Hindus have condemned reported ban on yoga in a school in Austria.
Calling it a “step in the backward direction”, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, stressed that instead of ban, Austria should introduce yoga in all the schools of the country.
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 noted.
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 United States 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. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
As many Austrians would love to have yoga in schools, Austria should hold a referendum whether to offer yoga classes in schools, Rajan Zed pointed out, and urged President Dr. Heinz Fischer and Chancellor Werner Faymann to look into it.
Yoga classes for children of a primary school in southeastern village of Dechantskirchen (Styria) were reportedly stopped recently for “religious” reasons.