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Traditional stress buster

YOGA is the best way to relax your mind and body

PHOTO: R. ASHOK

POPULAR Picture of concentration

Sankaran, an electronics engineer with a multinational, devotes time daily morning to Suryanamaskar. With eyes closed, he sits in a corner of his study and does several breathing exercises, which his Guru had taught him. He is not really a health freak nor is his a rare pursuit. Rather, many like him flock yoga centres unfailingly each day as dawn breaks. In fact, yoga centres have mushroomed all over the city and seminars are conducted practically every fortnight.

Best choice

"People are trying different way to relax. Yoga is by far the best choice," opines Ragunath Srinivasan, a yoga consultant. So do echo the practitioners. Sankaran reminisces how the managerial stress in office took a toll on his physical fitness and personal life. "I am practising yoga for the past five years. Initially, I found it difficult to exercise in early hours but now it is a habit. I find yoga to be most relaxing even than the expensive aroma therapies," he endorses.

"Yoga Culture" then, to put it broadly, is catching on in the city — albeit under different nomenclatures. Majority prefer to practice under individual tutors. But national and international organisations too attract a good number of devoted disciples.

Different techniques

Brahma Kumaris, a spiritual organisation, teaches the techniques of Raja Yoga that concentrates on meditation. Others include Sri Ravishakar's Art of Living, which has fascinated many for its breathing technique, Sudharshana Kriya, and Kriya Yoga from Paramahansa Yognanda's Self Realisation Fellowship, where the lessons are sent to the practitioner directly from the Ranchi centre. The Isha Yoga Centre of Jaggi Vasudev is also a popular haunt for yoga freaks.

Most Tiruchiites seem to be looking at options that reduces medical expense and brings along relaxation and spirituality.

"If yoga techniques are followed properly and regularly, it has amazing effects on the body. It is also curative," says Dr. Sughumar, a naturopathy consultant. Though Yoga is an age-old practice, public awareness has grown only in last three years. The number of outpatient cases in Dr.Sughumar's Nature Cure Hospital are fast increasing ever since the benefits of yoga started attracting media's attention.

Yogic novices always appear to be on a high about their lessons. Says Aparna, a beginner of Kriya Yoga: "Multiple yoga techniques confused me and choosing one became difficult. My friends concentrate on weight reduction, but I opted for something that could improve my concentration."

She perhaps is among those few who have opted for yoga as for strengthening mental focus. But her friends represent the bigger picture that perceives yoga as a means to slim down and to gain flexibility.

For those who don't believe in crash diets and hard-hitting exercises in gyms but still wanted to come in to the mark of a perfect figure, yoga is the endurable solution, suggest consultants.

Call it a stress buster, concentration developer or immunity builder, the yoga culture is fast catching up in the city, perhaps faster than expected.

So, next time you see your friend, neighbour or relative curled up or curved in any yoga posture, at dawn, don't be surprised. They are not exceptions any longer but part of a huge band of followers.

S. AISWARYA

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