By Brij Khandelwal. Uttar Pradesh, India, 09:31 AM IST
Catholic priest Father John Ferreira, principal of St. Peter's College in Agra, one of India's oldest educational institutions, says Christian priests in Britain are completely ignorant about yoga.
'They know nothing about yoga. They should first study and experience the benefits of India's ancient science before commenting,' Ferreira, 57, told IANS in an interview.
He was commenting on the uproar in Britain after some British priests called for a ban on yoga classes for children, terming it 'unchristian activity'.
Not sex but yoga education is the need of the hour, Ferreira said, speaking after a half-hour yoga class at an assembly attended by over 1,500 students, teachers and office assistants. The yoga session is held every school day.
'Morning hours are pure hours,' says the father as the students do 'pranayam' and 'kapal bhati' (breath control and other exercises in yoga). For a moment it looks like Baba Ram Dev's class, but with a difference. The mentor is clad in a priestly gown and speaks in soft, chaste English.
'When I started these yoga exercises a month ago, there were natural reservations and opposition from students as well as parents. But I persisted. Now they all congratulate me because some have stopped suffering from colds and allergies while others are feeling more energetic,' says Ferreira, who dislikes students with stooping shoulders, obese or sickly postures.
'I want them to walk straight, with chest out, shoulders raised and head held high. At their age they should be a bundle of energy. Unfortunately, parents have no time for their kids and there is nobody around for guidance,' he says.
Denying charges that students have been regularly fainting during the assembly workout, Ferreira said: 'Yes, some students had tried to fake fainting, but I called them over along with their parents. Now they are positively responding to yoga exercises.'
Ferreira is against the introduction of sex education in schools. And he wants yoga education to be made compulsory.
'They will learn about sex when the time comes. It is nature's design. But at the school we must see that their body and mind are in fine shape and they are spiritually strong to face the world. We must go for holistic lifestyles in tune with the rhythms of nature,' he said.
According to him, humans can be compared with the six strings of the guitar. The six strings are body, mind, spirit, family, work and social life.
'If one string snaps, all others would be affected. Nature has given us so much. Look around. Sickness can be controlled through fasting, eating fruits and vegetables. Fruits can detoxify the body,' he said.
Unconcerned about what his fraternity thinks about him, Ferreira is on a mission.
'I have personally benefited a lot from yoga. Till 1981 I was a sick man regularly visiting doctors and hospitals. Now, after rigorous training and studies in yoga, I am as fit as a teenager ready to take on anyone,' he says.
His fervent appeal is to make yoga compulsory in schools. 'Forget sex education. First develop the mind and body, increase powers of mind control and concentration!'
No wonder over 3,000 students of his college coming from elitist backgrounds have begun listening to him. Even the doubting Thomases among the teachers are getting involved - slowly but surely.
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Dear friend RH, without really digressing from the commentary role of our responses, you may reconsider your observation on Yoga adoption by Christians. Meditation on God's word/ the Buddha/ Allah/ Krishna/.. will always be there for bulk of people professing respective religions. Yoga does NOT name any particular God, although an Indian seer (Patanjali) took the pains to systematically put down the programme he himself followed, taking whatever prior traditional knowledge was at hand in his times, and adding his own wisdom to it based on own subjective experiences. Yoga does rest on a personified God, and one can put Jesus, Krishna, or any other deity in that 'blank' and practise Yoga, which is not just for the mind but for the body as well since an undiisciplined body will be a great damper on meditation which is in the realm of the mind. The Americans/ Westerners who practise Yoga, are no less religious, and no less Christian than those who do not, but are probably several notches higher in their psychophysical alertness and agility, which means a less bigotted religious outlook linked to the particular religion in which he by a providental accidental was borne. These are days of globalization and inter-faith appreciation and amity, and as civilization moves forward, it will be absolutely necessary for mankind to shed medieval narrow-mindedness without abandoning the great fundamentals of respective religions, and strive for securing common cords of belief and practice.
Its a sorry state of affairs to hear that a catholic priest recommending yoga. Christians do not need yoga, instead early morning is a solemn time for paryer and meditate upon the the word of God i.e., the Bible. This activity is cheap, does not need money or extra efforts, and meditating upon the Word of God is the best way to cure the most prevalent disease of our society today-depression.
It is nice to know that, going by this and some earlier news reports, Christian priests in India look at Yoga for the value it offers a person's mind and physique, and not as a Hindu/religious idea. Yoga is in fact an age-old practice recommended (as such or under different names) in Buddhism also. In order to religious emancipation/ liberation, in any religion, the mind and body must be cleansed and kept strong against temptations and illusory pleasures. This is a pre-requisite for spiritual pursuit. So damn it, if Christian priests elsewhere characterize Yoga as 'unchristian'. Do these fellows want to use religion as a unifying tool for the world, or as a tool for crusades and their natural retalliation by Jihads and terrorisms? Even in the US, Yoga is such an extremely widely propagated practice, and people there are told that they may use it as an aid for either religious pursuits, and if not, for just secular ones like mental alertness or self-improvement in materialistic affairs. BTW, how many socalled Christians are really believers in God and religion, have these British priests found through any unbiassed field study? If they do, they will be horrified. So, it follows that Yoga is a great means to either religious or materialistic ends. Eh UK Christian priests, change your medieval mindset.
Yoga education is the need of the hour. It is time that in our educational system we give importance to yoga that will help to raise the level of fitness of the young and upcoming citizens of our country.
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