Yoga For Better Skin, Hair & Life Explained By An Expert - Ami Ganatra | The Ranveer Show 255

Is, as I said, yoga is a school of philosophy which perceives reality. So what he says is only when your mind is quiet. Will you be settled in your actual truth, where you will see the real truth? What will happen when the mind doesn't set up your emotions, correct? You will see your reality according to those withis with a biased lens. What is getting control over your senses? Ideally, I see something immediately. My memory is triggered that oh, I liked it, but I forget that it had not done good for me because for that I need to use my thinking. Brain yeah. That is only taste taste is like. Oh, I want it now. If I don't get it, I will go into this mode of anger frustration. So I need to tell my senses that, oh, if things you don't get what you want, it's fine for the last two years of my life, I've dedicated my research to the world of meditation yoga because I'm building a meditation and yoga app. This episode is an attempt to bring you the ABCs or the 101s of yoga, not how the world knows yoga. It'S not just about the stretches, the asanas, the exercises, it's about the philosophy, it's about the reasons to do yoga and it's about the end goal of yoga. If you're someone who wants to learn the truth about yoga through our shastras or the ancient scriptures of India, this is the episode for you. We'Ve got one of our TRS All-Stars who's, giving us some Blockbuster episodes in Hindi to explain yoga to you folks from a very basic perspective. This is one of those episodes. That'S Evergreen! It'S going to be relevant even 50 years later so you're going to enjoy this episode. You'Re going to learn from it remember to check out level supermind the app that I've been working on for the last two years: lots of guided meditations lots of guided yoga workouts coming your way and, of course, make sure you follow us on Spotify. Every episode of TRS is available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world, because TRS is a Spotify exclusive. This yoga special has a lot to give you so just be in a state of absorbing fresh knowledge and perspective building opinions from Amiga nathra and yours truly because you've done a bunch of Blockbuster episodes on a Hindi Channel. But this is our first English episode. So welcome. Thank you so much and we're always a pleasure any Channel with you is fun. Any chat with you is fun. You know how deep and crazy this one's going to go, because this is our first ever yoga special on the show. I wanted to do it with you, because I've seen how deep we can go with our yoga conversations in Hindi uh. We have a lot of international listeners and this one's for them. Mainly. I think you need to clear the misconception about what yoga is to begin with, because when Urban audiences plus International audiences you're the word yoga, they automatically visualize someone doing something from a Surya, namaskar right, uh, some kind of yoga Asana some yoga exercise. What is Yoga? According to the ancient definitions from Indian scriptures, so the um foremost text on you is Anjali yoga. Yoga yeah, who compiled the information on what yoga is Yoga has um yog is a darshan. What we call darshan, it's one of the six darshanik schools of India, where we have one is we have yoga and yeah. Basically, how do you see the reality how to perceive the reality? What is a darshan darshan is what we very simply translate as philosophy. Okay, darshan yeah darsha is to see see what reality. That is, how it basically breaks down to. So how do you make sense of reality reality of Truth, okay, deeper question: what have you learned about reality? Are we living in a simulation? So if you go by um, vedanta or advaitha, we say that this is all Maya. What you'll have to also explain what vedant so vedanta very simply understood? It is Veda end of the Ved. What is at the end of the way end of the way are the upanishads yeah upanishad, so Vedas are have two three parts, but to be very simpler, simple about this two main parts, one is what is called karma Kanda and the second, which is called karbakanda, Is about rituals because we have always been a, I don't want to use Pagan civilization, but a civilization that worships nature right. Our deities so to say, were all related to Nature in some way, so we have a civilization that worshiped nature, and hence there were certain rituals around that, the prominent being what we call yagna in English. We called it. The fire sacrifice right the sacrifices which are done, but basically the yagna, where you have the fire and you put ghee in the fire, and you know habish and all of that in the fire. So there are uh, there are certain invocations you do when you do. The yagna there are certain uh material benefits that you seek out of doing a yagna. The the larger thought is that by doing the yagna you are um propitiating, the deities. You are giving them something and expecting that they will take care of you yeah. So it's like a you give them something I expect them to take care of. You ask for their protection. Ask for help! All of that, so how to do those? What were the rituals around it? How to um? You know when to do what yagna? What are the rules? Who could do what should be chanted in those all that is called karma, Kanda yeah, so rituals around that? That is one part. Thus, last part, usually I mean last because that's the second part. Sometimes it also comes in the middle of the weather is called so has to do with wisdom, knowledge, yeah knowledge of what so our rishis have always been um perplexed, or let's say they have been trying to understand these questions of you know um existential questions. What we call today, who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose of this life? What is this word? How did creation happen? Yeah you'll also have to explain who are ishis are um. The the word translates into one who achieved realization through knowledge. That'S what we say, but rishis are people who basically could go deep into meditation, who had a lot of wisdom to perceive things which were not easily available to Common People yeah. So in one way, these were like the realized scientists of past day. Okay, let me now again break away into a little bit of modern history. I don't want modern history. I call it modern, because this is what the world of history is talking about, a lot lately, which is the evolution of man. So if the first Homo Sapien arrived on the earth three lakh years ago, 300 000 years ago, that's a very long time. If you actually think of the fact that Jesus Christ was only born about 2000 years ago, three lack yours is a very long time. They say that um humans are spent a lot of time in history which has been lost because archeology has its own limits. How much we know about the past has its own limits and in India it's believed that Indian civilization has been around for a very long time. It'S been around, at least for the last 15 000 years, or so because one of the oldest texts, the rigved, has been dated back to them because it mentions the Saraswati river, which is now submerged, it's gone underground. But it was a phase in history where the Saraswati was on land. So, even if we just take that 15 000 year bracket, rishis or probably people who were meditators, they were trying to go deeper into the world of yoga and they were trying to figure out the truths about human life through meditation through contemplation through research uh. That'S all I understand about rishis. I would also like to believe that the timeline is not as short as 15 000 years ago. I feel it was at least a few thousand year thousand year decades, more than that, by which I mean, maybe I would realistically like to believe it's about forty thousand fifty thousand BC. What'S the evidence for this, I don't know in saying that um, if you actually read the stories of our puranas uh, we talk about years and times in lacks of years and that kind of a scale - and it's probably taken lacks of years to figure out that Much about the human mind and body now go on Amiga yeah. No, so um The indic View on time is not linear. We look at indic view of time as circular yeah that civilizations happen, they get lost again. The civilization happened yeah. So from that perspective we date ourselves like lacks of years old yeah, but let's talk about what we know right now and you are right. The information we have right now is probably 15. 000 years of you know some evidence of human life um some some index. Researchers have actually traced back, say, Mahabharata to five thousand to seven thousand years. Ramayan to you know, seven thousand to nine thousand years, so this period is already what we have. Then we know that there was when we read ramayan. We know that they also talk about the past yeah, so stretching it back. So I think at least 15 000 years I would agree with you. Is you know, let's take the rough time frame. Rishis have existed throughout and, as you very rightly said, these were the people who, through deep meditations, found the truth of Life, found answers to some of the existential questions that we still ask. But beyond that, like we also have rishis, who are in too deep into mathematics who were deep into astronomy, who were deep into uh uh ayurved Sciences right like Health Sciences. These were all doing research. They were all you know, uh, going deeper into any domain specific subjects. They had to answer questions either in the philosophical domain or even in the material domain and as a civilization. We have always valued knowledge, so even in Gita they say that wisdom. There is nothing better than wisdom right. The wisdom itself will lead you to Salvation or Liberation. That is how we we believe, yeah. One thing I just want to mention you, especially for our International listeners, is that if they've watched Game of Thrones have you watched Game of Thrones? No, so there is a concert of a maester in Game of Thrones, which is a sort of Guru lives in a castle he's also a doctor he's also a teacher for, like the princes Etc. Uh maesters are educated in this one particular place in Game of Thrones. I can't remember the name right now. I think it's called The Citadel and the citadel's concept was based on the ancient Indian universities wow, the gurukuls uh yeah yeah um, yes, which for international listeners were basically massive universities where people from all over Asia would come and study. So we had a podcast with an archaeologist called Anika man. Recently, uh who's subjects of study are related to nalanda and these ancient universities, which existed as recently as a thousand years. Yes, you know 800 years ago even to be able to visit these universities. If you were a scholar from another country like a Chinese culture or Japanese culture, you had to give an entrance exam just to be able to go to these universities, because this is a land. That'S been obsessed with the research and deeper knowledge about philosophy, and I think the fruit of all that research is what we call yoga now I'll. Let you continue again so so, just to add to what you're saying a lot of Chinese philosopher or philosophers of yesteryears yeah. They used to come to study in these universities and there are movies of Hyun Zhang fahin, like the Chinese Travelers, that you know there's a place called Shian in uh in China in Xi'an. Today. Also, they have this place, which is also a tourist destination. Now, where they have carvings of how Yoon Zang he actually came to India, the kinds of troubles he faced, the university he came to how he collected manuscripts, how he took them back here and they talk about them coming and visiting these different universities of India. So yeah - and this is 800 000 2000 years old. However, the concept of gurukul itself is much much older. You'Ll have to explain what a gurukul is. Gurukul is like a university where students come live study and then they graduate. Let us take an example of type 3 upanishads. So of course we have the gurukul example in Mahabharata, where the corresponders they study in dronacharya's gurukul right there, they get trained in shastra Vidya in Weaponry, Weaponry Warfare. All of that, but not just weaponry and warfare there. They learn about Ved, they learn about philosophy. They learn about what we call Raj Dharma Administration, polity, yeah. All that is required for Future Leaders future kings. They learn all of that there in that. Also, there is a mention of gurukul of shanak Rishi, so it is basically in this Guru code of Shana krishi that the first time Mahabharata that we know yeah the Mahabharata that we know was narrated to janmajay like in King January who's, one of the uh descendants Of descendants of pandav, so he is the son of parikshit yeah, so Arjun Arjun Arjun son was so Mahabharata was rendered publicly first time by a student of vyaji in his yagna there there is a Rishi called. He hears listens to the Mahabharata and then he's traveling and he reaches nemesharana where there is another gurukul University of Rishi shanak, where his students ask him that, okay, where are you from where are you coming from, and he tells them that? Oh, I just heard Mahabharata and they ask him to repeat or narrate it to them. That is the Mahabharata that comes to us, which was also narrated in the gurukul, but even Beyond. Thatri upanishad, which is the part of the vedasri upanishad, basically starts with a guru with the guru, the teacher, giving a convocation speech yeah. So he has a group of students who are graduating. The people who graduated from gurukuls were called snatak. Today we called Bachelors as natak yeah Bachelor degrees, those who so the same thing is used they're there also, so you go through some 10 12 years of education and you become a snatak so there he is actually giving a convocation speech to his students, who are Going to graduate yeah and he's telling them, how should they live their lives, so even in opener shirts we get this concept of gurukul and the real and archaeologically. We have evidence of nalanda Shield. All of that, so that's how long back it goes um. How do you explain the origin of yoga as a concept, and now I'm talking about the Western definition of yoga, which is the actual exercises, the meditation? Where do you think all that began, because what I have been told is that meditation came first like prayer and meditation came first contemplation silence, because I mean it's a very everyday human life uh observation that when you're quiet, if you're alone, sometimes you can feel a Creative surge, sometimes you get thoughts about these things. That'S how Twitter is even a concert. That'S how the best Tweets come out uh. What I've been told is that there's a legend that says that there was a bunch of rishis meditating and then they kind of went so deep into the meditation that they allowed their bodies to take whatever form the body was going into, and that's how the asanas Were created and eventually because of the study of the asanas, they figure that oh, this exercise helps with this particular uh benefit, or this exercise helps this organ. But what's the origins of yoga so um I had started talking about patanjali Rishi right you'll have to explain who that is. Yes exactly. I will do that so patanjali Rishi, that's where the Rishi thing came from okay, so patanjali he is a Rishi who compiled whatever information related to yoga was there into something which is called patanjali yoga, Sutra yeah. This is the book we refer even today, where in a Sutra format, so Sutra is something like think of it as mathematical formula of today, okay yeah. So there is no big explanation. There are one one lines given to explain deeper Concepts so that you know in a very compact, comprehensive way that could be passed on, so he created that Sutra text patanjali yoga Sutra, in that he gives the definition of yoga okay. He says he says yoga is the cessation, the settling down of the chitthavruti? What is chitta very simplistically? Let us understand that is our mind. Okay and, let's think of them as a different thoughts that keep coming to us. So he's saying, settling down of this continuous activity of your mind is achieving a state of yoga. You mentioned the state of Silence. The state of Silence not just like there is no voice coming from outside. That Silence has to happen inward right, because, as long as so when we say our mind is Disturbed, what is really happening. The mind is not at rest right, there's something or the other going on in the mind, sometimes we'll think about. Oh, what happened to me. 15 years ago then be like, oh, but tomorrow I have an exam, then that thought comes and oh, but what do I eat? Oh, my god, I've become so fat. The brain is never at rest, something or the other something or the other keeps going on, and that disturbs us now, if that goes to a level where you can't even sleep at night, you know the natural process of waking up and sleep is hindered. That is basically, we are mentally completely. You know Disturbed leading to anxiety, depression, all of that yeah, so that is because of this continuous activity of the brain. Now when that activity subsides, that is when we actually experience that state of Silence right. So what he says is Yoga is achieving that state of Silence, which we now call samadhi. I mean he talks about samadhi as well, but that is that stage of samadhi that level of dhyan or meditation. What what is meditation supposed to do quite in our mind, yeah, so that that activity stops? We can either focus on any one thought that has come to us or anything that we want to focus on, but basically quiet in the mind that is yolk. He has a, he has a much more spiritual significance or the spiritual. The reason why yoga has to happen is, as I said, yoga is a school of philosophy which perceives reality. So what he says is only when your mind is quiet. Will you be settled in your actual truth, where you will see the real truth? What will happen when the mind? Doesn'T you will see your reality? According to those withis with a biased, lens yeah, you will not see what is your real form, but you will continue. You see it without whatever is going on on your mind right now, so the association that you make of reality will not be right. It will be with those you know, ephemeral, thoughts that are coming to you, ephemeral memories that you have, which might not be right. Like, for example, if I'm wearing goggles right, uh red Brown whatever, if I look at you, I will see you as brown. Now, if I forget that I am wearing goggles yeah, I'm wearing Shades, I will think you look like whatever color. That is right red. I might see you as red and I might think oh everything is red, but actually the issue is not with you or with me. The issue is with that obstruction that I have created. Only when I remove it will I see you for what it is, so that is settling of the mind yeah. This obstruction angle is the most relevant modern day context for sure it's probably relevant throughout times, but in the modern day, there's so many easy ways to spot obstructions around you. There'S overstimulation because of uh, our phones and social media. There'S overstimulation because of the wrong kind of foods. That'S out there and food is a big part of yoga, and probably generally people are not as physically active as their bodies are meant to be in the modern day, which is why yoga is probably coming to the Forefront everywhere all over the world, because people are Understanding that we live in these Urban jungles, we have Urban lives, we're not going to be able to solve many of those situations, but yoga at least begins to undo the effects of those situations initially. And then, after a point where, when you don't, when you realize you don't need those situations in your life, then you can go deeper into yoga anyway, but that process just balance out your mind and body. It'S a very good modern, uh use case of the system. Absolutely so, although your the ultimate you know outcome expected, is to reach that stage of what we call cover layer where you become one with the paramatan, so, okay, let's go back and understand what is the meaning of yoga. Okay: okay, the word yo is a Sanskrit word which comes again from a root word. Every Sanskrit word will have a dhatu a root word from which it comes. Okay. The root word for yoga is yuja. Now you know we say yolk in English yeah. That is also a related word, which comes from yuja yeah yuja is to achieve a State of Union is also to achieve full Focus. That is also user. Yoga Yoga samadha Yoga, so both from both of these the word yoga comes so Union of what so, as we look at it in two ways, one is Union of Mind: Body, Atma, okay. The second is Union of the Atma with the paramatma, when your soul combines, with God yeah like whatever, is that reality that we talk about right, the LA the Brahman, the concept that we have, the all pervasive all pervasive reality. We understand our reality and we understand that. We are basically that, like the way, the vakyas that we have that so the larger we are basically that larger, divine tatva and realizing. That is also yoga, which happens when you achieve that ultimate state of okay. To kind of simplify it, maybe for some of our Western audiences, this is what the Buddha achieved moksh when he's becoming uh these things, that's the ultimate goal of yoga, which is why, when people on the show, especially entrepreneurs, ask me on the show what the meaning Of life is, I wan na explain this to them, but not everyone's ready for this definition. You know I had a very big mentor of mine recently asked me what my purpose of life is. I looked at him and said I actually just want to escape this cycle of murder and he looked at me like I'm crazy, because not everyone's ready for that definition, the thing is, the more you stick to yoga the more you realize that that's the actual game And if you chase that game, your material game will take care of itself. Of course, you've got to put hard work there and all else you can't use yoga as an escapism. If you learn to live in both worlds, you've got to achieve your material purpose, which is different for everyone, and everyone has to achieve this purpose eventually in their souls Journey. Absolutely though I will say what your purpose is, the realization of your purpose comes from like it is very different for every individual. While that is the eventual goal for everybody, not everybody will have the realization which you have then is Yoga not for them. Who don't have that realization? No. That is why I said there are two types of unions. One is which you are seeking, like you know, merging with the ultimate, but there is another which is very simple to achieve the union between your mind and body yeah, I have a friend who's actually been on. The shows named he's a cyber security expert who's. Also very very deeply read in yoga and yogic philosophy: he said that um, the one of the physical goals of yoga is just balance. What is this logic and where, in the yoga sutras, is this written like? Where does this balance angle come in? Because I think that's what you're getting towards so again, balance is posture balance and the other is mental balance and again both are linked right. So even in bhagavad-gita Krishna says yes balanced, but it is also Equanimity to good bad happiness sorrow. This is a more mental one, but within yoke we also talk about balance in the sense of homeostatus within the body balance in the sense of postural balance. All of this is a part of you now. How does that happen? So, for example, um, as I said, right yolk is achieving the union of Mind and Body. Let'S keep it to that level. Only let's forget the spiritual part of it completely, because even then I think it is a lot. It'S basically for everyone to achieve the Mind Body Union and what is Mind Body Union. So again you know that is Health being healthy. We talk about holistic well-being mentally happy physically fit. That is also the definition of Health in our sastras but anyway. So what is that health, physical fitness is about being physically strong muscle, wise, you know, physically, you are fine. All that is good. Your muscles are strong enough. They can stay in a state of sitting, for example, for longer achieving this happens through Asana. So Asana is one of the parts of achieving you. There are eight limbs, eight parts yoga understand. Basically the practice of yoga has ashtang yeah. We'Ve all heard the word Ashtanga Yoga, eight angas of yoga eight limbs of you. Okay of that eight limbs, one is awesome. So how do you achieve yolk through the practice of this is a very um. You know we have. We have a process flow given like okay, you want to achieve this project. This is the process flow, so patanjali has actually simplified that for us and said, okay, these are the eight things you need to do to achieve that state of eventualia, but forget that eventually, even if we don't get there, these eight things itself give us lot of Benefit? How because he says asan yeah, when your friend said balance the definition of Asana itself says you know we tend to see Asana as all those we are jinchang poses yeah. That is not you. I mean that also is yogasan, yes, but the purpose is to achieve a state of stability. Stability can come only through balance that stable position where you get so cover your happy sitting there you don't have to fidget your legs are not it's not hurting. Exactly now. Only when you can sit quietly for say longer periods, multiple hours together can you sit in meditation. Otherwise you will keep fidgeting was in a way to help us get into that state of meditation, because that was the ultimate goal of you look. Think of it. How it helps us in the current life right, our bodily movements are, are controlled by something called as cerebellum yeah. Now cerebellum is what is called The Reptilian Brain, which is an all living organism. This cerebellum is what controls our postures, our movements, our motor actions and stuff - and this is under the influence of our cortex, which is the thinking break now. Very simply put brain has three main parts very very simplistically put here: one is The Reptilian Brain which helps the movement, which is a part of medulla oblongata cerebellum. Then there is a emotional brain which we also call Mana, so emotional brain, which senses happiness, sorrow threat. You know, relaxing all that what I like pain pleasure, all that is in that emotional brain part, which is also called the limbic brain. Then we have the thinking brain solving maths, equations yeah, doing analysis, taking what we call objective decisions where you weigh Pros cons and then take a decision. I think this is like the whole left hand, side right hand, side along with the reptilian side, you're talking about yeah, so the left hand right hand is also a part of your cortex only which is a thinking brain part yeah. Now the difference between human being and other animals is that our cortex, the thinking brain, is a lot more developed for others. They have the cerebellum, it's largely The Reptilian Brain which is there. They all need that some part of Limbic brain for us, limbic, brain and the thinking part, is a lot more developed yeah. So the cerebellum is controlled by both the limbic brain as well as our so for us to achieve that balance. Yeah. You practice yoga right. You have done it say you want to stand straight or do what we call rickshaws and the tree pose, which is basically standing on. You know, bending one leg and standing with your hands up. It'S not that difficult, but if your mind is Disturbed even that you can't do right, holding that balance itself is difficult. Why? Because the cerebellum also get gets disturbed, because our emotional brain is Disturbed. Our cerebellum also gets Disturbed and we can't even hold that pose. We can't keep that balance at all, because the balance itself is driven by cerebellum, but when our mind is quiet when it is not Disturbed, usually at that time, what happens is that our cortex is taking care of our cerebellum and we are able to keep that Balance, basically the there is no disturbance happening on the cerebellum, it's doing its job as it is supposed to do and we are able to hold that post, which is balance so this. If a person is in continuous stress mode continuously mentally Disturbed, then the balance itself will not happen, and hence you will see that lot of people tend to slouch yeah or they are always fidgeting. They don't even know that they're fidgeting, but they are fidgeting. All this happens because the cerebellum is not being controlled properly. It is not doing what it needs to do properly and when we say that let's do yogasan that itself, you know because of the impact it has on our nervous system and I'll. Maybe explain this nervous system uh if our emotional brain becomes stronger. Our emotional brain is properly controlled by our thinking, brain and that's how even our cerebellum is controlled by our thinking. Brain yoga helps strengthen our thinking, brain and manage our emotional brain. Very simply put that's what helps us achieve balance as well. Um. We often talk about mind muscle Connections in the world of Fitness. In terms of, if you're doing a bicep curl, you need to think of your bicep actually growing. You need to feel each rep. That'S why they say: don't listen to music or podcast when you're lifting weights uh. I feel it's the same case with you even see. Manan keeps stressing on this that, ideally, you should only be thinking about the body part that you're stretching or if you're doing your pranayama only be within the bread to really get maximum benefits of it. Now I've been a fitness trainer and I try looking at anything related to the body with a scientific lens only I am understanding as I go forward. My own yoga Journey that uh your mind can definitely control the way your body moves. For example, if I'm happy my mind is feeling happy, but my body reacts by smiling because the muscles on my face get pulled, etc, etc. Now remember reading this report about how that's a nervous pathway, but parallely Studies have shown that if you force a smile on your face, it has a certain kind of Happiness, related effect. On your mind, you actually feel happier in mind so you're using your body to manipulate your mind, as in you're, going reverse on that particular nervous pathway. Now this brings me to yoga in terms of, I am sure at this point. I'Ve been stretching at least I've. Not been doing a high level of yoga, but I've just been opening up my body, a crazy amount for the last one and a half years, and I feel I've gotten much more relaxed as a person. My mental health is in a much better place. I'M a much more flexible person, not just physically, but also in my mind in terms of things that would bother me out of my own stiffness or my own aggression to get them done now. Don'T bother me, I'm more adaptable to life. I'Ve truly understood what Bruce Lee meant when he said that be water. My friend now I've started to feel aspects of that. Apparently I have a friend who's, also into yoga and she's, also trained in Indian, classical dance and Indian classical dance talks about this thing called conscious dancing where, if you just allow your body to move in whatever way it wants and sync it up to some kind Of Beats um you'll notice that in a few movements you end up feeling a little too emotional, so say, you're doing something with your fingers and suddenly you're feeling a lot of emotion. What they believe in both Indian classical dance as well as yoga, is that emotions get stored in our bodies as well. Now again, I don't understand the science of this. Maybe there's some linkage to the emotional side of your brain being linked to that particular body part. There might be a nervous connection. I don't know what the logic is, but I will tell you this that there are particular yoga asanas which I've done, which I'm like at the peak of my stretch and I'll start crying, and I cry because of a certain thought that it's triggered. When I told my friend about this instance in my life, she said that yeah, that's how conscious dancing works. We end up stretching a part of our body and then suddenly the steers that come out, because your body makes your mind go to a particular part of your past and they say that often these niggles, these small injuries, that don't leave you always trying to teach. You something that's a philosophical way of looking at things, but I'd like to know this whole aspect, and I think this is related to your nervous system angle and for me, that's the highlight of yoga from a mental health perspective as well as in this episode correct. This is what people really need to gain out of this episode, I'll, let you continue so um. Your observations are bang on yeah yeah when a person is stressed yeah what happens to the breathing very fast, very fast, yeah they're running all over the place not able to decide the brain doesn't work right, usually when they are running when they are super stressed. What is our immediate say? I come to you and I'm in a super stressed state, I'm like blabbering away, not knowing what to do fidgeting away. What will be the immediate think you tell me, usually I'm a little scared to say chill or calm down. This is what you will say: relax breathe, deep sit down, take a few deep breaths. Then you tell me what happened. Let me understand now, as soon as they sit down, take a few deep breaths. What happens there? Talking becomes clearer, they start making more sense, because now they are able to stitch their thoughts together, yeah. What is really happening in this? Your sympathetic nervous system is getting Switched Off when you're parasympathetic system is getting more turned on correct, so we have one what is called a central nervous system which manages our you know: bodily actions, motor nerves and all that and second, we have what is called as The autonomous nervous system - basically it all starts from the brain yeah. Your our brain, is like our CPU, which processes information makes us act in a certain way. It also is evolutionary right because it should help us detect threat and to save ourselves from threat. We need to survive, that's a survival Instinct also. That also has to be taken care of by the brain, so autonomous nervous system. It has two parts to it. One is what is called a sympathetic nervous system, which is flight and fight system. The other is parasympathetic nervous system, which is called the rest and relax system. Now, why do we need the sympathetic nervous system for survival for survival? If today, there's a lion or a tiger here we shouldn't be thinking array. Will that tiger eat me is that tiger hungry, maybe not if by the time, I'm thinking and analyzing, and all that the tiger will kill me right. So my body should reflexively make me run right as soon as I have. There is a input from my eyes of the tiger immediately my emotional brain, which has my Pleasure and Pain point. This is also where I recognize threats that threat is recognized even without me, not thinking about it right. That threat is recognized and I need to run now. If I need to run, I need more oxygen. I need you know more uh. I need to breathe faster so that I need more oxygen. I need blood flowing into my legs and my limbs so that I can just run yeah now. For that to happen. My arteries in my limbs need to expand my heartbeat needs to increase. I need to breathe more right. All that is happening now, while this is happening, if one side is activated, there's something else that would have from where the blood flow would have to be directed where it is from my digestion, the whole digestion process, because it is going on anyways yeah. But now that the threat has been identified, my Digi the blood flow will go away from the digestion and all that which are not immediately required at that point. Also from my thinking and all that and be directed towards the activity that I need to do most so that I can run yeah, it's this whole case of react versus respond correct. This is yeah, I'm reacting, and I need that at that point fantastic. I need to run at that point. I have run. I have saved myself. This was a real threat right now. What happens if I'm continuously in this state of threat? As I said, when I sense threat, there are some activities which the blood flow will happen in such a way that some actions will get more broad. There will be more blood sugar, there'll, be adrenaline, which will make me all hyper and running, and all of that yeah a lot of energy release, but the other activities like excretion digestion, thinking, repairing yeah immunity, building, creating all that will just go away. If this happens at an extended period of time, my digestive system metabolic system, it is sure to break up, it will break apart and I'm continuously in that state of activity where I'm not thinking or anything, I'm just reacting reacting reacting to situations. Clearly, this is going to lead to a lot of wear and tear within my body and in my mind that is what is stress, and this is the reality of the times that we live in when we say mental health issues are spread all over the world. This is actually what's happening. This is exactly what is happening. We are always in our sympathetic mode because we are continuously taking inputs and you know even the way we grow up. We don't. We are not used to hearing. No, we get everything on a platter right. So the moment we hear a no or things don't go according to how we want. We see that as a thread that is not a threat, it shouldn't be a threat right, but our mind perceives it as a threat as a pain and immediately our sympathetic nervous system Kicks On, And We Are Forever in that mood. Now we, but the body can't take it that way, because you need to rejuvenate your immunity needs to be built, the repairing relaxation all that needs to happen. What takes care of that? It is a parasympathetic nervous system, but your parasympathetic nervous system can come and play only after your sympathetic nervous system is relaxed right now. What happens in the parasympathetic nervous system when it is activated? Basically, all the arteries which had you know, expanded and constricted and all that they come back into its original usual form. Heart rate comes down, so blood pressure decreases. Blood sugar level comes into its own yeah, the normal level metabolic system. My metabolic activity start happening and the body the Mind perceives that other is no threat anymore, so I'm fine, my breathing becomes deeper. So all that happens in the parasympathetic mood now very easy right. Ideally, I should always be in the next rest and relaxed mode unless and until there is a threat situation, a real threat situation right then, if I'm normally in my parasympathetic nervous parasympathetic mode, my energy conservation will be the best. All my activities will happen best. My thinking brain will be more active because also there is blood flowing and everything happening right, but that doesn't we don't allow it to happen because we are forever in the pleasure, pain, pleasure, pain, pleasure, pain, more the amygdala are the pleasure pain points are always active, Leading to stress now, what does yoga do like you said when we smile, we send a message to the brain, saying that everything is in order. So, although the Sim, although the person was stressed the moment, we asked that person array relax, breathe deep when that deep breathing happened immediately, a message went to the brain to the emotional brain and the cortex that things are in control. Things are in control means parasympathetic. Such parasympathetic nervous system came into action. The rest and relaxed system came into action, thoughts started becoming clearer, blood flow started happening properly, blood pressure decreased and the person became a lot more understandable yeah. So this is what the parasympathetic nervous system does now if we do yoga, so what we do, we really do you know, even when we, when we do Asana, so we are always bringing our thinking brain into play now in the stress system, it is our emotional Brain which is controlling our nervous system, okay. That is why, when we perceive something as threat, which is not actually a threat, our actual brain is not thinking. It is just the emotional brain kicking off the sympathetic nervous system. By doing you, you actually take away the control from the emotional braid and you give it back to the thinking brain. How does it happen because you're doing everything slowly right when you are trying to hold an Asana? That can only happen if your cortex, your thinking brain controls, your cell volume. So the moment you try to balance, you are shifting back the control to your thinking, brain yeah. That is why, if your mind is very very disturbed and your cerebellum continues to be in control of your emotional brain, you cannot balance. But if you say okay, no debrief, I am going to hold this position now yeah. Then it will happen because now you're bringing awareness to it, bringing awareness to anything, is Shifting back gears to your thinking, brain. That is what happens in pranayama as well yeah the moment you sit and breathe deep. It is your. It becomes a conscious activity, not involuntary. Now, you're doing it consciously that invigorates your vagus nerve that invigorates your parasympathetic nervous system to come back into the rest and relax mode. It has so when you do yog yeah, if you do it one, the impact stays for some time. If you do it once for some hours, you feel really nice and relaxed right immediately after doing the practice, if you do it continuously again, we have memory. It'S a very. Our neurons are very elastic so that state of relaxation continues to keep increasing. Now, when that state of relaxation continues to keep increasing on its own, the firing of you know your mind when it is not required to fire comes down. That is basically also what we say disciplining of the mind, getting control over your senses. What is getting control over your senses? Ideally, I see something immediately. My memory is triggered that oh, I liked it, but I forget that it had not done good for me because for that I need to use my thinking. Brain yeah, that is only taste taste, is like. Oh, I want it now. If I don't get it, I will go into this mode of anger. Frustration that I, my body reads. I stress that translates into sympathetic nervous system kicking off and again. You know my whole system goes for a toss, so I need to tell my senses that, oh, if things you don't get what you want, it's fine that is controlling your senses right. Ideally, they should not desire what is not good for them and even if they desire, if you say no, they should be able to not kick in your sympathetic nervous system. That is the sense that is what achieving Indra Indra or control over your senses is all about. That is where you eventually get to in yoga through. It'S basically exercises that help you become an adult, it's adulting exercises absolutely. Unfortunately, I don't think adults have actually achieved that kind of discipline. You just grow up. I think, while you're growing up it's very important to keep your inner child alive, but you should know what elements of your inner child you need to kill off as well, and one of my regrets in life is not actually beginning yoga early on, which means yoga. Just related to the asanas: that's what yoga means right, but even in the yeah yeah it. Basically, the purpose of yoga, as I said, is achieving that cessation that you know state of clarity about what reality is that is called Raj yoga. Yeah yoga is a way of achieving that Raju, but how, as I said, there are eight limbs of yoga Ashtanga, so what the first two are. Yama niyama yamaniam are basically the value systems that we live with yeah, maybe a kind person do good, Etc correct. So one is values which we live with the external World, which are yum yeah, so non-violence and non-violence, not just actually even in mind, yeah non-violence, non-stealing non, you know non-attachment. All of that is one. Then are your value system with yourself, which is about shelter, so priority cleanliness, yeah, uh, santosha, being satisfied with what you get not just. I need more. I need more, never not always being in the state of greed that state of Santosh, where you're happy again when you're in a state of Santosh. You are in your parasympathetic nervous system and then the parts of kriya yoga which we have a state having some Faith. Shraddha, because when things don't go your way, what is it that you hold on to It's? Usually the shraddha that yeah things are fine. I don't have a larger perspective, but I will be taken care of Faith. What else did you say? Uh swadhya is self-study. Okay, study of philosophy, reflection - all of that tapa - is your actual practice, whatever anusthan that you've done, that you've said I will uh study for one hour every day or I will do Asana for one hour disciplines disciplines. So those are the first two yeah. The third is Asana, basically becoming physically fit, because physical fitness is extremely important to achieve that state of Raj yog as well. If you are ill yeah, if there is some disease in your body, you will be mentally Disturbed. That is one of patanjali also says that Rishi patanjali also says that one of the reasons of not achieving - or rather one of the obstacles in part of achieving that state of samadhi is fatigue. Illness, yeah, ignorance, a delusion distraction all of this yeah, so this uh. So then asan is a way of achieving that physical fitness, so at least a disease free. Your muscles are strong yeah. Then you have pranayama, which is having control over your Prado, which is your life force. Your breath again, why breath? Because your breath is directly linked to your parasympathetic nervous system and basically your nervous system uh in in yoga. There is a saying which is, if you are breathing, is Disturbed. Your mind will also be disturbed as we saw right and when your mind, when your breathing is in control, your mind will come back to control. Hence, when we say breathe deeper, the Mind comes back to control, so then that is that is then we have pratyahara where we start. You know getting all our senses inwards, so trying to take away food trying to take away from our senses from indulgences. Then you go to meditation and eventually yoga, so the external practice yeah then, as we discussed, the eventual goal of yoga, is to turn inwards, yeah to turn inwards. Settle the mind that is through what we called dharana dhyan and samadhi dharana basically means to hold a thought, the beginning of the meditation yeah, where you try and focus on one aspect and then initially you will hold it for few seconds. That thought, then, as you keep practicing the the span of how much you can focus, will keep on increasing the more it increases. Then that becomes. That is what they say: yeah, basically focusing on any one. Any any singular Point: yeah singular thought it could be anything that is dharna when that becomes longer. That Focus becomes longer. That is dhyan, which is meditation, and then eventually is the state of samadhi. When, actually that you are in a con, you know extended uh state of no thoughts or minimal thoughts. Now this samadhi can be of multiple types. One is where those there are some sanskras that stay then, which is uh sabiha samadhi, then anyways. That goes to a more spiritual level, but that stage of achieving Focus is start coming where we say have right concentration right. So now what has happened again going back to our mental model, this autonomic system, when we are doing Asana, our cerebellum is controlled. We are saying thinking brain control, my cerebellum yeah, so you're, taking the gears giving it to the thinking brain in the pranayama, because it is related to the emotional brain. That is where the autonomic system is initially autonomic nervous system, the first it the you know the. How do I say the cells related to the neurons related to it are around where the limbic brain is the parts of the limbic brain are, so it is immediately in control of the emotional brain. You take the control back and say no thinking brain start. Managing my breathing as well so then I get back into my parasympathetic mood when we move to dhyan dharana dharana dhyan. We are basically now strengthening our thinking brain itself. Yeah. We are strengthening that itself to start focusing more longer deeper. Basically, the whole exercise of yolk is to strengthen this Consciousness. The awareness which comes from the thinking brain yeah and ensure that our mind comes in as required. We need emotions, emotions have their emotion, evolutionary value and emotions are required to sustain relationships, manage relationships, nurture and all that right, but they shouldn't come in the way of our objective decision making they shouldn't lead to our destruction right. That is what yoga is to also manage your emotional system in a way that it is conducive to your growth yeah. Now, there's a very beautiful image. If you allow Alexis yeah, explain it in bhagavad-gita. You know the image that we see in any bhagavad-gita text. It'S basically a chariot, there is Arjun standing, then there is Krishna and he's holding the Reigns and there are horses yeah. So in Qatar they talk about this whole controlling mind, the the mental mind brain complex. They say the horses are your senses. They always want to run around right because they want okay, I see something I like I wanted. I smell something I wanted. I like the taste. I want it, so the horses which are our senses they keep running around everywhere. They need to be reigned in so that I can go to the destination that I want to go to right, but if the sarathi, which is the buddhi, the chariator, which is your brain, the thinking brain - is not holding the reins. What is the range? Your emotional brain yeah, if the emotions are not being controlled by the buddhi, what will happen the senses will take the Chariot anywhere it wants right and if one horse is running here, the other horse is running there. The Chariot will not go to wherever it needs to go to so to make the Chariot Run properly and achieve its destination. The thinking brain the sarki, the charioter, has to hold the emotional brain tightly and stir it in a way that the senses also are in the control of the thinking brain right. So this is the this is what even bhagavad-gita says that how do you achieve that state of yoke, where your thinking brain is in control of your mental, your mind as well as your senses yeah now this is the more physical part of it. Of course, there is spiritual significance, but yeah for most of us getting this much is enough. Yeah uh. This is a great ABC of yoga kind of episode. I think we've covered everything um, you know, probably for the end of this episode. I want to leave people with a bit of a CTA, a call to action. I feel that uh at this stage, if you're just getting into yoga there are certain kind of ground rules. You need to know if you actually want to get your body to do it, the first of which is guidance. I think that's the obvious one that yoga schools Etc have built a yoga app myself for the same reason, because I feel like when you're Building Products you first and foremost build it for yourself um, you need the right kind of guidance. What are the second and the third steps? Could it be that you invest yourself completely in your yoga or meditation or pranayama sessions like what would you say so actually this? This reminds me that I forgot the Hatha Yoga part yeah, which we were discussing, because this question also relates to it so I'll. Just come back to the two right: you'll have to explain what yoga is exactly so we I started off saying that Raja yoga is getting to that state of you know: Oneness Union in the mind body and Atma, as well as Union with the Atma and paramatma, But let's leave that aside and to get that yoga or that state of Raja yoga. We had these eight limbs yeah. Now these eight limbs have asan pranayama as a part of it does not ex expand on what Asana to do or what pranayama to do yeah. Hence other rishis, they picked up that concept and they said how do you practice that yeah in Sutra he told us he explained us getting to that state of balance and stability? But what all do you do to get to that state of stability? So there are text written that expound on that, and then they tell us about which Asana to do what should be. You know how do you prepare your body to get into our sins? What should you eat? What should you not eat? What are the breathing exercise that you do to eventually get that state of extension of Prana, which is pranayama? That came to be known as Hatha Yoga text? The foremost of that text is yeah, which comes from the gorakshan anyways, so that is Hatha Yoga where you actually start practicing the angas, the limbs of Ashtanga Yoga. Eventual goal of yoga is also yoga position. That is what they say that only to achieve rajio. We talk about you, but yoga is basically that practice, which includes your cleansing techniques, your various forms of Asana, so now, where they start explaining what all arsons to do, what are the benefits of doing various assets yeah? How do you do some of those asans? How do you do the breathing exercises? All that is now what we get into yoga. So again, we said yoga is about balance, so her her is called the Surya Sun. Tha is Moon, Surya and moon, basically hot and cold right. You get into that state of balance of the various fires, the agnis that you have in your body as well, so achieve a state of balance which, within your body, which is also what we call homeostatus right. How do you achieve that? The practice of getting to that state, which eventually leads to Raj yoga through physical practice, is yeah. Now you spoke about different schools of yoga. Like you know, we should we immerse ourselves into different schools of you. There are lots. People can go experiment, some might work for them. Some not, but essentially people also ask this question that okay, this is Yoga, then what is vinyas Yoga people hear about um yoga yoga. So there are these different schools now. What is that is Hatha Yoga different from all of that, so no Hatha Yoga is the base. It'S like the overall umbrella, yeah individual practitioners learned from that and they added their own styles to it.