Yoga as Therapy

At Nadi Chikitsa.com, we use yoga, only as a therapeutic tool. Our practice of therapy is preceeded with appropriate diagnosis through Nadi Pariksha. When nadi pariksha is done, yoga therapy (if suitable and required) will be advised.

There are essentially two schools of thought pertaining to therapeutic application of Yoga. Though both of them use modern medical diagnosis as the platform from where therapy is started, Yoga itself, originally depended on traditional diagnosis, some of which you can find in this website.

One school of thought works on symptoms like diabetes, blood pressure, vericose veins etc and helps such patients bringing them together as a group. One example of such a school of thought is Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA).

There is another school of thought which also works on such symptoms, but is more specific in approach. Inspite of two individuals having the same ailments, they address each ones condition separately. This institution believes that each individual is a separate entity in themselves and hence have to be treated separately. An example of this school of thought is the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), Chennai.

We at nadichikitsa.com believe that diagnosis is as important as therapy and hence the use of nadi pariksha. When therpay used is traditional and works at the cause level, diagnosis must also be in line with the therapy.

This, we believe must have been the original form of therapy in yoga. Therapy was a part of Ayurveda which traslates as "the path of well-being" rather than identifying Ayurveda as an institution of medicine.

Modern diagnostic methods are designed to find out the symptoms and only record visible or measurable parameters, cannot be used as an appropriate diagnostic tool in all aspects. For example; modern medical diagnosis is not yet able to measure the flow of energies through the body nor is it able to make out the onset of an illness at the subtle levels of energy. Since, yoga works at the subtle levels, a diagnostic process that identifies the subtle process of dis-ease manifestation and the onset of illness, nadi pariksha inevitably becomes the most appropriate tool to use.