反擊西方生活方式 印度總理提倡做瑜伽

NEW DELHI — On a sticky morning last week, Deputy Commissioner Chandra Shekhar Sahukar of India’s Agriculture Ministry (animal husbandry department, small ruminant section) found himself in a yoga class for the first time in his 57 years, miserably grasping his ankle.

新德里——上週，在一個悶熱的早上，印度農業部（畜牧處小型反芻動物科）的副主管錢德拉·謝卡爾·薩胡卡(Chandra Shekhar Sahukar)在瑜伽課上艱難地抓着自己的腳踝，這是他生平57年來第一次上瑜伽課。

In his bag he carried a photocopy of a memorandum advising senior officials to familiarize themselves with certain postures ahead of International Yoga Day this Sunday, when they will take part in a mass outdoor yoga session scheduled to begin at 7 a.m. The session is intended to qualify for the Guinness Book of World Records, the memo says, warning, “If some officials turn up without practice, there will be risk of the record claim being affected.”

他的包裏有一份備忘錄的複印件，上面建議高級官員在週日的“國際瑜伽日”(International Yoga Day)之前熟悉某些姿勢，因爲預定從週日早上7點開始，他們將參加一場大型戶外瑜伽活動。這個活動旨在創下吉尼斯世界紀錄，備忘錄警告說，“如果一些到場的官員沒有事先做好練習，紀錄就有可能受到影響。”

At the front of the room, the instructor was folding and unfolding himself like a pocketknife, and pointedly reminding members of the class that they would soon be performing under the scrutiny of “Modi-saab.” When he asked the students to press their faces to their knees, Mr. Sahukar — whose professional duties, he noted later, include “a lot of sitting” — could keep silent no longer.

在房間的前部，老師一邊像摺疊刀似的疊合、展開自己的身體，一邊毫不含糊地提醒學員，他們很快就要在“莫迪大大”(Modi-saab)的監督下做這些姿勢了。當他要學員們把臉埋在膝蓋上時，薩胡卡再也無法保持沉默了（他後來提到，他的工作“很多時候都需要坐着”）。

“It’s not touching!” he exclaimed. “I can’t bend anymore!”

“我挨不到！”他喊道。“我沒法再彎了！”

Of the major initiatives that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has introduced since taking office, few have generated as much static as Yoga Day, which will feature a 35-minute public demonstration of poses by more than 35,000 government employees, students and other citizens. Though the Western world regards yoga primarily as physical exercise, Indians are more apt to see its postures and Sanskrit chants as freighted with ideological or religious meaning.

印度總理納倫德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)上任以來推出了一些重大舉措，其中幾乎沒有哪一個產生了“瑜伽日”這麼大的聲勢。瑜伽日要求逾3.5萬名政府僱員、學生和其他公衆進行35分鐘的公開表演。儘管西方世界覺得瑜伽主要是鍛鍊身體的方式，但印度人更傾向於認爲，瑜伽姿勢和梵語唸誦具有意識形態或宗教意義。

Shripad Naik, India’s first minister overseeing yoga and traditional medicine, who has helped organize this month’s celebration, said it was time to clear away the vestiges of a Western lifestyle left behind by colonial powers.

什裏帕德·奈克(Shripad Naik)是印度主管瑜伽和傳統醫學的第一部長，他幫助組織了這個月的慶祝活動，並表示現在是時候清除殖民列強遺留的西方生活方式的印記了。

“Earlier, our people used to get up before sunrise and sleep before sunset, but now our lifestyle has changed. They are going to the pub, they will go in the middle of the night, at 12 or 1, and eat chicken and many, many new dishes,” said Mr. Naik, who, like the prime minister, rises before dawn and practices yoga daily. He recommends going to sleep by 9 p.m., gets his news from the Hindi-language press and proudly declares that he has never had an injection.

“過去，印度人在日出前起牀，日落前休息，但現在我們的生活方式發生了變化。人們會去酒吧，而且在深夜12點或1點去，還吃雞肉以及很多、很多新菜式，”像莫迪一樣，奈克每天在黎明之前起牀練瑜伽。他建議大家在9點前睡覺。他通過印地語媒體瞭解新聞，而且自豪地宣稱自己從未打過針。

“There will be a lifestyle change,” he said. “Our style will come.”

“這裏會出現生活方式上的改變，”他說。“我們的生活方式將會到來。”

Mr. Modi is not the first Indian leader to promote yoga. Indira Gandhi was so devoted to her yoga instructor, Dhirendra Brahmachari, that he accompanied her family when it traveled, and became known as the “flying guru.”

莫迪不是第一個推廣瑜伽運動的印度領導人。英迪拉·甘地(Indira Gandhi)對她的瑜伽教練迪倫德拉·婆羅馬恰裏(Dhirendra Brahmachari)非常信任，以至於當她的家人旅遊時，他也會陪伴同行，因此還有了一個“飛行大師”的稱號。

At events, Mr. Modi often shares the dais with Baba Ramdev, who presides over an ayurvedic medical empire and has preached against influences he describes as foreign, among them the English language, chemical pesticides and fertilizers. Mr. Naik, the yoga minister, himself learned yoga through the R.S.S., and said he hoped that the widespread practice of yoga would lower rates of violent crime.

在各種活動中，莫迪經常與巴巴·蘭德弗(Baba Ramdev)同場演講。此人經營着一個阿育吠陀醫學帝國，鼓吹反對英語、化學農藥和化肥等事物，並稱它們是“外國”的影響。主管瑜伽的部長奈克是通過RSS學會瑜伽的，他希望瑜伽的普及可以降低暴力犯罪率。

“You see these rapes happening, all these bad habits. When he is doing something positive, the bad will be out of him,” he said.

“你看到會有強姦案發生，人們有那麼多壞習慣。當人們做積極的事情時，就會擺脫那些壞事情，”他說。

As for government workers, Mr. Naik said, they will become more productive and less corrupt. “There will be a definite change in the way the bureaucracy functions,” he said. “When they are thin, all their energy will go into producing better work. There is no need to do it forcefully, once we have put them on the right path.”

至於政府工作人員，奈克表示，他們會提高效率、減少腐敗。“職能機構的工作作風會產生明顯的變化，”他說。“當他們瘦下來，他們的全部精力就會用在更好地開展工作上。一旦我們讓他們走上正確的道路，就不需要採取強制手段了。”

Bal Mukund Singh, the yoga instructor, ended the class by urging his students to become Hanuman, the monkey god, and then watched as they dispersed to the offices where they would spend their days handling dusty file folders and eating fritters. When they were out of sight, he checked off the characteristics he had observed, things like “big tummy, rigid body, less flexibility, stress, tension, depression, diabetes.” Still, he said cheerfully, these are good days.

瑜伽教練巴爾·木孔德·辛格(Bal Mukund Singh)在這堂課結束時，敦促學員們向猴神哈努曼(Hanuman)看齊，然後目送學員們回到各自的辦公室。這些人日常處理塵封的檔案夾，愛吃油炸麪糰。當他們離開視線之後，他列舉了觀察到的學員特徵，比如“肚子大、身體僵硬、靈活性較差、壓力大、緊張、抑鬱、有糖尿病。”不過他高興地說，現在的形勢很好。

“They heard it on TV, and they are running toward the yoga,” he said. “The prime minister is the king. If the king does something, that is very effective. And this time, our king is doing yoga.”

“他們在電視上看到了新聞，就跑來做瑜伽，”他說。“總理就像國王。如果國王在做什麼事情，就會產生非常好的帶動效果。目前，我們的國王正在做瑜伽。”