E-Paper
Do yogasanas to lose weight
People across the world have discovered this ancient Indian art, which now has proven cures for all that ails the human body and mind.
Yoga for Weight Loss
Bharat Thakur
Wisdom Tree
Lifestyle
Pages 108
Price: Rs.125
Paperback
Yoga of late has moved from the precincts of the local kind. People across the world have discovered this ancient Indian meditative art, which now has proven cures for all that ails the human body and mind. In fact, it would be wrong to say that the documentation of its curative powers have come to light only in the recent past, but then a decade or two in history cannot be considered old either.
In addition, books highlighting specific powers that yog mudras are imbued with have not been in circulation except in very basic form, and virtually lost to the common reader because of their substandard production quality.
In fact, yoga has been so much a part of the Indian's life that like all good things which come for free, this discipline too has been taken for granted – by publishers and its practioners. Long after the Jane Fondas of the world have gone home having practiced their body-muscle-toning workouts, comes along the discipline yoga as the final solution to all ailments – spiritual and physiological.
And as always since yoga too has found sanction from the Great West, books are suddenly available in the Indian market highlighting its munificent powers. One such is Yoga for Weight Loss by Bharat Thakur, the well-known guru of yoga, whose attempts to simplify the asanas are only partially successful.
Yoga for Weight Loss is handbook meant for easy reference by the beginner. While it highlights asanas (postures), which specifically help reduce weight, while explaining the various causes for obesity, the book does not draw the reader in enough to keep his interest sustained. Various factors hamper the same. For instance, while short chapters do explain the importance and function of the body's metabolism and diet regulations, the flat approach leaves much to be desired. The benefits are explained in points and are not entirely sufficient to whet an obese person's appetite towards slimming down.
The book is divided into pranayama (breathing techniques), bandha (the performance of which helps remove blockages in the endocrinal system), kriya (helps increases the amount of oxygen intake) and asanas (basic yogic practice which helps in overall weight loss).
While the attempt is to diligently record and pass on information about all of the above, shortcuts are taken recourse to while explain the same. For instance, certain photographs do not correspond to the asana explained along side. In other words, while that asana explains the technique in a particular way, the photograph shows the posture differently. There are times when a bandha and the kriya are carried with the same photograph to illustrate the point. Take the specific cases of Udyaan Bandha (pg. 32-33) and Agnisar Kriya (pgs. 36-37). Not only is the picture the same in both the cases, it also shows Thakur assuming a wrong posture, or at least one that does not correspond to its description.
As a master of the yogic technique, Thakur should know better than to pass off a wrong posture to unsuspecting readers who've purchased the book in good faith. Each yogic posture, each single hand or foot placement and the manner of that placement carries significance in yoga. Therein lie its maximum benefits. One cannot cheat simply because the difference in the two is thought to be minimal by the expert himself!
The layout and production values of the book also leave much to be desired. If the book has to compete with other works of a similar nature at an international level (given that yoga has been drawing international attention), it has to be kept in mind that marking the exercises step wise (surya namaskar and bhunamanutkatasana to name two) would help enormously. It would also help make the book more reader-friendly to give English names to facilitate reading of the asana names, given that most are a mouthful.
All in all, a shoddy work is better than none at all and one can only hope that the next edition will take away these errors to make it a better read.
