YOGA-ASANAS – Part 1

How many of you, sisters and brothers, find in yourselves the unmistakable signs of disease,
declining health, vim, vigour and vitality? How many of you, may I ask again, feel actually the grip
of premature old age? Why do you unjustly throw the whole blame on heredity without for a
moment realising that for nearly thirty or thirty-five years you have been flouting the laws of life?
Thirty-five years of wrong living! Thirty-five years of wrong feeding! Thirty-five years of wrong
breathing! Thirty-five years of wrong thinking! Thirty-five years spent in abject ignorance of the
relationship between brain and brawn! Thirty-five years, in fact, spent in doing everything possible
to develop the disease of “Old Age!”
Now suppose the whole situation is reversed, and in place of wrong living, wrong feeding,
wrong breathing, etc., there is introduced right living, right feeding, right breathing, and so forth,
what will be the effect? Will physical and mental degeneration give place to physical and mental
regeneration? The answer given by the Seers of the East is an emphatic “YES”. The Indian Yogins
have conclusively proved that by following a regimen it is quite possible to rebuild the human body,to reconstruct the human mind, to regain lost youth, strength and beauty. The key to accomplish this
remarkable feat according to the Saints, Sages and Rishis of yore is to be found in Yoga-Asanas.
You know what the word ‘Yoga’ means. It is union of the individual soul (Jivatman) with
the Supreme Soul (Paramatman). Asana is an easy and comfortable seat or pose or posture. Thus the
term Yoga-Asanas means certain postures by assuming any one of which the individual soul is
united with the Supreme Soul quite easily by the Yogic practitioner. The relationship between mind
and body is so complete and so subtle that it is no wonder that certain physical training will induce
certain mental transformations.
A good many of you might have come across several persons capable of demonstrating
these Yoga-Asanas some of which may seem at first sight disgusting and tiring. At any rate such
persons are not uncommon in India. Some of my own students who are specialists in this branch of
Yoga can do the various exercises with amazing grace and finish. It is wrong to suppose that these
Yoga-Asanas are merely physical exercises founded by the ancient Rishis of India just as so many
systems of physical culture have cropped up now both in Europe and in America. There is
something spiritual, something divine at the bottom of this system for it awakens the sleeping
Kundalini-Shakti, helps the Yogic student a lot in establishing himself fully in meditation and
finally makes him taste the nectar of Cosmic Consciousness.

From – SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA