Saturday, April 29, 2017

How Yoga can transform upto DNA level




Dharana: The key to altering Genetic coding
 by
Kamini Bobde

Yoga has emerged from the shroud of secrecy and has now adorned the cloak of scientific, rational thinking of how and why it works wonders.

And among its many wonderful effects are its capacity to change even our genetic coding.  Science refutes that such a thing is possible. Be that as it may, let us here examine how and why Yoga can affect change and transformation even at the DNA level.

Firstly, let us understand the practice and technique which can affect such a fantastic transformation. The practice is Dharana in yogic parlance and concentration in everyday language.

I will try my best here to explain how this works.

Firstly we will have to distinguish how yoga defines or looks at concentration and how it is generally understood.

The dictionary meaning of concentration is, “close attention, close thought, attentiveness, application, industry, assiduousness, single mindedness, absorption, engrossment.”

In everyday life, right from school to home, concentration is taught as something for which you have to make immense effort. Children are told to concentrate on studies or whatever they are doing. And the only impetus to concentration for a child is fear of rebuke/ punishment or at the other end, a reward. Thus the foundation of  concentration that a child learns is based on fear, stress and effort. All of this we know impacts negatively on the entire personality, physical, mental, emotional which engenders a fertile substratum for disease and illness in later life.  

In contrast here is how Yoga looks at concentration/Dharana.

Full, total pin-pointed concentration happens when:
1.    Mind & body are completely relaxed.
2.    When you are present in the here and now.
3.    The subject and the object must become one.

Relaxation:

Relaxed? What’s so difficult about being relaxed? Difficult it is not. Children are naturally relaxed. Until the world around them makes them learn stress, worry, fear. Gradually being naturally relaxed is superimposed with layers of stress, tension and fears that become deeply embedded in the psyche. Therefore, Yoga lays great stress on relaxations right from the level of asana, pranayama practice. Besides, reminding the practitioner to consciously keep the body relaxed, there are also some very simple but highly enjoyable techniques like Shava asana and Yoga nidra.

Shava means dead body. So, basically the practice is like imitating a dead body. Everyday in deep sleep we die and come back. Shava asana tries to achieve that level of relaxation. However, in sleep we lose awareness. But, in both shav asana and Yoga nidra it is total relaxation like deep sleep with full awareness. So what you are experiencing is a different quality of awareness from our normal everyday experience. Only an experience of the practice will prove to the practitioner how when you enter into a state of total relaxation your awareness becomes sharpened. Much research has been done by Stanford, Harward, UCLA corroborating therapeutic benefits and changes in the mapping of brain workings in simple practice of shava asana and yoga nidra.

Presence of mind and body in the NOW:

All self help books and all philosophies tell you to live in the present. Easier said than done. Here again Yoga helps you along through various techniques which are mostly factored-in the practice of daily simple yoga. However, for those hoping to bring about change right upto genetic level, have to do some advance practices. Just as for relaxation, so also for living in the present moment, the entire practice of yoga  is geared towards it. While doing the asanas, the constant reprieve is to focus on how each movement and posture is impacting the body. For example, if you are doing bhujang asana (cobra pose), then in every round you focus on different parts of the body that the movement and posture is impacting... spine, stomach area, chest area, throat area, legs, hands, etc. And with progress your awareness of how it is impacting your body becomes subtle and more and more incisive.

What you do not realize is that in the bargain you are for that time, living completely in the present movement. Same goes with practicing pranayama. The focus is completely on observing each and every breath. With prolonged practice of yoga in this manner, it slowly becomes a part of you to stay focused in the present with whatever you are doing. The combination of relaxed body and focused awareness has profound effects on the brain. It too becomes relaxed, still, quiet. This is very difficult to achieve because the nature of mind is to jump like a monkey from one thing to another.

Now, we come to the more esoteric aspect of concentration/dharana. The subject and object becoming one or as J. Krishnamurthy is famously known to say , “the seer becomes the seen.”

This is the culmination of the earlier two techniques into dharana. So, when you’ve achieved the state of total relaxation and being in the present, then comes the third practice which culminates into dharana/concentration.

There are many techniques or practices one can adopt according to one’s personality and liking. There are many many techniques for developing concentration. In the Vigyan Bhairava Tantra, shlokas 25 to 35 are all about the various techniques for dharana.

Trataka is one such practice. After your asana and pranayama practice, you fix keep a candle flame, a Om symbol, or your favourite God, a rising sun or just about any symbol/object at eye level. Siting comfortably, if possible in padma asana, vajrasan or any of the meditation poses, you look unblinkingly at the symbol/object. When your eyes tire or tear up, you close your eyes and try to see that candle flame, Om or whatever the object you have chosen, at the eyebrow centre. At first it may be difficult but with practice it will happen. If all other yogic practices are developed culminating into this practice, then one does experience seeing your symbol with eyes closed at the eye brow centre.

It’s quite an event in one’s life when this happens. Firstly, that vision of your symbol at the eyebrow centre ( ajna chakra, bhrumadhya) is nothing like what you see in the external world. This internal manifestation is totally different and an experience which shakes up your entire being. At this point you take a quantum leap and every faculty, aspect of your being and personality undergoes transformation. The transformation happens to the cell and DNA level. This is now being established in experiments being done in many universities and medical centres around the world. 

All of this I’ve gained from my reading of books by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati and Swami Satyasangananda Sarawati who are the light and force of the Bihar School of Yoga & Rikhiapeeth ashram.

If anything is not clear, or you have any doubt or misgiving, I would love to help resolve the doubt or answer your query to the best of my ability.


Hari Om!

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