Hindus welcome Netherlands’ move to train soldiers in yoga

Hindus have welcomed Netherlands Ministry of Defense’s reported move to train their soldiers in yoga to effectively handle stressful situations and process traumatic experiences; and are urging all world military establishments to undertake yoga programs.

Reports suggest that yoga teachers will train some Netherlands armed forces personnel to be yoga instructors with the goal that they will ultimately train and provide opportunity to every army-air force-navy soldier to practice yoga.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, termed it as a step in the positive direction to make yoga available to Netherlands’ soldiers.

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, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.

Rajan 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 “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, Zed added.