Parasmal Duggad, 59, and Vimla, 58, conduct free yoga classes in Mumbai

 
Come rain, come shine, Damodar Wadi, a hall in the suburbs of Mumbai, is filled to capacity every morning with silvers and young enthusiasts practising different yoga asanas and mudras. Overseeing them are Parasmal Duggad and Vimla, the husband-wife duo that runs free yoga classes in parks, halls and temples in and around Kandivali. Remarkably, the couple hasn’t missed a single class in the past 21 years. A jeweller, Duggad lives by the motto, ‘Healthy body, healthy life.’ “The way food nourishes the body, yoga helps us lead a disease-free life,” says the 59 year-old. He has been associated with Preksha Dhyan Yog Sadhana Kendra for almost 40 years, since meeting guru Acharya Mahapragya, who instructed him to spread the message of good health. Duggad and his wife held their first yoga session in 1997 on their building terrace with just five students. Over the years, they shifted classes to a park, a hall and other places to accommodate more students. “Yoga provides holistic healing,” says Duggad. He and his wife take turns to move around the different centres—availed free of cost— and teach yoga with the help of trainers. Retired professor Goverdhan Lalji Joshi, a regular, points out, “I used to suffer from cervical spondylitis and couldn’t move my neck. Today, I’m completely fit, thanks to yoga.” Adding that yoga helps cure back pain, slipped disc, knee pain, thyroid and hypertension among others, Duggad, whose videos on YouTube reach out to over 63,000 subscribers, notes, “To top it all, yoga has no side-effects.” In fact, Duggad, who has trained over 10,000 people, has been awarded the Preksha Puraskar, Maharashtra Ratna and Yog Shiromani. “When we started, we never thought we would come this far,” says the yogacharya who has invented the unique ‘Paras Mudra’ with eight simple postures which, he claims, strengthen the knees.

—Rachna Virdi

Photos courtesy: Parasmal Duggad
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
February 2018