Yoga for young people
SADHGURU: IT CAN BE USED TO PROMOTE BALANCED GROWTH AMONG CHILDREN
SADHGURU: Today, there is a lot of misconception about yoga.
Yoga is not a practice. The word “yoga” means union.
Scientists tell us the whole existence is just one energy manifesting itself in a million different ways.
For ages, the religions of the world have been saying, “God is everywhere.” Whether you say, “god is everywhere” or “everything is one energy,” it is the same reality expressed in different ways.
But a scientist has only mathematically deduced it. He has not experienced it.
A person who believes it has also not experienced it because somebody has just told him so.
A yogi is someone who is not willing to settle for deductions or belief systems. He wants to know it. If he sits with his eyes closed, there is no him and the universe. He is the universe. If, even for a moment, you experience everything around you as yourself, after that, no one needs to tell you to nurture and preserve all that is around you. You will anyway do it because there is no conflict with whatever you have known as yourself.
So yoga is not about bending and twisting your body or holding your breath. It is a technology that renders you to a higher possibility in your life.
If something has the power to transform, it has the power to cause damage if mishandled.
So yoga needs to be handled in an extremely committed atmosphere. But there is something called UpaYoga, which gives you physical and psychological benefits, but doesn’t touch the spiritual dimension.
Upa-Yoga does not demand that level of commitment nor does it cause any problem if you do not it properly because you can’t do it improperly – it’s very simple.
In Indian vernacular languages, the word “upayoga”, has come to mean something useful, but actually it means sub-yoga or pre-yoga. This can be learned in five minutes. You can practise it anywhere and the benefits are quite immense – you will be physically better and mentally limbered up. Plus, you don’t need any equipment.
As part of International Day of Yoga (marked in June every year), we offer various upa-yoga practices through free sessions across the country and the world, and also digitally on our websites and apps.
We have also laid out a strategy to reach schoolchildren. The less privileged communities, whose children are generally in the government schooling system, will be the main beneficiaries. The premise is simple: as a system that promotes balanced and harmonious growth, yoga can be pivotal in addressing the problem of lopsided human development, which we term “education” in modern times.
As a system of self-alignment, yoga is capable of activating inner energies in a way that your body and mind function at their optimal capacity. It is a means to create inner situations exactly the way you want them.
When it comes to external situations, we are all differently capable. But when it comes to the inner situation, we are all equally capable.
All human beings, without exception, are capable of turning into the architects of their own joy, the masters of their own destiny. Yoga offers us the key.
It is essential that we empower our youth with this inner technology. All are welcome to assist and fulfill this most important cause for the wellbeing of future generations.
Leaving a better generation of human beings than what we are is a responsibility that we cannot shirk.
Ranked among the 50 most influential people in India, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, visionary and bestselling author. He was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, India’s highest civilian award, in 2017, for exceptional and distinguished service.