Hindu deity pose of Shiva doing Yoga
The World-class Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, PA is launching Hindu-originated yoga sessions in its magnificent Hall of Sculpture, starting January 17, accompanied by live music by Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra member.
Hall of Sculpture, opened in 1907, was inspired by the Parthenon, the fifth-century BCE temple in Athens, dedicated to the virgin goddess Athena.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, termed it as a step in the positive direction to make yoga available to Museum patrons and others at such an inspiring location. Yoga (usually referred as “a living fossil” whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization), although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse for everybody to share and benefit from, Zed added.
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 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.
According to US National Institutes of Health, hindu-based yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed noted.
Carnegie Museum of Art, a dynamic major art institution with collection of over 30,000 works, claimed to be “the first museum of contemporary art in the United States”, was founded in 1895. Lynn Zelevansky is the Director.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksha (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in United States.
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