Hindus have applauded prestigious Pine Cobble School in Williamstown (Massachusetts, USA) for reportedly offering yoga to toddlers and have urged all schools in USA to do the same for their pupils. According to reports, preschoolers are learning breathing techniques and movement through yoga in the School, which gives them coping mechanisms. Calling it a “step in the right direction", distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, suggested all schools of the nation to incorporate yoga in the lives of the students, making it part of the curriculum. 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 pointed out. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, 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. Rajan Zed noted that besides other benefits, yoga might also help deal with the obesity crisis faced by the country. According to United States National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. About 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, now reportedly practice yoga. It was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added. Launched in 1937, Pine Cobble School on a 20-acre campus is a co-educational day school for children in preschool through ninth grade, who hail from Massachusetts, Vermont and New York states. “Character education" is listed as one of the “special strengths" of the school, whose motto is “Nosce Te Ipsum" (Know Thyself) and where Spanish begins at age 2.9 and Latin in grade four, and which also has a pottery studio. Joseph Finnegan and Dr. George (Sam) Crane are President and Vice President respectively of the Board of Trustees, while Susannah Wells is Head of School. BN
