Yogi Bear

"Do you have a brain?" Swamiji asks the odd five hundred people who had gathered on 21st February evening at Satya Sai Samskruta Sadanam. "Yes" some of us murmur hesitantly unsure where this is leading to. "How do you know that?" Swamiji smiles. "Well, we just know" someone says a little loudly. "All right, now how many parts of the brain do you have?" A doctor, (introduced himself as Dr. Pai) started to explain, "Cerebrum, cerebellum, brain stem..." Swamiji says, "Right, but I was talking about brain function and control." "Left and right Swamiji...." some one says. "Yes... and do you know what has become of us today?" asks Swamiji. Silence. Swamiji smiles. "There is nothing right in our left brain and nothing left in our right brain....." The hall bursts with laughter. "Imagination is the cause of hypertension," he continues. "We are influenced by the opinions of others and base our life and living on what other's think of us. No one except you alone can help yourself. Change yourself, change your opinion." He goes on to narrate a story to explain his theory. Then he talks about Yoga and how it can improve our quality of life.

I have always been fascinated with yoga. Back when my grandfather who was an ardent follower, made us spend the entire summer vacation practicing several ashanas and pranayams, the significance of yoga wasn't imperative, but I did realize that this path was worth a venture. Couple of months back in January, I championed along with our CEO, mandatory yoga classes at my workplace and was met with casual indifference. But after about two months of persistence, the response was thrilling and the ESAT (the score was published today) has taken cognizance. We partnered with Atma Darshan Yogashram for the Yoga@Work program and now we have a 'Y Huddle' before we begin work everyday across locations and shifts. It involves a quick unfurling of yoga mats on the work floors beside the work stations and do a few easy ashanas and a simple pranayam. The entire exercise lasts 10 mins and leaves the entire floor energized and bonded and has been particularly appreciated by the employees who work at night. This leads me to believe Yoga@Work truly works!

For sometime, I have been trying to introduce this idea at home and get Ro to practice the undemanding adapted version. I had taken him to the Ashram three weeks back and spent a day there to get him familiar. Though the ashram cat garnered more interest than the meeting with Swamiji, he did show some promise. Post our visit he didn't show any interest and I left it at that. But recently, for the last seven days he has been getting up early and joining me for the session in the morning without having anyone to tell him to do it. For now, my fingers are crossed and I hope the 'good senses' prevail even after the school reopens.

Hari Om!