From Chanakya Ganguly on International Yoga Day  (June 21st, 2024)

The yogic concept of Sports like Martial Arts, Wrestling, and Farming is to toughen the Self
https://sensobjj.com/blogs/graciemag-1/abraham-lincoln-hall-of-fame-wrestlerYoga encourages sports like Martial Arts, Wrestling, Farming, tilling the field, handling
cattle & cutting trees: and manual labor to train oneself for ruggedness, and concentration; it is
about winning over the mind & ego to deal with threats, heat, cold, rain. Lincoln grew up
in the prairies, tilling the land in the backwoods and splitting rails; became a wrestler,
was athletic, didn’t drink, enjoyed reading, and was prepared to take up challenges.
Introducing one subject in Yoga, Deep Breathing, Meditation, Ayurveda (Plant-centric
Diet), Sacred Chants, Classical Music, Dance, and Bio-dynamic Agriculture, can help deal
with the modern mental health crisis, depression, drug addiction, anxiety, stress,
violence in a very cost-effective and practical way, thus, bringing in order – calm, focus,
composure, clarity, character, concentration, consciousness and prevent self-harm.
Yoga can help conceive goals in the mind, believe in the heart, and act upon them
https://www.neurovine.ai/blog/the-science-of-visualization-can-imagining-your-goals-make-you-more-likely-to-accomplish-them
Ultraman Triathlete Rich Roll writes, “When the mind is controlled and spirit aligned
with purpose, the body is capable of so much more than we realize.” He says, there is no
doubt in my mind that Yoga would have made me a much better athlete, not to mention
human beings. Key points are – Improved Strength, Balance, Flexibility, and Mental Control.
Billy Joel sings in The Piano Man, an old man is sitting next to me, to forget about
life for a while. Dr Andrew Huberman says many mental health issues are caused by
disrupted circadian rhythms. Society has been constructed in such a way it’s hard to
avoid fattening food, alcohol which worsens, and drops frontal lobes, alertness, and heart rate.
https://www.thequint.com/videos/ipl-2023-yashasvi-jaiswal-story-centurion-who-used-to-sell-pani-puri
Yoga can help develop the ability to maneuver obstacles, like a hurdler, who makes
economical use of time & space. 22-year-old cricketer Yashasvi Jaiswal once started
alone at 11 and said, never give up how mad the situation is, focus on the present, improve.
Yoga and sports teach life is about trying gradually, falling sometimes, brushing the
bruises, getting back up again, keep going incrementally gaining confidence, and wisdom.
Neil Diamond said he wrote the song, ‘I Am I Said’, about being lost & alone, knowing
no one “not even the chair” will hear him, searching for his spiritual roots. Mexican
Laureate Octavio Paz wrote, “Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition.
We are condemned to kill time; thus, we die bit by bit.”  Yoga can help befriend oneself
to transform loneliness into solitude to find one’s roots in the silence of the spirit.
https://kripalu.org/resources/can-i-live-fulfilled-life
Stephen Cope author of The Great Work of Your Life, Yoga & the Quest for the True Self,
writes that the sacred duty of inner silence is to awaken the hunger to live fully; suggests
four steps: 1) Discerning one’s own inner calling, one or many, changeable, 2) Doing it
full out, showing up, 3) Focusing on the process and less on the outcome, 4) Pushing for,
Thoreau’s model, Think of the Small as Large, for something larger than just oneself.Yoga can help develop mood, and rhythm from silence for art, sports, and communication
https://www.squigglylife.com/blog/the-sound-of-silence
Yoga helps follow the breath with attention, thus spiritual songs express the spirit
coming from silence & themes range from returned, unrequited forms of spiritual
love in soaring tempos. Making the mood, rhythm, and tempo right can become the
underlying mission & vision for self-improvement to have better relationships,
and communication, in Art, Music, Dance, Sports, Life, and Work with self-empowerment.
Yoga & Ayurveda combined with seeking Knowledge can help develop self-discipline
https://www.phpkb.com/kb/article/value-of-self-discipline-for-knowledge-workers-245.html
Yoga and Ayurveda stress self-discipline in Diet and Lifestyle by doing things
that are beneficial, not pleasurable for productivity, not gratification. They are poison
now, but nectar later – by developing the ability to turn pain into upliftment. The Indian
Gooseberry a bitter small key fruit in Ayurveda has ten times more antioxidants than
oranges. Athlete Edwin Moses said, his secret was the ability to tolerate more pain.
Yoga, Martial Arts can help balance hard & soft values to raise Security Consciousness
The first US Chief Justice John Jay wrote, “Among the many objects to which a wise &
free people find it necessary … that of providing for their safety seems to be first.” Yoga
says human beings and animals are born the same way with very similar instincts of
aggression and domination. Hence, one needs to have hard values of toughness and
preparedness with soft values of truth, sense-control, and non-possessiveness for Security.
Yoga can help fight inner stagnation which can lead to chronic illnesses and fatigue
https://china.un.org/en/265740-keep-breathing-keep-smiling-un-diplomats-approach-health
Siddharth Chatterjee, currently UN diplomat in China says, at 60 he faced many health
issues like obesity, high pressure, cholesterol, heart rate, pre-diabetes. But through
Yoga, high-intensity breathing, fasting, and exposure to cold, he managed to shed 25kgs,
normalize his lipids, thus attaining physical, mental, and spiritual stability. He feels there is
a need for such holistic medicine for higher awareness, energy, and a metabolic reset.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwkegJtVAGk
(Neuroscientist Tony Nader Speaks on Benefits of Transcendental Meditation)
Yogic Discipline in the spiritual epics shows measurable values for inner self-validation.
The Ramayana depicts two types of minds; monkey mind (Vali) with negatives like
sloth, gluttony, envy, anger, pride, lust, and greed (Ravana) leading to misery; with Yogic &
Ayurvedic Lifestyle, and self-responsibility, one can aim (Lakshman) for positives like:
diligence, patience, temperance, gratitude, humility, chastity, and charity (Hanuman) for
happiness, higher Sun Consciousness (Rama), managing conflicts (Ayodhya) & inertness.
Yoga can help instill non-reactivity and self-acceptance for prison and education reform
https://prisonerresource.com/prison-yoga-project-html/
James Fox introduced yoga to the San Quentin Penitentiary with the goal of healing
addictions, emotional literacy, conflict resolution, and violence prevention. Yoga says most
are at the mercy of the conditioning of the mind & emotions, with drug, alcohol, abuse,
homelessness, addiction, and trauma. It can bring a shift in consciousness, thus reforming
education to transform unconscious minds, through self-control and accountability.