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Indian Embassy launching yoga courses in Egypt
 
Embassy of India is launching eight-week long yoga courses for beginners and intermediate learners in Cairo from April two.
 
To be conducted at Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) of the Cultural Wing of the Embassy of India-Cairo in Zamalek area of Cairo, these classes will not convene on Indian holidays. Opened in 1992, MACIC popularizes Indian culture. Its past events included Kathakali dances in last August.
 
Yoga is reportedly becoming popular in Egypt and reports suggest that there are about 40 yoga studios/schools/facilities in Cairo area; with names like Shanti Yoga, Mudra Yoga,  Ashtanga Yoga, YogaKhana, etc.; and Yoga Vidya in Giza area.
 
Welcoming the reported interest in yoga in Egypt, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged other neighboring countries also to explore the multi-beneficial yoga.
 
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, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.
 
Rajan Zed 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.
 
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 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.
 
Currently Embassy of India is presenting till April 27 a “Festival of India in Egypt” with the title “India by the Nile 2017” in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Port Said and Ismailia; which includes tales of Hindu gods-goddesses-demons through dance, a session including “spiritual discipline of Yoga”, Sufi music, Bollywood Dance Workshop, Kuchipudi and Kathak dances, etc. “The programme is rich and eclectic with a wide canvas spanning…empowerment of women…”, an announcement says. Sanjay Bhattacharyya is Ambassador of India to Egypt.