The importance of yoga in everyone’s life has increased manifold during this 16 months of pandemic and with the Union government promoting it the world over for the past seven years, the number of seekers is increasing exponentially.
Lockdowns the world over and lack of proper information on the spread of COVID-19 turned an impediment for yoga gurus in running their classes, where the stress is on learning through observation and correcting postures for the desired results. Things changed fast and the proliferation of the ‘work from home’ concept among all sections of society did not leave yoga classes untouched.
The number of learners might have come down for some time, but eventually, the fatigue set in by staying at home and the inability to access public places like stadiums and gymnasiums have helped increase the demand for online yoga classes or demonstrations, opines Esapathi Suresh, who runs two in-person yoga centres in Anantapur.
No other option
“As a seeker of yoga I have been on this path for the past 18 years and as a teacher, I have guided people for eight years. Personally, I was not interested in teaching online. We thought COVID-19 will not last long but with the outbreak of the second wave, out of no choice, I have designed an easy methodology for a group of five to 10 learners, considering the benefit for common people during the pandemic,” Mr. Suresh tells The Hindu.
Before the pandemic, he used to take online sessions through Skype for people abroad on request. “But this way both students and teachers could not convey/transfer the true experience of yoga which means ‘union’,” he points out.
The revenue dwindled for some time, but soon he started getting calls from Dubai, U.K. and U.S.A. besides a few old students from Mumbai who approached him for online sessions.
Now Yogalaya is conducting online sessions through Zoom and WhatsApp. “A very small number of enthusiasts attend offline sessions at our branches following strict COVID-19 protocols. Watching and listening to our teaching methodology on social media, and through the feedback from the learners, people are getting aware of the benefits of yoga to beat the physical and psychological effects of COVID-19,” he explains.
“Yoga techniques definitely help in facing the COVID-19 challenge as a preventive measure, for recovery from the infection fast and manage post-COVID effects,” Mr. Suresh observes.
