- December 10, 2014
- Posted by:
- Category:BLOG, Events, Happy Hours, Mumbai
Contributed by: Ishwar Chidambaram, CFA and Jainendra Shandilya, CFA
IAIP Mumbai organized a Wellness Workshop entitled “Mudra- The Power is in your hands” on 5th December. The speaker was Deepa Vaswani, a prominent Yoga Mudra consultant.
The program started with a video clip containing a simple message. A professor brought a jar before his students and filled them with golf balls to the brim, and then the professor asked his students, “Is the jar now full?” Yes, replied the students. The professor then filled the same jar with pebbles and the pebbles filled in the empty spaces in the jar. The professor again asked, ” Is the jar now full?” Yes, the students replied. The professor then took sand and poured it into the jar and the empty spaces were occupied now by the sand. The professor once again asked the students, “Is the jar now full?” yes, replied the students. The professor once again took a bottle of chocolate and poured over the jar containing the balls, pebbles, and sands and the jar accommodated the milk chocolate. The professor then asked his students, ”
Is the jar now full?” The students burst into laughter realizing their follies. The professor then explained, the white golf balls are most things in life, like family, health, friends etc. The pebbles are next important things like jobs, career, educations etc. and the sands are the other least important things in our life. The professor went on to explain, if you had filled the jar with sands or pebbles, you would not have had room for the golf balls. This is the basic essence of life! You should always give priorities to the most important things in life. On listening this, one student asked, Sir, you did not say anything about the chocolate drink? To this the professor replied, “No matter what you do with your life, you will always have time for chocolates!”
Deepa went on to explain the importance of Mudras in our life, which she pointed out was lost in the ancient time while other forms of Yogas were brought/introduced by our sages, such as Kriya Yogas etc.
There are 72000 Nadis in our bodies and there are 114 Junction boxes. All the nadis pass through these junction boxes. Further, there are 7 main chakras that are very important from the point of view of Yoga/ Mudras. These chakras are
- Mooladhar Chakra
- Pelvic Chakra
- Naval Chakras
- Heart Chakras
- Throat Chakras
- Third Eye Chakras
- Cranium Chakras, which is the top of our cranium
These chakras when vibrated give benefits related to those chakras.
Vaswani then demonstrated the concept of “Embracing Change through Reinvention”. For this she played a video of the Eagle. At the age of 40, the Eagle has grown really old and weak. His beak has become blunt, his talons lose their grip and his feathers are in tatters. Due to this, he is unable to hunt or fly. He faces a grim choice – he must either change or perish. So he flies off to his rocky nest high up in the mountains. There he knocks his beak on the stones, until his old beak falls off, allowing a new one to grow in its place. With the new beak, he tears off his blunt talons, allowing new talons to grow. With the sharp new talons, he rips off his old feathers allowing new sleek feathers to replace them. Thus he becomes rejuvenated and is able to hunt again. Having embraced the pain, he will live for another 30 years in fine fettle! Thus, the Eagle symbolizes the eternal truths that “Pain is weakness leaving the body”, and one must embrace change in order to flourish.
Deepa then showed how various mudras are performed and their benefits. The important thing, she pointed out was, these mudras can be performed while being in office it greatly relieves our stress, emotions, negative energies, etc. However, she emphasized that the Mudras must be performed while seated and perfectly still, never while moving around. Also, the breathing patterns must be adhered to rigorously, else it would be detrimental.
The following Mudras were covered in detail:
- Pran Mudra – This mudra is to performed with our root our mooladhar chakra and this helps in overcoming nervousness.
- Hakini Mudra – This mudra is good for memory and this is done with fingers and the breathing should focus on the forehead area.
- Avahan Mudra – Those who are feeling hesitant to seek help should do this mudra
The other mudras that were performed during the session were Bhairavi Mudra, Hansi Mudra, Jalashay Mudra, Kaleshwar Mudra, and Vajra Mudra. All these mudras are helpful in releasing negative energy filling the body with positive energy.
– I C and J S