Dand means punishment…it also means a bar made of wood or metal,also popularly called danda. But why Yog is a dand?

If I try to look back and see my childhood days in school, I can see the affair of discipline, duties, responsibilities have led to what we are leading a life today…the meaningfulness living have come through several trial and error, self realisations and self reflections in our daily life. But how do we deal with the wrong deeds, wrong actions…right or wrong…who decides? We decide…on what basis do we decide? What’s our guiding principle? How do we clear our misdeeds? How do we know that am pardoned? Do we look forward for the other persons acknowledgement or it’s our own way of soothing and serving our souls? Who knows? Many such questions may arise when we are ready to explore dand…and our windows open to the memory of the school days.

One of the ready reckoners that I can recall is punishment…the pupil when punished by the teacher, the former doesn’t hold any grievance against the teacher and the teacher forgive her with loving kindness…such is the daily ritual, there is no stored memory, no stored grievances and no future redressal…everything is now and then…at the end of the day it’s only a happy memory and sense of belongingness to the continuous journey of life…for all of us school days remains as the best days ever.

Similar is Yog…the life that we are leading, the family that we are bearing are part of this Yog journey…the Karma Yog…in this everyday we go wrong with our action, vision, temperament but unfortunately we do not have a teacher who will punish us and finally result in a happy feeling…so we end up with bitterness with those wrong deeds/actions…that seeps inside our body making it vulnerable to the outside world. Happiness becomes an art and craft, infections and other several disorders creeps into our lives without our knowledge and creates disharmony and imbalance. Life remains unchanged of being consisting of a series of trial and error but the only marked difference is the absence of dand…at this juncture let us stop and think…do we consider ourselves too old to have a teacher or be punished? With that thought still lingering in your mind let me take you through what Yoga practice means to me.

Yoga is the union of body, mind and breath…so does that mean, we are not in union otherwise…when I am breathing, am I not conscious of the body and mind…the answer is a big “no”. Our conscious and unconscious selves are so close and twin like that they are almost inseparable. When you are doing some act of life, you are thinking of several other acts…forgetting all about breath and body who are selflessly participating in your act. It’s only when you come across Yog…you come to know of these two distinct and unique selves….the physical postures demand so much from you that you acknowledge your body and breath and you are in mindfulness state. Post your practice you lie down in Savasana and stay in the unconscious state of tranquility, health and harmony. So you are no longer in both conscious yet unconscious state.

Bishakha Ramakrishnan