Wednesday, August 20, 2014

The death of a great yoga guru : BKS Iyengar

The founder of Lyengar yoga has died at 96. Author of many yoga books and holistic living.  He died of renal failure after falling sick some time ago.

In our mind, he should live forever as he is practicing yoga  and dying at 96 is a little bit young , or at least  it should be more than 100.  This understanding came to my mind when I read of his dealth.  Just like Bruce Lee, who died at age 36 and at the prime of his life.  It is unbelievable. How can they die when they are practicing Kungful or a holistic living.  Our mindset is that superman never die.

In real life and in yoga, we believe that each of us have 3 million breath in our whole life time. If we jog and speed up our breathing, we will die sooner as the 3 million breath will be used up sooner. So, in yoga , we believe in slowing down the breathing and taking longer breath. In this way, we can live longer.

I don't know whether this is true or not but there might be a logic to it. As we put our body through harsh exercise , our body parts are worn out and it will affect the bolistic balance in our life.  A lot of my friends who have been doing marathon or hiking, told me that they hurt their kness or their spine due to the strainuous process.  As for yoga, it is the stretching and bending of our joints , body and relieved the stress in our mind. It supposed to have a soft and slow motion action to keep our body's flexibility and agility.

Finally, of course, the basic cycle of life will take its path ie birth , age, illness and death. Whatever we do, we cannot defeat the age and illness.  We can prolong aging or maintain our health but it is still the body that calls the shot. When the joints will be hurt  or damaged, it depends on our body and how we carry out our exercise.

What happen to my wife, it was a real happening to me.  She was only slightly above 50 and she was still energetic and good at yoga.  She can do a lot of difficult pose and suddenly, she felt a pain in her hand , a few inches above her wrist and the ligament behind her left heel.  She do not know the reason and perhaps , it is the body who told her that she has overdone her exercise.  She is walking with a limp and her left hand have a pain when she twist her arms. It is nothing serious but she needs treatment for her wounded nerves.

Last night when reaching home, she could not lift herself up the steps infront of my house and I have to push her up.  It was so funny as she has been a fine health and a good weight.

Just like Iyengar, the body have its final say and we can only do whatever possible to keep it at its fine stage. We cannot fight nature.

Namaste.

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