Yoga in software engineering
It is a boon, not just for software engineers, but for any human being, if he or she has the ability to work tirelessly for a longer hours of the day and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic, energetic and above all, joyful. Isn't it. Yes, that is the objective of this article.
It is a boon, not just for software engineers, but for any human being, if he or she has the ability to work tirelessly for a longer hours of the day and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic, energetic and above all, joyful. Isn't it. Yes, that is the objective of this article.
We have a yoga discussion forum where, around 10-15 yoga students and practitioners discuss various yoga related topics, share and learn by analyzing and debating on each others' experiences in reference to the yoga texts. Once a month we gather in the yoga hall dedicating our time for this purpose. In one such discussion, I came across an interesting experience of one of the yoga practitioner which am going to share today in this blog. I am going to refer to him with the name Swyog in the rest of this blog. The experience that is shared here might be the natural condition for some. However, the purpose of this blog is not about the experience itself. But of the transformational phenomenon that took place and the idea of ideal conditions of work. One of the lessons of karma yoga for us, the ordinary.
Let me make this story into the following sections:
Background:
The hero of this story, Mr. Swyog is a software engineer having about 12 years of experience in the industry. He was not a very healthy child since his younger days. he has been having some chronic illness or the other - be it cold, cough, fever, body ache, stomach upset, skin allergies, etc. So he has been in medication of all kinds, all along. A few years ago, following a sever health issues, he started practicing yoga and has found considerable improvements in his health. Like any other software engineer, working late nights and meeting deadlines has been the most commonly occurring situations in his decade plus of experience. There have been days when he stayed in office 24 hours working continuously.
Pre Conditions:
It was the peak winter - December when Swyog had just returned from a week long vacation from a pilgrimage from the Himalayas. As we know the December is the month when these software engineers have the lean period of their work and get a chance to become most active outside of their cocoons. Like me, he too is a solo traveler who enjoys the freedom of traveling, meeting people, exploring the world and culture around us all alone! And like most of us do, coming January he too restarted his Suryakriya practices as if it was a new year's resolution! But the failed attempts before and the longing he had to restart his practices seems to have done much good. The energy with which he did the practices was extraordinary.
After his return from the vacations, he started experiencing the real hunger for the first time in his life. Before this in many occasions, he used to boast of himself that he could be in empty stomach very easily and wondered why people become so impatience with hunger. By two hours of having meals, he used to feel hunger again and becomes uncontrolable. He started carrying more than one box or some days having some snacks from the cafeteria.
Another important complaint that our Swyog had since at least an year or so was that he didn't feel energetic and fresh in the morning when he woke up, no matter how long he slept and how much ever late he woke up in the morning. Adjusting food habits helped but to only some extent. For him, 7.5hrs was the ideal time of sleep. Even half an hour less would make him feel drowsy in the office. But after he came back from the trip, he said, he no more had this problem! And he had eventually stopped all medications that he was taking since more than an year.
In order to do his practices regularly, he had to wake up early and yet not drowse in the office. So his challenge was to sleep early. Thus, he says, "Sleeping early was much bigger challenge than the practice itself. I had been attempting to sleep early since almost one year and was unable to do so. the The real challenge was more to do with my own mind than my office work. What I had to go through in this attempt itself can be considered in another entire session. Finally after I came back, I could some how make up my mind to sleep early. This in turn helped me immensely to do my regular practices that am continuing even now. It would not be out of the scope of this discussion that the year long monthly sessions about our Indian soldiers and discussing about their self-discipline at this yoga discussion group had helped me with my struggle in reinforcing my discipline."
The Experience:
At office, towards the end of February or so, Swyog was assigned a task that was not only interesting to him but also challenging. It had to be completed within a deadline (common with any software projects!) having higher visibility (tracked at higher management, say director, vice-president, etc.)
He felt as if his whole system was in a perfect state of homeostasis. A state he described, in which the mind and body are not only in balance, but also filled with enthusiasm and was energetic. In his words , "As soon as I wakeup in the morning at sharp 5am, I had to be in front of my laptop, till midnight. Everything else, from morning obligations to having food to sleeping were, as it were, only a reluctant tasks that used to come and go once in a while. I used to sleep around 4-5hrs per day. Often, whenever I used to feel drowsy in office, especially after lunch, I used to switch on the music and plug-in the earphones to avoid the drowsiness. However, during this time, I didn't need even that in spite of sleeping less hours plus heavy workload! The mind was so very focused that, neither there was any sign of fatigue nor was in need of any other entertainment. Working itself was a great entertainment! The weekends had lost their meaning. Family forgotten, though I was WFH due to the start of COVID lockdown."
The task assigned to him lasted for about a month.To ensure he gets good rest to his body and at the same time good energy, he changed his dinner to only half boiled vegetables. And since his eyes had to see the screen continuously, naturally, he added more carrots to his diet. He shared another important observation, "As the days rolled by watching me working as if like a devil all of a sudden, my wife was frightened. Everyday night she applied castor oil to my head to cool down the body from the heat I experienced especially in the face and the head and to reduce the strain on the eyes." This heat he is referring to is not due to fever or any kind of illness. He shared that he enjoyed the heat that he was experiencing in his system. This was the peak of his wonderful experience.
Now, he explained how this wonderful state of his body and mind reduced to his normalcy, "As I worked for days at a stretch, may be after about 15-20 days, one night I sensed my body was getting strained a bit and needed to rest. However, I was carried away with the work I had been doing and since it was not still the time I used to go to bed those days, I IGNORED this hint and continued to finish up the task at hand at that time. And the next day, as usual I continued to work the same way. However, in the afternoon after lunch I felt I should take a bit of rest. Again, I just ignored that. It was as if my head was spinning with pride about what I have been experiencing. I was carried away. The next day afternoon, again I felt like taking a bit of rest.
This was as if the last warning that my system gave. Here's when I did a mistake. I did take rest that afternoon. However, I slept more than an hour. May be two hours, I dont exactly remember. When I woke up, I had lost all that wonderful experience I was having all that while. The tamas, the inertia had set in. I started feeling a bit of heaviness in the head. From next day onward, I started feeling a bit of very mild pain at the bottom circumference of the chest. It might be the effect of abnormal kapha dosha. The accumulation of mild phlegm at the lower edge of the lungs which used to raise up to the throat causing me to spit bits of white phlegm once a while. Otherwise, there was no signs of cold or cough though. In the meanwhile, I was coming to the end of my task which was even more critical and higher visibility. So I continued my focus. The task assigned to me completed successfully, though it was late by three days. And unfortunately, the journey of my wonderful experience also completed. That Sunday, I experienced a mild headache too that lasted the whole day. Applying some castor oil would push it away. From that day onward, for about a week, my every focused activity had a visiting guest of mild headache and it would vanish in a while. I had returned back to my 'normal' state".
Analysis:
What Swyog experienced is something some of us might have experienced at one point in time or the other. And we would have just ignored it. Analyzing it is not to be considered even. But for a yoga practitioner such experiences gives a great lesson and is too precious to be ignored.
In Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna explains this condition, thus:
In this context, the happiness or excitement does not necessarily mean one is jumping and dancing in madness. Anything that deviates us from the path of discipline is to be avoided. For example, the tendencies such as to look at the whatsapp forwarded messages or the facebook every now and then
Let me make this story into the following sections:
- Background
- Pre Conditions to his experience
- the Experience
- Analysis of his experience
- Conclusion
Background:
The hero of this story, Mr. Swyog is a software engineer having about 12 years of experience in the industry. He was not a very healthy child since his younger days. he has been having some chronic illness or the other - be it cold, cough, fever, body ache, stomach upset, skin allergies, etc. So he has been in medication of all kinds, all along. A few years ago, following a sever health issues, he started practicing yoga and has found considerable improvements in his health. Like any other software engineer, working late nights and meeting deadlines has been the most commonly occurring situations in his decade plus of experience. There have been days when he stayed in office 24 hours working continuously.
Pre Conditions:
It was the peak winter - December when Swyog had just returned from a week long vacation from a pilgrimage from the Himalayas. As we know the December is the month when these software engineers have the lean period of their work and get a chance to become most active outside of their cocoons. Like me, he too is a solo traveler who enjoys the freedom of traveling, meeting people, exploring the world and culture around us all alone! And like most of us do, coming January he too restarted his Suryakriya practices as if it was a new year's resolution! But the failed attempts before and the longing he had to restart his practices seems to have done much good. The energy with which he did the practices was extraordinary.
After his return from the vacations, he started experiencing the real hunger for the first time in his life. Before this in many occasions, he used to boast of himself that he could be in empty stomach very easily and wondered why people become so impatience with hunger. By two hours of having meals, he used to feel hunger again and becomes uncontrolable. He started carrying more than one box or some days having some snacks from the cafeteria.
Another important complaint that our Swyog had since at least an year or so was that he didn't feel energetic and fresh in the morning when he woke up, no matter how long he slept and how much ever late he woke up in the morning. Adjusting food habits helped but to only some extent. For him, 7.5hrs was the ideal time of sleep. Even half an hour less would make him feel drowsy in the office. But after he came back from the trip, he said, he no more had this problem! And he had eventually stopped all medications that he was taking since more than an year.
In order to do his practices regularly, he had to wake up early and yet not drowse in the office. So his challenge was to sleep early. Thus, he says, "Sleeping early was much bigger challenge than the practice itself. I had been attempting to sleep early since almost one year and was unable to do so. the The real challenge was more to do with my own mind than my office work. What I had to go through in this attempt itself can be considered in another entire session. Finally after I came back, I could some how make up my mind to sleep early. This in turn helped me immensely to do my regular practices that am continuing even now. It would not be out of the scope of this discussion that the year long monthly sessions about our Indian soldiers and discussing about their self-discipline at this yoga discussion group had helped me with my struggle in reinforcing my discipline."
The Experience:
At office, towards the end of February or so, Swyog was assigned a task that was not only interesting to him but also challenging. It had to be completed within a deadline (common with any software projects!) having higher visibility (tracked at higher management, say director, vice-president, etc.)
He felt as if his whole system was in a perfect state of homeostasis. A state he described, in which the mind and body are not only in balance, but also filled with enthusiasm and was energetic. In his words , "As soon as I wakeup in the morning at sharp 5am, I had to be in front of my laptop, till midnight. Everything else, from morning obligations to having food to sleeping were, as it were, only a reluctant tasks that used to come and go once in a while. I used to sleep around 4-5hrs per day. Often, whenever I used to feel drowsy in office, especially after lunch, I used to switch on the music and plug-in the earphones to avoid the drowsiness. However, during this time, I didn't need even that in spite of sleeping less hours plus heavy workload! The mind was so very focused that, neither there was any sign of fatigue nor was in need of any other entertainment. Working itself was a great entertainment! The weekends had lost their meaning. Family forgotten, though I was WFH due to the start of COVID lockdown."
The task assigned to him lasted for about a month.To ensure he gets good rest to his body and at the same time good energy, he changed his dinner to only half boiled vegetables. And since his eyes had to see the screen continuously, naturally, he added more carrots to his diet. He shared another important observation, "As the days rolled by watching me working as if like a devil all of a sudden, my wife was frightened. Everyday night she applied castor oil to my head to cool down the body from the heat I experienced especially in the face and the head and to reduce the strain on the eyes." This heat he is referring to is not due to fever or any kind of illness. He shared that he enjoyed the heat that he was experiencing in his system. This was the peak of his wonderful experience.
Now, he explained how this wonderful state of his body and mind reduced to his normalcy, "As I worked for days at a stretch, may be after about 15-20 days, one night I sensed my body was getting strained a bit and needed to rest. However, I was carried away with the work I had been doing and since it was not still the time I used to go to bed those days, I IGNORED this hint and continued to finish up the task at hand at that time. And the next day, as usual I continued to work the same way. However, in the afternoon after lunch I felt I should take a bit of rest. Again, I just ignored that. It was as if my head was spinning with pride about what I have been experiencing. I was carried away. The next day afternoon, again I felt like taking a bit of rest.
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| Photo by David McCumskay on Unsplash |
Analysis:
What Swyog experienced is something some of us might have experienced at one point in time or the other. And we would have just ignored it. Analyzing it is not to be considered even. But for a yoga practitioner such experiences gives a great lesson and is too precious to be ignored.
In Bhagavad-Gita, Sri Krishna explains this condition, thus:
mātrā-sparśhās tu kaunteya śhītoṣhṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata [ BG: 2.14 ]
āgamāpāyino ’nityās tans-titikṣhasva bhārata [ BG: 2.14 ]
O son of Kunti, the contact between the senses and the sense objects
gives rise to fleeting perceptions of happiness and distress. These are
non-permanent, and come and go like the winter and summer seasons. O
descendent of Bharat, one must learn to tolerate them without being
disturbed.
sukha-duḥkhe same kṛitvā lābhālābhau jayājayau
tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi [ BG: 2.38 ]
tato yuddhāya yujyasva naivaṁ pāpam avāpsyasi [ BG: 2.38 ]
Fight for the sake of duty, treating alike happiness and distress, loss
and gain, victory and defeat. Fulfilling your responsibility in this
way, you will never incur sin.
In this context, the happiness or excitement does not necessarily mean one is jumping and dancing in madness. Anything that deviates us from the path of discipline is to be avoided. For example, the tendencies such as to look at the whatsapp forwarded messages or the facebook every now and then
is an indication of instability of the mind. Such a mind becomes prone to deviate from the path of discipline easily. In this case, the new found strength, made Swyog excited and pushed him away from the discipline that he had set - sleeping early in the night and wake up early in the morning. Once the mind goes off the track, its hard to pull it back. Even after 3 months of this experience, he shared that he could got get himself to that discipline. But he was a warrior by heart. He was as enthusiastic as with the struggle before the experience in putting himself to sleep early in the night. Patanjali says in the yoga sutras thus:
sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara-adara-asevito dridhabhumih [ PYS: 1.14 ]
“This becomes firmly grounded or firmly established in you when you attend to it for a long time, without interruption and with devotion.”
Note, "This" in the above explanation of the verse, in our context, refers to the ability to work tirelessly, enthusiastically, and joyfully for an extended period of time - The main objective of our discussion. Haven't we noticed certain small hotels which would have become famous may be in the entire city, state or even whole of the country for their a very limited varioety of very tasty foodies since decades. Yet no branches. No extended time of services, rather restricted time of their service. Yet people standing in the queue even before they open the hotel !!
His Himalayan pilgrimage gave the right setting to his body and mind. It put him in a balanced state of being. This is called chitta prasadana as mentioned in the Patanjali yoga sutras (PYS, 1.33). Meaning, a citta prasadanam mind is considered favorable, wholesome and pleasant.This in turn sets the right stage for the body to perform to the optimum level. Such a condition is also the platform for gaining further the mental faculties that are required for an ideal software engineer. However, if this condition needs to be developed wherever we are and maintained permanently, then it can be achieved by practicing what Patangali mentions:
maitrī karuṇā mudito-pekṣāṇāṁ-sukha-duḥkha puṇya-apuṇya-viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaḥ citta-prasādanam [ PYS: 1.33 ]
The Mind Becomes Purified By The Cultivation Of Feelings Of
Friendliness, Compassion, Goodwill , And Indifference Respectively Towards
Those Who Are Happy , Miserable , Virtuous , And Sinful.
This together with Yama and Niyama ( PYS, 2.30,32 ) helps achieve the condition conducive for higher experiences. For ex., one of the virtuous habits of Niyama, Shoucha means not only the cleanliness of mind, body and speech but also the air we breath, water we drink, food we eat, should also be kept clean. The place we live, the people we interact with can also pollute our mind. The methods to deal with the latter is what the above shloka talks about. Isn't it? The practices of the above methods and visiting a pilgrimage place are complementary to each other. While the first, helps develop and make the condition permanent. the latter helps to reinforce and supports such a condition.
Moreover, the oxygenation of the blood is an important effect of exercise. Especially, activities such as climbing a mountain results in maximal oxygen uptake of the body ( search "Altitude training" on Google for more details ). Regular and adequate exercise especially in the early morning in the fresh air will make us fitter.
The experience itself that he went through is the condition that is conducive for Dhyana - Meditative state in which there is no disturbances of any sort. This is result of the pure satvik state. He never needed stimulants such as music, coffee, tea, smoking, chatting, etc. Nor was there a need for great amount of rest. The body was more or less under rest most of the time. All he needed was a bit of rest for his eyes and brain activities. The most important part of his wonderful experience that we should make note is that he did not stop his yoga practices. So, yoga, healthy food as well as sleep were just adequate that kept him to push to his limits and yet be unaffected.
The reason Swyog called it a mistake to have slept in the afternoon is because he knows its not correct to sleep in the afternoon for long duration. In the dinacharya of Ayurveda, it clearly rules out the idea of midday sleeping as it increases kapha dosha and phlegm disorders. And isn't this exactly what he experienced? However, 15-20mins of power nap is recommended. Thus for Swyog, the balanced state of the body was thrown away due to excess sleeping in the midday.
Man experiences the gift of nature. However, because of the greed and ignorance that he posses, he destroys the gift. Before we proceed any further with the investigation, let me tell an anecdote. It is well known that the river Ganga washes away all our sins. Once a sinner realized his mistakes and decided that he wanted to get rid of the effects of all the sins that he had committed so far.
The most important part of his experience - loosing his balanced state, is the very first sign of crossing the limits. Those who wants to live on the edge must be super alert. Same goes with our Jawans who lives in our borders, the edge of the nation. Isn't it? Unfortunately, our friend Swyog ignored that first signal. If he would have acted upon it immediately, then probably things would have been completely different. So the robber of dullness of the mind, stealthily swept in him in the form of excess sleep on the third day.
Now, the question is what caused him to ignore the mild signal that came in, in the form of intuition? When one of us asked this question, it was hard even for Swyog to figure out why exactly he ignored this thought. This happens with many of us. Isn't it? This is because our thoughts, words and actions are not in sync. This is one reason, that Patanjali asks us to be truthful - the very second Yama (code of conducts). Being truthful ensures that we keep a check on our thoughts at all times. Our intellect becomes sharp. On the other hand, we do not tend to listen even to a strong warnings, because of our attachment to the fruits of action : The karma yoga clearly teaches us to ignore the fruits of action or leave it to the lord or the vidhi or the fate. The point of analysis we are at now, is the best example to illustrate this idea. Swyog's desire to meet the deadline is his attachment to the fruit of the actions. Fear, hesitation, anxiety are all the result of one's attachment to something or the other. Expectation, is the other form of attachment. We expect to prove ourselves to the management because, we need promotions and salary hikes. We expect the salary hike beyond our ability because we are bound some where else - either because we have a home loan or some other commitment. Taking loans and credits were considered next to crime in the culture and tradition of Bharatha only for this reason. We become bound. We are compelled to become attached. We loose freedom and in turn our thoughts, words and deeds become diverged.
Alabdhabhumikatva and anavasthitatva: As Swyog mentioned, for a long time, he wanted to start practizing yoga. However, he had failed several attempts. He even found it the hardest to sleep early too. This is called alabdhabhumikatva (inability to start or progress), one of the nine obstacles mentioned in yoga sutras. He has now overcome this condition as he is able to practice regularly. Though he started practicing yoga, the balanced state that he achieved in a short period of time, has been lost. This is called the anavasthitatva (inability to maintain the state we worked hard to attain). We saw the reasons for this condition. He needs to work harder and smarter in order to not only achieve that state again, but also learn the art of maintaining the state that he achieves.
Climax - A Revelation:
Now, after having all this discussion and analysis, after about 3 months of this whole episode, Swyog came across another subtle and yet profound revelation that he shared with us in another such yoga group meeting. While he said he was continuing to do the regular practice, over a period of time, gradually, his strength, vigor and enthusiasm came down to such an extent that he could not even do his practices with fullness of mind. He said he needed to play some music or some lecture or something in the background and at times, he would even browse his whatsapp in between his practices, to manage and motivate his mind for the practice. After the lockdown due to covid-19 is lifted he happened to visit a medieval temple of a great saint near his hometown where he was locked during the lock-down 
period as many software engineers would have. He spent a few hours there in contemplation and then came the revelation - while he did his practices regularly, during his high on his work - his heart was beating - "Ye Dil Mange More"! He wanted to learn more yogic practices and adopt them in his daily schedule. He had setup a deadline of one year and had plans to achieve certain milestone in that period. In that process he no doubt learnt new things but in order to accommodate it in his daily practice, he compromised on the number of repetitions of the existing practices which had complimented his renewed state of being on his return from the Himalayan pilgrimage.
This "Ye Dil MAnge More" attitude is the result of intense rajas in us. Here is an anecdote - A man had been practicing meditation since quite sometime. Now, since a few days he has started experiencing a wonderful state of silence of the mind - Wherever he wished he could just absorb himself into nothing. Just sit there and do nothing sometimes upto two hours. It was a wonderful experience to be in. For a while he enjoyed this. Then he approached his guru, and asked - "Ok, this is wonderful, Guruji. But what will I do doing nothing in life. So, what's next? What is the next experience I need to aspire for? I am eager to learn the new lesson, Please teach" The guru said, "You Idiot, For what else on earth or beyond, you were meditating, all this while??" Such is the funny condition of the Rajasic mind!
Now, Swyog reinforced what was compromised and corrected the mistakes in his practices.
Within a few days he noticed a considerable improvement in the quality
of his involvement in the practices!
Conclusion:
Chitta-prasadana helps raise our ability to perform beyond our known normal. Not only so, it can set for us a new normal too. We analyzed how such a state can be achieved apart from what Swyog achieved. There are many examples around us who work tirelessly for long hours and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic and energetic. Our prime minister, Narendra modi is the most well known example in today's world. In one of the videos, I have heard sadguru Jaggi Vasudev also saying that he has been working for the past 25 years with only 2.5hrs of sleep per day. though lately he says he has become a little "lazy" that he sleeps about 4-5 hours!
There are some countries where we see exponential economic growth happening in a short period of time, where the entire nation has been working tirelessly for decades, either by force or by patriotism, etc. However, working tirelessly and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic, energetic and above all, joyful is the ideal way to be working. Can we, the Bharatiyas achieve such a condition in our work culture? Such a work culture alone can be the foundation stone of aatma nirbhara bharat in its truest sense! This story not only illustrates such a condition, but also explains the obstacles and the way to avoid it. Its not only about the work culture. Such a self-disciplined lifestyle is also a means to eliminate any kind of psychosomatic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, migraine, etc. It is but for such a self discipline and periodic recreation (from their self imposed confinement, say, to go on a pilgrimage, or even a trek ) that any amount of yogic practices or exercises will not help eliminate the conditions of illness. I hope this article motivates and helps gain new confidence in the path of sadhana!
Conclusion:
Chitta-prasadana helps raise our ability to perform beyond our known normal. Not only so, it can set for us a new normal too. We analyzed how such a state can be achieved apart from what Swyog achieved. There are many examples around us who work tirelessly for long hours and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic and energetic. Our prime minister, Narendra modi is the most well known example in today's world. In one of the videos, I have heard sadguru Jaggi Vasudev also saying that he has been working for the past 25 years with only 2.5hrs of sleep per day. though lately he says he has become a little "lazy" that he sleeps about 4-5 hours!
There are some countries where we see exponential economic growth happening in a short period of time, where the entire nation has been working tirelessly for decades, either by force or by patriotism, etc. However, working tirelessly and yet remain healthy, enthusiastic, energetic and above all, joyful is the ideal way to be working. Can we, the Bharatiyas achieve such a condition in our work culture? Such a work culture alone can be the foundation stone of aatma nirbhara bharat in its truest sense! This story not only illustrates such a condition, but also explains the obstacles and the way to avoid it. Its not only about the work culture. Such a self-disciplined lifestyle is also a means to eliminate any kind of psychosomatic diseases such as diabetes, cancer, migraine, etc. It is but for such a self discipline and periodic recreation (from their self imposed confinement, say, to go on a pilgrimage, or even a trek ) that any amount of yogic practices or exercises will not help eliminate the conditions of illness. I hope this article motivates and helps gain new confidence in the path of sadhana!
Happy Yoga Day!
Jai Hind!
