YOGA AND THE 21st CENTURY

2. Yoga and Health

Question:
In this field do you see the most important contribution from Yoga being on a preventive or a curative level in the coming century?

Desikachar:
I think the most important contribution Yoga can make in the field of health is the courage it can give to face illness, the strength we can find to cope with our ailments.
The moment we have this strength, we have already been cured in a way.

That, I think, is a very significant contribution. This is at least what we see with the many different people who come to our Yoga institution in India.
Some of them have not received education, others are very cultivated,
but whoever they are, when faced with illness, they generally feel discouraged.

After some time they have the courage to smile again, to take a walk, to climb some steps – which can be a big improvement… This happens because Yoga identifies a power within them, a power which they didn’t think they had.
It is not medicine, but it works.

– TKV Desikachar – Yoga and the 21st Century 1999

TKV Desikachar was in France in 1999, for a symposium on “Yoga and the XXIst Century”. The purpose of the symposium was to consider the role of Yoga for the coming century in the three fields of Health, Psychology and Spirituality. These Posts are from an introductory interview around the Relevance of Traditional Teaching, Yoga and Health, Yoga and Psychology and Yoga and Spirituality.