My earliest encounters with Naturopathy

|| You might not know about my father. He was a staunch Communist all his life, a Card Holder for over 55 years- he joined CPI with the struggle for 'Socialist India' and died with the same conviction. He was one of the organisers for the Party and a Peasantry leader of highest order in the country. He never occupied an office of profit, though extremely popular in a large area, everytime a proposal to forward his name for Assembly or Parliament came he persuaded his supporters that he be allowed to do the 'service' without taking a position.

He was a reader all his life. Apart from the books on Marxism- Leninism, Politics and Agrarian movements of which he was a great representative, he also had a large collection of books on Naturopathy and Indian Philosophy. He was also a regular subscriber of a monthly Naturopathy Journal 'Aarogya' - which still gets published in Hindi language by one of the oldest and most renowned Naturopathy Centers of Northern India, 'Aarogya Mandir, Gorakhpur', founded by Vittal Das Modi.

I was a different child. I was known as one of the most meritorious students of my Govt. Middle School in my village (this school was founded by my father and my mother was a senior teacher who died as headmistress in the last year of her service. This School is one of most performing govt. village schools of my state with over 1500 students and about 30 teachers). I got two Govt. Talent Scholarships- one in Class 4th- 6th and the second, Class 7th to 10th.

I mentioned this because as a child I did not play any game or sports (I did not have time for this!). The only thing I did other going to school and being the most obedient of 5 brothers; was to read books from my father's collection. Naturopathy Books became my interest and every month I started reading Aarogya, the Naturopathy Journal I mentioned earlier. These were my first encounters with Naturopathy.

My father wanted me to be an IAS. Like my teachers and everybody who knew me, this should have been their natural choice. But, thanks to the books I had developed my interests towards Life Sciences. After 10th, I specifically chose to study Science so I could become a Doctor.

I came to prepare for Medical entrance to Patna (Bihar being one of the top most populous states of the country has just a few hundred medical seats and you have to compete with thousands for one single seat). But, I had become a Student leader (also attended AISF National Conference as a delegate at 18 years) and Ideologue among the group during my stay in Patna and medical entrance exam was no longer my focus.

I had also thought of giving a try to consider Naturopathy as my career and enrolled as ND student of Aarogya Mandir, Gorakhpur. About the same time, I visited Gorakhpur to see the institute for the first time. But, I was not yet convinced about Naturopathy becoming a skill enough for my bread and butter. The Course had about 30 books on naturopathy to study and be a subscriber of their Journal for at least a year before going to stay in the Institute for two months for internship and take an exam for ND.

I had also enrolled myself for 'Certificate in Yoga Therapy' conducted by University health Center of Patna University. It was a year long program and classes were conducted every weekend mornings on Yoga and a few theory lessons by the Center's CMO Dr. Prabhakar Devaraj, MD.

One day, I was sitting with one of my friends turning pages of 'Employment News' when i saw an advertisement for the post of Director, National Institute of Naturopathy. The mere existence of National Institute of Naturopathy by Govt. of India interested me enough to note down their address in Pune. Next day, I wrote a letter to the Director, NIN for want of all Naturopathy Centers in the Country. Leena Mehndale, an IAS officer who used to be on deputation at NIN as Director replied to my letter with about 35 institutions in annexture.

I started looking for some long term course in Naturopathy, as the training I had as ND from Aarogya Mandir did not equip me enough to be confident as a Naturopathy Practitioner. So, I started visiting all the institutions given in the annexture. I was in Delhi for about a month for the purpose where among others I visited Bapu Nature Cure Hospital.

There, I met two young BNYS doctors for the first time. It was the year '96 and the Doctors I met were the first batches of BNYS! One was from Hyderabad College and the other from SDM was Dr Narendra Shetty. I had a long chat with Dr. Shetty where he advised me to go for BNYS at SDM.

I had my doubts. One was the financial situation of my family. SDM was charging fifty thousand donation besides regular fees and I simply thought spending about a lakh a year for five years will be too difficult for my family. The other College was a Govt. College but was open for only Andhra students.

But, he also suggested that a new College had started in Bangalore that year by Jindal Naturopathy Hospital where fees were less and they might also offer Scholarship to a few students. I took their address from him, thanked and shot off a letter to the Principal, ICNYS, Jindal Nagar.

In '97 I got admitted to Jindal, India's Premier Nature Cure Institution where I was promised one thousand Rs. scholarship a month and where annual fees were just 8500 Rs. plus 500 for mess. This for me was OK to try; even though I had to spend 5 years in a curriculum nobody ever was aware of in my whole state.

I was learning a new thing everyday about this profession. Employment opportunities available for the first few batches of BNYS were very limited. People worked in Jindal for 4500 Rs. a month. Those who had spent about 15 years in Jindal were still at about ten thousand a month. Within a year of my study at Jindal College we heard whispers about it closing down and we got shifted to SDM with some fees waiver arrangement and some scholarship promise by SJ Jindal foundation.

I made it a point to continue visiting Naturopathy and Yoga Institutions of the Country whenever I had an opportunity. In second year, I convinced my room mates and then Interns Dr Appu Bagath Gurudev and Dr Nalvazhu to take a trip with me to many parts of Maharastra.

In about ten days, we had visited Yoga Institute, Santacruz, Bombay; Kaivalyadhama, Lonavla; National Institute of Naturopathy, Rammani Iyengar Yoga Institute, Osho Ashram, Nisargopachar Ashram- all in Pune and a famous Health Resort in Karjat run by Osteopath Son of Vittal Das Modi, Dr. Krishna Murari Modi. This trip in particular was a very enriching experience for all of us. Everywhere we were given a red carpet welcome and we interacted with the highest functionaries of these Institutes first hand.

Third year in BNYS, I convinced many of my classmates to join me in the first ever camp by a group of BNYS students in Bangalore's Century Club much to the annoyance of our then Principal. 20 BNYS students participated in the camp. This opened new doors for many of us and opened our eyes for the opportunities available in the field. I had also started organizing workshops in the Pathanjali Hostel every Saturday evening. We also formed a group to learn basics of Internet and started visiting the only Cyber Cafe available, in Mangalore.

Fourth year in BNYS, I had conducted a camp first time in my village where some of Juniors in BNYS with me attended over 1200 patients for ten days period.

Fifth year in BNYS, I had got selected for NIN internship for six months. I had founded Body Mind Spirit Foundation with friends in College and covered Kasaragod, Kerala; Dhanbad, Jharkhand; Siwan, Bihar; Lucknow and Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh with huge success among other places, with our innovative Nature Cure Camps.

From second year onwards I kept myself abreast of all major developments in the field of Integrative medicine and personally visited Dr. Bijlani and Dr. K K Deepak when All India Institute of Medical Sciences started its 'Holistic Medicine' Center in Delhi.

I also kept in touch with Institutions of naturopathy in America and Europe and tried to study their books and methods. I also tried to know and was always interested in what our BNYS graduates- Seniors, Colleagues and Juniors are doing after the completion of their degree.

This was my own style of training of Naturopathy while I was not still a Naturopathic Doctor. ||

I have always believed that a proper training curriculum is essential for any professional to be equipped with right knowledge, resources and experience. BNYS does just that. However, one will have to learn many more things and learning first hand from others, other than what is available in a School, is very necessary to succeed personally.

Training environment also needs an improvement but, we can not focus too much on what is not in our hands. For example, any institution and its administration works to achieve it's own objectives and constraints of resources, including but not limited to human resources available with it.

It is the duty and responsibility of professionals to formulate their own goals and objectives. Once you are clear as a profession about what you want to achieve, any lobbying with Govt. regulatory bodies, People's representatives, Academic Institutions, Mass Media and General Public will be able to yield results.

We need new authors from amongst us who could translate all the inherited knowledge resources in the context of modern world. We need entrepreneurs who could establish Institutions of their Dream. We need Clinicians who would benefit their Patients. We will need Ideologues who would keep our objectives focused. None of that is less important.

Excerpts from my recent message to Dr. Shakthi Vijayan, BNYS; a young and dedicated Naturopath from Tamil Nadu.

"China: The New Yoga Superpower"- Article and Comments

Dear Friends, I will be off to Shanghai, China for about ten days starting 10th of August to attend 'I Live to Lead- worldwide Summit'.

Laura Bode, President of I live to Lead Foundation, USA with invitation also sent me an article 'China: the next Yoga Super Power', which I have attached for your knowledge and information.

I wrote following comments to Laura and a few others on this article. I am also attaching their comments. I would love to hear from you all.
-------------------------
I wrote,
"Dear Laura/ Jamie/ Erkin/ Natacha,

It is exciting to hear more about this upcoming trip to China.

Laura, thank you for sending me the article 'Yoga Superpower'. It is very well written and extremely informative. Mr Daniel has done a real good job by putting minute and necessary details to understand a country so mysteriously unknown to the rest of the world. The article allows me to guess what is happening with the people, their mind and their thought processes in a distinctly political and economic setting.

Here are my comments and after-thoughts-

It is true that India and China have long borders between them and equally true that India's influence on China has been very strong for thousands of years in history, yet we are not ordinary neighbours. Two countries with the biggest populations never became close after the Chinese Revolution. We had highest mountains in between us but that did not prevent cultural exchanges in ancient times. Chinese travelers' travelogue during their trip to India remain most authentic historical evidences about India between 5th and 10th Century AD.

But, hatred created in last 60-70 years in the run up to Chinese ambition of becoming world SuperPower and its uneasiness toward a regional axis created around India- has harmed any possibility of a direct interaction between the two countries. People to People contact, which is a backbone of any real exchange between cultures and traditions have not been possible. In every possible term, it is America which is closer to China, not India. It doesn't surprise me that Yoga has reached China through America.

I have worked in the Northern Hemisphere and seen very closely about what has happened to Yoga there. What is more pathetic is that, Yoga has come back to India through the same route, America! Thankfully, it is only the recognition of Yoga's importance and the fact that an average Indian is more spiritually aware than most of Yoga teachers in America that - American Yoga Trainers are not so big in India. Not as yet. Occasionally, I hear about Iyengar Yoga, Ashtanga Yoga etc. in some Fitness Clubs of Metros but Yoga for most Indians is meant for much deeper purposes than simply 'stretching' and names like Shivananda, Satyananda, Kuvalyananda are the ones of the nature, they are more aware of.

Then recently, there is Swami Ramdev who has done exact the chinese thing in India (mass production)! He has reached masses of India through live demonstrations of his 'yoga teachings' on popular television and himself owns one such television channel. He also sells Ayurvedic Medicines/ Herbs and has turnover close to a Billion Dollar.

The only consolation from the spread of what-ever-form-of Yoga in America, China, India or elsewhere is that people have recognized the fact they should live an active life and do some kind of exercise. This is a good thing. Even if they swallow this necessary pill in the name of yoga, it will help them. It may not however, help Yoga. Hopefully, Yoga will survive in-spite-of all adulterations, alterations and superficial and popular forms of it."
----------------------------

Laura wrote,

"These first emails have me even more interested in meeting. I just regret that I will be so busy with the program I won't have extensive time to learn more from you. Rajesh, your comments on yoga "surviving" despite its popularization -- were fascinating. India is the most spiritual place I've ever spent time in."
-----------------------------

Erkin (my Entrepreneur friend and Student) wrote,

"Rajesh is clearly upset with this.

Every art or thing has a similar journey in the world, not just yoga. Masses take things at the surface, only some rare selected beings go practice things authentically, the majority is teaching or practicing just some superficial way.

Any other thing that I have touched or seen is generally like that. The financial markets move often with noise, not the substance, the wars start for stupid reasons, movies made for quick gain without essence, music world is chasing the money, authentic things take a back seat and the deepest things are often least appreciated or even unnoticed. And at times, truth shows up and prevails. Yoga has the same treatment as everything else basically, any true artists or practioner can relate to this. I had a similar discussion with Euzhan Palcy, the film director, who is often disenchanted with state of the movie industry. It takes some individuals who really care so much about the subject to really make a difference.

Yet I can relate to the disenchantment that the world is not better today than it should be, not just yoga but the whole world is having same kind of issues.

We can do our input with our own lives and examples I hope.

Some great musicians must be complaining in vain that classical or folk music is not more appreciated than it is, and instead the noisy unbeneficial stuff is all around making mass exposure. The original intent of music doesn't get proper respect and treatment.

Bob Mover was telling me recently from his touring in England, France and Italy that people actually have no idea about music and some are just buying stuff, that things don't have to be good to be appreciated.

This is talk provocative and I suggest to pick it up in the group when we are all in China over a glass of wine or some snake delicatessen."

HERE is the Article: 

The New Yoga Superpower


By Daniel Simpson

When China’s first yoga studio opened nine years ago, its founders were a couple of women from California. Robyn Wexler had been teaching asana in the gym of a luxury Beijing hotel while looking for a space more conducive to holistic practice. Her partner, Mimi Kuo-Deemer, took photos for a living but was eager to devote more time to yoga instruction. Together, they decided to create what they had sought in vain: “a clean room with a simple wooden floor.”

“We got the idea on holiday in San Francisco,” Kuo-Deemer recalls. “I mean, how hard could it be to create that in Beijing?” They found it in a Qing Dynasty residence. Secluded from busy traffic in a quadrangle, Yoga Yard was a haven of tranquility. To Wexler, it epitomized “consistency, stability, and continuation in a city undergoing so much transformation and change, building up and tearing down.”

Initially, classes were in English. Though Kuo-Deemer and Wexler speak Mandarin, most students were expatriates. That didn’t last long. Across Beijing, Shanghai, and other metropolises, more and more gyms were offering yoga, hiring instructors who’d learned from DVDs and hyping it as the hottest trend in fitness. Practicing was the acme of modernity: a way of channeling energy to succeed. “It’s a symbol of the outside world,” Kuo-Deemer explains. “Like thin women on the beach.”

In less than a decade, yoga studios have sprouted all over China. They’re dotted along urban sidewalks, and classes can even be found in the hinterlands. They’ve spread so fast that no one’s keeping count. Estimates suggest that 10 million Chinese now practice regularly, compared to about 16 million Americans. Long before it displaces the U.S. economy, let alone its military, China will be the world’s new yoga superpower.
“Yoga went to China via America,” explains Faeq Biria, one of B. K. S. Iyengar’s leading disciples, who’s been visiting Beijing to train teachers since 2008. “They see it from an American point of view. At the beginning, they’re attracted by the byproducts: to be handsome, to be pretty, to digest well, sleep well, have a nice body, be intelligent, unstressed. It’s hard work to take them toward the deeper aspects.”

A burgeoning industry tempts them with distractions, hawking figure-hugging sportswear on models with Westernized features. Most styles of yoga are available, although the emphasis is squarely on physical practice. It’s often an aspirational activity: the price of a class in Shanghai can be higher than in Los Angeles.
But there’s more to Chinese yoga than meets the eye. As Biria observes, there are internal connections to indigenous arts, from Taoist tai chi to traditional Chinese medicine. “The moment you connect to the energetics of yoga, they catch it so fast,” he says. “Their eyes shine and they grasp it, because it’s in their culture.”

For now, most young Chinese neglect this heritage. It’s out of sync with their urge to consume new products. But that materialism is only skin-deep. Beneath the surface of its rapid transmutation, the country is troubled. While a few get improbably rich, a billion others struggle with inflation, unemployment, and migration. These widening inequalities breed resentment and despair, which drive increasing numbers to suicide.
“There’s an urgent need here,” says Chen Si, a journalist working to promote more classical yoga teaching. He organized a conference this summer that brought Iyengar and a dozen of his protégés to Guangzhou, China, face-to-face with 1,300 students. Billed as the China-India Yoga Summit, the event was endorsed by officials in New Delhi and Beijing, whose relations have been strained since the 1950s, when India opposed China’s seizure of Tibet and gave refuge to the 14th Dalai Lama. Border wars promptly ensued.

Trade has diminished their hostility, culminating in a visit to India last December by Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, who paid tribute to Gandhi, quoted the Upanishads, and waxed lyrical on how Buddhism shaped China. To top it off, he announced that his daughter practiced asana.

Unlike the Dalai Lama or Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline banned in China, yoga is being embraced by the state. Chinese authorities talk it up as a force for “harmony,” echoing their counterparts in India. “There is a growing social conflict due to our relentless pursuit of material objects,” an Indian diplomat told the summit. “Yoga can be a useful instrument for promoting social harmony. After all, only individuals at peace and in harmony with themselves can build a peaceful and harmonious society.”
By inviting an Indian master to teach, Chen aimed to empower the Chinese to practice yoga more deeply, and thereby foster social change. While these are sensitive issues in a one-party state, he feels fairly secure. “China has a tradition of embracing foreign cultures and making them its own,” he says. “That’s why it’s been so vibrant.”

A FINE LINE

But it’s not always that clear-cut, for reasons the Communist Party stressed in July, when it marked its 90th anniversary. “Since British invaders launched the opium war in 1840, the Western capitalist powers came one after another to China, and China was thus reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society,” an official exhibition declared. Visiting London later, Wen added: “This has taught the Chinese never to talk to others in a lecturing way, but to respect nations on the basis of equality.”

Fearing unrest, the government is wary of outside ideas, especially if they mention liberation. While Communist regimes were crumbling in Eastern Europe in 1989, non-violent protestors were massacred in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. A decade later, Falun Gong was denounced as a cult, its followers tortured for meditating en masse. Yoga proponents have had to walk a fine line, demonstrating that the practice enhances individual well-being without undermining collective order.

In the early days of the yoga boom, teachers felt watched. “We had some very awkward stiff men who’d appear in class,” one remembers. “Like totally out of context, with fake leather belts.”

This mutual suspicion has subsided, as China adapts to a breakneck pace of change. Falun Gong’s popularity horrified hard-liners, who thought it was building a network beyond their control. In contrast, yoga studios have been slow to form a national federation. The government seems to see them as allies, not as hotbeds of subversion, apparently hoping they’ll calm a restive populace. Booming business also helps. At the summit in Guangzhou, most discussions were focused on marketing.

Yet as recently as 2009, officials shuttered a Chinese version of Yoga Journal, citing political objections. Editors are confused about what happened, and some say other factors were involved, such as jockeying for power at the magazine’s state-run media partner. Regardless, everyone was fired. “It was an immediate reaction,” says John Abbott, Yoga Journal‘s former publisher, who set up the venture in China with government backing. “It was closed and we were notified.”

Abbott was told that an anonymous “rogue website” had been discovered, hosted in Singapore, and “titled something like Yoga Journal Against China.” It apparently listed references to Tibet in the U.S. edition and included photos. “I understand that one of the photos was me in a quasi-embrace with the Dalai Lama,” Abbott says. Yoga Journal says it’s “in the early exploratory phase” of plans to reopen.

According to Wang Zhicheng, a philosophy professor at Zhejiang University: “We basically have religious freedom in China, unless somebody uses religion to stir up tensions.” Yoga, he adds, is “more like a spiritual-mental practice, a way of thinking, or a way of keeping healthy and happy,” and “Chinese culture very much appreciates the ‘cultivation of character,’ which is basically a humanist idea.”

It’s also at the core of Confucian ethics, which held sway, at least in theory, for over 2,000 years. Order was defined in terms of moral standards, to be upheld by everyone from paupers to the emperor. Mao Zedong exploded this ideal, saying power derived from the muzzle of a gun. In their efforts to reconcile commerce with control, his successors have revived the spirit of Confucius. “The state strengthens the building of socialist spiritual civilization through spreading education in high ideals and morality,” reads the Chinese Constitution.

This amounts to propaganda, at odds with the yogic goal of shedding illusions. But state “ideals” are hard to instill in practice. Despite placards extolling “a peaceful society,” there are protests all the time in modern China, in places few outsiders ever hear of. Farmers riot when land is grabbed for factories and apartments, as urban sprawl eats badly needed crops. In the cities, migrant workers fight police, and polluted water and smog trigger rants at apparatchiks.

The government tolerates limited dissent. Critical blogs are prolific, yet comments are censored. Letting off steam is tacitly allowed, but cross the line into rallying resistance and you’re in trouble. Journalists sometimes get beaten and activists jailed. Minorities are enemies within. Talking about devolution is taboo. And the number of people executed is classified. It’s said to be more than the rest of the world combined.

Most people’s lives are full of challenges: affording food as prices soar; finding wives when men outnumber women, thanks to sex-selective abortion and a one-child policy; securing jobs; and surviving grueling hours without the right to unionize. Workers at Apple’s Chinese supplier have dived to their deaths from factory windows. Women often kill themselves by drinking pesticide. Domestic violence is rampant.

“What we call modernization brings so much mental and physical stress,” says Chen Si, the yoga summit organizer. “Compared to drugs and psychiatry, yoga is a much better tool for social harmony.”

But is it reaching the masses, or just urban elites? So far, it’s mainly the latter, though as people explore connections with Chinese arts, more might practice by themselves.

A BOOMING MARKET

China’s largest chain of yoga studios, which boasts more than 20,000 students, has a two-tier price plan. In big cities, Yogi Yoga charges $1,000 for unlimited access for a year—a quarter of average annual income nationwide. At provincial franchises, fees drop to $10 a month. Yogi Yoga made $4 million last year, including earnings from teacher training and equipment sales. Revenue has quadrupled since 2005.

“There is a big market,” agrees Birjoo Mehta, a visiting teacher from Mumbai, “but what happens if the brand doesn’t meet its promises?” Addressing Chinese businesses at the summit, he urged them to develop their understanding of yoga and present it more authentically: “Do not restrict yourself with the technology you have. There needs to be a continuous technological development.”

When Yogi Yoga opened in 2003, it promised to “bring pure yoga from India.” This arrived in the form of Yogi Mohan, a teacher from Rishikesh. But when he settled in China, he was shocked: people asked if he’d studied yoga in America.

To educate them, he and his partner at Yogi Yoga, the Beijing publisher Yin Yan, translated books. They began with Iyengar’s Light on Yoga, then a couple of texts by Swami Kuvalayananda. In 2005, they invited Iyengar to teach. He declined at first but sent several senior pupils. Workshops by foreign yogis have grown more common, as have 200-hour teacher-training programs, some with Yoga Alliance accreditation.

Priorities are starting to change. Indian teachers are now in demand, and those who are willing to emigrate get paid well. “People have become more appreciative of what yoga is really about,” Yin says. “They’re not just working on the physical level.”
Away from better-run centers, however, instruction varies wildly. Some teachers claim to be qualified when they’re not. “I’ve basically been crossing their names off a list,” says a woman who lives on the coast, north of Shanghai. “These days I mainly practice at home alone.”

Meanwhile, countless companies cash in. The premier Chinese sports brand, Li Ning, is launching a yoga line, while some of the attire sold by rivals looks fit for the disco. Built-in push-up bras are popular among practitioners, most of whom are women under 35. Other products also prize form over function. A thick towel-like variant on the sticky mat is slippery when dry. Meanwhile, premium goods are shipped abroad, supplying the likes of Lululemon, which sell at a markup. Once Chinese firms master marketing, they could export directly.

“There’s more interest in yoga because of celebrities like Madonna, but it’s also because yoga is well marketed,” Yin says. She ought to know. One of her ventures is a free online magazine called Yoga Digest, which has 200,000 readers compared to the 30,000 who bought Yoga Journal, which she also edited. Like its forebear, Yoga Digest plugs her studios. Marketing “makes a strong force to push people into practice,” she says.

Traditional Chinese disciplines work differently. “Tai chi stays in a relationship of master to disciple, so there’s nobody to push it,” Yin says. That doesn’t stop millions of pensioners meeting in parks at the crack of dawn to glide gracefully through such movements as White Crane Spreads Wings and Swallow Skims The Water. The scene plays out daily from Beijing to Hong Kong, where yoga took root before Britain surrendered its colony 14 years ago. Nowadays, hip Hong Kongers would rather splurge $35 on a flow class than flow with their grannies.

Even so, some young Chinese still do wushu, the collective name for hundreds of martial arts, including “supreme ultimate fist,” as tai chi is known. Like yoga, it aims to balance mind and body, working on posture to circulate energy more freely.
To Vicky Wong, who practices both, they’re complementary. “The two disciplines merge quite beautifully,” says Wong, a Hong Kong native who lives in Beijing. “Doing asana helps my whole body wake up, and tai chi mind-set techniques help me focus internally.”

When Iyengar taught in China, he drew upon a tradition the Chinese know well: Buddhism. “The mind has to be absorbed in the pose,” he told students. “If you use your mind it is a Zen mind.”

Zen resonates widely in Guangzhou. Roughly 15 centuries ago, an Indian monk came ashore there. Known as Bodhidharma, he is considered a direct descendant of the Buddha, and he worked his way northwards through China, disseminating wisdom. Legends of his feats abound. It’s said that he stared at a wall in silence for almost a decade and trained Shaolin monks to use kung fu. Primarily, he practiced meditation, and the sect he inspired was a fusion with Chinese arts. Called chan, it spread as Zen to Japan (and as seon to Korea), teaching experiential awareness of transcendence.
Iyengar’s arrival was hailed as the second coming. “Is it wrong that we compare him to Bodhidharma?” Chen Si asked the summit. “Guruji manifests 5,000 years of civilization on the subcontinent. China will take yoga to heart, like we embraced Buddhism. Who will be the next masters of this tradition? Let’s wait and see.”

For three days, participants were stretched. Lined up in a sports hall, most looked bendy. But they were told they’d “just come to the base level, and there’s a Mount Everest in front of you.” At 92, the Lion of Pune stood for hours on end, vowing to show “how to start from scratch and aim for the ultimate.”

He described “how to listen to the so sound of your inner voice” by observing how the senses distract you and “moving closer to the center.” The five mahabhuta (elements) and koshas (sheaths) were demystified in the context of adjusting imbalances in poses. “Alignment leads to enlightenment,” he said. “Using the power of the body with a skillful brain is nothing but surrender to God.”

For now, many people’s engagement is superficial, even if they smile while doing the splits. “It is natural to make yourself work to keep your beauty,” Iyengar conceded. But we should “practice yoga to experience the inner beauty and inner light, and not for the external beauty only.”

His parting words were blunter. “I gave you all the knowledge of yoga,” he said as they garlanded him, “which may take maybe ten years for you to digest.”

Chen believes the master’s visit was timed to perfection. “China is mad for success,” he says, a throwback to the “greed is good” 1980s. But there’s also a yearning for more on the spiritual level and a tradition of seeking new ideas next door. One of China’s classic novels is Journey to the West, known abroad as The Monkey King. Revived of late as an opera, it’s a quest for sacred Indian inspiration.

“Yoga is such a wonderful gift from India to China,” Chen says. “Chinese society is ready to understand another oriental philosophy. What you saw in America is nothing compared to what will happen here.”


–------------
Before he moved to London and took up yoga, Daniel Simpson worked as a foreign correspondent. He resigned from The New York Times to run a music festival, which got him embroiled with gangsters in Belgrade. This inspired him to leave the Balkans and write a book. Nowadays he mainly writes about yoga.

Cancer Cure - News!

First, this news is one such which requires widest publicity if the mass media were even slightly interested in the well-being of the masses. News Channels, Websites and personal mails should have made this news to reach billions of people around the world so people become interested in their 'health' and 'disease' and what they can do about it. I say this with strongest conviction and urgency to have that attention of the people. Why do I say so?

Because, we are at a critical stage of Human History as it pertains to the threat of widespread 'illness'; coming under the category of 'lifestyle disorders' - which is unfortunately going to engulf almost everyone on earth. Yes, almost EVERYONE!

According to some estimates, in next 20 years- almost every human being is going to have one or more of these three conditions- 1. CANCER 2. DIABETES 3. HEART DISEASE. One third of worldwide population is already 'OBESE' which is a precursor and indicator of such massive scale of illness.

What is interesting is that, three lifestyle factors- 1. Diet 2. Exercise 3. Stress Management - can limit these and many other conditions at bay. And, it is not Doctors... but we, ourselves have the capacity to make these changes in our lives! To be 'ill' or 'well' is going to be largely dependent on our choices.

-Rajesh.

Woman shocks doctors by using superfoods like turmeric to treat cancer - and lives! Tuesday, July 03, 2012 by: Willow Tohi

(NaturalNews) Maybe you've seen those commercials where a doctor is working on a construction crew, then it shows the construction worker in the pharmacy looking for the right medicine, telling you not to do your doctor's job because you wouldn't want him doing yours. It's quite a ridiculous analogy really, insinuating that there's a similarity in a doctor running a jack hammer, and you taking care of your own body, like that's someone else's job. No one else can maintain your body or has to live with the consequences of how you do so, but you. Duh. In a similar tone, there was recently a story out of England about a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer, had the traditional treatments, but then declined the follow-up pharmaceuticals in favor of managing her health with nutrition. There seems to be genuine surprise at her success. Which is.... surprising. What's the big shocker? There are numerous books, stories and websites out there documenting the success of "alternative" treatments to cancer. Before the age of Big Pharma, "alternative" treatments such as through diet, exercise, and supplementation, were the cancer treatments, and there was less cancer then too. To fight it, you have to understand it For anyone who wants to understand how cancer works, there is a wealth of information out there that explains the causes, lifestyle factors, percentages, etc. Cancer lives in an acidic, anaerobic environment. So, it stands to reason that a strict vegan diet of organic fruits and vegetables, a good portion of them raw, would correct that environment. It swings the pH back to neutral or even alkaline, it oxygenates the blood, and it provides the body with the resources it needs to fight the fight itself. Many sources site animal protein as a culprit. It's more all mainstream food because of the toxic way it is processed and preserved. Xenoestrogens from chemicals used on non-organic plants are just as involved in ill health as hormone laden animal products. When ill, detoxing with an organic vegan diet containing lots of superfoods is the best place to start - you need lots of extra ORACs, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, etc. Take therapeutic doses of things like vitamin D, coq10, garlic, vitamin C. A balanced diet of all organic food is fine for maintaining health. There's no way for any of us to completely avoid the DNA damage that leads to abnormal cells. The Cancer Society says that 50 percent of American men and 33 percent of American women will develop some form of cancer in their lives. Causes are not just from poor diet, smoking or alcohol, lack of exercise, and environmental pollution. It can also come from genetics, viruses, and exposure to chemicals from a variety of places. The best we can do is to take care of our bodies in a way that limits the number of cells damaged and the severity of the damage so that our bodies can keep up with destroying the abnormal cells and maintaining cellular equilibrium. What is surprising... We can't separate what we eat from our health. It's not surprising that a good diet begets good health. What is surprising is that modern medical practitioners don't address that angle more often, though they are doing so more and more recently. What is surprising is that nutrition is not always taught in medical school. How can that be? Would you take your car to a mechanic that doesn't understand the fuel system? Don't you expect your children's teachers to be educated in education? Something else that is surprising is that using diet and ancient treatments is called "alternative" even though there is a longer history of using acupuncture or eating garlic, turmeric, and antioxidant-rich foods than the radical, barbaric modern treatments of radical mastectomies and hysterectomies. What is shocking is that we're hardly counseled in nutrition, but fully expected to take extremely poisonous pharmaceuticals that are often more deadly than the original illness. We are sharing the planet with seven billion other souls now, with more coming daily. The world is increasingly toxic and having good health is becoming more of a decision than luck. Even some of us that exercise and eat well will become sick. Good food can only increase our chances of survival, let alone quality of life. What is further surprising is why the English woman didn't change her diet sooner. She may have saved her breasts and a lot of headaches. Sources for this article include: http://www.telegraph.co.uk Balch, Phyllis, CNC. Prescription for Nutritional Healing. p. 246-253.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/036369_turmeric_cancer_superfoods.html#ixzz1zdAmCygo