Before sunrise, the crowd emerged at Tundikhel, and as Swami Ramdev demonstrated various yoga asanas (positions), the mass followed in uniformity – the breathing exercise, hand and foot exercises.[break]
A route to good health and fitness, the practice of yoga has gained momentum in the past years. Originated from the Sanskrit word “yog,” which means union, yoga relies on traditional values of health, fitness and spirituality.
In the Sanatan pantheon, there are four kinds of yogas: Bhakti yoga, a path to love and devotion; Jnana (gyan) yoga, a path of knowledge and wisdom; Hatha yoga, which is related to physical control and postures; and Karma yoga, a path of discipline of action.
For Ram Sharan Mahat, a schoolteacher who came to participate in the Yoga Camp from Kavre district, yoga has “healed” his health problems and helped him “gain spirituality.”
“It works more than medicine,” said Mahat, who was on medication for gastronomic disease. “Medicines only help while you’re taking them.”
According to him, after he started yoga about four years ago, he now feels healthy and doesn’t suffer from the problems he used to.
A similar story resounds for Meena Chapagain. The 31-year-old who suffered from sinus and “other head problems” desisted from her medicines without any consultation from her doctor because she thought “yoga helped her feel better than medicines.”
“Yoga is natural and it’s very helpful, Chapagain, who has been practicing yoga since four months, said.
While patients believe yoga heals their diseases and helps them gain spirituality and emotional balance, doctors have a different view, especially for them who discontinue their medications without consulting their physicians.
Dr Minalma Pandey, physician, cardiologist and deputy hospital director of Norvic International Hospital, said yoga is a good option for prevention of diseases. However, after diagnosis of certain diseases like diabetes and heart-related sickness, she said “yoga isn’t enough.”
Referring to cases where patients, especially with diabetes, choose meditation over medication, the consequences could be serious.
“If you stop insulin and start doing yoga, it can affect the eyes, heart and kidney,” Dr Pandey said. “Though people might feel relieved instantly, the effects of leaving medicines come eventually.”
However, the doctor who practiced yoga in her teen years pointed its benefit too.
“Yoga and ayurveda is good; it is the forefather of allopathy,” she said and added that yoga helps to stay active and focused.
Swami Ramdev also talked about the benefits of yoga during his morning sessions in Kathmandu: the exercises help one to stay active and with good movement of the body, and recommended an hourly yoga routine daily.
He said yoga helps in detoxification of the body through a practice called Pranayam, which is related with breath control. He also pointed at the advantage of yoga for hypertension, diabetes, muscle and joint pains. And yoga followers agree. “Yoga doesn’t have side effects [unlike medicines],” Mahat said.
But doctors are concerned for the choices patients are making. “Do yoga, do mediation, but don’t leave medication,” Dr Pandey said.
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