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Yoga can reduce risky sex in youth: Study
 
A University of Cincinnati (UC) long-term study shows a marked reduction in risky sex and substance abuse in troubled 18- to 24-year-olds after several months of participating in mindful yoga and positive coping strategies, according to a report published in UC Magazine.
 
“We found that many of these youths who had endured stressful life events and otherwise would have fallen into the risky behavior trap could actually have positive outcomes later in life because they chose to join in prosocial physical activities, yoga or mindfulness meditation,” says Dr. Jacinda K. Dariotis, UC public health researcher and Director of School of Education, in this Magazine report.
 
According to Dariotis in this report, testosterone can be influential in dominance and aggressive behaviors, but if directed through prosocial behaviors like sports, yoga or healthy competition it can have very positive outcomes.
 
Dariotis found youths who were unable to develop positive coping strategies were much more likely to turn to greater risk-taking behaviors that included unprotected sex or sex for money, substance abuse, violence and crime. Participating in weekly mindful yoga intervention programs as part of the current study taught the youths how to take control of their breathing and their emotions and helped them develop healthier long-term coping skills, Magazine report points out.
 
“Mindfulness-based yoga programs designed to improve the ability to cope are needed at earlier ages in schools to help vulnerable youths channel their skills more effectively,” Magazine report adds quoting Dariotis.
 
Meanwhile, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, called this study looking into effect of yoga on risky behaviors of troubled youth “a step in the positive direction”. Zed urged all major world universities to explore various benefits yoga offered.
 
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 a “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.
 
UC, founded in 1819 and which calls itself a “premier academic institution and a public research powerhouse”, serves over 44,000 students. Thomas D. Cassady and Neville G. Pinto are Trustees Chair and President respectively.

Christian-Jew-Buddhist leaders back Hindu plea of no sacred mandalas on Tampa roads
 
In a remarkable interfaith gesture; Christian, Jew and Buddhist leaders have backed the Hindu plea that sacred mandalas do not belong on Tampa (Florida) roads; which was recently floated by distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, recently pointed out: Mandalas are sacred symbols and do not belong on the surface of public roads where humans and animals tread, dogs can pee/poo and vehicles trample these under the tires.
 
Referencing to South Seminole Heights road mural “Mandala” in Tampa (claimed to be Tampa’s first street mural), Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada, noted that Hindus would welcome mandalas painted respectfully on the walls, but sacred mandalas on the surface of roads/streets were highly inappropriate.
 
According to reports, part of this 28-foot wide mandala, costing about $5,000, was accidently covered with black asphalt by city workers on November 30 after being mistaken as graffiti. City officials later acknowledged the mistake.
 
Stephen R. Karcher, a senior Greek Orthodox Christian priest; ElizaBeth Webb Beyer, a prominent Jewish Rabbi in Nevada-California; and Matthew T. Fisher, a well-known Buddhist leader; in a joint statement in Nevada; said that symbols of any faith, larger or smaller, should not be mishandled. Inappropriate usage of concepts or symbols of any religion for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees.
 
Karcher, Beyer, Fisher and Zed suggested Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners Chair Sandra Murman, and South Seminole Heights Civic Association (SSHCA) President Stephen Lytle to recreate the mandala on a nearby wall instead of restoring the damaged mandala on the road.
 
Cities, counties and civic associations should not be in the business of inappropriate usage of sacred religious symbols; Karcher, Beyer, Fisher and Zed indicated.
 
Murals on public roads to slow down drivers or other purposes were fine as long as they were not the sacred religious symbols; Karcher, Beyer, Fisher and Zed added.
 
The plaque near the South Seminole Heights mandala states that it was made possible through the combined efforts of the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County, and the SSHCA. It was designed by artist Catherine Thomas and painted by local residents on July 15. SSHCA website claimed that the street mural acted as “a traffic calming measure increasing pedestrian safety and walkability in the neighborhood”. Prints of this mural are sold at Etsy for $10-$25 each.
 
Mandala is a sacred symbolic diagram and used as a way of manifesting the deity/deities. Mostly found on walls/scrolls, mandalas are sometimes drawn on consecrated ground for relevant rituals, which are erased on the ritual completion. Marked spaces within mandalas symbolize heavenly abodes of deities.