DNA Jaipur 10th Anniversary: A decade through a yogi’s eyes

I was very fortunate that I was born in Rajasthan — a vibrant land of vibrant people, culture and colours. When I look back, I fall into a reverie and, very briefly, go back to an era when I was brought into this world by an extraordinary woman of the country, who was not only the first post-graduate girl in Rajasthan, but also India’s first lady yoga guru.

My revered mother, Daya Vyas not only gave me physical eyes, but also taught me how to look at things, people and places. She helped form a perspective that is a rare blend of spirituality and science. Scientific spirituality came to her very naturally, since she came from a traditional yet prominent family of the state that gave jaipur, and perhaps Rajasthan, its first two medical doctors. 

Jaipur has been a very important seat of Ayurveda, Sanskrit, Kathak and Indian classical music. We have the jaipur gharana in both Kathak and Indian classical music. In Sanskrit education, Jaipur occupied the second place after Kashi. The city also has a glorious tradition in the science of Ayurveda and had galaxies of extraordinary Ayurvedic doctors in the past. Yoga and Ayurveda are closely intertwined as both use each other’s tradition and knowledge for healing and the treatment of diseases. Many of my mother’s relatives were top Ayurvedic physicians and it is no wonder she developed interest in the holistic science of yoga. This interest of hers was not only supported, but also nurtured by her family of medical doctors and Ayurvedacharyas. So, she  looked at yoga in a very scientific manner and was convinced about its healing properties. This belief was further strengthened by Swami Sivanand ji, who was a medical doctor before he became a saint and yogi. Nobody knew that this training and knowledge will prove to be a milestone in the history of Jaipur. The city of Jaipur became her teaching ground, where she then taught yoga as well economics in a college (now a university). It was only due to her persona and style of yoga that world’s top celebrities thronged to jaipur to learn yoga from her. These included top Hollywood stars like Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Jane Campion, Jane Chapman, Peter Weir, Nicole Kidman and US president Bill Clinton, who learnt from her. She also shared her yogic skills with former prime ministers of India, namely Jawahar Lal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Since Rajasthan is famous for its tourism, my mom who earned the nickname Hollywood yoga mom, took the initiative of introducing yoga in hotels for the first time ever in the world, a campaign supported by the Taj Group of Hotels. Her non-commercial and personalised approach to yoga made her, and Jaipur, so popular that Vinod Khanna, then a union minister even recommended that the state government use her to promote yoga tourism in the state. Yoga tourism got a tremendous boost in the state and at one time, Rajasthan was almost at par with Kerala in yoga tourism.

The last decade saw too much of an emphasis on materialism, which increased social complexities and changed social structures. Lifestyle changes made it worse. The stability was replaced by instability in the name of dynamism. The demands on every individual increased manifold, leading to chaos and deep distress, in turn causing a rise in psychological and physical disorders like depression, anxiety, anger, diabetes and cancer. Jaipur and its residents were also affected by these universal changes and found a great refuge in yoga that had become popular and was available locally by the best in the world.

The media was quick to spot the rising quest for real traditional knowledge of yoga among the people of Rajasthan and Jaipur. They carried regular columns on yoga by top international experts on yoga, even after the doyen of yoga, Daya Vyas, passed away. These stories gave people most authentic yogic knowledge at almost no cost.

This quest of authentic knowledge about yogic science and other health therapies is growing and it would be interesting to see where it stops — may be, with ultimate yogic wisdom.

The author is a yoga guru