Yoga

At a time when Indian Yoga is spreading far and wide in Western countries including Britain, two churches at London have banned a group of children from conducting yoga classes in the church premises saying that the Yoga, the ancient practice is allegedly ‘un-Christian’.

Yoga exponent Baba Ramdev who made the Yoga popular in India and abroad and his camps have been held in several places across Britain, most recently in Scotland, who reacted sharply to the ban of Yoga by two churches saying “To relate Yoga with religion is nothing but ignorance. There is nothing to suggest in the yoga texts that it is against Christianity,” Baba Ramdev said.

The Yoga teacher Louise Woodstock Said: The churches have completely misunderstood it and I think they are being narrow-minded. “

Delhi Catholic Archdiocese spoke person Emmanuel Dominic said “the action was stupidity because of lack of sufficient knowledge about what yoga is.”

Yoga is nothing to do with religion and it is mixed up with religion just due to ignorance. People throughout the world are enjoying the benefits of these age-old Yoga exercises (postures/ exercises), breathing exercises. Its cures lot of ailments and keeps the body and mind fit. Anything good to mankind we should welcome. Today Yoga has been accepted by most of the developed countries. Yoga is practiced by millions of Americans today. Everyday people are experiencing the goodness of Yoga.

Today people of western countries are turning to east for spiritual happiness (leaving the materialistic life), practicing Yoga for healthy mind and body. Yoga is for all, regardless of color, caste, creed or religion, from the richest to the poorest.

 

India is home to Spirituality, Yoga, Ayurveda and also Kamasutra. Today the preiests who are telling Yoga is a non-christian so they don’t accept (because it is from Hindusthan, India), then what about the Kamasutra? Why they don’t ban Kamasutra too?

It is rightly said that two church priests are too small to ban yoga. If somebody bans Homoepathy, saying it as non-Hindu, will that ban harm to Germany or America? It will turn to be a ridiculous matter. Similarly the banning of Yoga by two priests too has become a ridiculous matter. It will be a wise thing to ignore them and not to give any importance to such ignorant and narrow minded persons.

Everybody should view the things in a broader perspective. We should respect all other religions bcoz in every religion there are good things and anything good we must try to understand and welcome. This simple understanding, will make the world a better place to live.

 

 

Mistake turned to be a blessing

It is not my story, somebody else’s story I am presenting here. One day a high ranked army Officer was talking to us. He was talking about the God. He believes God or a supreme power ( whatever name you give), is existing. Sometimes some people may experience His existence through some incidents, in own life or in the family through which you may realize about His existence. In this connection he explained his experience, on his own life, which was like this :

“Old habits die-hard.” Once you are habituated to smoking and drinking it is difficult to come out from those habits. That was the case for him. He used to smoke about seven packets of cigarettes in a day and half bottle of wine in the evening daily. One fine morning his doctor detected some type of heart disease and Doctor advised him to stop drinking and smoking. The situation forced him to stop smoking and drinking. Due to medically unfit promotion also stopped.

Treatment was going on. Smoking and drinking totally stopped. Now he was spending the evening with his family. After treatment for an about one year or so, he was again advised to go through all the tests again, which was done a year back while diagnosis of the disease. He went through all tests at various speciality centers. Then the reports were analyzed carefully at various levels as per the Army procedure since it was a case of unfit. It took about a year to declare the report and surprisingly he was declared “fit”. For the Officer it was like a miracle, he never thought of it.

How could it happen? He wanted to know the things, but he was not obliged initially. Nothing was told him though he was a high-ranked Officer but later on his insistence, he was told on one condition. Condition was – he would not go to court for claiming compensation. Most probably he was agreed to. Then he was told that the initial diagnosis itself was wrong.

It was a clear case of compensation because this mistake made him to lose his promotion, seniority; mental peace and then wrong treatment and its side effects. He kept his promise.

During these many months one positive thing happened in his life, which he considered more than any compensation or any monetary gain. He could come out from the bad habits of smoking and drinking. Was he not declared as a heart patient, it was impossible for him to come out from those bad habits, which were killing him silently? One mistake turned the ‘impossible’ to ‘possible’ and saved his life.

He looked at the incident in a different angle. In fact the incident turned him towards spirituality and made him to believe that the mistake was a blessing for him and it was the plan of God, without His wish such things cannot happen.

Without the sacrifice of small interests or gains, you cannot achieve a greater goal in life. Health and happiness in life are the wealthiest and precious than any other materialistic gains.

Napoleon Hill, American speaker and motivational writer said : “Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.”