Yoga and Ayurveda constitute a way of life that allows us to arrive at longevity and immunity and to provide the basis for the pursuit of self-realisation and Moksha. Their approach to healing is based upon right values, right behavior, and right relationship with our natural environment and society.
The medical side of Ayurveda is important for the treatment of disease. The wellness side of Ayurveda remains relevant to all and interfaces with the practices of Yoga, which aid in wellness of body and mind. Yoga therapy (Yoga chikitsa) is an integral part of this Ayurvedic wellness approach for body and mind.
The link between Ayurveda and Yoga in terms of wellness (svastha) is Prana. It is also important in dealing with respiratory and circulatory afflictions such as the COVID pandemic creates.
In Ayurveda, Prana is the motivating life force behind the three doshas or biological humors of Vata (air), Pitta (fire) and Kapha (water), which are the prime factors both determining individual constitution and understanding the disease process. As a power of air and energy, Prana is most connected to Vata dosha or Vayu. Vata dosha is the main dosha behind the disease process as it is most connected to subtle imbalances and disturbances of Prana.
Types and Levels of Prana
Yoga and Ayurveda recognise five forms of Vayu: Prana as its basic propulsive force, Udana as its ascending and motivating energy, Vyana as its expanding and circulating energy, Samana as its contracting, centering and balancing force, and Apana as its downward and outward movement. These five Vayus are the subtypes of Vata dosha in Ayurveda crucial in both the diagnosis and treatment of disease.
Prana is also the link between the body and the mind. The body, food sheath or annamaya kosha, is kept alive and moving by the flow of Prana through it, facilitated by the processes of breathing, eating and drinking, which sustain the Prana in the body, and forms the basis of the functioning of our internal organs.
Between body and mind is the sheath of Prana or pranamaya kosha, closely connected to the breath, the motor organs and sense organs. It is the electrical force that runs both body and mind
Between body and mind is the sheath of Prana or pranamaya kosha, closely connected to the breath, the motor organs and sense organs. It is the electrical force that runs both body and mind.
The mind or mental sheath (manomaya kosha) is sustained from a physical level by food, water and breath. It extends to subtler mental energies, with the mind having its own five pranic movements as expansion and contraction, ascending or descending energy, and over all propulsive force. These connect to the yet more subtle koshas of intelligence (vijnana) and bliss (Ananda).
Working with Prana and the Breath
Mind and Prana are said to be like the two wings of a bird as the powers of knowledge and action. Our thoughts are reflected in our breathing and circulatory processes. Our breath is affected by our emotions and mental state, which can weaken and disturb it.
Through the power of Prana and its five subtypes or movements, we can regulate body and mind and sustain their right functioning and positive development. We can learn to make our awareness expand or contract, ascend or descend at will moving through the greater universe of consciousness.
Yet Prana is not simply the breath. The breath is the main factor that sustains Prana in the body, but Prana as life-energy never dies. It is part of the subtle body (sukshma sharira), which after death transmigrates into another body for a new incarnation.
The breath is our main means of working with Prana in our physical lives and the basis of most forms of Pranayama. Yet Pranayama’s aim is to calm the breath so that we can connect to deeper Pranic energies of mind and consciousness beyond the body. The yogic goal is to remove the knot of attachment of the mind with the body, which constitutes the ego and all of its illusions, leading us to sorrow.
The main factor of wellness in Yoga and Ayurveda is to deepen the breath and unify the pranic forces within us. There is a higher unitary prana behind the breath and the senses, just as there is a higher unitary consciousness behind the mind. Unitary prana and unitary mind go together and are mutually transformative.
Psychosocial Rehab Through Yoga
The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has increased stress and anxiety among the public. The COVID-19 not only affected the physical health of people but impacted the psychological or mental health of the patients and even their family members.
Realising the importance and need of psychological care along with the physical treatment, three premier institutions have come together to develop a Protocol for Psychosocial Rehabilitation of COVID-19 patients. These three eminent institutions are: the Central Council for Research in Yoga & Naturopathy (CCRYN), an autonomous body of the Ministry of Ayush, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru and the Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (S-VYASA). The release of this protocol was done by Dr. HR Nagendra Chancellor, S-VYASA, Bengaluru.
The accompanying psychologic distress in COVID-19 patients are often ignored and not managed. There have also been reports of anxiety and acute depression leading to suicides in COVID care hospitals. Many of the patients, according to inputs coming in from different countries, have had to contend with isolation anxiety and distress due to fear of worsening of symptoms. Complications like respiratory distress, hypoxia, fatigue and insomnia and other symptoms have also been observed. Interventions Yoga and Naturopathy systems have shown effectiveness in facilitating recovery of COVID-19 patients. Simple breathing exercises and pranayama have been seen to enhance SPO2 levels in symptomatic patients and those with respiratory distress. Preliminary reports from studies conducted by CCRYN also validate these findings.The current protocol is a collaborative effort to address these symptoms and psychologic sequele of COVID-19 patients. The online workshop will help impart knowledge about epidemiology of Covid19, course of disease, screening for distress and psychologic sequele, management of distress and psychologic sequele using Yoga and Naturopathy approaches.
Various Pranayama practices have been developed to strengthen and balance the Prana through working with the breathing process. These ultimately aim at the breathless state. (kevala kumbhaka), which is often misunderstood. It is not simply holding the breath, but accessing the deeper Prana behind the breath.
Alternate nostril breathing (Nadi Shodhana) is the key practice to develop a unitary Prana, balancing the flow of the breath between the right and left nostrils, solar and lunar nadis, taking the Prana from duality to unity. This allows the Prana to enter into the central channel or Sushumna, as the unified prana that connects us to the Ananda or bliss within, which holds the deeper healing energies of amrit and soma.
Productivity Booster
Yoga can enhance health, wellbeing and personal growth. Can this rewarding pursuit be deployed as a productivity boosting tool at the workplace? Can its wider adoption have positive implications on the systematic growth and development of the economy, and hence the nation?
A high level interdisciplinary committee was set up by the Ministry of AYUSH to review evidence that linked Yoga to productivity and analyse the same. The various possible directions of the productivity dimension could then be identified systematically, and along these directions, protocols could be developed. The committee adopted an approach based on science and evidence in finalising its recommendations. Dr H R Nagendra, Chancellor, SVYASA is the chairman of the committee.
There has been an unprecedented surge in the popularity of Yoga in the past five years, globally. The spiritual connectedness and health benefits of Yoga have been widely embraced by its practitioners. But the productivity dimension of Yoga — its role at the workplace in offering benefits to employees to perform better – remains unexplored to a large extent. This dimension becomes especially important given the increasing physical and mental pressures faced by employees, exacerbated by the current pandemic, even as employersgrapple with the situation and try to improve workplace wellness.
Yoga for productivity is a critically important aspect in the present context when India’s growth aspirations are at perhaps its highest. Existing evidence bases, including data collected on the impact of Yoga as a wellness intervention, and the subsequent impact at workplace given that the way forward for determining the effectiveness and universalisation of any intervention is through scientific evidence, would be collated. Various organisations, industries and corporate houses are already hiring Yoga instructors to impart workplace yoga for their staff. They believe Yoga would help reduce workplace stress, improve interpersonal relationships, reduce conflicts, reduce sickness absenteeism and thereby improve productivity.
Increasing productivity may mean different things in different contexts, such as increasing profitability, lowering operational costs, optimising resources, seizing opportunity for growth, increasing competitiveness, reducing burnout and increasing employee wellbeing.
Ayurveda has special herbs and oils that aid in developing a deeper Prana. This is part of its rejuvenation or rasayana therapy, which usually requires a preliminary Pancha Karma purification therapy first. Brahmi rasayana is very important in this regard.
We should all learn to access the power of Pranayama for healing the body and purifying the mind, along with its Ayurvedic support practices, and above all recognise the deeper and deathless Prana behind and beyond any breathing practices. This is one of the great secrets of Yoga. Becoming one with Prana, we go beyond birth and death.
Colour Therapy in Yoga and Ayurveda
Colour (Rupa Tanmatra) is one of the key sensory therapies (Tanmatra Chiktisa) in Yoga and Ayurveda. The right use of color stimulates the prana, harmonises the emotions, opens the inner eye, and connects us to the devotional light of the Deva Lokas. It is not just a matter of art or beauty but a connection to higher realms of awareness. The festival of Holi celebrates this cosmic power of colour.
Each individual has an inner colour code like DNA, reflecting their karma and dharma. This is connected to their birth chart and the dominant planet. It can be seen in the deeper aura, that arising from hridaya, the spiritual heart, not simply our outer energy patterns that mix with emotional ups and downs.
These inner colours form myriad patterns, changing like a kaleidoscope in transformational gestalts, but hold certain background yantras or geometrical resonances, like the Sri Yantra. They are connected to sound vibrations (nada and mantra), even to different fragrances.Our outer senses only provide intimations of the wonder of our inner senses like the third eye, in which we do not merely perceive colours in outer objects, we experience colour as an effulgence of our own inner bliss or Ananda.
The highest Prana is the power of the Atman or inner Self of pure consciousness. This is the Prana Purusha of the Upanishads and Shiva Mahadeva as the ruler of Prana. In addition, there are various connections of Prana with deep sleep, yoga nidra and samadhi, that are worthy of profound study and practice. We not only live through Prana, we can connect to the forces of immortality through it.
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