Sparks of Yogic Wisdom

Sparks of Yogic Wisdom

Swami Niranjanananda’s spiritual mission is meant to reach out to every door. As founder and vice-chancellor of the Bihar Yoga Bharati at Munger, Bihar, as the spirit behind a movement for adopting 24 central prisons in Bihar and transforming the lives of prisoners through yoga, as president of the Bihar School of Yoga, and also as the sole force making a yoga-trained army unit possible.

Successor to the spiritual legacy left by Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh and Swami Satyananda who tried to spread yoga from door to door and shore to shore. His visit to Mumbai (Feb 5 to Feb 11) enlightened many about the amazing healing powers of yoga and meditation.

Now into his forties, it’s been a long, meaningful journey for Swami Niranjanananda from his birthplace in Madhya Pradesh to the Bihar School of Yoga at the age of four and later his 13-year-long trip around the world, to conduct yoga programmes and developing ashrams in Europe, USA and Latin America. Swami Niranjanananda’s message assumes particular significance now, as a part of the country faces one of the worst post-quake crisis situation.

He stresses upon the spirit of unity and humanitarianism which calls for compassion, sharing, optimism and creativity. “We have become too dependent on the government for creating infrastructure for the suffering lot. I remember Rajiv Gandhi once saying that out of every rupee collected, only 18 paise reaches the right person,” he says, out of empathy. “It is as important to try and help people cope with psychological trauma as to donate money. They need inspiration and encouragement to believe that life will go on, despite the loss.”Swamiji believes that post-liberalisation has contributed a lot to worsen the situation. That the chasm between those living in abject poverty and those living in comfort has become too deep. “Ironically,” he says, “while the poor are trying to become prosperous, those who have everything are going back to nature looking for peace.”

His views on technology are equally sceptical “You used to spend three hours cleaning the house with a jhadu and now you have the vacuum cleaner to help you. My worry is, do you spend the saved time the right way or do you waste it? This time should help us work constructively to achieve peace of mind, to be better human beings.”

Although the spread of yoga is one of his primary goals, his passion is with his own baby, the Bihar Yoga Bharati. The institution has now received the nod from the UGC. While his own university offers a Masters degree in yoga, Swami Niranjananda reveals that he is working with the governments of Australia and South Korea for the accreditation of yoga courses. “Our aim is to make ancient practices relevant to modern times,” he explains. Of the courses on offer, Applied Yoga, he believes, has the most potential. Its results at the Bihar jails have been amazing. Jail officials reported that they have been spending only Rs 8,000 on the medical expenses of prisoners annually, as against the Rs 60,000 they used to spend earlier. Eight medical colleges have also taken up yoga as part of their syllabi. What’s more, 36 diseases have been identified as those that can be arrested with proper yoga training. Yoga-trained army units have produced incredible results as well, so also the Sports Authority of India and theemployees of the Indian Railways. “Perhaps that will help them run their trains on time,” he quips.

Last but not the least, how does yoga act as a therapy? Swami Niranjanananda is only too glad to explain: “Most forms of therapy deals with the body while yoga looks at the personality. It does not look at the body, but at the mind, the emotions and their effect on the body. The healing begins in the mind. It tries to arrest DIFS, Disease Induced Fear Syndrome, which is so crucial, because even an ordinary lump might turn malignant out of fear. Yoga, besides removing this fear, also allows the vital force or the pranic energy to be balanced and removes imbalances in the system,” he reiterates.