Setting the mood for the International Yoga Day on June 21 with Mysuru’s own yoga champion Khushi performing with her fellow friends in front of the imposing Crawford Hall, this Weekend Star Supplement takes a look at how the Heritage City is gradually evolving as the global yoga hub. The tag Pensioners’ Paradise no longer befits Mysuru which is now a paradise for yoga enthusiasts.

Yoga-My Life

By Sujata Rajpal

Not too long ago yoga was considered beneficial only for old and retired people especially those who preferred a slow-paced life. And it was even rare to see men practicing yoga but the trend is rapidly changing. Youngsters are taking yoga like never before.

The yogashala I go to has more men than women and the majority of yoga practitioners are below 40. Engineers, doctors, businessmen, the busy professionals, harried home makers make time to begin their day with yogasanas.

During any time of the day when you pass by Gokulam, it is a common sight to spot foreigners in droves, yoga mats tucked under their arms, children in tow, walking leisurely towards their respective yoga centres. The royal city of Mysuru is gradually evolving as the global yoga hub.

Pensioners’ Paradise, the tag no longer befits Mysuru. Paradise yes not only because of its salubrious climate and stress-free life but a paradise for yoga lovers. Today yoga is to Mysuru what Silicon Valley is to Bengaluru.

On the heels of the world yoga day on 21st June, it is befitting to talk about yoga and how it has changed the way we live. If you are a resident of Mysuru and you have never practiced yoga then you are living an incomplete life. Go look for a good yoga instructor in your neighbourhood and experience the divine.

‘Foreigners associate yoga with Modi’

In 1993, when a boy of about 13 suffered from Asthma, he was advised a few yogic asanas by his teacher which he practiced religiously for some time and it completely cured him of the ailment. When he was 16, some people asked him to teach them yoga asanas and he graciously obliged. Five years later, at the age of 18, it was common for Bharath Shetty to get invites from professional organisations to teach them yoga which he did because he loved yoga. A year later, he met with a near fatal accident.

Doctors ruled out that he would ever be able to walk again. At that time little did he know that his physical suffering would lead him to do bigger things in life. Not the type to give up, he practiced yoga to cure himself which reinstated his belief in the power of yoga on one’s body. Since then there has been no looking back for Yogacharya Bharath Shetty who is the first yoga teacher in India to be certified as E-RYT 500 (Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher who has completed minimum 500 hours of yoga teacher training programme).

Ironically in 2002 when Bharath came to Mysuru to learn yoga from the revered names in the industry, he was shooed away. They taught yoga only to foreigners. Indians not allowed, he was told. It was that time he decided to go to Pune to learn yoga from B.K.S. Iyengar. Today Bharath has as many Indians as foreigners in his classes. “Nationality doesn’t matter. One needs to be passionate about yoga,” says the yoga Guru who founded ‘Indea Yoga’ which combines Hatha, Ashtanga and Iyengar styles of yoga and is practiced without the use of props. Yogacharya Bharath Shetty also conducts workshops and retreats in countries like Spain, Bulgaria, Mexico, Malaysia, Switzerland and many other countries.

Yoga is a way of life. It is for the holistic development of the mind, it can change the way we think, believes Bharath who vouches by the lessons learnt in Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda and Light on Yoga penned by B.K.S. Iyengar. “Yoga is not about practicing asanas alone. It is about coordination of mind, body and breath. There is no formula to find a good yoga instructor. One should connect with the guru. Yoga is a practice and not a discourse,” he says.

What has made yoga so popular in the recent past?’ I ask.

The benign-looking Yogacharya throws his trademark half smile before speaking, ‘I am not intending to be politically correct but Prime Minister Narendra Modi has helped take yoga to the zenith that it deserves.

“Foreigners have begun to associate yoga with Modi. Interestingly when I tell the foreigners that I am an Indian, they ask innocently, ‘are you from the same country as Modi?’ Most of the people I meet know only two things about India – Modi and Yoga. And as far as Mysuru becoming the global hub of yoga is concerned, the credit goes to Krishnaraja Wadiyar,” he says.