Sri Lanka enjoys the fragrance of Indian yoga

India, over the years, has taken great pains to protect the patent rights for yoga. This is due to yoga teachers from other countries attempting to infringe on the patent rights that India possesses  for Yoga. When we talk of yoga we must also talk of Buddhism

Many moons ago, this writer was part of a conversation in which the discussion was on how to mint money. The person who was in control of the conversation was a self-made man who was running a chain of hotels. In all his hotels, wellness centres and yoga retreats were a big part of the culture. He went on to mention that wellness, weapons and drugs (as in narcotics) were the three businesses people can engage in and make money fast. Fortunately or unfortunately, law abiding Sri Lankans can only engage in the business of wellbeing. 

Talk of wellbeing and yoga is a big part of it. There is a craze for yoga in Sri Lanka. There are many institutes and schools where yoga is taught here. And right now, Sri Lanka is getting ready to celebrate ‘World Yoga Day’ which falls on June 21 (Saturday). There are elaborate plans made by the High Commission of India which in collaboration with the Department of Ayurveda, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Mass Media,  to celebrate World Yoga Day at Independence Square on Saturday. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a big fan and practitioner of yoga. Google search the name Modi and add yoga to it and you get so many images of him in yoga postures. So when a person of his calibre is involved in a health activity like yoga, it gives wellbeing a large boost. 

This year, the theme for World Yoga Day is ‘Yoga for one earth, one health’. Having themes for world events like this one is nice. But we must fathom the meaning of yoga which in Sanskrit is yuge; the English translation is ‘unite’. When one does yoga it enhances consciousness which in term helps the practitioner to reach a state where there is harmony between mind and body. 

This is the 11th year that world yoga day is celebrated in the world. It must be mentioned here that it was Narendra Modi who took the initiative to put yoga on the world calendar. He made a proposal to the United Nations (UN) for this purpose. The UN then ratified India’s proposal during its General Assembly, in 2014.   

Yoga promises to cure some of the most common non-communicable deceases present in Sri Lanka. One decease that tops the list is diabetes. People have the notion that when one does yoga, it gives you a window to indulge in unhealthy eating habits and get away with it. This is a misconception. When one takes to yoga, indulging in unhealthy food and consuming alcohol becomes a thing of the past. Eating clean and healthy are two demands that will be made by any yoga guru when a yoga student joins an academy. Soon a ‘rooky’ student of yoga realises that practicing and eating healthy are a way of life. Yoga certainly isn’t a pill that you can take on days when you overeat and start worrying about health repercussions. 

Sri Lanka has its yoga centres scattered all over the island; akin to the human nervous system.  Yoga has held its place of pride despite the mushrooming of gymnasiums,which present punishing exercises with weights as an alternative to soft rhythmic exercises. Still, yoga seems the way to go here in Sri Lanka when an islander ages and finds his creaking joints in the body not compatible to exercising with machines, dumbbells and barbells. From a yoga perspective, most of our Sri Lankan born yoga teachers are armed with yoga certifications obtained from India. 

India, over the years, has taken great pains to protect the patent rights for yoga. This is due to yoga teachers from other countries attempting to infringe on the patent rights that India possesses  for Yoga. When we talk of yoga we must also talk of Buddhism. Both yoga and Buddhism have come to us from India. When we see most of the foreign things that Sri Lankans have now incorporated into their lives, we observe that if they didn’t directly come from India, they at least had the winds of the Indian Ocean brushing against their bodies.