Rajen Zed
Nevada, USA, August 31, 2018
Hindus have commended Hutt City Council in New Zealand for their ‘Yoga in Schools’ Programme, calling it a step in the positive direction.
“We are on a journey to increase the awareness and accessibility of Yoga in the community…we’ve developed the Yoga for Schools programme which brings Yoga into the classroom and curriculum,” Hutt City Mayor Ray Wallace said.
Benefits to children
“School-based Yoga offers many benefits to children and teachers and is known to have positive effects on student learning, well-being, behaviour, and performance,” he said.
I applaud Hutt City Council for coming forward and providing an opportunity to students of city’s schools to avail the multiple benefits Yoga provided.
I urge New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Health Minister David Clark to work towards formally introducing Yoga as a part of curriculum in all the schools of the country, thus incorporating highly beneficial Yoga in the lives of New Zealand’s students.
A Living Fossil
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 2000 BCE to Indus Valley civilisation.
Yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, is a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilised by all.
Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, said that 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.
A 2016 Yoga in America Study said that 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.
Rajen Zed is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, based in Nevada, USA.
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Image from Lower Hutt City Council Website
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