Hindus are critical of recently reported ban on religious symbols, religious music, mantra and incense burning at yoga centers in Turkey.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement today, said that this ban seemed like an unnecessary obtrusion and burdensome on yoga in Turkey. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Turkey to reconsider this directive.
Zed further said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. Yoga, referred as “a living fossil” whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was for everybody to share and benefit from.
Rajan Zed noted that yoga was a mental and physical discipline by means of which the human-soul (jivatman) united with universal-soul (parmatman). For Patanjali, author of the basic text, the 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 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 and attempts at regulating it were kind of an infringement, Zed added.