Yoga has many benefits but miracles are not among them

Amrit Dhillon says as a form of exercise and meditation, it is a cultural export of which India can be justifiably proud, but claims that it can cure cancer merely invite ridicule

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Yoga practitioners complete 108 sun salutations during the Yoga Stops Traffick event in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo: EPA

Published: 2:08pm, 31 Mar 2016Updated: 2:08pm, 31 Mar 2016

Once again, absurd claims are being made for yoga. Some Indians are inordinately proud of the fact that yoga has spread across the world but this pride has produced some tall claims, including that it can cure cancer.

The latest person to say this is not a long-haired, bearded eccentric with his legs wrapped around his neck but a government minister. India has a ministry which tries to promote traditional medicine such as Ayurveda. It is headed by Shripad Yasso Naik who, referring to the work carried out by a yoga institute in Bangalore recently, said the institute has found a “technique of yoga for the prevention and cure of cancer”. He said cancer patients will no longer need to undergo chemotherapy and added that the institute will provide “scientific” evidence to back up this claim in a year.

The country’s leading yoga guru is Baba Ramdev, whose website states that yoga can cure virtually every ailment

He is not the first person to get carried away. A lot of Indians conflate the physical with the spiritual. They elevate yoga, a form of exercise and meditation, to the level of something that is spiritually uplifting and then go further by claiming miraculous powers for it.

The country’s leading yoga guru is Baba Ramdev, whose website states that yoga can cure virtually every ailment ranging from diabetes, heart disease and Parkinson’s to balding. His intellectual credentials can be gauged by a claim he made in 2013: “I invite the gay community to my yoga ashram and I guarantee to cure them of homosexuality,” he said.

Indian yoga guru Baba Ramdev speaks at a free yoga camp for enthusiasts in Bangalore. Hundreds of attendees performed breathing exercises and body postures. Photo: EPA

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Ramdev has said he can cure many kinds of cancers, including brain tumours, with a concoction of wheat grass juice, tulsi (holy basil) and leaves. By claiming that yoga can cure cancer, Ramdev and the minister are in danger of discrediting the real health benefits of yoga and inviting ridicule.

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