What’s the big deal over Suryanamaskar: Yoga experts

Bengaluru: International Yoga Day was formally announced at the 69th Session of the United Nations General Assembly. As the day draws near a new controversy has sprung up, with the All India Muslim Personal law Board’s decision to launch a campaign against any move to make Suryanamaskar and yoga compulsory in schools, on account of it being a ‘Hindu religious practice’.

On Tuesday, the Board got its way, with Home Minister Rajnath Singh saying that the surya namaskar will be called a ‘drill’ and added that it will not be made compulsory on International Yoga Day. However, the ancient practice, which dates back over 5000 years, is a science, not a religious belief, said experts.

“Yoga has nothing to do with religion, it is a hormonal science,” said Neetu Singh, co-founder, Total Yoga. “It’s to do with a healthy mind and a healthy body. If my body responds well to an asana, so will everybody else’s. In the same way, the sun gives light and warmth and energy to everybody. Neither the sun nor the human body actually understand religious differences!”

Singh adds that these beliefs exist everywhere – “When I took a class in Singapore, one woman who had signed up, she happened to be Catholic, said that she couldn’t come for the class because it is a Hindu practice. I simply laughed. There is so little awareness.”

Yoga has become a mainstream practice only in the last 50 years or so, before which it was only done by highly trained yogis living in the Himalayas, said Manish Pole, a yoga expert. “I have first hand experience of having taught yoga in a Muslim country - Dubai - and everybody was happy to learn. Now that it has entered the mainstream, everyone wants to lay claim to it,” he said.

Yoga was never a religious practice, but it is a spiritual one and today, it is done for health and fitness, too. “It is a universal tradition. Having said all this, it is good that India put forth the idea of an International Yoga Day, we are positioning ourselves as the country who taught the world yoga. However, the mistaken perception of it being associated with religion in any way has existed for a while. The only reason that this notion exists is because yoga comes from a time when Hinduism was the only religion in India. Even so, they should not be confused with each other,” he added.