International Day of Yoga!

Before going to bed; little Rishi gets a leg massage from me. And he desires to listen to a story while his legs are getting pampered. That’s quite a preparation to organize stories every now and then. I am running out of stories from magic story-bag. While Rishi seizes his experience; I picture myself back to my childhood, sleeping with my grand-parents, while listening to their stories, with heart-warming affection in the air. I always felt like I had to take care of Rishi with exactly same way as I experienced affection from my grand-parents; besides he is my complete world. Totally TOTAL.

Here is the short story I narrated to him recently.

Once upon a time there was a little boy who only ate sweets and candy. He loved them too much and he was quite greedy too. One day, in an antique shop he found an old magnifying glass. He liked it very much, and his parents bought it for him. He was so happy with his magnifying glass! As soon as he could, he used it to look at a little ant. It was great! The ant looked so big. But then a strange thing happened. When he took the magnifying glass away, the ant stayed the same size it had appeared through the glass. Very surprised, the boy kept experimenting, and he found that anything he looked at through the magnifying glass would get bigger, and stay that way.

Suddenly, he realised how he could best use this special ability, and he ran home. At home he took all the candies and sweets, and he made them gigantic with his magnifying glass. Then he completely stuffed himself with them, until he could eat nothing more. However, the next morning he woke up totally swollen, a bit purple, and with a huge bellyache. When the doctor came to see him, he said it was the worst case of upset tummy he had ever seen. Night and day, the little greedy boy suffered so much that for a long time he didn't want to hear mention of large amounts of food. His parents were happy about this. Thanks to their son's latest greediness their pantry was full of the food he could not eat. What's more, he gave up being a gourmand who only ever ate sweets and candy. He wanted nothing to do with them.

And so it was that the little greedy-fella learned that even with the best things in life, if you have too many of them, you will end up feeling ill. He decided to keep the magnifying glass in a box until he found something that would really be worth making bigger.

How about you? What would you use the magnifying glass for? What a stupid question!  Everyone will use it differently, no? We all are different. Every child is different, hence every adult is different, every man, every woman. That is correct. I do agree. But do we have to use magnifying glass differently? Beer? Diamond? House? Cars? Chocolate Cake? Or something else?

We human beings are made up of three components: body, mind and soul. Matching to these, are therefore three needs which must be satisfied for a contented life. The physical need is health ; the psychological need is knowledge ; and the spiritual need is inner peace . When all three are present there is perfect harmony within us.

Today’s lifestyle with its technological advancement is a mixed-blessing. Convenience and speed are obtained at some cost to physical health. Labour saving devices reduce physical application, resulting in stiffness and muscular weakness. An inactive life causes backache, neck problems, and heaviness in the limbs, difficulty in vision and difficulty in walking. The extensive use of visual media leads to headache and eye strain. It is never ending...

Right kind of knowledge is going to guide us in the path of inner serenity. Core principles of Yoga teach us to practice balanced approach and moderation in all our actions, which is what the story above also convinced little Rishi. The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian era, but most likely developed around the sixth and fifth centuries BCE, in ancient India's ascetic and śramaṇa movements.

Believing is Achieving! – Kung-Fu-Panda said; not me. And Believing fineness is achieving fineness. With that thought; wishing you all a very goodnight. And remember; Yoga is not stretching. Yoga is not exercise. Yoga is not alternative to the Gym. Yoga is not RamDev Baba (although his contributions are immense to popularize it). Yoga is a science dealing with the search for the soul. The word “Yoga” signifies both the way to discovery of the soul and union with it.   My best wishes to everyone on International Day of Yoga , today. May we all understand and appreciate the need of Yoga in our daily life. Chalo; Goodnight and Subhratri.... Woh Jab Yaad Aye….Bahut Yaad Aye