What comes to your mind when asked to imagine kumbh Mela sadhus? An image of a religious ascetic with long(many a times grey)beard? ! But I am sure one among the many thoughts which comes to one's mind when asked this is a picture of an old guy with a bunch of rudraksh hanging around his neck smoking a hand rolled cigarette which is nothing but "cannabis"

Cannabis is a drug made from the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant which is used by many people for recreational purposes

• Consumption of cannabis had died out because of its prohibited use in USA and other countries. Some countries like California has restricted its use for medicinal purpose

• Other than the pleasure giving factor it also has a potential for helping children with epilepsy, cure cancerous tumours and provides a relief from chronic pain (said to be much effective than opium)

So how can a drug like cannabis be useful in your yoga class?

A new term coming up these days is "Ganjasana" which is a combination of ganja(cannabis) and yoga.Though the ganja has been in use since time immemorial for spiritual purposes a label has been given to it recently.

When combining yoga with cannabis, things that should be kept in mind are:-

• You should be confident that you can balance yourself well after consuming it because you surely wouldn't be wanting to fall on your fellow mate!

• If you notice that you are experiencing shortage of breath after consuming think twice before using it because yoga involves systematic breathing exercises like Pranayam
• Consuming it before your yoga classes can be a bliss since you get the best of both worlds!

• If you are taking the flower route which involves smoking and vaping avoid it if you are doing intense breathing exercise on that day

Cannabis is banned in most of the countries but has been recently legalised in USA). So, even if one wants to try it and attain NIRVANA would have to cross mountains and lakes to reach their destination.So, good luck to the ones who wanna try it!

NAMASTE!!

–by Ashwati Menon of NewsGram. Twitter: @Ashu_phoebe