My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

The large scale popularity of yoga triggered by 'health consciousness' in the WEST had invoked the dormant yoga in Indian Blood. The mass movement of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (Art of Living), Dr. Pranav Pandya (Gayatri Pariwar) infusing the 16 Sanskaras in life using Gayatri Mantra as the tool and Swami Ramdev (Patanjali Yog Peeth) bringing yoga to millions through its benefits by "Kapalabhati Kriya" . People at large are convinced that yoga works.

But how, is the question being answered by VYASA research over the last 30 years. As directed by Swami Vivekananda, combine the best of the West with that of the East, we in the non-profit registered society VYASA devoted to examine the usefulness of yoga took to exacting scientific research. The paper "Integrated Approach of Yoga Therapy (IAYT) for Bronchial Asthma - a control trial" published in British Medical Journal in 1986 made VYASA go global. Subsequent research in collaboration with Royal Free Hospital in London and Middlesbrough General Hospital in UK established the usefulness of yoga for Diabetes and Rheumatoid Arthritis respectively by 1990. Dr. Horia Crisan from University of Heidelberg carried it further to Anxiety Neurosis while Dr. Vedantan from Denver Colorado USA established the usefulness of yoga chair-breathing for handling acute episodes of Asthma. Since then there have been many studies examining the usefulness of various dimensions of yoga for clinical conditions.

The key features of yoga are to relax the body, slow down the breath, calm down the mind, transform violent negative emotions to cultured softer positive emotions and work in tension-free blissful awareness.

The next set of research to examine the mechanism involved started with some physiological and immunological studies by VYASA on meditation, IAYT for cancer, etc. Other research studies all-over the globe have started this dimension of research by getting funding from NIH etc., going down to understand the changes in the genetic levels.

The international conferences started in 1991 in Prasanti Kutiram to network all the researches going on round the globe, to disseminate the findings to yoga teachers and researchers at large. Since then VYASA itself has organized nearly 30 national and international level conferences all-over the globe.

The year VYASA has planned for 4 conferences round the globe. The last in the series is our conference in Kolkata from December 25-27. To go to the latest depths of Yoga Works... But How?, we welcome all our yoga teachers as also others to participate in this maiden conference to make it a big success.
With Love,

Prof. H.R. Nagendra

" India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of spirit. "
Swami Vivekananda