Patanjali Yoga Practice and its Effect on Mental Health and Moral Judgment Amongst Juvenile Delinquents

Abstract

Research awareness and involvement in yoga for health-related results are growing worldwide. Patanjali
Yoga relieves stress and fatigue which haves turned into one of the few major challenges confronting
the medical fraternity in present times. Yoga let go the body from any type of muscular or chronic strain
and rejuvenates the body from exhaustion, body aches, stress, aids to ease the body and mind, enhances
concentration and alertness, and frees the soul. It helps one to create integrity amongst his outward self
as well as his innermost self. If the practices are followed meticulously then Patanjali Yoga develops a
constructive effect both in the inward and outer selves of an organism. Patanjali’s yoga practice aims to
bind the individual self with the Ultimate One and one can achieve this union by regulating and discarding
the ever- arising ‘vrittis’ or amendments of the mind. With Patanjali Yoga mind can be balanced through
the exact kind of discipline and training. The purpose of this paper was to study the effect of Patanjali Yoga
practice on mental health and moral judgment of experimental group of juvenile delinquents. Pre and post
experimental design was used in this research work. Patanjali Yoga practices were used as independent
variables whereas mental health and moral judgments of delinquents as dependent variables. A sample of 70
delinquents of age group (13-18 years) from Government Observation Home in Agra district was chosen with
random selection method. There were two groups –experimental group (n=35) and control group (n=35).
Patanjali Yoga practices were imparted to delinquents for 90 days with duration of one hour each day. For
measuring the moral judgment of delinquents, moral judgment test by Juri Baruh (2004) and for measuring
mental health, mental health battery by A.K. Singh and Alpana SenGupta (2008) were used. Mean, Standard
deviation and t-test were carried out for data analysis. The findings suggest that mental health factors like
emotional stability, adjustment, autonomy, security-insecurity and self-concept were found to be of average
level and intelligence ranged from average to low in experimental and control group delinquents. It was also
found that Patanjali Yoga plays a significant role by strengthening emotional stability, adjustment and self
-concept in delinquents, however, the Patanjali yoga does not significantly affects mental health factors like
autonomy, security-insecurity and intelligence in delinquents. The findings also concluded that Patanjali
Yoga does not affect moral judgments of delinquents.