Cleanliness, contentment, austerity or penance, recitation of sacred scriptures and devotion to the Lord are the five ‘Niyamas’ or observances. What better way than yoga, to cultivate these values which is a union of mind and body? Is there a relationship between Yoga and modern Science? It appears so. The Natural frequency of a body is directly proportional to stiffness and inversely to its mass and at which, the system tends to oscillate in the absence of any driving or dampening force. Further, Stiffness of a body is the ratio of load to displacement that it can cause. Forced vibrations happen at frequencies of applied force. When the Natural and forced frequencies equal, resonance results, multiplying amplitudes, manifold even resulting in failure. To beat the resonance, natural frequencies need to be high which in turn would entail higher stiffness and lower mass.
The ability to have smaller deflections for large loads, would raise the stiffness/toughness of the body whose mass must be small. Material properties have a significant role in determining the natural frequency. Herein lies the strength of Yoga, the power of concentration and its effect on human body. Every object including the human body defined by its body mass index, has a resonant frequency. Vibrations in the frequency range of 0.5 Hz to 80 Hz have significant effects on the human body. The Gayatri Mantra recited at about 20 Hz has a healing effect on DNA like no other sound in our life. Individual body members and organs have their own resonant frequencies and do not vibrate as a single mass. This causes amplification or attenuation of input vibrations by certain parts of the body due to their own individual resonant frequencies. The most effective resonant frequencies for vertical vibration lie between 4 and 8 Hz. Vibrations between 2.5-5 Hz generate strong resonance in the vertebra of the neck and lumbar region with amplification of up to 240 per cent. Vibrations between 4-6 Hz set up resonances in the trunk with amplification of up to 200 percent and between 20-30 Hz sets up the strongest resonance between the head and shoulders with amplification of up to 350 per cent.
Whole body vibration may create chronic stress and sometimes even cause permanent damage to the affected organs or body parts and can cause blurred vision, decrease in manual coordination, drowsiness, lower back pain, insomnia, headache and/or upset stomach.
Practicing Yoga under a trainer will aid in controlled vibration and improve DNA. The earth too vibrates at a resonance of 7.83 Hz, better known as the Schumann Resonance. This is considered to be the natural state of everything. Inhaling and exhaling at about this frequency, as breathing exercises espouse in Yoga, will set up a rhythmic beat in consonance with that of the earth and hence could be extremely useful in controlling the metabolism-catabolism processes of the human body.
A human body, strictly non-rigid, can be estimated for its natural frequency. Like a wine glass can be shattered by singing the right note, holding it for several seconds, so that the vibrations build up, the human body too can fail, if the frequencies induced by stress are not damped or conversely if the human body mass is not reduced and its stiffness not increased. Failure to do so can result in mishaps of colossal proportions like the failure of the London’s Millennium Bridge where more than 400 soldiers died.
Let us apply the frequency theory to the human brain, since the human body as a whole, is too complex and since Yoga controls both mind and body anyway. Assuming a disturbance is triggered, measure how long it takes to reach the other side of the human brain, bounce back and return to the epicentre, where it originally started. Let us say it takes about 1 second for one complete cycle. When the echo returns, trigger another disturbance at that instant and the same location, thereby adding the two energies. Wait for the stronger echo this time. Do it again and again. Trigger disturbance after disturbance until the human brain itself can be seen to bulge and distort from space. Keep doing it. Finally, the whole human brain spontaneously breaks apart, and separates permanently into pieces. Is the human brain thus destroyed? Not really. The problem really is one of energy dissipation. During each oscillation, some energy is lost. Disturbances do not echo forever and then laws of rigid body dynamics do not exactly apply here. Otherwise, the human brain would shake forever, which is not the case. As it goes on, the amount of energy stored in the human brain rapidly levels off to a strictly finite quantity, even though more energy is added all the time. However, one can notice that the total energy retained. is only slightly more than the energy from the original disturbance. However, it is not at all clear which of the human brain’s modes we would aim to agitate. Real disturbances generate at least three distinct types of waves, which pass through the brain’s interior on different paths and at different speeds. In addition, the brain’s interior is not uniform and solid, but layered and fluid and so is the entire human body, meaning that it does not vibrate anything like an ordinary sphere would. This complicates the situation further.
At the physical level, it is far from clear what happens at this mysterious point where the brain finally has enough energy to shake itself to bits. More abstractly, it would seek a state which is more stable, a state with lower energy. However, I suspect this prevents one from becoming one with the cosmos. Yoga allows one, through the power of meditation, to concentrate and raise the natural frequency constantly, altering the stiffness and the mass, which allows the amplitude to not build indefinitely till it breaks. The phenomenon would last till the first harmonics since these values cannot be altered forever. Yoga aids in the movement to the second harmonics by not allowing the amplitudes to build or by allowing the cross over in least possible time. Higher orders of concentration and meditation can allow the brain to cross over to higher harmonics without the amplitudes building, a le turbine of an aircraft, ultimately operating at a harmonic that is at peace with the cosmic resonance. This is the state of self-realisation. Moving over from one phase to another would obviously put the human body and mind to great test and perseverance. In the process of reaching a state of cosmic resonance, there will be several states that ordinary human beings will not be able to realise, such as Karma Yoga to Hatha Yoga to Raja Yoga and being one with the cosmos.
Schumann resonance is a global electromagnetic resonance, which is electrical discharges of lightning within the cavity existing between the Earth’s surface and the ionosphere and resonates with electromagnetic waves at a low 7.86Hz – 8Hz, which is the fundamental “beat” of the planet. “Ordinary” thought waves that are created by a human brain ranges from 14 Hz to 40 Hz. If both sides of our brain are synchronized with each other at 8 Hz, they work more harmoniously and allow the maximum flow of information. 8 Hz is also the frequency of the double helix in DNA replication. The human body, resonating at this frequency, or tuned to higher harmonics through the practice of Yoga, has the potential to reach Raja Yoga and beyond. Indeed, our children must realise that everything in the universe is controlled and owned. Yoga rationalises simple and truthful living and makes better citizens for the morrow, by instilling valued principles. Like the Bhagavad Gita extols: “Yoga is the journey of the self, through the self, to the self.” Yoga then, is a great supplement to better education.