Super Brain Yoga

Dear shri Viswamitra,
Delighted to read your super mail on 'super Brain yoga' or Thoppukaranam, a form of Ganesha Worship.
Super Brain Yoga helps to balance the left and right brain of a human being. As we know the left brain is for Logical reasoning and the right brain takes decision based on emotions / intuitions. For a healthy balanced life the working of both sides of the brain should be balanced and this is exactly achieved by super brain yoga or thoppukaranam.
In early days ,if we did anything wrong in the school,we were asked to do'thoppukaranam for 50 times. It was a thoughtful punishment given by teachers to balance the activities of the brain so that the child does not indulge in some mischiefs,thanks to the wonderful yogic punishment.
An institute in Manila seems to have got patent for this 'super brain yoga'.
Some of our religious practices had great scientific significance too, though the practice was handed down with the brand 'religion', which was initially accepted unquestioningly by everyone, and later given up just because they had 'spiritual' significance.
Somehow religion and spirituality were totally ignored as a class of 'superstitious thinking without rhyme or reason. At least modern girls and boys have started analysing scientific significance of age old practices and try to follow a few of them which look reasonable.
We have also neglected many country drugs which had immense effect on stimulating brains.Some children are highly intelligent, grasping is good. But they don't perform well in exam. May be due to fear. Or they are unable to retain what they grasp.These children can't answer even when asked in private.

Thoppukaranam is great exercise for those who suffer from retention process.
There is a drug called'vasambu' a Small twig like thing( I don't get the name in English,) available in all country stores. Four or 5 pieces should be soaked in milk (Just half a glass of milk)for 7 hours. Taken out,washed with water and next day again soaked in milk. The process should be done continuously for 7 days.I just used to immerse it in milk before going to office and take it out when I came back.
After 7 days, dry the pieces well for a day or two. Make it into soft powder in a mixie.preserve the powder in a dry container.
Daily dosage:Take roughly about the weight of a rice piece( arisi edai),mix it with a few drops of honey and give it to the child in the morning alone in empty stomach.It is paletable only, Not sour.You can find noticeable improvement within 6 months.

This wonder drug is commonly known as 'pillai valarppaan' in Tamil.
It is given to infants of a month.It is a medicine for both constipation and diarrohea.
For constipation it is given raw and for diarrohea ,it is charred and given to infants.
Thanks viswa, for starting a snippet on a much needed topic.

Jayasala 42

 

Nice analysis that reveals we are pioneers V'

3Gs - the first 2Gs are real G(reat)s - I am learning from you all V'.

Our history is rich but the only issue was many such things were kept a secret or remained just a religious aspect and never reached out the masses. The current commercialization of all activities target these and claim as their own innovation - and none really from our side to really go out in claiming our rights/respect.

 

Dear V sir,

As part of teacher training, we were introduced to yoga sutras and my teacher always told us this story - that the Adi yogi gave the knowledge of this yoga to the Saptharishis to spread it in the world (I read it as India) and that yogic life style is so integrated in our system that more often than not, we do not recognize one form the other - be it the way we sit or eat and things like that. I did read about this super yoga a while ago and I also am aware that it is practiced in some schools and accepted as a form for the neurological stimulation. Growing up, I never had that much exposure to yoga but when I showed interest here, many asanas were comfortable for me and people around me assumed that I have been practicing yoga for a long time, even in my first class! Thanks to my roots and my upbringing I still sit cross legged on the floor to eat my dinner my kids and many of my neighbors children find it extremely normal

Now, as I work with younger children I already see the effects of modern living and I am constantly working on trying to get them to allow their body to perform at it's optimum. I am surprised to see these young kids as tight as say a 50 or 60 year old who has never sat down on the floor! But I see progress and the joy kids find when they realize that after all that padmasana is not that hard after a 3 or month effort is indeed very gratifying.

I have not paid much attention to the patenting world or the world of this is ours and this is yours, but I do have to tell you that thanks to my association with some westerners here, my own knowledge of our systems is vastly improving and I am only growing to be more respectful of where I come from.

I think Patanjali has done a fabulous job of presenting this form to us - it is as scientific as it can get I believe, as artistic as it can get and he manages to write the whole sutras without bringing in God or religion. Amazing!

Here is an interesting article - Patanjali - The Father of Modern Yoga

 

Dear Viswa Sir,

Very Informative post Viswa Sir!
There is always a liberal dosage of ‘the raving new’ and ‘good old’ flavoring your posts which captivates all of us here )))
Very enthralling to understand the significance of every ritual that’s been followed for ages now. Knowing there is a science behind every sentiment that’s observed only brings a lot of hope that these traditions will never fade away.

Just like this super brain Yoga, I was wondering if the "Sashtanga Pranamam” or kneeling down/prostrating for prayers has some science associated with it. Each faith has its own name like namaskaram, sujood, genuflection and etc, but the essence of it is the same- Surrendering your egos before the lord, which is also a balasana (child pose) in Yoga. So these aren’t mere religious rituals.

Memory blips are so common among youngsters also, we misplace house kepys, few words are tongue tied to very tip, forget where the car was parked. These slips generally happen but some lifestyle changes like regular walking, exercising increases supply of blood to the brain spur the proteins for the development of neurons.

 

Viswa sir,

we are very slow in accepting and celebrating our heritage and traditions and raise a great furor when the west glorifies them as something they invented.. there is so many treasures that are waiting to be celebrated.

SBY or our thoppukkaranam is a wonderful exercise. and geniuses were our elders, who adapted the pranayamam into gayathri, and thoppukaranam into the morning prayers for mudal kadavul. and add to that the karna vedha to give more power to the one perfomring thoppukkaranam. and the way of activating the nodal points, and the way you are asked to almost touch the knee to the ground without bending, working on keeping the knees well lubricated too, is stupendous

even periyavaa talks about the origin, the reason of the thoppukkaranam and its benefits and you can read it in deivathin kural.

something we learnt so naturally is now taught as a part of yoga classes.
it is said to work miracles in keeping the brain active. works well for autistic children too. it is part of the auricular therapy.

lots of research papers doing the rounds..proves our elders were great planners and thought of everything..only we tend to look down on some of the things as they made them rules/rigid traditions.

look at all the studies on sri yantra Sri Yantra Geometry Research to demystify the construction..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNqp4CgTWEg

and also the studies on om..a simple chant of the om, that reflects the tuning with earth resonance and also allows us to concentrate with oneself...
http://paper.ijcsns.org/07_book/200808/20080825.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7DiOB8E5Zc
Schumann resonances - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

have a friend who discusses all this, and have seen jayasala mam sharing some of these..

high time we also include being happy, being proud of one's heritage and traditions ofcourse based on the scientific reasoning, as we have raised a generation which does not want to follow anything blindly.

Good one, and if were to discuss all this a simple blog is not going to be enough.

 

jayasala mam,great info on the vasambu..have wonderful memories of the flavors arising out of a burning vasambu.. the humble vasambu that was so much part of our childhood has been replaced with other things..

it is called the easy flag used in bach therapy. acorus calamus is the scientific name and is referred to as easyflag/calamus

 

Thank you Shanvy for giving the botanical name for vasambu.Indian will accept anything ,including our own tradition, only when imported from abroad.
Jayasala 42

 

Dear Viswa,
So the west hijacks our age old thoppukaranam and gives it a new name as Super Brain Yoga! Our ancestors have interlinked some rituals with health therapies.

While Westerners are adopting our age old practices our secular people will try to give a religious colour to everything.

But UNO has announced June 21 as International Yoga Day as per our PM's request and more than 170 nations supported it.

On December 11th a resolution was passed with consensus by 193 members to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day.

PS