“Please save my marriage” cried the woman at the feet of the older man sitting on his couch. Though the woman appeared to be in her late thirties, she looked terribly stressed. My grandfather, Krishnamacharya, arose from his seat and said to her “please arise, and tell me what your problem is.” Between sobs the woman told him of her inability to conceive a child, and this was threatening her marriage as her husband (whose family wanted to see the lineage continue was threatening to leave her for another woman. It was (and still is) very important in many Asian countries to see a family lineage continue. They had detected a problem in the woman and consequently she was unable to conceive. “Sir, I have heard you are a great healer. Can you please help me rid of this problem, so that I can conceive?”
Reassuring her that he would try his best, Krishnamacharya asked her to come one week later, as he wanted to prepare a special medication for her which, along with some practices would help her get rid of her problem. A week later the woman came back to meet the master. Krishnamacharya asked her to wait in the classroom, while he went into the kitchen and brought some ash (leftover from the wood used for fuel in those days), and put it in a nice clean leaf. Then he took her out to the sun and recited a very famous invocation of the sun. He then handed the leaf to her and said, “This medicine has been blessed by the sun – the giver of life. Each day you mix the ash with a bit of honey and consume it. Along with this you must do the practice I give you. Then, after thirty days you must try to conceive the baby.” The woman very happy to receive her magic medication and practice, went home joyfully.
In a few months time she returned to her teacher and declared joyfully, “Sir, it is now confirmed that I am pregnant. I want to thank you for getting rid of my illness. Without you I would have suffered so much. I don’t know how to express my gratitude to you for healing me.” With a gentle smile Krishnamacharya replied, “It is not I who have healed you. It is your faith and your disciplined practice that has healed you. Had you not had faith in me or the practice, you would not have been healed at all.”
Faith and disciplined practice are the two key factors. This is why yoga works, or does not work. We may have the best techniques, but if we have no faith in them, then they will never work for us. Nor will they work if we are not disciplined in our practice. This is the message of ancient yoga masters from the days of Patanjali until the modern times of Krishnamacharya. This was the magical ingredient added to those already powerful practices that yoga had to offer.
There is a word for faith in Sanskrit that Patanjali uses in the Yoga Sutra-s. The word is “sraddha”. This is a very beautiful word, which comes from the root “dha” – to hold or sustain. The idea behind the word sraddha is that if we have faith, it will sustain us or hold us and not allow us to fall down. Yoga Sutra says that when we have faith, we will have confidence and through this we can achieve anything, even in times of difficulty.
To highlight an instance of total faith, I would like to share an incident that occurred when my grandfather tripped and broke his hip in the late 1980s. When he fell down and could not move, my father (TKV Desikachar) called for the family doctor immediately. When he arrived, the doctor knew right away that he had broken his hip, and called for his colleague who was a specialist in setting bones. However Krishnamacharya was in no mood to entertain a set of doctors working on him. The moment the specialist arrived, he yelled at them to “get out of here. I can handle myself and heal myself and I will prove it to you within three months. I don’t need your help.” Obviously hurt by this comment, the specialist stormed out of our house telling my father “don’t waste your time on a ninety-six year old insane man. He is not going to last long.”
Even at a moment of injury, Krishnamacharya never lost faith in the yoga that he had learnt from his master. His theory was, if he could heal at all, then surely yoga could help him heal more quickly. Around the third month after the fall, he called my father one day to his room and said, “Call that specialist.” When my father telephoned the specialist and informed him of Krishnamacharya’s request to meet him, the specialist sarcastically remarked, “So, now he wants me to come and help him.” When he arrived home, Krishnamacharya greeted him in his room and said, “That day you asked my son not to waste time on me. Look what I can do.” With this he began to show the range of movements he could do now, after healing himself with yoga. He demonstrated that he could get up on his own, walk a few steps and could do a whole set of postures, that would make even a normal healthy person feel envious. The doctor was speechless and he recommended us to “please record these movements on video. Otherwise, no one will believe this is possible.” Thankfully we followed his advice and have captured these movements on tape.
This is a classic example of faith. When you are so old, in your late nineties, and especially so if you are injured, its very easy to lose faith or hope. Krishnamacharya lost neither of them. He was very confident that he could take care of himself and heal himself. After all he had healed many hundreds of people. This is why in the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali says that if you want to test one’s faith, you must test one’s confidence.
This is why the ancient masters would test the faith of the potential students. before accepting them. They did this because if the student had no faith, then whatever practice was taught, would not work. They did not want to waste their time, as well as that of the student. Krishnamacharya also adopted this approach on many occasions.
Of course faith alone is not enough. One must use the tools that we are given by the teacher. However if there is no faith, they will not work. A simple reason my grandfather, would insist on faith is due to the fact that “Healing is a journey that has to be patiently pursued.” His message here is that healing takes time – often many months, some times even longer. We need to sustain our practice over this period of time and not become discouraged by an apparent lack of progress. It is for strengthening the practice that we need intense faith and commitment to the process. This is especially true with some of the traditional healing systems like yoga and ayurveda, where instant cure is something unheard of.
Being a student in the modern era, I have always tried to determine if there was any scientific validity in the theory that faith influences how things work; and I was always looking for answers. Luckily I happened to take part in a series of discussions between my father (TKV Desikachar) and the late neurosurgeon Dr. B Ramamurthy. Dr. Ramamurthy was regarded as one of the finest neurosurgeons in the world, and was the first from India. The conversation was about the mind, the brain and it’s role in healing. During the conversation, I asked the doctor this question. “Sir, the yogi-s talk about the role of faith in the healing process. How would you understand this as a scientist?”
His reply solved the puzzle for me. He said “Our bodies function based on signals sent by the brain. If the brain sends a signal to the hand to move, it moves. If the brain sends the signal for the eyes to open, they open. Everything in our body happens based on the signals the brain sends.These signals can be either positive or negative and this makes a difference in how we are and how we function. When we have fear, anxiety etc., the brain sends negative signals and this is why we feel the way we do when over powered by such emotions. However when we have faith or confidence, the brain sends positive signals and this is what promotes healing.
At this moment I understood why the ancient masters laid such importance to the role of faith. This is how Krishnamacharya healed so many people – by igniting their faith. This is how he also healed himself.
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 sathish
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08-SEP-2009 |
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Read this
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Mary KEIZER
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17-SEP-2007 |
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the universe is impersonal as well as personal. it is rather with a deep" knowing" that right action occurs at the deepest level,where is the need for faith if something is seen clearly?
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Jill Harris
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01-JUL-2007 |
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I completely related to this article from direct experience. Faith in the teacher, his healing abilities and the practice given to me assisted me in conceiving my son. A positive mind and dedication to doing the practice produced a great benefit. The power of the self to heal is truly amazing!
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Yvonne Henderson
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15-MAY-2007 |
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thank you master
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Irene Metzger
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02-MAY-2007 |
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As always inspiring, entertaining and profound.
Thank you Kausthub
Irene
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