Kevala - Current Newsletter

We would like to wish a very Happy New Year to all our students/members. As we are starting this year, many of us have set resolution for ourselves. These resolutions maybe financial, career, health, happiness, peace etc. Let us not forget that everyday is a spiritual journey for all of us. And this spiritual journey can only be fulfilled if we give a positive meaning to every event every minute of the day. Fulfillment can only be attain within, by looking inside ourself and asking what is your trueself? What will give you inner peace and happiness? Happiness is not a destiny but a journey, a meaning that you choose to on give positively. It is not about material gain, as these are temporary, it is about living in harmony with the universe.

2007 has been a very successful year for our charity work. We would like to thank our students/member for making our orang asli project a success. We successfully built the community hall and 4 toilets for this village. It would not have been possible without our students who volunteered their services with much love and dedication. We would also like to thank our students who have volunteered their services to the Rumah Sinar Harapan (Kuala Kubu Baru) to groom the mentally and physically challenged children. During Hari Raya Puasa, we also made our way to the Klang G.H to distribute goodie bags to the patients there.

This new year we have plans to organize more charity programmes and we do hope more students will support us. Remember, HANDS THAT SERVE IS GREATER THAN LIPS THAT PRAY!

P.S. (Photos of opening Ceremony of the Orang Asli Community hall and toilets is in our website, www.kevala.com.my)

Yoga is the control of thought-waves in the mind.
Yoga is much more than "a new-found ability to touch your toes." Asanas have an all-pervading effect on the physical and mental functioning of the body:

Regular practice of asanas helps to keep our body fit, controls cholesterol levels, reduces weight, normalises blood pressure and improves heart performance. Asanas also strengthen the mind and give it the tenacity to withstand pain and unhappiness stoically and with fortitude. In this way, they lead to mental equilibrium and calmness. Pranayam re-educates our breathing process through the correct breathing technique. This helps us manipulate our energies. It helps release tension and develop a relaxed state of mind. It balances our nervous system, thus reducing the need for sleep. It encourages creative thinking and increases the amount of oxygen to our brain. This improves mental clarity, alertness and physical well being. Yoga Nidra is a wonderful way of relaxing. It is a type of meditation, done while lying on our backs in Shavasana. It relaxes our entire physiological and psychological system, thus completely rejuvenating the body and the mind. It thus helps us to relate better to people and things around us, giving us a sense of well being.

Asanas, Pranayam and Yoga Nidra help prevent disorders and ailments such as diabetes, blood pressure, heart conditions, asthma, varicose veins, digestive disorders, arthritis, arteriosclerosis and chronic fatigue. A person who practises Yoga can consciously control autonomic or involuntary functions, such as temperature, heartbeat and blood pressure.Yoga creates a balance in the nervous and endocrine system which directly influence all other body systems and organs. There is no doubt that Yoga is an effective curative and preventive medicine. Yoga is a holistic remedy that combines the faculties of mental peace and improved concentration and power, with a relaxed state of living, good relationship and harmony with people.
Yoga relaxes the mind. It reduces stress and anxiety levels and thereby reduces aggressiveness. It gives one the mental fitness to overcome psychological problems.

The practice of Yoga creates within one an awareness of the inter-relations between the emotional, mental and physical levels, and of how a disturbance in any one of these states affects the others. Gradually this awareness leads to an understanding of the more subtle areas of existence.

Ultimately Yoga expands one’s consciousness to a vast number of things around us, which we are otherwise unaware of.

Yoga Diet
Yogi must eat Balanced and Abstemiously diet; otherwise, whatever he/she practices cannot gain any success-" Siva Samhita"

Your mind and body is greatly affected by the food that you eat. Improper diet results to mental insufficiency, weak body and blocks spiritual awareness. One of the Five Principle of Yoga is Proper Diet. According to this principle, your diet should nourish both mind and body, and should be well balanced and based on natural foods. It also means eating in moderation and eating only when you are hungry.

Yoga Diet is a perfect complement to Yoga Exercise. Eating properly will not only help you become healthy but also help you feel fitter and cleaner? Yoga Diet also help you control your weight, that is loose excess weight and maintain a fitter body since it eliminates junk foods from your food list and include only the healthy ones.

Yoga Diet is a pure or "sattvic" diet. It is based on fresh, light and natural food such as fruits, grains and vegetables. It keeps the body lean and supple and the mind clear and sharp which is suitable for the practice of Yoga and necessary in everyday life. It also helps prevent issues like Diabetes or obesity. Even if you do not intend to become vegetarian, we fully recommend everyone to follow these Basic Diet rules during the practice of yoga, as it will make you feel better and be healthier.

The Proper Diet
Until quite recently most meat-eaters viewed vegetarians with a certain suspicion, dismissing them as cranks or food faddist who lived on a unappetizing diet of brown rice and nut cutlets. Nowadays, people are better informed, but the vegetarian diet is still sometimes dismissed as dull and uninteresting, and lacking in vital ingredients. The facts show quite the reverse - indeed if anyone needs to defend that accusation it is meat eaters. There is ample medical evidence that a balanced vegetarian diet is extremely healthy, and provides all protein, minerals and so on that the body requires. Statistically vegetarian have a lower incidence of heart attacks, strokes, kidney disease, and cancer; their resistance to disease is higher; and they are less likely to suffer from obesity than meat-eaters.

The Protein
Fear of protein deficiency is the meat-eater's main objection to a vegetarian diet. Yet, ironically, meat eaters themselves obtain the worst quality protein from their food - protein that is dead or dying. We ourselves are animals, and can take our protein from the plant world, just as well as other herbivorous animals. Animal protein contains too much uric acid to be broken down by the liver; some is eliminated, but the rest is deposited in the joints, causing stiffness and eventually leading to problems such as arthritis. Nuts, dairy products, spirulina, and legumes all supply high-class protein. Westerners are obsessed with protein believing that they need far more than they actually do. The World Health Organization presently recommends a daily intake of 25 to 50 grams as sufficient to maintain and replace body tissue.

All other types of food are NOT necessary to lead a healthy and happy life. Moreover, consuming other types of food will damage your physical and mental health.

The Three Gunas
The Yoga Diet is one the Five Principles of Yoga. You will soon notice that eating properly will aid your health and make you feel fitter and cleaner. The Yoga Diet is a perfect complement to Yoga Exercise. Despite the fact that the Yoga Diet is not a Diet in the common sense of the word, you will probably loose considerable weight by just eating only healthy foods. Even if you do not want to become a vegetarian, we fully recommend anyone to follow these basic Yoga Diet rules as it will make you feel so much better.

In the unmanifested universe, energy has three qualities, known as Gunas, which exist together in equilibrium:

Sattva (purity); Rajas (activity, passion, the process of change); and Tamas (darkness, inertia). Once energy takes form, one quality of the three predominates. Thus on an apple tree, some fruit is ripe (sattvic), some ripening (rajastic) and some overripe (tamastic). But no matter what quality prevails, an element of each of the other two will always be present as well - parts of the apple will be in all the different stages. The Three Gunas encompass all existence, all actions.

Sattvic Food
Sattvic Diet is the purest Diet, the most suitable one for any serious student of Yoga. It nourishes the body and maintains it in a peaceful state. And it calms and purifies the mind, enabling it to function at its maximum potential. A Sattvic Diet thus leads to true health; a peaceful mind in control of a fit body, with a balanced flow of energy between them.

Rajastic Food
Foods that are very hot, bitter, sour, dry or salty are Rajastic. They destroy the mind-body equilibrium, feeding the body at the expense of the mind. Too much Rajastic food will over-stimulate the body and excite the passions, making the mind restless and uncontrollable.

Rajastic foods include:

Eating in a hurry is also considered rajastic.

A Tamastic Diet benefits neither the mind nor the body. Prana, or energy is withdrawn, powers of reasoning become clouded and a sense of inertia sets in. The body's resistance to disease is destroyed and the mind filled with dark emotions, such as anger and greed.

Tamastic food includes:

Overeating is also considered tamastic.

Warning: The Yoga Diet is not rocket science. It is just about including healthier food options in your Diet. However if you feel unsure on how to proceed or you have a medical condition which prevents you from radically changing your Diet, please consult a physician first before changing any of your food patterns.

The Yogic Way of Changing Your Diet
To ease your transitions, here are some pointers:

We truly hope that you will manage to follow these guidelines and achieve to live a healthy and happy live enjoying the best and tastiest food possible.

Yoga is the Control of Thought-waves in the Mind.