Hindus have applauded Milwaukee Art Museum (Wisconsin, USA) for launching yoga on its premises. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, termed it as “a step in the right direction" to make yoga available to Museum patrons and others. Yoga, introduced and nourished by world's oldest religion Hinduism, usually referred as “a living fossil", was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse for everybody to share and benefit from, Zed added. Titled “Yoga @ the Museum", it is open to all levels and the proceeds benefit the Museum. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d'Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to also launch yoga on their premises. Rajan Zed pointed out that yoga was a mental and physical discipline and a repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. 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. Milwaukee's icon, celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2013, the 341,000-square-foot Milwaukee Art Museum on the shores of Lake Michigan houses over 30,000 works, with strengths in American decorative arts, German Expressionism, folk and Haitian art; including works of Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. It gets about 350,000 visitors annually and it claims that its educational programs are among the largest in the nation. Raymond R. Krueger is its Board of Trustees Chairman, while Daniel T. Keegan is the Museum Director. Oxford Concise Dictionary of World Religions defines “yoga" as: “The means or techniques for transforming consciousness and attaining liberation..." According to an estimate, about 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Bikyanews.com
