The Importance of Yoga Studies in Today's World

Yoga is an art of living and a method of spiritual journey. Body, mind, intellect and senses all have their own unique contribution to the human body. Yoga has been developed to refine and nourish these internal dimensions.

Yoga is directly related to the peak journey of consciousness and when we elevate the consciousness of our body, mind, senses and intellect through yoga practice and its philosophy, the personality starts developing automatically. Yoga is also needed in today's education system because after refining and refining the various dimensions of yoga such as its moral values, moral education, social values, spiritual values, physical values, you become a citizen of a single society.

Yoga texts have always considered ‘Yoga Vidya’ as the basis of ‘Kaivalya’. Kaivalya does not only mean the union of the soul with the Supreme Soul, but also a person getting free from his frustration, trouble, restlessness, stress, depression, ignorance, narrow thinking and bad habits is called Kaivalya. The ‘Yama’ and ‘Niyama' described in Yoga develop social harmony, cultural consciousness and spiritual values in the students.

Non-violence, truth, non-stealing, celibacy and non-possession make the cultural value of the social system beautiful. Maharishi Patanjali presents through Yama how our social personality should be. Today, in the education system, more attention is given to the mechanical education of the individual, but his spiritual aspect does not get much encouragement.

The National Education Policy has deeply understood that for the all-round development of the students, it is necessary to have the emergence of knowledge along with the aspect of education.

Similarly, Niyam, which has also been described as the dimension of personal value or personal sadhana, talks about the use of cleanliness, contentment, penance, self-study and Ishwar Pranidhan, which inspires the students to be health conscious, happy towards mother and conscious of learning towards intelligence.In the present times, yoga does not work only at the physical level, so it is not limited to asanas and pranayama only, but it is the knowledge and science of the journey of the inner world.

In the old Gurukul education system, the amalgamation of education and knowledge was a unique experiment in itself, in which a person developed various types of art, skill and ability to improve his daily life and also practiced yoga sadhna, bhakti sadhna, gyan sadhna, mantra sadhna, hatha sadhna for internal development.

Yoga study is a high level psychology in itself which also refines the cognitive ability, working system, emotional intelligence and behavioral aspect of any student.

Today's students focus on perfection but are leaving far away from a subject like excellence. Yoga leads to mental, social and spiritual excellence along with physical perfection. Yoga Shastra is a science, an art, a means and a method of sadhna, hence its harmony in the education system is based on the role of personality development, society development and nation building.At present, many researches confirm that the amalgamation of yoga lifestyle with education brings true change in the learning process, positive mind and emotion in students.

The aim of yoga is not to make students Yogis but to develop a yogic approach in their lives so that they can keep themselves balanced and composed at any point of life, at any position, status and place. At present, there are many schools, colleges and universities that help in the overall personality development of students by including yoga in their curriculum in various ways.

Many scholars have urged to include the Panchkosh format in the education policy.

The result of this format is that the development of five personality dimensions in students is easily possible such as health promotion by the development of Annamaya Kosha, development of brain capacity by the development of Pranamaya Kosha, development of creative capacity in the mind by the development of Manomaya Kosha, reducing intelligence, efficiency and wisdom crime by the development of Vijnanamaya Kosha, as well as increasing the dimension of happiness by awakening the Anandmaya Kosha. In this way, many texts of yoga such as Taittiriya Upanishad, Shandilya Upanishad, Kena Upanishad and Bhagavad Gita talk about various methods and practices for the development of various dimensions of the human mind. Raja Yoga, propounded by Maharishi Patanjali, mentions 8 dimensions such as Niyam, Pranayam, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyan and Samadhi, which are bound with a discipline. Yoga is a discipline in which it means social discipline, Niyam means personal discipline, Aasan means physical discipline, Pranayam means discipline of breathing, Pratyahara means discipline of senses, Dharana means discipline of thoughts, Dhyan means discipline of mind or Psychic surgery and Samadhi means living in consciousness.

In this way, yoga is the name of life discipline and not just one hour practice on the Yogamat, it is a lifestyle that goes on continuously with life, which has a deep impact on your habits and consciousness of intellect. Ultimately, yoga will be able to define its literal meaning only when the feeling of totality, unity and harmony comes to the students.By-Dr Brijesh Singh,Assistant Professor in Yogashashtra,KJ Somaiya Institute of Dharma Studies,Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai