Practices like yoga, meditation and prayer can help curb the need for general healthcare services by almost 50 percent according to researchers. A study done by Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)’s Institute for Technology Assessment and the Benson-Henry Institute (BHI) reveals that evoking the relaxation response or a physiologic state of deep rest, helps alleviate stress and anxiety, [...]
February 18, 2016
HHR
Archives, News updates
The Intent of real Hatha Yoga Sanskrit/Hindu word yoga means, yuj Atman Brahman ca (to yoke to one’s individual Soul and Soul Source). Sanskrit is by definition the religious language of Hinduism, “The ancient Aryan (noble) language of the Hindus.” The various real Yogas are the means by which Hindus achieve this Soul/Spiritual-Realization: Karma Yoga, [...]
January 8, 2016
HHR
The Yoga Snatchers
To my chagrin and dismay, self-appointed defenders of oppressed cultures who cast contemporary western yoga as the second coming of the East India Company have attached themselves to the fabric of yoga discourse with the stubborn persistence of a burr on a sock. Consequently, perfectly serviceable yoga programs are now at risk of being run [...]
December 26, 2015
Guest Author
Archives, The Yoga Snatchers
Just as Yoga in the West seemed ready to set flight with that many more passengers aboard, something stalled the latest take-off. The Western Yoga world vomited all over itself. We'd been holding back our own bile for so long, and then a single Yoga teacher in Ottawa finally triggered the gag-reflex -- [...]
Having religious symbols and playing music specific to various religions at yoga centers has been banned according to a directive released by the Sports for Everyone Federation of Turkey (HİS), with officials arguing they aimed to take measures against missionary activities with the directive. Consequently, having Buddha sculptures and mantra symbols as well as the [...]
September 10, 2015
HHR
Archives, World Focus
Among the many attacks on Hindus and Hinduism comes a whole movement to dissect away many Hindu practices like Yoga and now Tantra as ‘non’ Hindu . Dr Koenraad Elst debates with Dr Christopher Wallis on this dissection in the following interactions ‘ HHR editor > In the Indian media, I once saw a beginning [...]
August 28, 2015
Dr Koenraad Elst
Analysis/Insights
On a spring day a long time ago, a hunter killed one of a pair of birds while in their courtship dance. Such cruelty said the sage Valmiki can only mean one thing. We are now bereft of values and social and ecological disaster looms for future generations. “Is there no one that is upright [...]
July 27, 2015
HHR
The Yoga Snatchers
It’s becoming popular to say that Hinduism is not a religion but simply “a way of life”, or not a spiritual tradition but a cultural phenomenon…like the current yoga trend in America. This helps Hinduism keep a sort of cult status which is incorrect. Hinduism is hardly a cult. Many Hindus do not know enough about their own Hindu [...]
July 15, 2015
Sean Bradrick
Spirituality/Culture
Officials in the city of Nizhnevatrovsk reportedly fear that Hatha yoga is a practice with “an occult character.” Officials in the central Russian city of Nizhnevartovsk have moved to prevent municipal buildings from hosting yoga classes in a stated bid to stifle the spread of religious cults, the Kommersant business daily reported. Representatives of at least two of the city’s Hatha yoga studios — the Aura and Ingara — have [...]
July 1, 2015
HHR
Archives, World Focus
Tulsi was a Special Guest at the celebration of International Yoga Day at the UN Headquarters in New York on Jun 21, where she spoke, along with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, and India’s UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji. Her UN remarks were broadcast live in Times Square! She [...]
June 25, 2015
HHR
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