Hindus have welcomed YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) of Central Kentucky (YMCACK) for offering 13-week long free yoga classes in Triangle Park in downtown Lexington (Kentucky), starting June six.
Welcoming YMCA for hosting free yoga classes for the public and terming it as “a step in the positive direction”, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all the Kentucky public-private-charter-independent schools to introduce multi-beneficial yoga programs in their curriculums.
Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. 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.
According to US 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 “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
YMCA, founded in 1844 and headquartered in Geneva (Switzerland), claims to reach 58 million people worldwide. Yoga is one of the programs which YMCACK (which has six locations) offers free to its members, which include Vinyasa and Hatha yoga. “Millions of people do yoga because they love what it does for the mind, body, and spirit”, YMCACK website states and it describes yoga as “An exercise discipline that dates back to ancient India”. David Martorano is President, while Thomas Rawlings is the Board Chair of YMCACK.
Source: World Hindu News (WHN)