Hindus have welcomed University of California Santa Cruz (UCSC), a public research university, for offering free meditation sessions for students, faculty and staff; and are urging all US universities to launch such sessions.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, commended UCSC for recognizing the intersection of spirituality and education, and indicated that it would help its students to have a spiritually meaningful life in addition to material success after they graduated from here.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that meditation was a form of mental prayer which purified-settled down-calmed the mind and helped in contemplation-inner transformation-visualization. It helped create a state of inner wakefulness which took one to a higher state of consciousness to achieve oneness with Brahman (supreme Godhead, ultimate Reality). Ancient Taittiriya Upanishad said: Meditation is Brahman.
Rajan Zed termed these meditation sessions another feather in UCSC’s cap in making it a top class and wholesome university.
UCSC is offering these free meditation sessions four days a week in locations spread across campus and at the Scotts Valley Center. No prior meditation experience is needed.
Spread over 2,000 acres overlooking scenic Monterey Bay, UCSC, founded in 1965, offers 99 graduate and undergraduate programs to its 17,335 students. George R. Blumenthal is the Chancellor of UCSC, which claims “an international reputation for excellence”.