Yoga is the secret of PM Modi’s energy – Interview with Yoga Pandit Shri Gopinath Bhimaji Kedar

Adesaa Wellness Private Limited has roped in Yoga Pandit Shri Gopinath Bhimaji Kedar as a mentor to promote India’s ancient yoga globally.

Yoga Pandit Shri Gopinath Bhimaji Kedar has been practicing India’s ancient yoga for more than 18 years. A farmer-turned-yoga guru, who also holds a Naturopathy degree, shares his mission to spread traditional yoga across the globe in a candid interview with Lokesh Shastri.

Q1. Please describe your journey to yoga: how Yoga has it changed you?

Ans: In 1999, I met with a freak accident and was hurt on my head which caused me lot of trauma with continuous serve headaches. I shared this incident with my friends and their feedbacks resulted in increase in my sugar-level and blood pressure. Someone suggested to go for yoga at the Yoga Vidya Dham is a Gurukul (University) in Nashik, where I was introduced to Yogacharya Vishwas V Mandlik. Yoga not only gave peace to him and found that the more frequently I attend classes, the more I yearn for something deeper out of my practice. It even helped me to gain control over my anger to zero tolerance.

There are many people in the country and world, at large, who are suffering from various ailments and I want to create a healthy and peaceful path by teaching India’s ancient Yoga – a system of exercise that fully integrates the body, mind and soul.

Q2. There are different forms of Yoga today, what do you teach?

Ans: I learnt Asthanga yoga. It is an ancient system of Yoga that was taught by Vamana Rishi in the Yoga Korunta. “Astha” means eight and “Anga” is limbs so it means eight limbs path, Ashtanga yoga – Yama (Principles or moral code), Niyama (Personal Discipline), Asana (Yoga Positions or Yogic Postures), Pranayama (Yogic Breathing), Pratyahara (Withdrawal of Senses), Dharana (Concentration on Object), Dhyan (Meditation) and Samadhi (Salvation).

Q3. What’s your mission as a Yoga Pandit? Who are you trying to reach and why?

Ans: I love teaching yoga for the opportunity to connect with incredible people, and help to honour their bodies through their yoga practice. I love yoga for its true encouragement to live authentically. I strongly believe in the power of positivity and hope to share this with everyone I meet. My style is gentle and uplifting! With teaching I hope for my students to find balance mentally and physically providing them with a practice that they can embody in their daily lives off the mat.

My mission is to spread the light of India’s ancient yoga and its unconditional benefits through Adesaa Wellness Private Limited on international platform since yoga is a precious gift to mankind, which can pave the way towards a better society.

Q4. Which kind or form of yoga do you prefer?

Ans: Shirshashana (Headstand Yoga) and its different types of ashans are one of my favourites. This pose is known as king of all asanas due to its multiple health benefits. It allows to manifest the brain more vividly supplying an enriched oxygenated blood to the brain cells.

Q5. Is Yoga more of mental or physical strength?

Ans: I feel that yoga is basically gives both the mental and the physical. I think that is why many people who do yoga for all kinds of different reasons find their version of upliftment through it.

A basic principle of yoga is to start with who you are, where you are, there is a yogic path for every person. Naturally different people will have different paths to yoga, but yoga has evolved with this understanding. Unless and until you have not gained any experience about yoga one would not enjoy doing yoga.

Q6. What’s your definition of healing? Do you believe it is an alternative form of healing and medicine?

Ans: There is certainly healing, but Yoga is more than healing. The first process of healing is to relax through your body cells and muscles, which is a practice of 4-5 days and continuing it for sometime till there is an improvement. My definition of healing is the ongoing and inevitable pathway to inner and outer balance.

Yoga is not an alternative, but it can help you heal faster and reduce the intake of medicines.

Q7. Is yoga a way of life or a way to exercise and meditate?

Ans: I think yoga is a way of life. Because of our physique-focussed culture, we are using the physical practice of yoga as the front door to get to this yogic way of life – and some people will be happy to keep the yogic practice as merely physical, and will benefit from that.

Yoga can be a way of life for those who chose to make it so. Some see yoga as just a series of asanas or exercises and for them yoga is about exercising. Others may see it as only a form of meditation and not practice the other aspects.

Q8. What is the age range of people who can do yoga with you?

Ans: Ashodshat Bal Ucchate, a Sanskrit word that means under-16 children should not do yoga. Asti sammu hon that means your bones are delicate and yoga can bring in trouble for them. Ideally, yoga should be practiced in the age group of 17 to 70.

Q9. Yoga got an international recognition when Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for observing an International Yoga Day, describing the ancient science as India’s gift to the world. What do you have to say?

Ans: Definitely. It is one of the greatest initiatives undertaken by our honourable Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to take Yoga on the global platform. It has made me more self-aware, both of my body and of my mind. Yoga also helps in relating to other people, since it promotes the idea that, underneath our bodies, before we are men or women, we are all pure consciousness, and that there is a part of each of us that is linked in a basic way with every other conscious being, and that helps to see other people as though they are all members of our own family.

Q10. What do you think of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi being so workaholic? Is Yoga is the secret of his energy?

Ans: It is a science of self experience. Our honourable Prime Minister does yoga practice regularly. I strongly believe that the mind, body, soul connection is a sacred one, and one that should be nurtured and inspired with the Prime Minister’s style of working, which is powered by the practice of yoga – secret of his energy.