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YOGA AND EDUCATION
Micheline Flak .
It was twenty years ago, as Paramahamsa Niranjanananda has just reminded me, that I met Paramahamsa Satyananda in the Bihar School of Yoga in India. I had known his lifelong interest in education and that was one of the main reasons why I wanted to meet him. A few months before our first meeting in 1973, one day in the classroom, I started the lesson with a short session of relaxation. In fact, I had not decided it. Somehow, it came over me that I had to do it. If I say this to you emphatically, it is because the same process has been enacted a number of times with so many other teachers, my colleagues, who have been practitioners of yoga and one day felt that what they had themselves experienced within their own body and mind could be transfered to the children.
So, one day I realized that there were many points which I wished to have cleared by a master. The first one was that the children had liked it very much, which is a strong point because when parents and authorities have to be convinced, the children are the best ambassadors. The second point I noticed was that the relaxation has excellent effects on their attention, their attentiveness, and that it could, under certain circumstances, lead to better learning and improved mental faculties. It especially enhanced long term memory.
The third point was that yoga could be made to serve as a cognitive science. Instead of just being adjusted to wellbeing it could aid in the development of concentration. In fact this is very close to the teachings of Patanjali, because relaxation comes before dharana, concentration, and this is exactly the need of today's school system. I wish to explain this a little more.
Nowadays, in industrialized countries, teachers complain more of the dispersion of mind and the unruliness of the young generation. It is a fact that, physically, modern children move all the time. It is very difficult in ordinary circumstances
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