Description

Yoga is a complete science of life that originated in India many thousands of years ago. It is the oldest system of personal development in the world encompassing the entire body, mind and spirit. Traditionally Yoga is the union between a person's own consciousness and the universal consciousness. Yoga is defined as a science of mental control which helps not only one to control one's mental state, but also to improve one's personality and behaviour, if practiced regularly from childhood (Udupa, 1985). Taking into account the importance of Yoga in all walks of life, it has been extensively worked on. Yoga has been seen to have an effect on stress reduction at the managerial levels of employment (Heilbronn, 1992), and has been reportedly of wide spread use in the general clinical (Lepicovska, Dostaiek & Kovarova, 1988), as well as the psychiatric set up (Shannahoff, David & Beckett, 1996; Pasek, 1982). These studies have not only been extensively reported from the eastern part of the world but also from Europe and the United States, thereby providing evidence of the fact that Yoga has become more of a way of life, a harbinger of wellness and a path towards well-being in general. The physical benefits of Yoga were found to have been immense. Pranayama was shown to have an effect on muscular endurance, vital capacity and cardiovascular endurance (Sakthignanavel, 1998). Yoga training was reported to have brought about positive psychoneuro, physiological and biochemical alterations (Ganguly, Bera & Gharote, 2002),