One of the consequence of the Practice of yOga is good health. But that’s not the primary goal of the practice.

The physical body will eventually get afflicted with disease. Many accomplished yOgis have experienced disease of the body.

The practice of yOga is to develop one’s inner capacity to deal with the vicissitudes of life, including health challenges.

So, it’s not that I will practice after I become fit. I practice even when I am constrained by many factors; especially when I am not fit, with an intention to get fit. The idea of the practice in such a case is to suit the practice to my current state of being; not an absolute, predefined practice.

I have long escaped from trying the headstand, giving lame excuses of neck / shoulder pain. And I got in to headstand even as I had the so called neck pain. In the moment of my escape, the pain was real. Only when I developed an intent to go beyond the pain, I could explore possibilities beyond my self created limitations. Not that one should ignore the pain, but the careful Practice is about careful observation / listening to the limitation, and gently pushing the inner boundary a little.

So, the practice of yOga is not limited to those having rubber like flexible bodies; it is as much for the rigid ones. When one starts to engage with the rigidity of the body and flex it a little, one develops the unconscious capacity to flex one’s behavioral rigidities too.

yOga is not merely for the body, but it is as much for the mind. And, it is not an esoteric escape in to a fantasy world either; but is a grounded, tangible practice of deepening one’s ability to paying attention to one’s reality of the moment and discovering other ways of dealing with one’s situations beyond the habituated patterns of behavior that I have become a slave to.