Yoga and Health

Abstract

In recent decades, yoga has been studied for its potential to treat current epidemic diseases such as mental stress, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Individual studies have found that yoga has a therapeutic effect on certain illnesses, implying that it can be used a s a nonpharmaceutical strategy or as a supplement to drug therapy. However, for therapeutic objectives, these research have only used yoga asana, pranayama, and or short durations of meditation. Yoga's general perception is likewise he same, which is incorrect. Yoga actually refers to the merging of human consciousness with the divine awareness. It involves eight rungs or limbs of yoga, which include yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. Intense practice of these leads to self-realization, which is the primary goal of yoga. An analytical look at the rungs and the goal of yoga shows that it is a holistic way of life leading to a state of complete physical, social, mental, and spiritual well-being and harmony with nature. This is in contrast to purely economic and material developmental goal of modern civilization, which has brought social unrest and ecological devastation.