UTAH: A new yoga studies and teacher training program has been launched by Utah State University (USU), a highly respected and recognized public research university in Logan, for the fall session 2016.
The new program moves yoga out of the gym and into the classroom. This new Yoga Studies and Teacher Training Program offers an integrated approach with a curriculum of yoga history, literature, philosophy and practice; and claims to be committed to offering students an in-depth understanding of yoga, rooted in the teachings of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Similar university-based programs are said to be rare.
USU currently offers 14 yoga classes through campus recreation, which are said to fill up quickly.
Its Learning Objectives include: yoga as a physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and ethical discipline and active discussion and study of The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita.
Camille Litalien and Emily Perry are co-directors of USU yoga studies
Welcoming this move on the part of the University, Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said this should provide an opportunity to students to study multi-faceted yoga. He urged other US and Canadian universities to offer yoga study programs.
Zed mentioned that 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.
Yoga , although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all.According to US National Institute of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress.
A recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, reveals that close to 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga, and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
Founded in 1888, female majority USU’s Mission includes “cultivating diversity of thought and culture”. Stan L. Albrecht is the President.
India Post News Service
