Hindus have asked for including “Yoga Room” in the plan for $2.4 billion Sydney’s second international airport, which was recently approved by Australia government.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that this new airport in Badgerys Creek should seriously consider providing yoga space for the passengers if it wanted to help reduce their stress levels and be a “world-class” airport. Many international airports; like Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Burlington; already have yoga spaces.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil” whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, wasa mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next, for everybody to share and benefit from. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical, Zed added.
According to USA’s National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga.
Design and planning for this Sydney’s second airport is announced to start immediately, with construction expected to begin in 2016 and first flights estimated in mid 2020s. It took about 68 years to approve this airport in Australia’s largest city after the idea first surfaced.