Efficacy of Omkar's Yoga Class.

Dr S.N. Omkar is a Research Scientist in the Aerospace Dept of IISC, Bangalore. A savant in his own right, he is more recognized though for his role as a Yoga Instructor, wherein he transforms into a healer during the early morning hours and later in the evening running his Yoga Classes for the young and old alike and bringing about incremental improvement ,if not,holistic changes in the lives of the afflicted.

Being a product of the famous B K S Iyengar School of Yoga, he has been running his Yoga Mandir for a long time now and is a thorough bred tutor and practitioner of the science of Yoga. Having had the good fortune of being introduced to his classes quite a long time back, I am content, and thankful to him, that I haven't been dissuaded to give up on yoga, which is the case with so many who join the classes, only to give up too fast, feeling that it quite doesnt have the neccessary efficacy or the appeal, those who get lured away by the promise of the Salman - ka- six pack ab if you hit the gym, or the slim figurines they can mould themselves into if they jump, hop and skip at the aerobics class with their fancy clothes on ! For yoga is much more than all that, a thing that has to be nurtured through, given time to grow on you and discover the seemingly myriad and rejuvenating influence that it exerts on someone who practises it even with a fair bit of diligency and adherence.

No, I make no claim to being an assiduous student of it ,neither have I mastered the impossible contortions that Omkar demonstrates as if it's child play. Why, I havent been able to master the seemingly innocuous breathing( pranayama) even :) For him though , its just another day in the office ! Yet, I feel I am that much the better off for sticking to a "decently" regular routine and the palpable effect is one to cherish.. Aaha, I can decently do back bending, stand on one leg like a stork, twist at the hip, balance myself backwards on one arm/2 legs, 1 leg/2 arms(straining every sinew though !), hang upside down from the rope and feel the rush of blood to my head and stretch my hamstrings with the wonder-belt.

The lull that sets in during the class and the sounds of silence for the one hour duration serve as a welcome change from all the hustle and bustle that we would have endured during the day. Omkar chips in with interesting anecdotes and quips, a few jokes now and then and makes interesting points like the total lack of ego in sleep and hence why we experience a calm during a snooze, one which vanishes into thin air as soon as we are up and about and get engrossed in our daily activities, allowing the ego to spring back to action. Still, the import of it kinda passes over my head :)

The SuryaNamaskara is arguably the most taught asana everywhere and as we go through the various stages of it, we are told that we need to view it as a psychological, physical and spiritual exercise and its a means of attaining the absolute, the samadhi or whatever it can be deemed fit to call. I can only relate to the physical aspect of it, for after 30 such repetitions, I am waiting to exhale ! There are a whole lot of other exercises too, some done by simply using a chair, or a belt, a couple of bricks, some soft bolsters and the ubiquitous mat. All very scientific,one feels, as we go through it .. Twice a week in the evenings, we go through this one hour ritual, savoring those parts of the class where we can make a decent effort and perform the required asanas, but groaning and protesting when he twists himself into intricate and bizarre postures and asking us to emulate the same.. I wouldn't even want to think abt them..

And when it all ends at the stroke of 8, there's a feeling of a supple dimension being added to our lives, lending a vitality that serves to cope with the rigors we encounter everyday, the stiff and the sedentary et al.

The heart patient who couldnt walk a few steps but now walks a fair distance to get to class, the little child suffering from congenital deformation, the out of shape businessman who underwent a transformation, the many sportsmen who healed from career - threatening injuries, the sugar / BP patients who profess a marked improvement, the asthma afflicted making commendable efforts to alleviate their condition through the breathing exercises... The list can go on, all on whom Omkar has had a healing effect, his purport bearing much fruit when the his efforts are supplemented by his students with a zeal to heal themselves. For you can only lead the horse to the water, but you can't make it drink !

May his tribe increase..