Health and Wellbeing:
Depression, Purification, and Success
This is one section of the course on Health and Well-being. Each lesson includes a one-hour video and an accompanying article along with a short essay style quiz at the end.
Lesson 1: Yoga Philosophy for Depression
1. First try to analyse yourself thoroughly and find out the cause of the problem. Do not be hasty. Sit calmly and think over the matter. Spend some days over it if necessary. Put your thoughts down on paper and reflect over them. If necessary, get the assistance of someone whom you love and trust and who will be sympathetic to your feelings. Pray to God within to lead you to the right person.
Lesson 2: Self Purification
The first thing we teach you when you come to yoga is that you are not the body. That’s the first thing. It is not the last thing. It is the first thing. We teach you that you need to take care of the body but you are not the body. That is the principle underlying in the asanas, because you cannot really do the asanas if you are not mastering the body, if you are not able to tell the body to do what you need it to do. When you do the asanas you have to be able to tell the body “I want you to hold this for three seconds”, “I want you to move to the right”, “I want you to switch to the left”, “I want you to put your back this way or that way”.
Lesson 3: What is Success and what is Failure?
The Bhagavad Gita says Yoga is skill in action. That is the teaching. Skill in doing your duty without likes and dislikes. You do action and at the same time it looks like you are not doing anything. You are involved but it looks like you are not attached. This is not easy, that’s why scripture said that it is a skill. How to live your life, to love and at the same time not be attached? The key is always you have to remember that the goal of life is liberation from suffering so when you understand this very clearly, you understand that nobody can help you. This is very difficult because everyone has the expectation that somebody else will free them, somebody else will help them.
As you watch the lessons, it is recommended that you sit on the floor in a cross legged position and have a notebook and a pen with you so you can take notes and reflect on the teachings.