Human Body: Our very first instrument

 "The practice of yoga induces a primary sense of measure and proportion. Reduced to our own body, our first instrument, we learn to play it, drawing from it maximum resonance and harmony"  I just put down the book "Unfinished Journey" the memoir of violinist Yehudi Menuhin. His words on the human body drew out some of my own insights.

It was when I started learning Indian classical dance in my late thirties that I became painfully aware of the lack of strength and rhythm in my body. There was lethargy and clumsiness in my body and all its movements. Most of us are born with the gifts of grace, elegance, symmetry and harmony of the body but we lose them over the years by gross disuse. The inactivity built into our over civilized world has become a curse to the human body.

In my slow journey towards reversing the negative impacts of decades of neglect, I have realized that a fine-tuned, lithe and agile body requires physical labor and the discipline for lifelong cultivation. Irrespective of age, we must embrace a discipline like yoga, martial arts or classical dance forms to build and sustain strength and agility in the body way into old age.

"It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.” - Socrates