Vivekananda Yoga University to be established in US

Going global

A yoga university will soon be established in California to impart education and promote research about the ancient Indian practice, a yoga guru from India has said.

Yoga became famous in the US and its studios have come up in different parts of the country. The ancient practice has become immensely popular over the past few years due to the worldwide celebration of International Yoga Day.

“Soon, we are going to start the Vivekananda Yoga University in California,” H R Nagendra,a renowned yoga guru from the Vivekananda Yoga Anusandana Samsthana (VYASA) in
India, announced at an event here.

The event — India for Humanity — was organised by the Indian Embassy at the US capital as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi.

Formalities completed

All the necessary formalities have been completed and the organisation has received all the requisite clearances for the establishment of such a university in the US, Nagendra said, amid applause from the audience.

Through the university, Nagendra said he would bring the knowledge of yoga from India to the US.

“We should go ahead to see that the ‘India for Humanity’ grows further and our contribution from India to this country becomes more and more. We have a galaxy of great medical experts who are moving towards this integrative system to bring in the Ayush system along with modern medicine,” Nagendra said.

Referring to the theme of the event, Nagendra said that Gandhi was always supportive of ‘India for humanity’.

Observing that he was always fascinated with Gandhi’s unique approach in bringing independence to the country, Nagendra said his two pillars ‘satya’ and ‘ahimsa’ are the two foundations of yoga. “He (Gandhi) was the greatest practitioners of yoga in the real sense,” he told the audience.

In his remarks, India’s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said that peace and non-violence, the centerpiece of Gandhian message, are concepts that have welfare of the whole humanity as their focus.