An Interactive Session with Dr. Dilip Sarkar

VYASA-In

By Raghu Iyer

HOUSTON: VYASA Houston hosted a free yoga talk by Dr. Dilip Sarkar on July 17 weekend. A   number of Yoga Teachers from VYASA came together to see and hear the eminent YOGA researcher Dr. Dilip Sarkar from Virginia. Dr. Sarkar is one of the foremost YOGA researchers in the United States; Dr. Sarkar who is a retired professor of Vascular Surgery is also the current President of International Association of YOGA therapists, Chairman of the School of Integrative medicine at the Taksha Institute and the Chairman of the ‘Life in YOGA’ institute.

In his talk on YOGA, Dr. Sarkar explained in detail about the legal issues surrounding YOGA and reminded Yoga teachers of prevailing laws and the limitations Yoga teachers may have while advising people in good faith, whom they believe would benefit from certain YOGA postures. He touched upon the ‘Good Samaritan law’ and also the ‘YOGA alliance’ and benefits of a membership of the YOGA alliance for YOGA teachers who charge students for teaching them or provide therapeutic advice to general public.

Being a doctor by training and profession, his talks lived up to the expectation of attendees, and what has come to become his trademark – an intricate understanding of YOGA in medical terms. It was refreshing to hear Dr. Sarkar also explain YOGA in technology terms, outlining the mind as the software and the body as a hardware. He opined that YOGA helps one in fixing the Software which in turn fixes the hardware and the problems associated with it. It was clear in his talk that YOGA therapy works only for people who want to use it to address their problems, which lends credence to the software/hardware analogy.

YOGA, he said is 95% doing and 5% communicating; and true to the Yogic spirit, the conference was capped off with a grueling hour of Yoga postures for all the YOGA teachers in attendance. This was followed with lunch for all attendees, bringing the half day conference to close.