February 21 2016, 08.28 AM IST || Pocket News Alert
Hindus have commended Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District (PVPUSD) in California for reportedly introducing yoga as a high school course, calling it a step in the positive direction.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, applauded PVPUSD for coming forward and providing an opportunity to students to avail the multiple benefits yoga provided.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr., California State Board of Education President Dr. Michael Kirst and California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson; to work towards formally introducing yoga as a part of curriculum in all the public schools of the state, thus incorporating highly beneficial yoga in the lives of California’s students.
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.
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 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 a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, 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, Rajan Zed added.
Reports suggest that PVPUSD Board of Education, in its February 10 meeting, unanimously approved yoga as an alternative to physical education, which will begin in the fall for sophomores. There is high interest among the students about it,
PVPUSD, which claims itself "A World Class School District", serves about 11,500 students in 18 school campuses in Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates and unincorporated Palos Verdes Peninsula communities; where the first school was built in 1926. Vision Statement of PVPUSD, an award-winning district, includes "develop the whole child". Dr. Donald B. Austin is PVPUSD Superintendent, while Malcolm S. Sharp is Board President.
