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| July 7, 2010 | Hindus commend Washington DC Council for saying no to yoga tax | |
Nevada (US): Hindus have thanked Council of the District of Columbia (CDC) for reportedly not imposing tax on yoga. Hindu
statesman Rajan Zed, who strongly criticized the attempts to regulate yoga in
the recent past by various states in USA, has applauded CDC for reportedly rejecting
the idea of yoga tax. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism,
in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that yoga was one of the six systems
of orthodox Hindu philosophy whose traces went back to around 2000 BCE. Yoga never
had any formal organization and yoga practice had been handed down from one guru
to the next. Rajan Zed further said that yoga, referred as "a living fossil",
was mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. The Bhagavad-Gita,
one of the most popular Hindu scripture, was considered a comprehensive yoga-shastra
(treatise on yoga). Mahabharata, also an ancient Hindu scripture, said that one
unconversant with yoga could never have happiness while Yogabija Upanishad pointed
out that one became liberated from bondage only through yoga. Why to regulate
such a liberation powerhouse, Zed asked. Zed stressed that yoga was a mental and
physical discipline by means of which the human-soul (jivatman) united with universal-soul
(parmatman). Some sages had described yoga as the silencing of all mental transformations,
which lead to the total realization of the Supreme Self. Some had used yoga attempting
to gain liberation by removing all sensory barriers. For Patanjali, author of
the basic text, the Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection,
through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche and regulating
it was kind of a religious infringement, Rajan Zed added. About 16 million Americans,
including many celebrities, are said to practice yoga. The CDC is the Washington's
legislative body, responsible for crafting laws for the nation's capital. Vincent
C. Gray is the Chairman. |
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