From the beginning of man’s existence on earth, life has been a struggle, but as we trace the development of the human being, we see the gradual emergence of his ability to master the environment. With his superior intelligence, ingenuity and amazing adaptability to different situations, he has progressively gained power over his external foes. The predators, the prey, the weather, the terrain, all have fallen under his dominance. However, he is still a victim of his internal foes- the illnesses of the mind and body – and as we look around the world today we sometimes wonder if he is really making headway with these problems.

Modern medical science, which has given us community hygiene, nutrition and scientific treatments, has freed a large number of people from the illnesses of old times, but these have been replaced by new problems. The diseases of malnutrition have, in much of the world, been replaced by those of over-nutrition. The injuries of the ancient hunter have been replaced by the hypertension, ulcers, and heart problems of the man who is still a hunter at heart, but whose outlet for his combativeness is blocked. The uncertainty of life in the wide open spaces has been replaced by the soul destroying constriction and pollution of the cities. The unpredictability of life in the wild has been replaced by the dull monotony of the civilized life, the frustrations of life without real challenge, and the host of diseases that result from all those frustrations.

We have gained many benefits from gathering together in ‘civilized’ communities, but we are also paying a great price. We have been taken away from our natural habitat and are suffering from the depression, frustration, resentment, and general lack of real direction in our lives, which has resulted from this disruption.

Where are we going? What are we here for? Are we really meant for the life we are leading or is there something else? When we become sick, to what extent can we cure ourselves? Can we prevent illness altogether? Can we remain completely healthy, and if so, how do we do it? More basically, do we have another destiny? Are we really fulfilling our true potential and moving in the right direction? Is this all there is, or is there a greater potential within us which has been blocked? If there is, how can we free ourselves of the blockage and release this potential?

For thousands of years, yoga has been addressing itself to these questions and giving guidance to those who are sincerely seeking the answers. Yoga is concerned with unfolding the potential that lies dormant within us, but as a side-effect, it also frees us from the illnesses, both mental and physical, of which we are victims.

Yoga viewpoint of health

Doctors generally agree that the majority of illnesses are due to mental tension. Even the very ‘physical’ diseases, cancer or infections, now appear to have their origin in the mind. For example, the onset of these illnesses depends on inadequacy of the body’s immune – defence system and we now know that this system is very much under the influence of the mind. Over recent decades the doctors have recognized more and more illnesses as being a result of mental tension, but the yogis have always gone a step further. They say that virtually all illnesses are directly caused in the person by mental tension. There are exceptions of course, such as malnutrition and toxic poisons, and we know that cosmic factors such as phases of the moon, activity of the sun, the seasons, the weather etc., can be powerful precipitating factors. However, generally, according to the yogis the roots of our illnesses are implanted in the mind, and that is ultimately where we must look to eliminate them.

How does mental tension cause physical illness?

The mind, acting through the central nervous system affects the body through three channels:

1. somatic nervous system – controls the voluntary actions of the body such as walking, talking and using the muscles any time we decide to do so.

2. Autonomic nervous system – controls the involuntary actions such as digestion, heartbeat and blood  pressure.

3. Endocrine glands – produce hormones which are chemicals that affect the body chemistry and its actions in a wide variety of ways.

It can thus be seen that every cell, organ and system within the body is directly influenced by the mind, through the nervous system and its outlets.

How does yoga therapy work?

Yoga therapy restores all the above systems to their normal state by acting in four areas :

1. The affected part is restored to its normal function, for example, if a person has a spinal problem due to mental tension, the yoga postures relax the spasm of the muscles in that part of the spine. In this case, yoga acts directly on the part that is affected, without creating an imbalance or disturbance in any other part of the body.

2. The connections with the central nervous system are balanced and normalized. For example, there are some practices such as kunjal kriya which act directly on the autonomic nerves and plexuses. In the case of asthma, the imbalance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic parts of the system are normalized, the bronchial tubes of the lungs open, and thus the person can breathe freely again.

3. The, central nervous system itself may. Be directly affected. Some practices such as brahmari pranayama, appear to act on the brain itself, and it is probably through this avenue that they produce a quick and lasting relaxation.

4. Many yoga practices directly relieve the tensions of the mind. Meditation is the best known, but yoga nidra and many of the physical practices have a positive effect in this area.

The field of yoga is a complete one, all the way from the ‘target organ’ to the fundamental cause of the problem, in the mind. This integration is very necessary of course, because all parts of the system are so intimately related.

Does yoga replace other treatments?

Obviously, if we have acute appendicitis, we need surgery quickly. This is also the case with a ruptured ulcer and other surgical emergencies. If we have meningitis, pneumonia or any of the other life threatening infections, we should have antibiotics or sulfonamides. For most serious acute illnesses, modern medicine is probably the treatment of choice, although even in these, the correct yoga practices can also help. Similarly, in many conditions, the problem can be cured by yoga in the early stages, but when it has advanced, we need outside treatment.

However, yoga is emerging as the treatment of first choice for emotional and mental illnesses, and their ‘cousins’ the psychosomatic problems such as high blood pressure, peptic ulcer, asthma, arthritis and many others. This is very fortunate too, because doctors admit that it is just these sicknesses that medical science finds it most difficult to treat.

If a person with acute appendicitis has surgery, the appendix is removed and usually there is no further trouble. However, most doctors have patients with peptic ulcers who have been taking drugs for years and still have their ulcers.

If a person has acute pneumonia, the previously fatal infection of the lung, the doctor gives him antibiotics and he is well within days. However, most doctors have patients with asthma who are totally dependent on pills, inhalers and injections, who live a life in constant fear of an attack, and who gradually become worse and worse.

If a child has meningitis nowadays, he is treated quickly with sulfonamides or antibiotics and the infection goes without leaving a trace. There is no indication for children to be left with deafness, mental retardation and other complications of untreated meningitis.

However, most of the doctors have patients with anxiety neurosis, who take increasing amounts of tranquillizer drugs for years without relieving their problem, and who end up with the added complications of addiction to the drugs.

It is quite obvious that the progress in medical science has been miraculous in relieving mankind of the terrible diseases of old. However, there are whole areas of human suffering in which it is not doing so well. These are often just the types of illnesses which respond well to yoga therapy. Let us now discuss some of these illnesses, and the results that have been obtained from treatment by yoga.

Hypertension (high blood pressure)

This disease is known to shorten a person’s life, often by decades. Indeed, there is a form known as ‘malignant hypertension’ which is often rapidly fatal. It is not surprising, therefore, that much yoga research has been done on hypertension.

A cardiologist named Dr. K. K. Datey, in Bombay, India, has taught the yoga nidra method of deep relaxation to his patients with hypertension and has had very good results. Most of them no longer need drugs or have been able to reduce their intake considerably.

Dr. Chandra Patel, in an article in Lancet, the respected medical journal from Britain, reported on the use of yoga relaxation with bio-feedback in the treatment of hypertension. It was found that a quarter of the people could stop their drugs completely, while most of the others could reduce the medication substantially, or at least had better control of the blood pressure.

Dr. K.N. Udupa, director of the Institute of Medical Sciences, Benares Hindu University, has found that the results are even better if the person performs some easy physical yoga practices before the relaxation or meditation, and we have found the same results. Udupa stated that, “Subjectively all patients report that they feel much better, more sober and calmer.” A substantial number could safely stop taking the drugs and many others were still reducing the dosage at the time of reporting. Drs. Stone and De Leo (New England Journal of Medicine, January 1976) even found that the simple yoga practice of being aware of the breath for ten minutes in the morning and evening, reduced hypertension to a significant degree over a six month period.

The benefits of yoga for people with hypertension are so convincing that all people with this illness should be offered yoga training, parallel with medical treatment, if drugs are really necessary.

Heart disease

Despite the best medical treatment, coronary heart disease is the most common cause of death in the technologically advanced countries. In this condition, the arteries which supply the heart muscle with blood become narrow, and starve the heart of oxygen and nourishment. If it happens severely (heart attack), parts of the heart may die, and so may the patient!

For centuries, the yogis have recommended physical yoga techniques and relaxation for the treatment of coronary heart diseases, but it is only recently that the rationale of these practices has been supported by medical science.

Until recently, it was believed that a heart attack was caused by a blood clot lodging in one of the coronary arteries. Now, however, we realize that in most people with a heart attack, there is probably no blood clot and the attack is a functional crisis caused by spasm of the artery. The same applies to angina, a chronic ongoing form of coronary occlusion in which spasm of the artery is an important factor. It appears that in both of these common illnesses, the most important precipitating cause is spasm of the coronary artery, irrespective of the structural changes. It is quite likely, moreover, that the spasm is caused by mental tension acting through the autonomic nerve fibres that supply the arteries.

This latter contention is supported by research that was carried out about twenty years ago. In this investigation a group of people who had been admitted to hospital with a heart attack was compared with another group of people admitted for other reasons. It was found that most of the coronary patients had suffered a deep and significant emotional ‘hurt’ during the month before the heart attack. In the control group there had been no such emotional crisis.

Dr. Chandra Patel, in other research, demonstrated that yoga relaxation reduces the pain and invalidism in angina. The patients can undergo much more activity before they experience chest pain, they feel subjectively better, and the relaxation in the morning seems to last for the whole day.

It is the experience in the ashrams of the International Yoga Fellowship, that if simple postures are practised before relaxation, the results are even better.

Asthma

The different types of obstructive airways disease, including asthma, have been treated by yoga for millennia; and recent scientific studies have supported their experience over the years.

Asthma is an illness in which the sufferer has recurring episodes of constriction of the breathing passages (bronchi) of the lungs. As a result, he experiences attacks of difficulty of breathing which can be very severe, even fatal.

The mainstay of the treatment of asthma is the shatkarma group of practices, especially kunjal kriya (swallowing warm salty water then regurgitating it), neti kriya (pouring warm water through the alternative nostrils) and sometimes vastra dhauti (swallowing a cloth strip then pulling it out again to stimulate the oesophagus). Other practices such as surya namaskara (performed slowly), shashank-bhujangasana, abdominal respiration exercises, pranayamas and yoga nidra complete the series.

In fact, if kunjal kriya is performed in the early stages of an actual attack of asthma, this alone can stop the attack. This is a very important advantage, because the person with asthma then develops the confidence that he can stop an asthma attack at any time by simply using his own resources. Many asthmatics have said that this mastery was the most important factor leading to their ultimate cure of asthma. Those of us who have taught this practice for years have seen asthma attacks stop in minutes, even in severely addicted people, by just practising kunjal.

Dr. G.B. Gupta, Professor G. C. Sepaha et al., of Raipur Medical College, India, working in conjunction with Satyananda Ashram, Raipur, have shown some interesting results in asthma patients who practised some of the recommended yoga techniques. Two-thirds of twenty seven patients studied, improved as a result of their experience with yoga. In addition to this they showed that it was not just a subjective improvement, by testing the people with spiro meter before, during, and after the course of yoga. (A spiro meter is a medical instrument which, among other things, demonstrates the degree of dilation of the bronchial tubes by measuring the freedom of breathing). The tests on this apparatus showed that 62.5% of the people had definite physical opening of their bronchial tubes as a result of the yoga practices. Not only did they feel that they were breathing more freely, but they actually were, because their bronchial tubes had relaxed.

A large number of other clinical investigations throughout the world have shown similar results. Wilson and Hornsberg (Cli. Res. 1973, 21, 278) showed that simple meditation alone can markedly reduce the frequency of attacks, the amount of drugs needed, the lung function and the skin resistance (a test of anxiety).

In all investigations, however, the results are better for people who start yoga early after the onset of the asthma, before it has developed into the severe chronic stage. Hence, people with asthma are advised to start yoga training as soon as possible following their first attack.

Bronchitis and emphysema

There is another group of conditions in which the bronchial tubes are obstructed and the patient cannot breathe properly. The two main forms are chronic bronchitis (long term inflammation of the bronchial tubes), and emphysema (excessive dilation of the air sacs due to damage to their walls). These two conditions are a real problem, because such patients usually continue to deteriorate despite the best treatment medical science can offer. In 1978, Dr. M. K. Tandon published in the journal Thorax an account of his work with twenty two elderly patients with severe cases of these conditions. Half of these people were given routine physiotherapy treatment, and the other half received yoga training. Tandon found that, “At the end of the nine months the yoga trained subjects reported to have:

1. Improved exercise tolerance.

2. Quicker recovery after exertion.

3. Control over an attack of shortness of breath without the need of medical help.

4. Definite improvement in their overall chest condition.

The breathing pattern of the yoga trained group was changed to a more efficient one. It was deeper and slower as compared with their original condition before the experiment and as compared with the shallow fast breathing of the physiotherapy group which showed no improvement in the breathing pattern.”

We must remember too that these are severe diseases in elderly people who, under ordinary conditions, would have deteriorated during the nine months of the investigation, rather than improving as well as they did with yoga.

Diabetes

This is a condition in which the body is unable to handle glucose, its main fuel. In the most severe form, the body becomes saturated with glucose because of the deficiency of insulin secretion, but at the same time the tissues of the body are starved of the glucose because it can’t enter the cells. The complications of diabetes are due to these twin problems and, if the course of the disease is not interrupted, the patient’s life may be shortened by decades.

The causes of diabetes are many; the person may have a hereditary tendency, but it seems to be triggered by external factors such as stress, lack of exercise, incorrect diet, and overeating. These come into contact with a certain personality type said to be intelligent, sensitive and brooding.

When diabetes starts early in life – juvenile onset diabetes- it is usually more severe and difficult to control. But even people with this type have been helped considerably by the diligent practice of yoga.

A number of studies have shown that the results of yoga therapy are better, especially juvenile onset diabetes, if the practices are started early in the illness, before the body becomes dependent on outside insulin. In addition to this, if it is treated early, the process is reversed before there is damage to vital tissues such as kidney and pancreas, by the diabetes itself or by the insulin.

The traditional yogic treatment of diabetes is fairly extensive and is best carried out while living in a properly equipped yoga ashram for a month or more. It involves special diet, shankhaprakshalana (compete bowel wash out by drinking sixteen to twenty five glasses of warm salty water, and meanwhile repeating specific exercises), kunjal (the vomiting practice), special postures, breathing practices and a form of mantra meditation known as ajapa japa. The results are very encouraging especially in new cases, though some people with even long standing juvenile diabetes have dramatic success.

Many clinical trials have been performed on the effects of yoga therapy for diabetes, including those of Lavgankar in the Yoga Vidya Dham in Pune, India; those of Varandani, Anandananda and Dharmveer M. D. of the Yoga Treatment Research Center, Bapunagar, Jaipur, India, and those of Professor N. C. Panda in association with Satyananda Ashram, Calcutta. All of these have shown that about a third of the patients with diabetes responded completely to the yoga therapy, about one quarter did not respond and the rest were able to reduce the amount of medication. In the investigations the people who did not respond, were usually from among those with severe juvenile onset diabetes, who had been using insulin injections for years; though even many of these became more stable. It must be remembered also that these trials only extended over a few months. The classical yogic teaching is that for diabetes, the practices must be continued for a long time. If this is done, maybe even the most intractable cases will respond.

We must consider yoga very seriously as an effective treatment for diabetes. Those who have experience with yoga therapy feel sure that the time is not far off when people with this difficult and debilitating disease will be able to successfully treat themselves with yoga practices rather than be dependent on frequent injections of external insulin or the taking of other drugs.

Yoga cures illness

Nowadays, people everywhere are coming to realize that yoga has a lot to offer in the treatment of illness, in fact, yoga cures illness. When I say that yoga cures illness, I am not including all illnesses, but those to which it applies. However, I am using the word cure in its most definite sense. If you are cured, you can stop the treatment, and the disease stays away.

Yoga is definitely making inroads and is having a major influence on modern medical science Not only is yoga accepted as a method of expanding consciousness, but also for expanding our opportunities to maintain good health and to cure disease.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, January , 1981)

Yoga can manage many diseases, especially the chronic and functional types. When I started the International Yoga Fellowship Movement in 1964, I had plenty of background with yoga therapy. I had lived from 1943 to 1956 in Rishikesh at the foot of the Himalayas with a very eminent sannyasin, Swami Sivananda, who had been a medical doctor in the earlier period of his life. I used to be his secretary, typist, editor and translator.

My contact with spiritual life was through philosophy – Vedanta – and that developed the desire to discover the higher consciousness within me. But when I lived with my guru and did a lot of work for him, especially typing, I used to read about the yoga postures, pranayama and other hatha yoga practices. I wondered if, when you practise sarvangasana, the thyroid is really stimulated, or when you practise sirshasana, if it really is true that the pituitary is stimulated, or when you practise paschimottanasana the pancreas is stimulated. Frankly speaking, the claims made for yoga did not convince me.

I had my own background of medical studies, not with humans but with animals because my family was preparing me to be a veterinary doctor. To me, these statements made by an ex-medical man were not convincing, but I kept them in my mind, and during the twelve years of my ashram life I was mainly engaged in studying philosophies, eastern and western, as well as other newer philosophies and psychologies.

People used to write to Swami Sivananda for treatment of their problems, and he used to suggest that they practise yoga. I used to witness all that, then in 1956 when I was wandering all over India, Burma, Nepal, Afghanistan, Ceylon, as a mendicant, people used to come to me to ask what yoga they should practise to become free from their diseases. I did not know very much about it, so I retired again and studied yoga thoroughly.

I learned that yoga is not just a series of exercises, the practices are postures or asanas, which produce a great change in the body, sometimes in the main organs, sometimes in the endocrine secretions, and sometimes in the nervous system.

Balancing the energies

The body is maintained by life force, and mind is maintained by mental force; this means that there are two forms of energy in this organism. One form of energy is responsible for the maintenance of the gross organs of the body, and the other force is responsible for the mental activities.

When you practise yoga postures, particularly the major ones, they exert mild pressure on the six important junctions in the spinal passage. Of these six, four distribute life force and mental force, and a disease is caused by the imbalance of these energy quantums in the body.

Now of course, we talk about viruses, bacteria, vitamin deficiencies and there is no argument about it. However, at the same time you must remember that a disease does not merely originate in the gross body. Even if a disease does appear to originate in the body, it travels straight to the mind, and from there, back to the body again. Such diseases are known as ‘somato-psychic’ diseases.

Most diseases nowadays originate in the mind, then they travel to the body then from the body to the mind again. This is how every disease originates, spreads and comes back again. Therefore, whatever the origin of a disease, man’s body and mind both suffer at the same time. These two forces are functioning just like material forces; you can say for the time being, ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ forces. The negative force controls the mind and its functions, while the positive force controls the body, its temperature, mobility etc.

The two forces are distributed throughout the body via the four junctions which are situated in the spinal axis, at the sacral area, solar plexus area, cardiac area and cervical area. These junctions are known as chakras or psychic centres. For proper health, these four energy centres must maintain balance. If the balance is lost, then disease of the particular system originates.

I’ll explain this a little more. In yoga we call life force ‘prana’. Other translations are vital force and bio-energy (though prana is something more than this as well). In life, there should be harmony between the pranic force and the mental force but usually this doesn’t happen.

If the pranic force predominates and the mental force becomes subservient then mental illnesses occur. When the mental force becomes predominant and pranic force becomes subservient, then physical illnesses originate. This is what we study in the modern medical sciences as well. When the parasympathetic nervous system is predominant and sympathetic nervous system is subservient or vice versa, we have either the psychic disorders or the physical disorders. If a harmony could be struck between these two forces, sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, then there would be a perfect harmony in the body.

The endocrine glands

When there is a total harmony between These two systems, body/mind, life force/mental force, then there are also perfectly balanced secretions in the endocrine glands. These glands are very important and each of them is directly or indirectly controlled by the energy systems. If there is some sort of disharmony in one of these systems, then it directly or indirectly affects that particular gland. This is the case with diabetes, for instance. The pancreas ceases to function, insulin is not produced and thus glucose is not controlled. It means that the nervous system has gone into a state of dysfunction on account of stress and strain. If proper relaxation can be given to the nervous system it will recommence functioning. Consequently, the pancreas will start working and that is the end of the diabetes.

The body makes its own medicines

Within this physical body there are also rich sources of life-giving chemicals: antibodies, adrenaline, etc. When we need one of them, we are given it from outside in the form of pills, serums or injections. However, if we can revitalise the particular system that produces these chemicals, then we make them for ourselves. This is what we can accomplish through yoga.

Take the example of adrenaline. The patient who is suffering from asthma can produce his own adrenaline. simply by practising one posture known as shashankasana. The person sits on his feet, bends forward, places his forehead and arms on the floor and relaxes in this position for ten or fifteen minutes. This is the way the Muslims sit during their prayers.

In shashankasana the adrenal glands are reactivated, they secrete more adrenaline. and the attack passes off. This is especially effective if it is practised early in an asthma attack as soon as the person knows that respiratory congestion is beginning to take place. An asthmatic patient can tell very well when he is going to get an attack. The condition begins to accumulate from the morning, and he begins to feel heaviness in the chest. But if he practises this posture he starts to feel better very quickly.

How does shashankasana clear up the respiratory congestion? It increases the secretion of adrenaline. Every person with asthma knows that if he has an attack of asthma and goes to the doctor, the doctor gives him adrenaline. However, with shashankasana, he makes it for himself.

This is an example of how, by practising the specific yoga postures, the different endocrine glands are stimulated. The endocrine glands then, in their turn, influence not only the body, but also the emotions, such as anxiety, fear and anger, which can be also controlled by the yoga practices.

Peptic ulcer

When I started this movement in 1964 I had 24 students and one of them was suffering from peptic ulcer. He was a very brilliant advocate and astute politician. At the beginning his ulcer was very bad and it was hard for me to imagine how yoga could help a condition that was caused by hyperacidity, anxiety, fear and irregular life habits. ‘Exercises’ for me were only exercises after all, whether they were dynamic or static. However, to my surprise, that man got better in fifteen or twenty days, and he is all right even now.

Heart disease

The experience with the advocate compelled me to follow a series of studies on yoga. I contacted various authorities in my own country, in Europe, America and Australia and inspired them lo study these phenomena. I helped one team lo thoroughly examine the impact and effect of yoga postures on coronary disease, which was a very important subject for me. I went to the central government in Delhi, and met the ministers and other chief officers as the first endeavour to finance the project. They were very glad to do that, and granted a large sum of money and facilities in a medical college, along with permission to examine and instruct the heart patients. They also gave an office, electro-cardiographic and electroencephalographic facilities, and a yearly subsidy for recurring expenses. Eminent doctors followed these observations during a period of five years and examined more than 950 patients, men and women, with all kinds of coronary diseases including angina, thrombosis and Myocardial infarction. The report was finally compiled and published before the Government of India.

With the report on coronary disease, there was a great awakening in my country. Many doctors began to follow yoga courses and we have formulated a systematic course for the different types of diseases that affect the heart. As a result, in our ashrams all over the world, yoga therapy is one of the most important activities.

Talking about heart patients, it is a well known practice in India, that before a medical expert is called for a heart problem, the patient is made to lie down on the floor with his legs raised. It is common sense, when legs are raised on a pillow, the blood goes back to the heart, and the pressure and strain on the heart is relieved, no matter what complaint it is. Then the heart can function until the medical expert arrives. This is a very simple thing which can be taught to everybody. Wherever I go, if I meet people over forty years, I tell them that this is one practice they have to learn.

Of course in India, heart disease is not a major disease, whereas in the west it is the number one killer. In India, only the people who are following the modern way of life, sitting in a room all day and not going out; suffering from anxiety, insecurity, stress and strain, etc., have heart attacks. In the villages, people do not understand what a heart attack is. They are very simple folk. They go to sleep on time, wake up on time, take proper food and exercise, just as the body requires.

Siddhasana and the heart

Recently I met an eminent doctor who is a great authority on transplanting the heart, Dr. Christian Barnard from South Africa. We started talking about the yoga postures and he said, ‘Yes, that is what I tell people to do, because if yoga postures are done correctly, you don’t have to worry about heart attack at all.’ When I asked him what was the basis of his statement, he replied that, ‘In the male body, testosterones are produced, and these hormones attack the heart.’

Testosterone is the hormone secreted by the testes in the masculine body. It is secreted every now and then, consciously and unconsciously during sexual intercourse, sexual fantasies, etc. If there is a nice dish of food, the salivary glands start to work, you know that. Even if I talk to you about something which you like to eat most, the saliva begins to secrete; this is a normal body reflex. In the same way, even if you look at a picture of sexual activity, for instance, it’s not just looking, there is a reflex condition set up in the body and testosterone is secreted. I’m not criticising the sexual behaviour of man, I’m only defining testosterone in relation to human activities.

If testosterones attack the heart, how do we control them so that they are not produced in excess? Dr. Barnard said that he had one posture in his mind, and the posture he described was siddhasana, the posture in which we sit for meditation. In this posture, the left foot is placed beneath the scrotum, with the right over the genital organ. If this is practised over a period of time, say half an hour maximum each day, it will give you complete control over the secretion of testosterone, a primary cause of heart attack.

This revelation I am making is from a very eminent person in the field of heart treatment. Therefore, there is no reason why siddhasana should be only considered a meditational posture, let us call it the ‘coronary posture’.

When you practise siddhasana, what is happening? You are pressing the perineum between the excretory and the urinary organs, with your left heel. And with the right heel you are pressing the lower abdominal viscera at the root of the urinary organ, or above the clitoris. You are pressing these two points, which are very important in controlling the flow of blood through the arteries and veins. The posture of siddhasana helps in the treatment of abnormal blood pressure too. Any time one is suffering from high blood pressure or low blood pressure, if he just sits in this posture for half an hour or if possible one hour, the blood pressure will move towards normal. This is because the pressure exerted on the perineum and the viscera is transmitted to the brain centres which control the blood pressure. High blood pressure is caused by tension and stress reacting through the brain to the blood vessels and heart. There are, of course other ways of controlling high blood pressure, but I’m talking in relation to siddhasana, and how important this posture is for our age.

Diabetes

Here in India, along with heart disease, another important experiment has already been concluded in the management of diabetes. The course; was conducted in one of my ashrams for forty days under the direct observation of doctors. When the course was concluded, the patients went home and the doctors followed up their progress.

To sum up, this experiment enlightened the whole nation that diabetes is no more an incurable disease, and if properly handled, before the complications have set in, the pancreas can be regenerated and the disease can be checked. The sufferer from diabetes has nothing to worry about provided he knows the correct practices to do.

In the same way, in the last 15 years, we have seen studies covering a wide range of diseases being conducted all over the country. Asthma, indigestion (the mother of many diseases), polio, muscular atrophy, multiple sclerosis (one of the widespread diseases in the west) and many other illnesses have been found to respond to yoga therapy.

Today in India, yoga is one of the most important branches in healing. The Medical Association has asked the medical colleges to include the teaching of yoga therapy in the medical studies. Medical doctors come to our ashram in Monghyr from all parts of India in order to get an introductory idea of the major principles of yoga therapy. As well as in India, there is work being done with great speed in Australia, Belgium, America and other places into the effects of yoga therapy.

Prolapse of the uterus

I don’t know much about the condition of the ladies in the west, but in India, many ladies suffer from prolapse of the uterus, where its supports become weak, and it comes down. Of course, we have a system of surgery for this, but in yoga we use only three postures practised over a period of time, which bring the whole genitourinary system into order and make it strong. One practice is called naukasana, ‘the boat pose’. You lie down, raise both legs a bit and tense them, then raise the upper part of the body a bit, and tense it. Then stretch the arms in the direction of the feet and make them tense. It has been seen that during this posture the uterus drops back. It may not happen in a few days, it may take a period of time but definitely this posture helps in prolapse.

The other practice for prolapse is uddiyana bandha. Exhale the breath through the mouth, empty the lungs, and contract the abdomen upward and backward. At the same time the kidneys, the bladder and the uterus follow the same contraction. The entire genitourinary and digestive tracts are contracted. When at the same time you block the throat by extending the arms and pressing the knees in jalandhara bandha, the blood circulation is concentrated in the navel region, and we know that wherever the blood concentrates, repair work takes place very fast.

Cancer

I don’t make very tall claims, it is not my habit, but I have seen for myself how cancer can be successfully treated by yoga therapy. For instance, one of my friends brought me a patient, the son-in-law of a multimillionaire, who was himself an eminent medical doctor in India, an F.R.CS. He had been in London and had to be brought back to India because of cancer of the spine.

He came to us and we only recommended one practice, revitalising breathing. He had to do nothing except fold back the tongue and touch the upper palate with it (khechari mudra), then practise a particular pranayama called ujjayi, in which the breath sounds like steam escaping from an engine. This is known as psychic breathing. With his eyes open or closed, he was instructed to breathe this way fifty, a hundred Or a hundred and fifty times.

First of all he was very sceptical. He asked, ‘Will it cure me?’ I said, ‘If there is any other system available which you think can cure you, then take that course.’ He was himself a doctor and he had given up all hope of survival. I said, ‘Practise it with inspiration and enthusiasm.’ He practised for one full year or more, and he is still very much alive today. He no longer has cancer, but unfortunately he is not able to move his head, either to the right or to the left, because of a certain test he had undergone before he met me. I advised him, ‘Don’t worry, if you persist in practising these other yoga postures, in the course of a year or two, your neck will be able to move again.’ I haven’t seen him since, but I’m sure that even if he cannot move his head as easily as I can, he can at least look a little from side to side.

He is still the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in a well known University. He tells all his medical students that yoga is important, not only as a philosophy or a spiritual science, but because there are certain physical changes that definitely occur during the practice of yoga.

Rheumatoid arthritis

I will finish this introduction with one more disease. Last month I received a request from the Education Department of my state to train higher secondary school teachers. We wanted to find out what had happened to these government officers. Why had they suddenly become aware of the benefits of teaching yoga in the schools? What was the story behind it? Here’s what had happened:

One of the sons of the Chief Secretary of Education was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis. He was brought to our ashram, but I was not prepared to accept him because he had to be looked after completely. He could do nothing. He was virtually a dead man enacting life. I was not prepared for him because, although I have a very big ashram, people rush there and consequently we are often hard pressed for accommodation. However, some of my disciples knew the boy and intervened on his behalf. So I kept him and his mother also for three months.

I didn’t know whether he experienced any improvement, because I was out on tour during this period. When I returned, he was no longer there, and I forgot the affair completely. A few months later he came back and he could walk. He came in, bowed low, and greeted me in Hindu fashion. This was the first I saw of his improvement. Recently, when I was coming through Patna from an overseas trip, he took leave of me and said, ‘Swamiji, next time, I will come to the ashram alone.’ He now goes to the bathroom, takes his own bath, washes his own clothes, cleans his own plate, sweeps his own room, and makes his own bed.

The father of the young man never expected this improvement because the medical experts had said ‘Nothing can be done, you can go to England or America, they may have a way, but here in India we do not have a cure for rheumatoid arthritis.’ The Secretary of Education was thus so obliged that he spoke with his colleagues in the Government. He reasoned that a science that could deal so positively, so successfully, and so immediately with such a condition as rheumatoid arthritis should be taught to the teachers and professors so that they in turn, could teach the children. In this way the next generation would have a better idea about the therapeutic possibilities of yoga.

The future of yoga

Yoga can move either side by side with medical science or independently of medical science This is because we have a sound system of aetiology, diagnosis and pathogenesis of diseases. We have a complete system by itself within yoga.

Unfortunately, people of the east and west have understood yoga as a science of occultism, mysticism, black magic, witchcraft, and many have attributed it to the religious side of life. This is why yoga has been outside the area of scientific exploration and investigation. However, we are now doing a lot of work in India, not only my own institution but many others, and in Australia they are working very hard too. Australian doctors write down under their prescription ‘Practise Yoga’. They don’t know very much about the postures, but they know what yoga can do. The work is also going on in most European countries. I am particularly aware of what is being done in Czechoslovakia and Poland because my disciples there are working in collaboration with the medical authorities.

Throughout the whole world yoga is now becoming recognised as a science in its own right. And I hope that this systematic approach to yoga will reveal greater benedictions and greater benefits for mankind.

(Courtesy Yoga Magazine, January, 1981)