Avoid communalising yoga. Some years ago, factions called out yoga as a Hindu practice and said Muslims should not practice it
Even as you read this, International Yoga Day (June 21), was done and dusted with across the city, in various grounds, halls and stadia. The mood was certainly uplifting and it is a matter of pride that this day is being adopted across the globe as one milestone marker of wellness. International Yoga Day is an endorsement of yoga's universal acceptance and appeal. Endorsed by 175 member states, on December 11, 2014, the UN proclaimed June 21 as the International Day of Yoga by resolution 69/131. 175 nations, including USA, Canada and China co-sponsored the resolution. It had the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UNGA Resolution of this nature.
While this makes happy reading, we must warn against the number of unqualified and uncertified teachers teaching yoga all across. With no decisive authority to provide certificate for teaching, many yoga styles and, more self-proclaimed experts, students need to use their discretion, wisdom and good sense when opting for yoga classes and personal trainers. Otherwise, you run the risk of serious injury.
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Avoid communalising yoga. Some years ago, factions called out yoga as a Hindu practice and said Muslims should not practice it. See it through the prism of a physical and mental exercise rather than ascribe religious colour to it. Look through groups that are seeking to score brownie points or ratcheting up tensions by opposing yoga on religious grounds. They may have their beliefs, but they cannot surely ask others to think the same way they do. Finally, there should be no imposition of yoga on anybody by any institution or individual. Flexibility is at yoga's core, and that is how it should be practiced - freely and of one's own free will. That is the greatest message we should have taken away from International Yoga Day.
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