YOGA PREVENTS
We all know that talk alone will not take us where we want to reach. In talk, we express our desire about what we want to happen, it can be good health, it can be healthy and happy relationships, it can be peace, etc.
Lately, more than ever before, there’s a lot of advocacies against gender- based violence. It is indeed a worry on both fronts, that of the perpetrator as well as the victim. On the perpetrator, the worry is about how to socialize them to stop and rehabilitate. On the victim it’s about how to help them deal with and overcome the ordeal, and move on with life the best they can.
Yoga would go a long way in addressing the problem, first from the point of view of prevention, healing and rehabilitation. It goes to the root of the problem, what makes one to behave in such an anti-social manner, and brings out the good about the person. His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar says inside every culprit there’s a victim crying out for love.
Yoga helps to dig out the past impressions that haunt us and manifest into undesirable behavior or emotions like anger, bitterness, depression, insecurities, sorrow, etc. When yoga gets introduced in primary schools, it empowers both the boy child and girl child by instilling in them the basic human values of love, respect, compassion. In doing this, we save the future generation and build a more peaceful and happier nation.
A plea to the educators, especially early learning stage, is to introduce yoga as part of the curriculum. Prevention is better than cure. A plea to the human rights activists, let us embrace yoga as part of the process to heal those who have been hurt, and also to rehabilitate those who caused it. A plea to the religious leaders, let us make time to learn about what yoga truly is and what it can do, so that even in the Sunday school, we teach the little ones how breath can save them whenever they get overwhelmed by negative emotions.
Empowering the society with such practical tools over and above the teachings about good behavior from an early age is the best investment in the future of our nation. Prevention of social ills need to be addressed from all possible fronts, not just talk about it.