Guest Editorial
Yoga has found a special place in the heart of governance since 2014. Many firsts have been achieved. The declaration of International Day of Yoga, The National Entrance Test in Yoga, National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) formulating a committee to draft a module of the subject Yoga in their teachers training program, Quality Council of India (QCI) being asked to initiate a certification program for quality assertion, formation of the Yoga Certification Board (YCB) as the second step from QCI, AYUSH centers in AIIMS and now in defense hospitals and the Department of AYUSH getting the status of Ministry of AYUSH. All this has led great credence to the vision of this government to promote the Integrated System of Medicines in general and Yoga in particular.
From my personal experience I can share, that the Department of AYUSH before 2014 was a department trying to survive. Now, it is thriving. This is great news for entire Yoga community.
India is the land of Yoga. We have had great rishis who propounded this great experiential science which has been handed over from centuries to centuries. The essence of Yoga has been maintained through various ashrams, institutions and gurukuls. The various means to the same end, in-fact strengthened the approach of ‘unity in diversity’. It gave options to the human being to choose from various dimensions, to pursue a path which led to the same realization. In and around 2006, a need was felt that these various institutions working in their own right, should come together and stay together, to maintain and continue to propagate the fundamental essence of Yoga, that, it was essentially a science of and for self-awareness and self – realization. And with this thought, the Indian Yoga Association was nurtured and formed.
Yogacharya Dr.B.K.S.Iyengar ji was the first President who guided through the birth and infancy of the association. Dr.O.P.Tiwar ji succeeded the founder President, and saw to the adolescence of the association to be followed by Dr. H.R. Nagendra ji to guide from adolescence to adulthood and now we have Smt.Hansa Ma as the President to guide us towards nurturing the energies and guiding them towards strength in the IYA.
On the way, in and around 2015 more masters joined the association and we had the great fortune to have the blessings of Yogrishi Swami Ramdev ji as the first Chairman of the Governing Council and presently Gurudev Sri Sri Ravisankar ji as the Chairman of IYA. The Governing Council also includes Yoga gurus such as Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev ji, Dr.Pranav Pandya ji, Swami Bharat Bhushan ji, Swami Chidanand Muni ji , Dr.Kamlesh Patel – Daji , whose immense blessings and guidance will pave the way to go from strength to strength.
Dr.Ishwar Basavaraddi, the Director of MDNIY was catalyst in manifestation of this idea of IYA in to reality. I found myself amidst the happenings right from the beginning, and have therefore, imbibed a lot of learnings since then. There were other great energies who have been there from the beginning, who enabled this to happen, such as, Amma Meenakshi Devi Bhavnani, Swami Anant Bharti, Swami Veda Bharti, Dr.Ishwar Bharadwaj, Dr.Venkata Raddi, Dr.Krishna Bhatt, Swami Dharmanand ji, Dr.M.V.Bhole and more.
I write this guest editorial in my capacity as the Secretary General of this great association, which has the potential to unite the whole world of Yoga, towards deeper and sublime experiences and offering them variety of paths under one roof. My primary role would be to get more people under this umbrella to be able to experience the essence of Yoga. It is also essential that the association is able to contribute towards strengthening of the quality of knowledge and education in the field of Yoga as also be a partner to the efforts of the Government to be able to generate larger impact of their projects and efforts. Most importantly, the association would serve as the bridge for all the member institutions and its members to get access and participate in, the happening, in the world of Yoga.
There has been a lot of hard work put in the past, which has got us to the present strength today. We should acknowledge all of those.
Going forward, I would request
a. Readers who are part of the institute which offer training programs, to motivate the institute / center get accredited and start to offer IYA Certification programs.
b. To conduct large number of awareness programs of foundation course and have large number of Yoga Volunteers ready as the base of the pyramid, which needs to be largest.
c. Greater participation in the state chapters so that grassroots are strengthened.
d. I would encourage our readers to write to us with your feedback and suggestions, so that we can grow together.
Om Sahana Vavatu Sahanau Bhunaktu Sahaveeryam Karavavahai
Tejas Vinavati Tamastuma vidhwishavahai
Om Shanti Shanti Shanti !!
(May He protect both of us, May He nourish both of us, May we both acquire the capacity (to study and understand the scriptures). May our study be brilliant, May we not argue with each other. Om peace, peace, peace)