Pushkarmuni Abhinandan Granth

Author(s): Devendramuni, A D Batra, Shreechand Surana
Publisher: Rajasthankesari Adhyatmayogi Upadhyay Shree Pushkar Muni Abhinandan Granth Prakashan Samiti

Page 1140

Research in Yoga by the Methods of Modern Natural Sciences
२३७
Yoga in some form or other. Today there are everywhere in the world hundreds,-nay thousands of people attending some kind of Yoga centres or meets. And these include even scientists as for instance Dr. Salk, discoverer of Polio vaccine and winner of Nehru Puraskara very recently, who acclaim Yoga on the basis of personal experience.
This present popularity, we may even say craze for Yoga, is no doubt a need of the times, since as said above the contemporary man exposed to stresses resulting from the so-called material advancement has become confused and disturbed and wants a peaceful happiness, which Yoga seems to promise, but this same present day man is not ready to accept things on make-believe, but wants an objective evidence for everything. Foreseeing this, it was that Swami Kuvalayananda had embarked upon the almost unsurmountable task of trying to comprehend, elucidate and propagate Yoga in the framework of modern natural sciences. He had often expressed that this hard task, from which he was discouraged by almost all the leading personalities in various fields in India of those days, was a God-ordained duty for him, as otherwise he feared that Yoga will soon die out, as very few would like to learn or practise it in this present age of rationality and science mindedness.
Even after seeing this impact of the scientific and experimental research in the field of Yoga on creating the outlook of the scientificness and rationality of the Yogic practices and consequent arousal of interest in and stimulus for practice of Yoga in thousands of sadhakas all the world over and on the clarification of yogic principles and practices in such an easy and rational manner, that modern man who looks upon science as authority and even the scientists rigorously trained to accept objective evidence only, have begun to respect Yoga as a valuable discipline having potentiality to resolve many problems of the present day and future human generations. There are many people, among them even wellknown Yoga proponents, who are against such scientific researches by modern methods being carried out in the Yogic field. They opine that this will not add anything new to Yoga nor benefit it in any way and fear that this may even lead to a distortion of ancient traditional and true principles of Yoga.
But such views and fears have no real ground. The research in Yoga with application of the techniques of modern science is not going to and cannot change any Yogic principle. It is going to elucidate these principles and the mechanisms underlying various Yogic practices in the language of modern science, which will remove all mystery and mystification about yogic things and explain them in such a manner that they will be clearly understood by present day man, who easily understands this language and is not ready to accept things on blind faith, as of old, but respects things acceptable to science. In fact this will make people turn towards Yoga with open eyes and with a conviction in its valuableness-an effect which we are seeing already to-day.
No doubt, this will also explode myths and mysteriousness of special yogic powers and will leave less opportunities for imposters and pretenders of miraculous powers, claimed through Yoga. But this will be a healthy and desirable thing.
There is another aspect of still greater significance of the need and value of this scientific yogic research. Ancient Books on Yoga have frequently made explicit statements that Yoga is for all irrespective of any limitations of religion, age, caste etc. In these statements it is implicit that Yoga signifies a means for spiritual advancement and objectives. Today every one agrees that even though the spiritual aspect of Yoga is really most important and highest, the benefits which can be derived from Yoga on other levels viz., physical and mental, are also highly valuable and useful to man universally even in his day to day empirical life. It is stressed by all the Yoga teachers that Yoga will help to enrich the life of every man whatsoever may be his profession, or age or sex or religion etc., and so it need be taught to and should be practised by each and every person. It is being advocated that Yoga should be taught to every child, even compulsorily, in the school itself, it should be imparted to even labourers, factory