Hindus are critical of Sydney Airport for charging fee for yoga in its recently opened facility.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that many world airports—San Francisco International Airport, Chicago O’Hare International Airport, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Helsinki Airport Finland, Chicago Midway International Airport, Burlington International Airport Vermont and Sioux Falls Regional Airport South Dakota—reportedly offer yoga facilities for free.
There is reportedly $12 fee for non-members for 45 minutes yoga in the “Active Living Room” located in Sydney Airport’s T2 Domestic Terminal Departures area. “Passengers can enjoy a premium yoga session before boarding their flight”, an Airport Media Release states and adds, “The must-visit new destination offers a dedicated airport space for passengers to enjoy a tranquil yoga”.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that Sydney Airport, like many other airports, should provide yoga space for the passengers without any charge if it was serious to help reduce their stress levels and deliver the claimed “world-class passenger experience”.
Rajan Zed noted that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all and charging fee for it at a public facility like Sydney Airport did not seem right. It would be step in the positive direction if Sydney Airport rethinks about the issue and provide a yoga-room to be used by all passengers, staff and visitors for free.
Zed further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil” whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline 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.
Sydney Airport, established 1919, is Australia’s gateway airport, serving 39 million passengers a year and connecting Sydney to a network of close to 90 international, domestic and regional destinations. Trevor Gerber and Kerrie Mather are Board Chairman and Chief Executive Officer respectively.