The youth can gain a lot from the bountiful dimensions of Yoga, enabling them to manifest their inherent divinity, that universal potentiality that lies dormant unless channelized. “All souls are potentially Divine” said Swami Vivekananda, and indeed they are. However most of us never wake up to this inherent greatness that lies within each and every one of us, and this is where Yoga offers us a light unto our own selves. It dispels our confusions and then as Arjuna said to Yogeshwar Krishna, “I see, I see; the scales have lifted from my eyes.” The diverse dimensions of yoga for the youth that we will be focusing on include those related to our culture, health, therapy, society, education and research.

1. DIVERSE DIMENSIONS
OF YOGA
FOR THE YOUTH
Yogacharya
Dr. ANANDA BALAYOGI BHAVANANI
MBBS, ADY, DPC, DSM, PGDFH, PGDY, MD (AM), FIAY
Deputy Director CYTER, MGMCRI, SBVU &
Chairman ICYER at Ananda Ashram, Pondicherry. www.icyer.com

2. Cultural
Health
Therapeutic
Social
Educational
Research
YOGA

3. Cultural Heritage Literature Fine arts Daily life
Health Physical Mental Emotional Spiritual
Therapeutic Preventive Promotive Curative Restorative
Social Intra - personal Inter-personal Trans-personal
Educational Self development Professional growth
Research Scientific - medical - clinical Philosophico - literary

4. What is Yoga?
• Art and science…….. vidya & vijnan
• Way of life………….
• Conscious evolution………..
• Five-fold awareness………….
• Union-reunion-communion ……… yuj
• Skillful action ……….. nishkamya
• To be lived 24 x 7………..
• Destination as well as the journey itself….

5. Cultural dimension
– Heritage
• Rishis are our ancestors in more ways than one.
• Widely prevalent ignorance of the treasures we
have inherited. We are the safe keepers.
– Literature
• Vedas, Upanishads, classical texts (Yoga sutras,
Hatha yoga texts, Tirumandiram, Tirukkural etc)
– Fine arts
• Music, dance, drama, pottery, painting,
handicrafts, folk arts ….
– Daily life
• How we eat, sleep, get up, interact etc
“ Don’t sell
your golden
heritage for
plastics of
the modern
world”
-
Yogamaharishi
Dr. Swami
Gitananda Giri

6. Health dimension
– Physical
• Strength, endurance, flexibility …… “Yoga Sport”
– Mental
• Happiness, contentment, confidence, self esteem, self
acceptance, peace of mind ….
– Emotional
• Balanced equanimity (samatvam)
• Respond don’t react!
– Spiritual
• Feeling the connection with the universe
(andaththil ullathe pindam ….)

7. Therapeutic dimension
– Preventive
• Heyam duhkham anagatam-PYS
– Promotive
• Positive health to tide over crisis
• Sense of well being
– Curative
• Noinaadi noimuthal………… Tirukkural
• In psychic /psychosomatic stages of stress disorders
• Enhancing self-healing
– Restorative / rehabilitative
• Musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, cancer etc

8. Social dimension
– Intra personal
• Understanding one’s own self
• Swadhyaya…………SWOT analysis
– Interpersonal
• Family relationships
• Friends and peers
• Society
• Other living beings
– Transpersonal
• Equilibrium with the cosmos
• Worldview
– Yaadhum urey yaavarum kelir
– vasudaiva kuthumbakam

9. Educational dimension
–Self development courses
• Short / long term
• Personality development
• Efficiency enhancement
• Stress management
–Professional training
• Instructor/teacher/therapist
• Certificate, Diploma and PG Diploma courses
• Masters/ Mphil/ PhD programmes

10. Research dimension
– Scientific-medical-clinical
• Fundamental
• Applied
– Philosophico-literary
• Understanding the context/ traditional basis
• Traditional knowledge digital library (TKDL)
Only the tip of the tip of the tip
of the tip….……… of the iceberg
………….has been sighted !