Yoga has immense power to cure not only hypertension but also various critical diseases related to heart, kidney, spine and intestine, which cannot be fully cured by allopathy. Apart from this, yoga gives deep physical and mental relaxation if performed properly, said renowned Yogacharya Padma Bhushan Dr BKS Iyengar who demonstrated this art on February 12, 2009 at a workshop organised by his disciple Nivedita Joshi who has established the Delhi Iyangar Yoga Centre at Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi. The centre celebrated its first anniversary on this day. The centre has attracted hundreds of disciples during its one year existence.
A workshop was organised on the occasion. The topic of the workshop was ?Controlling Hypertension through Yoga?. Dr Iyengar and Dr Manoj Naik, a Pune-based general physician who has been practicing Iyengar Yoga for the last 14 years, demonstrated a number of asanas (positions) and explained their benefits to a gathering of over 100 distinguished people including leading medicos, bureaucrats, senior journalists, politicians and people having interest in yoga.
The leading medical professionals included Dr RS Tonk, cardiologist in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Dr JN Hans, ENT surgeon, Dr Vasudha Sethi, physiotherapist, Dr Bela Sethi, physiotherapist, Dr Bhandari, psychologist and others. Former Union Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi was also present on the occasion.
Dr Iyengar appealed to the gathering to make it their daily habit to do physical exercise to stay active throughout the day and also try to regulate their diet. Dr Iyengar'sstyle of teaching is marked by extreme precision in the performing of various yogasanas and innovative use of props. He said with the help of props the young, the old, the diseased, the weak and the disabled can all do yoga and attain its benefits. These props include the use of blankets, belts, ropes, chairs, bolsters and wooden formations which make it possible for even the most-stiff, sick and disabled to attain perfection in yogic asanas with ease and gain benefits including good health.
In his presentation, Dr Manoj Naik described hypertension as a silent killer, which causes so many diseases. Making a comparison between allopathic drugs and yoga he said if one starts taking allopathic drugs to cure hypertension one has to take them regularly and in most cases throughout the life. But a little change in the life style with yoga can do a miracle.
He appealed to the medical professionals present on the occasion to accept yoga as a science as it is not against the modern medical science. He suggested them to first practice yoga themselves and then see the result. Unlike the allopathic drugs, which normally leave side effects, he said, yoga does not leave any side effect; rather it cures many diseases at once. ?But at the same time one fact has to be kept in mind that if yogasanas are performed without proper knowledge they might prove nothing but a simple exercise and would not produce the desired results. If they are done with proper knowledge they really produce miraculous results,? he added.
The Iyengar Yoga Centre, Delhi, had been inaugurated by Dr BKS Iyengar on April 25, 2008 in the presence of former Vice President Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, senior BJP leader Shri LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and many other dignitaries. The Centre'sbuilding is an aesthetically designed unique structure?built on stilts?surrounded by a landscaped water body. Fully equipped with every prop and accessory used in the philosophy and teaching of the Iyengar Yoga, the institute teaches every technique, posture and nuance that embodies this unique, research-based practice of yoga sutras.
The Centre is run by Indian Heritage Soceity and is headed by Sushri Nivedita Joshi, daughter of former Union Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. She has dedicated herself to the propagation of yoga after she practically realised the miraculous curing power of yoga when she had been almost bedridden for about two years. What I had lost, nobody should ever go through that experience and what I have achieved through yoga, I would like to share it with everyone?is her prime objective now. She is a skilled yoga teacher trained at Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute, Pune, and she conducts yoga classes at the Delhi centre.
With the objective of disseminating knowledge about the science of yoga amongst the medical fraternity, Iyengar Yoga Centres in collaboration with various organisations like Indian Medical Association, Bombay Hospital Trust, General Practitioners Association, Parkinsons'sDisease and Movement Disorder Society, etc. have been conducting various studies. One such study demonstrated that yoga increases cardiac parasympathetic nerves. Another study demonstrated that a 16-week yoga therapy intervention brought about a significant reduction in self-reported disability and pain and reduced the use of pain killers and sedatives.
