The topic for the English Satsang on Sunday, 27th January, 2013 was ‘Misconceptions About Yoga’
Following is the transcript of the speech made by Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra on the topic.
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“We have repeated these ideas so much that I wonder whether we have such understanding that yoga is not physical culture. Somehow these two have got mixed up over hundreds of years and if at all we are interested in yoga, it is from the point of view of the body. We want a fit body, we want to reduce weight, etc. So the better side of yoga doesn’t come. I think you should start topics like yoga for health, for mental control and development, yoga for a spiritual life…such topics I think will be more useful. No doubt yoga has degraded itself into the physical and our interest is just in a healthy body and good looks. See, body is important since we are a body, but besides that we are more. What are we doing for that? Are we doing much to see that the mind is peaceful, calm? Are we doing much to see that the mind is steady, concentrated? Are we at all doing anything to see that our mind can reach a higher level of consciousness, we can come closer to higher spiritual life? You see, these are the ancient concepts and we don’t use these words. Physical culture, body building, physical health, these appeal, which is wrong. Somehow we have not developed ourselves in this present kind of life. We don’t know about spirituality, we don’t feel interested in mental stability. So we are just going by physical body and its development. This has become a wrong kind of a slant. We’ll have to change it, now that a little understanding is coming that yoga can also help us in a mental state, in concentration. These are things which we experience. We should put yoga from that point of view and make people think little different. We had earlier also used these words- Yoga for a better life. That is a more comprehensive idea. Not just for the physical body, is a very poor idea. We should try and see that our topics change a little.”
Satsang is an open meeting held every Sunday from 9:30 to 10:30 am at The Yoga Institute, Santacruz East, Mumbai. It involves an interesting presentation to the public, made by the students of the Teacher Training Course. Each week, a new presentation of a Yogic concept is made in a simple way through skits and decoration for the general public, followed by a short speech from our Gurus, Dr. Jayadeva and Smt. Hansaji Yogendra.