Yoga books for better living!

With yoga spreading its wings worldwide, books on yoga are attracting more readers. Here, ABP finds out more about such books. Yoga is a self discipline that provides procedures to consistently help us in every sphere of life. It enables the individual consciousness to fuse with the super consciousness and in the process transforms our physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual personality. Yoga is as old as the civilisation itself and enriches the Vedas, Upnishads, Bhagwad Gita and the Sutras of Patanjali. Swami Vivekanand and Shri Aurobindo also preached and promoted Yoga as a discipline, for they were convinced that Yogic practices bring about a natural balance of body and mind.

The first international day of Yoga was observed world over on June 21, 2015. About 35,000 people, including Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and a large number of dignitaries, performed 21 Yoga asanas (yoga postures) for 35 minutes at Rajpath in New Delhi. The day devoted to Yoga was observed by millions across the world. “With the declaration of June 21st as the International Yoga Day by the UN, the discipline now finds worldwide recognition and has also been included as a mainstream subject in school education. The National Curriculum Framework foresees a definite moral and ethical development of values among students through yoga and calls for its inclusion in the daily time table,” shares Nidhi Kundra, chief editor, Jiwan Books International.

More and more people are now adopting yoga and other spiritual practices. Why? “In the modern world when stress is on the peak in all corners of society, people would like to just relax from the day to day of their regular life style. So they need some kinds of relaxation, meditation and search for other sources. Religion plays a vital role in our society. Most of the people are the followers of some gurus. They usually visit their ashrams for relaxation, yoga and other activities. They do attend their lectures to gain knowledge.

While participating in such activities, the followers would like to read about it. Hence the books by spiritual gurus have increased. These books not only give them the knowledge but at some extent it gives them satisfaction too which is more important for followers,” says Chander Mani Gosain of Friends Publications India.

While, VK Gupta of Indian Books Centre/Sri Satguru Publications, shares, “Books are the only way to know our culture, heritage, religion and spiritual values. These books give us health and peace of mind. Nowadays people are interested in these books. So there is good market of these books in the world.”

Huge market for yoga and spiritual books

“The role of yoga in personality development of an individual stands undisputed in the modern times. With the ready availability of titles on the same, a person interested in training at home can gain much through these books.

Additionally with the increased number of books on this topic on the book shelves, one is naturally forced to think about the health benefits of the same and include it in their daily lifestyle,” tells Nidhi. “The market for such books is as big as the spiritual guru has got the followers. There is no end to it. Every human being has lot of problems in their life.

They keep on running here and there to solve those problems and spiritual gurus are the basic source for them to resolve their problems. Hence the market for such books is too big. You may take the example of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji, Guru ji, Jaggi Guru ji and so on,” shares Chander.

Friends Publications India is the single largest publisher of books on physical education, sports and health sciences in India with approx 700 titles of Indian and international authors. There are several titles which are prescribed as textbooks. “We have approx 50 titles on Yoga. The average print run depends on title to title but it’s not less than 3500 copies,” adds Chander, adding, “Most of the colleges/schools are the buyers of these kinds of books, but the books on yoga in Hindi sells at retail counters.”

Presentation of yoga books…

It’s not just the content but the entire presentation of the book that makes a difference. As Nidhi puts it, “The presentation of the book majorly influences the reader. A visual of a tempting dessert stimulates appetite; similarly the visual of a meditating face definitely induces a desire to achieve the same state in one’s own life. This, when additionally depicting a child shall strike a chord with the children as well as parents as restlessness is one of the major complaints that the parents have against their children.”

“As far as the current market scenario goes, well illustrated books on yoga for children or even adults will always be welcome because the busy schedules may not permit most to attend group sessions outside. Such books therefore become a handy DIY (do-it-yourself) kind of a tool,” she adds.

Talking about the books on yoga that Jiwan Publishing House publishes, Nidhi adds, “We target the early teenage group where the hormones have just begun to play their game and the young adolescents find it difficult to cope with the sudden physical and emotional changes. With practice of the discipline, not only does their stress find a constructive release, it also grooms them into balanced individuals for a lifetime.”

Printed vs Digital books

“For people who truly love books, print is the only medium that will satisfy. Print books do not have to disappear for e-books to flourish,” tells Gupta. Similar views were shared by Chander who says, “We are very poor in power sector. We may sell e-books in metropolitan cities but in other areas only printed books are sold. The connectivity of internet is very slow; people are not familiar with the gadgets.”

While, Nidhi opines that an e-book is always handy to cater to the mass audience.

On a concluding note…

“The lifestyle that plagues us now-a-days is sure to take a toll on our mental and physical health. Many of us are incidentally awakened to the means to better our health and in such a case, well written books on health, fitness, yoga etc., will definitely find their way to the personal book shelves,” says Nidhi as a matter of fact.

Her views are seconded by Gupta who says, “Lot of medical problems can be resolved without the use of medicines but people are unaware of it. With the help of books on yoga, people can cure themselves of acute and chronic diseases without the use of any medicines. But, books are not really helpful until they are implemented. Only those should read selfhelp books who want to help themselves. Read these books and put it to practical use.”

(With inputs from: Nidhi Kundra, chief editor, Jiwan Books International; Chander Mani Gosain of Friends Publications India and VK Gupta of Indian Books Centre/Sri Satguru Publications.)