The Path of Yog. Ashok K. Sachdeva

Charak says that regular exercise makes the body healthy, gives glow to the cheeks, develops the muscles, increases the digestive fire, gets rid of laziness, gives stability, evacuates faeces (bodily waste matter derived from ingested food and the secretions of the intestines and discharged through the anus) and other waste and makes the body light.

      Therefore, exercise is the main basis, which provides rasa to the tree like body and maintains good health. The deeper the roots of the tree, the stronger and long-lived it is. In the same way the person who practices exercises regularly, his life is full of zeal and happiness. Exercise not only makes the body health but it also strengthens the mind and brain. The strong mind and brain glows the personality of the person and becomes capable of being called a good human being. This is not important that a person is at a good position and is related to a special religion or community, what is important is that he is a good human being and he has the feeling of helping others.

      There are different ways of doing exercises. Dips, wrestling, running, horse riding, swimming, short put, football, kabbadi etc. games and sports are prevalent in India since the ancient times.

Yog Aasan and Pranayam also Make the Body Healthy

      Brisk walking is also beneficial for the overall health. Exercise should be practiced depending on the condition of the person. All the exercises are not helpful for everyone. Running and jumping exercises are beneficial for the children, the youth can benefit from sports, the old and people related to the mental work should go morning and evening walk. Cricket, hockey, football, volleyball, tennis and polo are some of the popular sports. There are good sources of exercise. Dancing, grinding, drawing water from the well and simple yog aasan are beneficial for the women.

      Some people work very hard throughout the day for sake of living. Such people enjoy good health, but the people working in sedentary jobs have poor health. Every person should practice exercises depending on his physical requirement and strength. Over exercising can be very harmful. Charak Sanhita mentions the harmful effects and says – over exercise can result in tiredness, weariness, deterioration, bleeding piles, vomiting, palpitation, cough, and fever.

      shrama klama kshayastushna raktapitta pratamakah

      ati vyayamatah kaso jvarachardishva jayate

      Some rules should be followed for doing exercises, for example

      1. Exercises should never be done after taking meals.

      2. It should be practiced in open air, gardens etc.

      3. The mouth should be closed while doing exercises and deep breaths should be taken through nostrils.

      4. Massage the body with oil and then take bath for activeness.

      5. Eating simple, pious food and having pure thoughts is the basis for healthy life.

      The habit of doing exercises should be developed from childhood itself. Those who practice exercises from young age, have sharp brain, healthy and fit body. Sports and exercises should be compulsory for the students in the schools. The schools where this type of provision is not available there it should be implemented. Every person has a desire that he should live up to 100 years with name and fame but this is possible only when his body is healthy. The body can remain healthy only when the person practices exercises regularly. Hence proper exercise is a must for a healthy body and they are supplementary to each other.

Yog of the Mandukya Upanishad

      We observe that the human individual is a microcosmic specimen of the entire creative process of the cosmos. The layers or degrees of reality which constitute the composition of the universe of creation are also to be found in the human individual in the form of the Kosas or the sheaths, as they are called – physical, vital, mental, intellectual and causal-known in the Sanskrit language as Annamaya Kosa, Pranomaya Kosa, Manomaya Kosa, Vijnanamaya Kosa and Anandamaya Kosa. These are the five layers of objectivity which, in a gradational form, externalize consciousness. The grosser the sheath, the greater is the force of externality, so that when consciousness enters the physical body we are totally material in our outlook, physical in our understanding and assessment of values, intensely body-conscious, and know nothing about ourselves except this body. It is only when we go interior that we have access to the subtler layers of our personality – not otherwise. The Taittiriya Upanishad dealt with subject of the five layers, known as the Kosas; and the Mandukya Upanishad, which is another important Upanishad, sometimes considered as the most important, deals with the very same Kosas in a different way, namely, by the elucidation of the involvement of consciousness in these Kosas.

      The five have been classified into three groups – the physical, the subtle and the causal. In the waking state in which we are now, for instance, the physical body is intensely operative and we always think in terms of physical body, physical objects and physical sensations. This physical sensation is absent in the state of dream, but three of the Kosas operate in dream. In the waking condition, all the five are operating, concentrating their action on the physical body mostly. In the dream state the physical body is not operating, but the vital, the mental and the intellectual sheaths are active. The Prana is there, the mind is there, the intellect also is there also in a diminished intensity. We breath, we think and we understand in the state of dream. That means Prana, Manas and Buddhi all are active in the state of dream, minus the physical element, namely the body consciousness. In the state of deep sleep, none of these are active; neither the body is operating there, nor the mind, nor the intellect, nor is there any consciousness that we are even breathing. The consciousness is withdrawn entirely from all the sheaths – physical, vital, mental and intellectual. There is only one sheath that is operating in the state of sleep – that is the causal sheath, called in Sanskrit.

      In the waking condition the senses are very active, physically and materially. The Anandamaya Kosa Mandukya Upanishad tells us that we enjoy, experience and contact things in nineteen ways in the waking state. Consciousness has nineteen mouths through which it eats the food of objective experience. What are these nineteen mouths? They are the five senses of knowledge – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching. With these five sensations we come in contact with things in the world outside, and enjoy them with actions and reactions produced thereby, by means of such sensory contact. These five mentioned are called senses of knowledge – Jnanya Indriyas. They are so called because they give us some sort of knowledge – either of sight, or sound, or taste, or smell, or touch. Apart from these five senses of knowledge, there are five organs of action; they do not give us any independent knowledge, but they act. The hand that grasps is one organ of action. The speech that articulates words is another organ of action. The feet that cause locomotion or movement are also organs of action. The generative organ and the excretory organ also are two of the active elements or organs of action. They act, but they do not give any new knowledge. Whatever idea, knowledge, experience, etc. we may have through any one of these organs of action comes through the sensations already mentioned, namely, the Jnana Indriyas. Even when the organs of action act and we are conscious that they are acting, this consciousness is available only through the Jnana Indriyas and not separately though the organs of action, which do not give additional knowledge. It looks as if we have some sensation even through the organs of action, but actually it is not so. The sensation, the experience of the action of the Karma Indriyas as they are called, arises on account of the simultaneous action of the Jnana Indriyas or senses of knowledge. These five senses of knowledge and five organs of action make ten mouths of consciousness.

      Then there are the five Pranas – the Prana, or the vital energy in us, operates in five ways. When we breathe out, expel breath, the Prana is acting. When we breathe in, when we inhale the breath, the Apana is acting. The Vyana is a third form of the operation of this energy, which causes circulation of blood and makes us feel a sensation of liveliness in every part of the body because of the operative action of the bloodstream, which is pushed onward in a circular fashion throughout the body by the action of a particular function of Prana, called Vyana. There is another action of the Prana, which is Udana; it causes the swallowing of food. When we put food in the mouth, it goes inside through the esophagus and it is pushed down by the action of a Prana called Udana. Udana has also certain other functions to perform. It takes us to deep sleep. Our ego consciousness, our individualized consciousness is pushed into a state