There is “Jewish Yoga” in America

NEVADA - Various establishments and individuals across USA now offer what is termed as “Jewish Yoga”.

There are books available on “Torah Yoga”, “Aleph-Bet Yoga”, and “Kabalah Yoga”.

There is an “association of Jewish yoga teachers” (to bring teachers and students together to explore their roots in Judaism and yoga), besides a “Torah Yoga Association”. “Torah Yoga” claims to offer “an experience of Jewish Wisdom through Iyengar yoga instruction together with the study of traditional and mystical Jewish texts”; “Gentle Jewish Yoga” offers workshops, classes and retreats in Jewish yoga, meditation and mystical text study; “Kabbalah Yoga” offers a “Technique of the 13 Point Prostration”; while KosherYoga.net claims to be “Iyengar Yoga with a Jewish Bent”. There is “Yoga and Jewish Spirituality Teacher Training Program”; besides a “200 hour Yoga Teacher’s Training Course For Torah Observant Women”; “Learn yoga with a highly experienced and knowledgeable Torah observant Trainer”, “Yoga for Jewish Women”, etc.

Do not be afraid of yoga, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed tells practitioners of different faiths.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage to be utilized by all. One could still practice one’s respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving one’s spiritual goals in whatever religion one believed in. It was not at odds with any faith and rather made one’s spiritually healthier.

Rajan 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 handed down from one guru to next, 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.

Judaism is a monotheistic religion of world’s about 14 million Jews whose most sacred text is Torah. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. (ANI)