Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar touched upon the lesser known aspects of yoga during the International Day of Yoga 2018 celebrations at the European Parliament in Brussels,. Here are the five insightful things he said in his address:
1. Yoga is a means to fight aggression and depression
Our world is stressed, and all of us swing between the extremes of aggression and depression. To maintain sanity and progress, it is important to adopt a means to fight these two extremes. Yoga is one of the most effective means to do so.
2. Yoga has more than one goal
Yoga is not just physical exercise that only offers a fit body. It is something which uplifts the spirit and sharpens the intellect. Its purpose is to create a disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory and a sorrow-free soul – all of which is every human’s birthright.
3. Every school of yoga is special
Every school of yoga has contributed significantly to establish peace at an individual level. As yoga continues to touch people from all walks of lives and across borders, it has contributed to collective peace.
4. Yoga helps maintain the calm no matter what
Yoga brings equanimity in our approach and maintains inner calmness when there is turbulent atmosphere all around.
5. When you drop the effort, you encounter infinity
Maharishi Patanjali in his Yogasutras offers wonderful insights to the science of yoga. One of the sutras is praytna shaitalya anant samapatiyabhyam. It means that when you drop the effort, you encounter infinity. However, you can drop the effort only when you do it. So, put your efforts but remember to drop them too!
