- The ancient wisdom of India, cultivated over millennia in the form of time-tested civilizations, traditions, practices, and belief systems, has a massive following among individuals across geographies. Among many such traditions, yoga must rank first due to its popularity, reach, advantages, and inherent holistic healing connected with its practice. The benefits of Hindu meditation techniques have been proven beyond doubt. The unrivaled benefits of yoga and meditation are self-evident. One simply needs to look around to observe how these two classic Indian contributions to the globe have touched every nook and cranny.
PC: AP
- As you may know, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiative to persuade the United Nations to establish June 21st as International Yoga Day, which was joyfully welcomed by the majority of countries. This was not only a very welcome measure for the global community, but it also gave an excellent platform for exhibiting our conventional system to a large and diverse audience. On his recent highly successful state visit to the United States of America as a state guest, Modi made a dramatic UN statement emphasizing that yoga is free of copyrights, patents, and royalty payments. The more this ancient Indian wisdom and science help humanity live a healthy life, the more obvious it becomes that yoga works for everyone.
- Yoga is available to both affluent and poor people, therefore there is no prejudice here. Of course, if some Western corporations had their way, they would copyright this asana or that breathing practice, making it unavailable to the general public. While the patent system has benefited the world by encouraging invention, it has also proven exploitative in underdeveloped countries. The existing information that has been passed down through generations here has simply not been considered equal to what has been published in Western publications and databases. That is why a concerted effort was required to invalidate a US patent for a haldi/turmeric wound-healing product. Or European ones for a jayaphal/nutmeg mouthwash and neem’s antifungal qualities.
PC: AFP
- The magnitude of India’s knowledge inheritances makes the battle to keep them from being unfairly copyrighted in rich countries laborious and never-ending. Biopiracy is a continual threat. Despite Pakistani conservatives condemning yoga as unIslamic, it is widely practiced across our western border, while the government supports Chinese-style yoga across our northern border. Yet people’s motivations for performing yoga are as varied as they are: gaining tranquillity or sleep, losing weight or worry, boosting work performance, inspiration, perspiration, and so on. This indicates that the worldwide yoga market will only expand. Nobody can or should put a monetary value on healing. This was PM Modi’s underlying message on the large stage.
