Yama and Niyamas in Medical Profession

The eight fold paths of yoga as propounded by Maharshi Patanjali include Yamas, Niyamas, Asanas, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi.

People generally equate yoga with asanas or body postures. True yoga is a complete system of which the asanas are just a part.
Yoga texts lay great stress on Yamas and Niyamas. These are practices which should be followed by all Yoga practitioners in thoughts, speech, and action to derive complete benefit out of them. Strange it may sound, Yamas and Niyamas are being observed by doctors in their medical practice, though it may be not in the classical yoga sense.

Yamas: It means self-restraint. There are 5 Yamas:

(i) Ahimsa: It means not to cause harm to any living being. Love for the entire creation is necessary for Ahimsa. Not to cause harm to our patients is one of the guiding principles of medical practice and enshrined in the Hippocratic oath. The Hippocratic oath says: 'I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked, nor suggest any such counsel'. Love for the mankind is one of the pillars of support which a doctor leans when faced with hostility even after doing his best.

(ii) Satya: To be truthful in all over action and words is to practice Satya. Truthfulness towards our patient and colleague is again one of the hallmarks of our medical practice.

(iii) Asteya: It means not to steal or gain by unlawful means other’s wealth or possession. Again, acquiring wealth through unfair and unlawful mean is against medical ethics. The Hippocratic oath says: 'I will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corrup­tion'.

(iv) Brahmacharya: It means celibacy but it also means to keep our sense organs including that of procreation under control and not to indulge in lustful enjoyments. The Hippocratic oath says: I will abstain from …….. the seduction of fe­males or males, of freemen and slaves'.

(v) Aparigraha: It means non-covetousness. Hoarding of wealth and other riches beyond actual needs is Parigraha, the opposite is Aparigraha. Medical ethics expects the doctor to charge a reasonable amount as fees and not make medical practice a mean of hoarding wealth. Even the law of the land has ruled that medicine should be practiced as service rather than business.

Niyamas: These are certain practices that the yoga practitioner has to observe in his life. There are 5 Niyamas:

(i) Shauch: It means both external and internal purification. One must achieve purity of both mind and body. The purity of mind is necessary for a doctor to practice medicine; otherwise, he will cause harm to his patients, to himself and the medical community at large. The purity of body again shows in the personal hygiene, clean clothes, grooming of doctors, without which it is difficult to imagine them.

(ii) Santosh: It means contentment with what one gets or receives while doing one’s duty. When faced with a poor patient unable to pay his fees, doctors take only the patient's and his relative's well wishes as their fees. There can be no greater example of Santosh than doctors working without any thought towards their own well being.

(iii) Tapa: It means to make right efforts to achieve a goal in the face of all austerities and obstructions. The mind is kept detached and under control and bears pleasure and pain, heat and cold, hunger and thirst with equanimity. The long working hours of doctors, their night calls, their tireless effort to serve their patients without any thought towards their own comfort is the modern Tapa.

(iv) Swadhyaya: The study of right scriptures and texts to acquire the correct knowledge of self and the Supreme Divinity comes under Swadhyaya. Also one spends time in the company of good people and exchanges ideas with them. When doctors spend time in self-study, attend CME programs and conferences, discuss cases with their colleagues they are in fact practicing medical Swadhyaya.

(v) Ishwar Pranidhan: It is the complete surrender of the self to the divine will. One sees the divine as all-pervasive, omnipresent and omniscient. When a doctor has put in his best effort in treating a difficult case and leaves the final outcome to nature or God (according to his belief), he is experiencing something close to Ishwar Pranidhan.

This shows that the principles of yoga are universally applicable in every field of human endeavor and can be used to enrich every facet of human life.

— ND
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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm. 

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