Fiji draws applause for launching yoga in schools.

Hindus have commended Fiji Ministry of Education for reportedly including yoga in school curriculum.

Calling it a step in the positive direction, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, applauded Fiji Ministry of Education for coming forward and providing an opportunity to students to avail the multiple benefits yoga offered.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged all countries and territories in Oceania to work towards formally introducing yoga as a part of the curriculum in their public schools, thus incorporating highly beneficial yoga in the lives of their 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 yoga was introduced in Fiji as a part of Physical Education classes by Ministry of Education to help students cope with academic work and stay healthy.

Government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation quoted Minister for Education, Heritage & Arts Dr. Mahendra Reddy saying: Yoga will stabilize students’ minds and help them concentrate.

According to a signed Circular of Iowane P. Tiko, Fiji’s Permanent Secretary for Education, Heritage & Arts, dated June 17, to “All School Heads, Divisional, and District Offices”: “Schools are encouraged to incorporate yoga as a component of the weekly Physical Exercise classes for students…Yoga is a physical, mental, and spiritual practice or discipline that originated in India”.

With this Circular, Tiko also attached colored pictures of 65 yoga poses including Warrior, Triangle, Cobra, Crow, Garland, Butterfly, Camel, Boat, and Thunderbolt.