As part of the celebration to mark the 6th International Yoga Day on June 21, 2020, GSDS in association with Global Rainbow Foundation Mauritius organised a webinar on “Towards Mental and Physical Wellness”. The key speakers in this webinar included Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan, Director, GSDS; Shri Armoogum Parsuramen, Founder President Global Rainbow Foundation (GRF); Dr. Manju Rani Aggarwal, Naturopath; and Ms. Ruma Chakravarty, Indian music therapist and founder-president ‘Factorize’. 55 participants took part in the webinar.
The webinar began with the introductory remarks by Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan who, while pointing to the fact that yoga enables the holistic development of an individual, said “Yoga is a culture and tradition in India, a tradition that is more than 5000 years old which technically means to unite and live healthy”. He also spoke of yoga as a discipline and how it imbibes the spirit of oneness. Referring to the ‘Adi Yogi’ Mahadev in the Indian religion, Shri Dipanker Shri Gyan stated that different yogic postures remind us of a disciplined state of mind and the process of attaining this discipline in order to remain healthy.
Recalling his visit to Gandhi Smriti where he draws his inspiration for his mission and service to humanity, Shri Armoogum Parsuramen spoke about the work of GRF to serve the most vulnerable section of the society, and how he chose to work for the welfare of persons with disabilities. “Yoga is all about creating a balance in our life. It is our balancing our senses, our soul and mind in order to live healthy and live in peace”, he said.
He also acknowledged the Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi for mooting the proposal to the UN General Assembly in 2015 and giving this gift of yoga to the world when the whole world joins in celebrating this gift of yoga on June 21 every year. Terming that yoga has spread all over the world and that yoga acts as a therapeutic, preventive and rehabilitative potential and is universally beneficial to all, Shri Parasuramen said, “Its holistic and spiritual prowess has proven its wonders on the physical, mental, emotional, personal and social well-being”.
He further said that while most children with physical disabilities cannot get access to yoga benefits, through GRF the mission has been to take the concept of yoga and its therapeutic powers to all the schools in Mauritius, especially to children with disabilities, as they should not be excluded from the benefit of yoga practices. He emphasized that GRF has introduced four therapies – yoga, music therapy, laughter therapy and art therapy which he said that has given children a lot of transformation.
In her presentation, Dr. Manju Aggarwal highlighted the concepts of naturopathy as a system of stimulating the body’s inherent power to regain health with the help of five elements of Nature – Earth, Water, Fire, Ether and Air and explained the broad classifications of each of these elements through naturopathy such as fasting, pranayam, sun bath, colour therapy and various types of baths, enema; mud therapy and diet therapy. She further elaborated on the affects of naturopathy on the physical, mental, moral and spiritual planes of living. She said that “Naturopathy is the science of health and healthy living and it helps in attaining freedom from diseases,” adding, “Naturopathy helps in changing the living habits of people and teaches them correct and healthy lifestyle”. She also pointed that ‘naturopathy’ increases vitality, work efficiency and keeps the mind and body in a balanced state.
The talk by Ms. Ruma Chakravarty on “Therapeutic Influence of Indian Music” started with how Nada and Indian music are very much part of our Yogic practices and Nada Yoga. She explained how our internal Nada and breathing are important aspects of balanced and harmonious living. Indian music that we hear or producing through singing and instruments is a manifestation of our inner Nada that originates from Brahmagranthi and moves upwards and expresses as Saptaswaras through different body parts. She further emphasized on how to be able to connect to that internal Nada we need to listen to suitable music especially for today’s professions, youngsters and students. We also need to practice our silence as silence produces best of music that echoes our internal sound.
She also discussed how Indian music therapy is employed to the children having special needs along with demonstration of few musical elements and techniques; essential pointers to keep in mind like structured and targeted music therapy approach, repetition etc. and also emphasised on two very important ingredients, that are love and compassion. Through her demonstrative lecture, Ms. Ruma Chakravarty further pointed how (with compiled pictures of one session) sessions are conducted for elderly with multimodal approach having Yogasana, meditation, therapeutic musical games, art & craft therapy etc. as part of it with Indian music at the centre. Explained how we design music therapy activities keeping in mind both mental and physical wellness.
Videos of Surya Namaskar by Yogacharya Varun Nautiyal was also shown during the webinar. Shri Manish from Bhuma Infotech provided the technical support.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Ms. Natasha, art therapist and yoga trainer from Global Rainbow Foundation, Mauritius. Shri Parasuramen felt the need for integrating the three for effective results. GSDS as part of the Ministry of Culture, Government of India’s initiative has been actively using the social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Youtube to spread the message of yoga through #Namasteyoga and #10MillionSuryanamaskar.