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Untitled Document
Part 1: Concept of Upasana according to Indian Ancient Texts.
Part 2: The Effect of Integrated Approach of Yoga Module on Intelligence Score in Adolescents (13-17 Yrs)
By
Sandhya Rani Behera
ABSTACT
PART-1 LITERARY RESEARCH
CONCEPT OF UPĀSANĀ ACCORDING TO INDIAN ANCIENT TEXTS
Upāsanā in Sanskrit literally means "Sitting near" but normally the term is used in Hinduism to denote a prescribed method for approaching a deity/God or getting close to deity. In otherwords, it will be a systematic practice of a prescribed worship method for pleasing and winning the attention of the deity. Once the deity is pleased, it is said to grant the wishes of devotee either directly appearing in front of the devotee and asking what he/she wants or silently reading mind of devotee and granting his/her wishes without making any appearance unless one of the wishes of devotee is to see the deity personally. Upaniñads speak a lot on special types of rituals calledUpāsanā. They are also known by the name ‘Vidyās’. Upāsanās are a combination of inward meditation and outward ritual. They act as bridge between the karma kanda and Jnana kanda of Vedic literature. As the average spiritual aspirant devoted the major part of his life to the performance of the rituals prescribed in the Vedas, it will be rather difficult for him to take to meditation on self or God straight away. Hence he is led to it by a series of graded meditation on the rituals. In Upaniñads different types of Vidyās are given such as Naciketä Vidyä from kaöha Upaniñat, Bhüma Vidyä from chāndogya Upaniñat, Çāëòilya Vidyä from chāndogya Upaniñat, Vaiçvänara Vidyäfrom chāndogya Upaniñat, präëä Vidyä from chāndogya Upaniñat, Madhu-Vidyä from Båhadäraëyaka upaniñat. Upāsanā is related to Rāja yoga and Nidhidhyāsanā is related to Jñāna yoga. Vidyäs are nothing but learning and understanding.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
Upaniñads speak a lot on special types of rituals calledUpāsanā. Upāsanās are also popular by the name ‘Vidyās’.Meditation on Brahman by attributing qualities like bliss, fearlessness, immortality, etc. to it is Brahma-Upāsanā. But these qualities in no way point to the real nature of Brahman. Upāsanās are a combination of inward meditation and outward ritual. In Vedic literature Upāsanā first appears as a part of rituals in the Brahmaëas. Upāsanā became separated from the rituals. In the Araëyakas we find meditations replacing actual sacrifices. But the meditations still resembled the sacrifices. InBrahma Sütrasthree-fold meditation (Upäsanä) is mentioned. Muëòaka Upaniñat tells that if life as well to meditation—and the householders who have their senses under control, they can get Upāsanā. In Båhadäraëyaka Upaniñat it is mentioned that we can do Upāsanās on ether, Upāsanās on water, Upāsanās on Air, Upāsanās on Fire, Upāsanās on Sun, Upāsanās on Self etc. In Chāndogya Upaniñat so many Vidyās are mentioned, like Naciketä Vidyä, Bhüma Vidyä, Çāëòilya Vidyä, Vaiçvänara Vidyä, präëä Vidyä. In this way we are concluding that Upāsanā is a vast subject matter. In ancient days most of them were performing rituals and meditations everyday in their lives. Alas, in this modern age that type of performance is not there.
Part 2: The Effect of Integrated Approach of Yoga Module on Intelligence Score in Adolescents (13-17 Yrs)
This Stratified randomized control study was to compare the effect of yoga and physical exercises on intelligence. The sample consisted of 256 students in the age range of 13 to 17 who participated in a residential personality development camp. Assessments were done on day 1 and day 9 by using G.C.Ahuja Group Test of Intelligence (GGTI). Which consists of 8 cognitive abilities (additional test, classification, analogies, arithmetic reasoning, vocabulary, comprehension, series, and best answers). The daily routine of the two groups was carefully matched and it was assumed that there was no cross over, interaction between students of the two groups. Yoga group practiced a set of integrated Yoga module consisting of selected set of asanas, pranayama, meditation, interactive discussions about intelligence according to yoga, yoga games, devotional songs and skits. Physical exercise group had matched non-yogic activity for each one of the yoga sessions including, physical exercises, breathing exercises, tuning to nature, interactive discussions on general knowledge topics of sports, as well as songs and skits on non-yoga topics. Results showed that the base line is not matched. So, data were not normally distributed (p< 0.001) (Kolmogorov Smirnov test). The yoga group showed a significant change in all variables. There were no significant differences before & after 9 days except Series (p<0.001) in the control group (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test). The yoga group showed significantly higher scores in all variables as compared to control group (Mann-Whitney test). Gender analysis showed similar trends as the whole group. It can be conclude that the integrated set of yoga practices plays a significant role in improving the IQ of school students as compared to physical exercise.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In this study a total of 256 subjects were included. They were distributed among two groups-yoga and control (mountains and rivers) with random allocation after stratifying for age and gender considerations. The assessment has been done through G.C. Ahuja Group Test of Intelligence (GGTI) developed by G.C. Ahuja. The data analysis was done using SPSS package through Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test and Mann-Whitney test. The base line matching could not be done as the data was not normally distributed. The pre-post (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test) showed significant improvement in the yoga group but there were no change in the control group.Between groups comparison was done by Mann-Whitney Test, which showed that yoga was better then control group. Gender analysis showed similar trends as the whole group.We conclude that the integrated set of yoga practices plays a significant role in improving the IQ of school students as compared to physical exercise.
Key words: Intelligence, Yoga, Physical exercise, children.
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