Mormons indicate that Yoga increases understanding of the gospel. In “Yoga – Episode 39" program on Mormon Channel Radio July 2012, posted on the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), a Mormon yoga instructor shared that how yoga increased her understanding of the gospel. She indicated that yoga originated in India, with origins going back to ancient Indian scriptures Bhagawad Gita and Upanishads. Yoga has made relationship with my Savior stronger...it has built my faith and my trust in Him, she added. Welcoming the Mormon interest in yoga, acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice one's respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving one's spiritual goals in whatever religion one believed in and made one spiritually healthier, Zed stressed. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil" whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next, for everybody to share and benefit from. 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. Yoga was based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner, Zed added. Rajan Zed argued that yoga, which never had any formal organization, was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. According to an estimate, about 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Salt Lake City (Utah, USA) headquartered LDS, also known as Mormon Church, which claims to be a Christian denomination, is one of the fastest growing church.
