Published in oHeraldo Edit page, 5th July 2018
A yoga session begins with a rich and beautiful prayer. It is an invocation to the Almighty for the enlightenment of humanity to work in unity and shun hatred in order to attain perfect peace. There exist a variety of schools, practices and goals of yoga found in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism which seek to unite the human spirit with the Divine through physical, mental and spiritual exercises. Yoga is about taming the human ego and channelising the individual’s energy towards attaining an inner peace. However, the social and political abuse which we are witnessing from the government in this country under a pretext of promoting yoga should not become the cause for disdain towards this powerful and ancient spiritual science.
Amidst a materialistic and market driven world, yoga in our country has unfortunately been hijacked for selfish politics and to pamper the elitist consumer craze for boosting fitness and health. Religions, sciences and technologies are intrinsically good and meant for the advancement of humankind until they fall in the hands of lunatics and those with an obsessive-compulsive mental disposition. Probably even genuine yoga gurus may be ashamed and concerned nowadays with this ancient discipline falling casualty to politics and markets, to a 'tamasha' about 'selfies', throwing fitness challenges and setting world records. The rationalisations and justifications to impose yoga like vegetarianism on people of other faiths are also deplorable.
The Hindutva brigade thump their chest in praise of the Prime Minister for having globally popularised the practice of Yoga. Indians may boast about possessing this great understanding about the inner mechanics of the human being in the science of yoga. If so, then a reasoning mind would naturally be provoked to ask as to how such polarising and hate rhetoric of 'Jinnah yaganna' and 'smashanyakabrastan' can spill out from the lips of politicians who claim to belong to the land from which yoga originates? How can a Prime Minister of the country who professes to be a devoted practitioner of yoga remain silent on the killings, rapes and lynching taking place in the name of religion and caste across the country? As said, “Charity begins at home”, and so shouldn’t yoga be first employed to rehabilitate bigots, xenophobic politicians and slanderous trolls in our country before marketing it to the world? Global reports on the safety of women and violence against Dalits, tribals and minorities in India only exposes this contradiction about the rich ancient Hindu culture being superior to other cultures of the world.
The commodification and politicising of yoga has helped boost the fashion and sports industry and given a tool for politicians and bigots to humiliate and bully the minorities who may have reservations in practicing yoga. It is sheer abuse of yoga when the Prime Minister of the country uploads videos of himself in various yoga poses to boast about his fitness, alleged to have costed Rs 35 lakh besides other expenses, and throws challenges to other politicians to prove the same. If news reports are to be believed, a whopping Rs 15.87 crore was spent on SMS messages and another Rs 1.02 crore on yoga mats to celebrate Yoga Day in 2015. This is definitely a waste in the backdrop of farmer suicides and deaths from malnutrition.
Yoga has fallen victim to the bankrupt and high school like politics in this country whereby politicians in government have to constantly flaunt their nationalism and fitness. Like a Marie Antoinette from France who said “eat cake” on learning that peasants had no bread to eat, our PM Modi in response to the common man's distress over rising prices and taxes seems to say, "do yoga" to cope with unemployment and dwindling family incomes after demonetisation and GST, displacement due to development and the trolls and rakshaks who are having a field day in disturbing peace.
What the nation needs to be cautious about is a bigoted version of yoga which is merely about building muscle power of Hindutva nationalists and conveniently disassociated from their public and political conduct. Yoga cannot be popularised and spread through coercion but can only become attractive to society through the exemplary humane behaviour of its practitioners. Any coercive imposition of yoga against the will of a person is bound to become counter-productive. If yoga continues to be driven by politicians and markets, yoga may soon be hijacked to give value addition for the promotion of the tourism industry. With the government’s thrust on driving economic growth at any cost, we may even have other variants of yoga emerging in order to attract tourists and boost the income for the Goa State.
In such turbulent political times of greed, hate and discrimination, may this concluding prayer which is recited by every true yoga disciple at the end of every session help promote the much needed tolerance, pluralism and diversity in our nation.
“SarveshaamSwastirBhavatu
SarveshaamShaantirBhavatu
(May there be peace for all)
(May all be fit for perfection)
SarveshaamMangalamBhavatu
(May all experience that which is auspicious)
(May all experience what is good)
Maa Kaschit Dukhabhag Bhavet”
(The author is a social worker).
https://www.heraldgoa.in/Edit/Opinions/The-yoga-experience-with-politicians-and-bigots/132944.html
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