Yoga and I

So now we are not allowed to practice yoga! Too bad, but it does not affect me anymore. My yoga days are long gone now. But I feel sorry for my fellow Malaysian Muslim practitioners of yoga if the ban really comes into effect. I took up yoga way back in 1976 with a fervour and it did me a lot of good for several years until the enthusiasm wore off and I just got too lazy and undisciplined to continue.

I started my yoga training at the Viviekananda Ashrama in Brickfields (that old building was a subject of a recent controversy when it was proposed for demolition to make way for a modern development. I wonder what has happened since then).

I found nothing religious in the way I did my yoga and it did not bring me any closer to Hinduism nor threatened my Islamic faith in any way! We were just a big, mixed group of people doing all kinds of breathing, stretching and bending exercise and at the end of each session, some relaxing meditation. I remember feeling very good after each session and subsequently in the long run. I was more energetic, I even lost weight and I could finally control my appetite. And I was particularly proud that I could do a perfect headstand, like in the photo taken in 1977 in Cherating (pardon/maaf anyone if is offended by my lack of covering!).

I kept doing yoga on my own even when I was overseas from 1979-1985. When I returned to KL I enrolled again for a refresher course at the same ashrama.

Alas, as the years passed I stopped doing yoga. I can still do some of the exercises and the one that I still do from time to time is the morning churning of the stomach and the breathing exercises. I wonder if I can still stand on my head as well as I did. The last time I did it was already some years back, it did not help that over the years I put on weight too.

I hope this controversy over yoga will come to a rational and positive conclusion. And we can all just go on with our lives and focus on more pressing matters...