Yet today, getting the men in is not
always easy. Sharma says, “There’s one man
for every five women in a class. Mostly, men
accompany wives. Also, most men leave
after a month or two. It’s the women who
are consistent.”
Paloma Gangopadhyay, director, Bikram
Yoga India, says, men initially find themselves
stiff and inflexible. But the 26 postures
done in a studio that is toasty at 42
degrees Celsius often gets them hooked.
This challenging, possibly dangerous,
hot yoga may appeal to a guy’s sense of self.
Yet, points out Mehta, embarrassment is
never far behind. “A guy’s worst nightmare
is not being able to do a pose that needs
strength and flexibility.”
Worse still are the men who wear loosefitting
shorts for comfort, prompting discomfort
in others. Sharma says
she urges her students to wear
longer yoga pants or capris. But
Joshi insists shorts are better.
“This way, the teacher can keenly
observe your body postures.”
Singh suggests a simple way to
ensure your jock credentials are
not advertised during an adventurous
pose. “Sit down and twist
to one side; squat — did you feel
a breeze back there?”
A youngster forced to take
yoga for bad grades tells us
about his experiences. “We are
made to do yoga in a cramped
room. The air is thick with
sweat, everything seems in
slow motion. However, it’s the
close-pressed flesh of others
that we admire most. This
gives you the chance to smack
someone.” He adds pawanmukta
asan (wind-relieving
pose) is his favourite.
Yoga, played by the rules,
can fetch you enlightenment
in this lifetime. For this, it is
necessary to do it the right way,
have your posture corrected by
a teacher. But Singh doesn’t
appreciate a teacher who
lingers and breathes hot all over
you. “No concept of personal
space,” complains Singh.
Sharma, like other likeable teachers,
says her approach is to establish a relationship
with students. “This takes a few classes.
I take it on myself to correct them.
Mostly they get it right by seeing me. But if
that doesn't happen, I physically correct
them.” Some students tend not to follow
the herd. But that is not a problem. Mehta
says some even go solo in the chanting of
Om. “I prefer to let people express themselves.
If someone’s Oms are not in line, I
find it sweet,” she says.
IN TOUCH WITH
INNER PUPPY
Yoga poses have been inspired by animal postures. Ancient dogs influenced much of yoga development. Their body movements and postures were studied by seers and put into yogic practice. Now, 2,500 years after, it seems to have come full circle. Yoga has gone back to the dogs again.
Doga, yoga with dogs, is increasing in
popularity in the West. To live in
harmony with all beings, including
dogs, seems a truly yogic principle.
Florida-based doga teacher Suzi
Teitelman explains sukasana in doga.
“We sit with the dogs, spine to spine,
connecting our chakras.”
Yoga poses have been inspired by animal postures. Ancient dogs influenced much of yoga development. Their body movements and postures were studied by seers and put into yogic practice. Now, 2,500 years after, it seems to have come full circle. Yoga has gone back to the dogs again.
Because dogs are pack animals,
they are a natural match for yoga’s
emphasis on spiritual union with other
beings. “Dogs will follow their leader,
and when their leader is doing yoga in
a place of bliss and love, the dogs will
follow even more.”
According to Teitelman, bonding is
the top benefit of doga. “Otherwise
the benefits are the same as yoga’s:
peace, strength, flexibility, massage,
all lead to happiness and samadhi.”
So, can dogis calm that tail during
savasana (corpse pose)? “Yes, we
encourage the dog to lie directly on us
in savasana. It helps with massaging
the internal organs.”
Mammography has become a fighting word in recent years, with some researchers questioning its value and others staunchly defending it.
One especially disturbing criticism is that screening mammography may lead to “overtreatment,” in which some women go through gruelling therapies — surgery, radiation, chemotherapy — that they do not need. Indeed, some studies estimate that 19 per cent or more of women whose breast cancers are found by mammography wind up being overtreated.
This problem occurs, researchers say, because mammography can “overdiagnose” breast cancer, meaning that some of the tiny cancers it finds would probably never progress or threaten the patient’s life. But they are treated anyway. So where are these overtreated women? Nobody knows. They are out there somewhere, studies suggest. But the figures on overtreatment are based on theory and calculations, not on counting the heads of actual patients known to have experienced it. No one can point to a particular woman and say, “Here’s a patient who went through the wringer for nothing.”
Overdiagnosis is not the same as a false positive result, in which a test like a mammogram initially suggests a problem but is proved wrong. False positives are frightening and expensive, but overtreatment is the potential harm of mammography that worries doctors most, according to an article published recently in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
But the authors also say that estimates of how often overdiagnosis and overtreatment occur are among the least reliable and most controversial of all the data on mammography.
In the past, overdiagnosis was thought to apply mainly to ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, a breast growth that may or may not turn cancerous. Now, researchers think that invasive cancers are also being overdiagnosed and overtreated by mammography.
Mahny Djahanguiri takes classes in
London. “My style is Dogamahny TM.”
The dog here is secondary. “All doga
poses (more or less) have the same
name as human asanas. Triangular
pose is the same: Only that you lift your
dog and place it on your torso if it’s less
than 4 kg. It acts as a weight. Large
dogs can act as a bolster.”
Djahanguiri says through doga you
can cultivate ahimsa (non-violence).
"We never force the dog to do
anything it doesn’t want to do. The
dog is the dogi and the owner the
yogi. The class is about slowing the
central nervous system of the owner
and the dog. It has vedic chanting,
pranayama and meditation. The
breathing exercises, if performed by
the yogi, will calm the dogi.”
Mammography has become a fighting
word in recent years, with some researchers
questioning its value and others
staunchly defending it.
One especially disturbing criticism is that
screening mammography may lead to “overtreatment,”
in which some women go through gruelling
therapies — surgery, radiation, chemotherapy
— that they do not need. Indeed, some
studies estimate that 19 per cent or more of
women whose breast cancers are found by mammography
wind up being overtreated.
This problem occurs, researchers say, because
mammography can “overdiagnose” breast cancer,
meaning that some of the tiny cancers it finds
would probably never progress or threaten the
patient’s life. But they are treated anyway.
So where are these overtreated women?
Nobody knows. They are out there somewhere,
studies suggest. But the figures on overtreatment
are based on theory and calculations, not on
counting the heads of actual patients known to
have experienced it. No one can point to a particular
woman and say, “Here’s a patient who
went through the wringer for nothing.”
Overdiagnosis is not the same as a false positive
result, in which a test like a mammogram
initially suggests a problem but is proved wrong.
False positives are frightening and expensive, but
overtreatment is the potential harm of mammography
that worries doctors most, according to
an article published recently in The Journal of
the American Medical Association.
But the authors also say that estimates of how
often overdiagnosis and overtreatment occur are
among the least reliable and most controversial of
all the data on mammography.
In the past, overdiagnosis was thought to apply
mainly to ductal carcinoma in situ, or DCIS, a
breast growth that may or may not turn cancerous.
Now, researchers think that invasive cancers
are also being overdiagnosed and overtreated
by mammography.
According to researchers, mammography could
be leading some down a slippery slope to
unneeded surgery, chemotherapy and radiation
The concept of overtreatment is based on the
belief that not all breast cancers are deadly. Some
never progress, researchers suspect, and some
progress so slowly that the patient will probably
die of something else, particularly if she is older
or has other health problems.
But mammography can find all of these
tumours, even those too small to feel. And doctors
and patients rarely watch and wait — once a
tumour is found, it is treated, because nobody
knows how to tell the dangerous ones from those
that could be safely left alone.
Where do the numerical estimates of overdiagnosis
come from? In several large studies of
mammography screening, women judged to have
the same risk of breast cancer were picked at random
to have the test or to skip it. Early on, more
cancers were expected in the mammogram group,
because the test can find small tumours.
Over time, the groups should have equalised,
because if small tumours in the unscreened group
were life-threatening, they would have grown big
enough to be felt or caused other symptoms.
But in several studies, the number of cancers
in the unscreened group never caught up with the
number in the mammography group. The reason
for the difference, researchers assume, is that
there must have been women in the unscreened
group who had cancers that were never diagnosed
and never progressed — and therefore did
not need treatment. The next step is to subtract
the number of cancers in the unscreened group
from the number in the mammography group.
The result is the estimate of how many women in
the mammography group were overtreated.
“We don’t know which individual women
those were,” says Lydia Pace, of Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, an author of the new paper.
“All we know is the proportion, and a lot of people
would argue that we don’t really know the
proportion.”
This kind of calculation was used in a Canadian
study of about 90,000 women, published in
February in the journal BMJ. The authors found
that after 15 years there was a “residual excess” of
106 invasive cancers in the mammography group.
The authors attributed that to overdiagnosis, and
said that it amounted to 22 per cent of the 484 invasive
cancers found by mammography. They concluded
that for every 424 women who had mammography
in the study, one was overdiagnosed.
Other studies have estimated overdiagnosis in
different ways, with huge variations in the results,
reporting that 5 per cent to 50 per cent of cancers
found on mammograms are overdiagnosed. To
make it clear that the numbers are uncertain,
some offer ranges.
It is scary to consider the prospect that mammography
could be leading some down a slippery
slope to unneeded surgery and chemotherapy.
But the numbers on overdiagnosis are all over the
map. The best hope for resolving the confusion
may lie in molecular tests that can differentiate
between dangerous tumours and those unlikely to
progress — but those are in the future.
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Rishikesh, a habitat for the parched
soul has a new reason to visit the holy city – Sanskriti. The very
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Sanskriti Vedic Retreat
Rooms @ Sanskriti Vedic Retreat
Sanskriti – Beautiful view of Ganges
Sanskriti Vedic Retreat
Lounge @ Sanskriti Vedic Retreat
Lunch at Sanskriti is experimental with a twist. The Indians can devour a large Indian Thali that includes Soup, Mildly Spiced Vegetable Curry, Steamed Vegetable Salad, Dahl (Lentils), Grain (Millet/Amaranth/Rice), Flatbread, Papad, Chutney, Digestive Drink, Sweet while our International counterparts can relish an International Thali that comprises of soup, Sautéed Vegetables, Vegetable Salad, Lentil/Bean/Nut Protein dish, Grain Millet/Amaranth/Rice, Wholegrain bread, Chutney/Dip, Digestive Drink, Sweet.
Organic Food at Sanskriti
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Sanskriti
Besides the truly enticing array of healthy eating, an Ayurveda massage is the next important thing that you must indulge in. come to experience a heavenly sensation with the Kiarali massages offered to Sanskriti guests. The Sanskriti Vedic Retreat offers a number of Ayurveda and Panchakarma Packages for the guests. All packages are designed to make guests feel completely rejuvenated, refreshed and healthy. The treatments that are done here are prescribed by expert Ayurvedic doctors and are carried out by Ayurvedic specialists under skilled supervision.
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Yoga And Meditation Training
Kairali’s The Ayurvedic Healing Village is the world’s first Ayurvedic health farm
and traditional Vedic community; providing the ideal location for the authentic
practice of Yoga and Meditation. As central aspects of an Ayurvedic lifestyle, our
Ayurveda experts and Yoga teachers are keen to give guests the full experience of
both Yoga and meditation, helping them to improve their lifestyle practice long
into the future.
Kairali conducts ongoing training programs in “Yoga and Meditation”, making an ideal
introduction to guests undergoing Ayurveda treatment courses with us. More experienced
Yoga practitioners or retreat-goers looking for a more intensive retreat schedule
may be interested in Kairali Yoga’s retreats at The Ayurvedic Healing Village.
Duration: 2 Hours per day | For 15 Days
(*) Theory and Discussions (1 Hr.)
(*) Yogasana or Meditation Practical classes (1 Hr.)
(*) The course is taught by qualified Yoga Teachers and Therapists.
(*) Theory and Discussions (1 Hr.)
(*) Yogasana or Meditation Practical classes (1 Hr.)
(*) The course is taught by qualified Yoga Teachers and Therapists.
Syllabus for Yoga & Meditation
- Yoga: Its definition, philosophy and purpose.
- Shat Dharshanas: The six schools of Indian philosophy – Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Vaisesika, Samkhya and Yoga
- Paths of Yoga: Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Raja Yoga
- Asanas: The practice and benefits.
- Pranayamas: The practice and benefits of breathing exercises.
- Meditation: practice and theory, including its influence on health and disease.
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