Hindus have commended University of Virginia (UVA) Cancer Center in Charlottesville for launching free yoga classes for cancer patients, survivors, and caregivers.
“Yoga has many benefits including improved flexibility and balance, reduced stress and anxiety”, an announcement says.
Calling it a step in the positive direction, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all hospital systems in Virginia to introduce free multi-beneficial yoga programs for the communities they serve.
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, pointed out.
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 a report of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Yoga is the most popular complementary health approach in the United States – used by 14.3% of the adult population, or 35.2 million people”. 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. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
The mission of the University of Virginia Cancer Center is “to reduce the burden of cancer for patients today” and it claims “latest research-based treatment options”. Dr. Thomas P. Loughran is the Director. UVA has been reportedly ranked number one hospital in Virginia. (appliedconcepts.com)