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Hindus welcome idea of Meditation Room at East Tennessee State University
 
Hindus have welcomed the reports of including a Meditation Room in the $40.5 million expansion and renovation plan of Culp Center at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) campus in Johnson City (Tennessee), whose completion is projected in December 2019.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that a Meditation Room would be a step in the positive direction for ETSU. Many educational institutions in USA and Canada already had prayer/meditation room for quiet reflection and spiritual exercise.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that with the presence of Meditation Room, ETSU students would have a spiritually meaningful life in addition to material success after they graduate from here. Meditation Room would be another feather in ETSU’s cap in making it a top class and wholesome university.
 
Moreover, ETSU needed to recognize the intersection of spirituality and education, Rajan Zed added.
 
Zed urged ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland to launch the Meditation Room in a temporary facility till the expansion-renovation of D.P. Culp University Center, a community center which bears the name of former ETSU President Delos Poe Culp, was continuing; as currently there was reportedly no such space on the campus.
 
Founded in 1911, ETSU, whose Vision includes “Developing a world-class environment”, serves over 14,500 students in over 100 doctoral, master, and baccalaureate programs.  A public institution, ETSU offers a rare and unique graduate program in Professional and Applied Storytelling, and its alumni include country music singer-songwriter Kenny Chesney. Scott Niswonger is Chairman of ETSU Trustees, while Flora W. Tydings is Chancellor of The College System of Tennessee.

University offers 1st Master’s in Yoga Studies in America
 
Top-ranked Roman Catholic “Loyola Marymount University” (LMU), rooted in the Jesuit and Marymount tradition and “institutionally committed to Roman Catholicism”, claims to offer “the first Master of Arts in Yoga Studies in America”.
 
Said to be one of its kind in the world, this Master’s program in Yoga Studies, includes studying ancient Hindu scriptures Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord) and Upanishads, besides Sāṃkhya Kārikā and Yogavāsiṣṭha; Sanskrit language, considered a sacred language in Hinduism; Haá¹­ha-Yoga-PradÄ«pikā, Gherhaṇḍa-Saṃhitā and Yoga-Śāstra; and translating the sutras and commentary from Patanjali’s Yoga-SÅ«tra. It explores yoga’s relationship to religion and spirituality.
 
LMU also offers various yoga related Certificate Programs, including Prime of Life Yoga; Yoga, Mindfulness and Social Change (claimed to be “only professional certificate program of its kind”); Yoga Philosophy;  Yoga Therapy Rx; Yoga and the Healing Sciences; etc. It also runs Vinyasa Krama Yoga Summer Institute and undertakes a Prison Yoga Project.
 
Hindus have welcomed Catholic LMU for promoting yoga. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all the US universities and colleges to introduce multi-beneficial yoga in the lives of their student communities.
 
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.
 
LMU, founded in 1911 and headquartered in Los Angeles (California), claims to take “its fundamental inspiration from the combined heritage of the Jesuits, the Marymount Sisters, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange”. Paul S. Viviano, Timothy Law Snyder and Christopher Key Chapple are Trustees Chair, President and Yoga Studies Director respectively of LMU.

Upset Hindus urge New Jersey online retailer to withdraw Lord Shiva & Ganesha leggings
 
Upset Hindus are urging Ventnor City (New Jersey) headquartered online retailer Zayze Activewear for immediate withdrawal of various leggings carrying images of Hindu deities Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha; calling it highly inappropriate.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that Lord Shiva and Lord Ganesha were highly revered in Hinduism and were meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not to adorn your legs, crotch and hips. Inappropriate usage of Hindu deities or concepts for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also urged Zayze Activewear and its CEO to offer a formal apology.
 
Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. Symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
 
Zed further said that such trivialization of Hindu deities was disturbing to the Hindus world over. Hindus were for free artistic expression and speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith was something sacred and attempts at trivializing it hurt the followers, Zed added.
 
Products of Zayze, which claims to be “high end line of activewear”, include capris, jackets, leggings, shorts, sports bras, tops, tanks, mens tights, onesies, outfits and bike shorts. With tagline “Where Fit, Fashion, and Function Come Together”, Zayze states: “You can be sexy and active at the same time.” Its description of “Shiva Geometry Compression Legging” ($ 89) says: “Shiva, the auspicious one, adorns the leg”.
 
In Hinduism, Lord Ganesha is worshipped as god of wisdom and remover of obstacles and is invoked before the beginning of any major undertaking.  Lord Shiva, along with Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu, forms the great triad of Hindu deities. There are about three million Hindus in USA.