Hindus have welcomed a former yoga instructor marrying into the Swedish royal family.
Sweden’s Prince Carl Philip (third in line for the throne) married commoner Sofia Hellqvist (now Her Royal Highness Princess Sofia of Sweden, Duchess of Värmland) in a lavish ceremony at Stockholm Royal Palace on June 13 attended by many royals from around the world and several hundred thousand well-wishers lining the streets.
Sofia studied yoga in New York City and became a certified yoga instructor in the same studio. She then started her own yoga center in Manhattan and launched a yoga gear collection “Drop of Mindfulness”, co-designed by her, reports suggest.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that they hoped that Princess Sofia would help popularize yoga in Sweden, Europe and among the world’s royals.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, indicated 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.
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, Rajan Zed pointed out.
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. Yoga is the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed adds.
Source: WHN Media Network