Why Yoga Day should not end the awakening of yoga in India

Now that the great yoga event of International Yoga Day has ended, many people are asking what next? Was Yoga Day just a short-term publicity stunt or does it mark a real shift in consciousness?

Such questions belay a certain impatience, if not superficiality.

First of all, let us see how we got here. Yoga is an ancient tradition in India that has sustained itself through every historical era and cultural change over the last five thousand years. Since Swami Vivekananda in 1893 brought yoga to the attention of the modern world, many yoga gurus have tirelessly spread the message. Many yoga institutions have been formed and extensive programmes done, and millions of people have taken up the practice on various levels in nearly every country of the world.

Obviously, a great effort and considerable time was necessary to bring yoga to where it is today. That effort holds a certain momentum, which must continue to grow. Yoga has never been a mere fad and, though there are fads that may try to use yoga for their benefit. Clearly, yoga is here to stay at a worldwide level. Yoga Day is simply a recognition of that.

There are those who may criticise the government of India's effort to emphasise yoga at a social and national level as bringing politics into yoga. We must remember that India's independence movement had a strong yogic impulse behind it from the very beginning through Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Tagore, Gandhiji and his Gita, and many other leaders who drew their inspiration from yoga teachings. Yoga's connection to modern India's formation and national identity is a long established fact, not something new, though it has been forgotten somewhat in recent years.

What is clearly needed next is bringing more of yoga into the schools and educational system. This is not a matter of compulsion, like making a person take a bitter medicine, but of how to share the great benefits of yoga at a broader level, particularly for the youth at the formative stages of life. The question is which aspects of yoga should be brought in, when and to what degree. This requires a great deal of study and consideration.

Obviously, asana has great benefits for the young and the old. Pranayama is wonderful for increasing energy and vitality. Concentration and meditation are very helpful in dealing with our attention problems born of our hectic lifestyles and excessive stimulation through computers and the mass media.

Yogic thought and yoga philosophy also have important benefits for the mind and the culture, and can help promote innovative thinking and a deeper vision, which the entire world desperately needs today.

As such efforts to bring yoga into the schools are already occurring in several countries, India should lead the way. Yet, while government schools can do a lot, private schools can help, as well as bringing more of yoga into corporations, communities, cultural centers and individual practice.

Perhaps above all, India needs more of yoga in its own thought processes - not just at a level of spirituality but also at a practical level of daily living and as the means of a new cultural renaissance. This should extend into all fields of life including business, medicine, social issues, art, philosophy and science.

Important in this regard is bringing in more of yoga into the media, not simply as exercise programs, but as a deeper consciousness and greater concern for enduring values, the ecology and the future of humanity.

Yet more effort is needed on the part of each one of us. We cannot expect yoga to do the work for us or blame it for our own shortcomings. The power of yoga is the inner power of the universe that is a single organism reflecting a unitary consciousness. We must become receptive to that oneness in order to really change and create a better and more peaceful world.

We cannot look at yoga as a matter of a single event, several days or even a few years. Yet eternal yoga expressing itself dramatically on the global stage is a good sign of what may be happening behind the scenes.