A disciplined lifestyle with the incorporation of regular physical exercises is as essential for good physical health as a balanced nourishing diet. Those who live a comfortable life with an abundance of healthy and tasty food and resources of pleasure are seen suffering from many kinds of weaknesses and ailments of the body if they do not exert adequate physical
labor.
Our body is like a huge factory in which several processes of production, supply, distribution and consumption of vital elements continue all the time. There is also an accumulation of wastes and by products of its internal reactions and of external pollutants and invading organisms and chemicals. There also take place damages and destructions, rectification of which requires extra support in addition to the natural physiological, cellular and molecular mechanisms. Physical exercises help cleansing of the dirt and toxics deposited in various forms and energizing all components of the body, appropriating blood-circulation and supply of vital elements to different organs. The defense and repair mechanism of the body are also strengthened by specific physical exercises.
People often get confused as to which physical exercises are best? So many techniques, schools and teachers are there these days that at times it appears to have become a fashionable profession! Good number of aerobics clubs, gymnasiums and yoga centres are there in metro cities. Swimming pools and joggers’ parks also available there, as jogging, brisk walks and swimming provide whole-body exercise in normal case. But most of these usually charge fat fees for membership and could be attended only in allocated time-slots. So only the financially well offs can afford these. But even among them, those having irregular work schedules and busy routines often find it difficult to manage the distances and fixed time-schedules of such courses. The middle and lower economic classes and those living in smaller towns are deprived of such facilities. Though open space is available in the small towns and villages, usually there is practically no suitably smooth and clean track there for refreshing walk/jog. Then what should most people do for physical fitness?
The generous attempts of some yoga-gurus is certainly of great help that they allow live telecast of their mass-camps so that, one can save the cost of physically attending their camps and yet learn the yoga-exercises taught by them. However, this also has several limitations – people may not have televisions, or access to carefully watch the telecast of such sessions regularly due to problems of electricity power-cuts and/or pressure of others around them to watch some other programmes/TV- channels at that time. Moreover it is risky too, as one would not get an opportunity of live training in the presence of an expert teachers, who can guide on intricacies of practising specific asanas, as per one’s physical health and in view of the constraints of one’s weaknesses/ailments, if any. Same is true of the standard yoga books. They describe so many asanas and prañayams practising all of which is not possible for most people in today’s life-style because of time constraints, as not only the number of commonly taught asanas is large, but also due to the fact that many of these require relaxation (ïithilikaraña) in- between or between two asanas. (Practising arbitrarily selected asanas in random order of sequence might lead to negative effects. For example if one practises only some forward bending asanas to get rid of his tummy or to slim his/her waste, he/she may suffer problems like spondylitis after few weeks or months…).
Keeping the above-mentioned constraints and practical difficulties in mind and considering the common causes of health hazards these days, Gurudev Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya had formulated the Pragya Yoga which incorporates only few yoga-asanas and kriyas that are easy to practise in feasible time and space and which are very effective as preventive measures, and as means of regaining or sustaining physical fitness in present times.
These include the essential and harmless exercises of pawan muktasanas that strengthen the muscles and bone-joints and give them desired flexibility.
Source: Pragya Yoga for Healthy & Happy Life
Author: Pandit Sriram Sharma Acharya