Well before the official patronage for yoga came about, leading hospitals in the city had been harnessing yoga’s healing touch to help scores of patients recover from sickness.
For years, yoga has been complementing modern therapy at institutions such as Jipmer and the Mahatma Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute run by the Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV). And the hospitals have been in the forefront of popularising yoga in the run-up to International Day of Yoga on Tuesday.
On Monday, Jipmer’s Advanced Centre for Yoga Therapy, Education and Research (ACYTER), organised a yoga demonstration at the Gandhi Thidal. About 200 participants performed asanas as part of the initiative to create awareness about the health benefits of yoga. The demonstration marked the culmination of a month-long free yoga camp that ACYTER hosted from May 21.
The participants demonstrated various yoga techniques and interacted with the public creating awareness of Yoga. They also shared their personal experiences with yoga as a healing technique.
Dr. S.C. Parija, Director-Jipmer, noted that yoga plays a crucial role in addressing physical, psychological, social and behavioural issues of individuals, considerably enhancing its value in holistic healing.
As a prelude to yoga day, the SBV held an interactive workshop for the elderly in association with HelpAge India and Pondicherry Senior Citizens Association at Patrick Higher Secondary School. This was followed by yogasana competitions for students of SBV and demonstrations by faculty and staff.
In fact, the SBV is a prominent collaborator with the Tourism Department in hosting the International Day of Yoga celebrations on Tuesday.
The Centre for Yoga Therapy, Education & Research (CYTER) at SBV has also been gearing up for yoga day celebrations since May. It had organised a yoga fest on May 25 and 26 to create awareness about the traditional practice of persuading the body and mind for wellness among the student fraternity.
The Common Yoga Protocol booklet prepared by Ministry of AYUSH was launched on the occasion.
According to Prof. KR. Sethuraman, SBV Vice Chancellor, it is imperative that health professionals look towards salutogenesis, an understanding of the internal and external factors that induce health rather than merely mechanically focusing on pathogenesis of disease.
“Human beings are flawed as they are always susceptible to disease. Yet, some stay healthy even in the worst of conditions. This is because they have a sense of coherence within themselves, find meaning in their lives and hence are more at ease with their lives,” he said.
Yoga is an ancient system that enables us to create positive environments both within ourselves as well as in the surrounding environment. This harmonious and dynamic balance between the internal and external worlds produces health and wellbeing and healing starts to occur rather than merely managing with symptomatic cures routinely given out by health professionals, he pointed out.
Prof. N. Ananthakrishnan, the Dean of Research and Allied Heat Sciences in SBV called for making yoga part of all courses as it has the potential to be an integrative modality of healing working in tandem with modern medicine.
He added that SBV would soon have doctoral programs in these fields as the Government of India is willing to administratively and financially support international students who wish to do such programs in Indian universities.
For over six years at SBV, yoga therapy and music therapy have been brought into the hospital services for benefits of the patients and post graduate programs are running successfully, said Dr. Ananda Balayogi Bhavanani, Deputy Director of CYTER.
