Woodstock town in New York State of USA, known as "Colony of the Arts", is now one of the "10 fantastically yoga-friendly towns" of USA, as declared by August 2011 issue of Yoga Journal.
Other nine towns on the list of this San Francisco (California) headquartered prestigious yoga magazine are: Asheville (North Carolina), Austin (Texas), Boulder (Colorado), Encinitas (California), Minneapolis (Minnesota), New Orleans (Louisiana), Portland (Oregon), Salt Lake City (Utah), and Washington (District of Columbia).
Journal reports that Woodstock, with a population of 6,090, has six yoga studios. At this rate, Mumbai (India) should over 13,626 yoga studios. Journal also points out that yoga is part of the curriculum at some New Orleans charter schools.
Welcoming the widespread interest in yoga, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. One could still practice one's respective faith and do yoga. Yoga would rather help one in achieving one's spiritual goals in whatever religion one believed in.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga, referred as "a living fossil" whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline handed down from one guru to next, for everybody to share and benefit from. 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. Yoga was based on an eightfold path to direct the practitioner from awareness of the external world to a focus on the inner, Zed added.
Rajan Zed argued that yoga, which never had any formal organization, was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche. Yoga had been booming in USA and there were splendid yoga studios all over the country.
According to National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. Swami Vivekananda reportedly brought yoga to USA in 1893. According to an estimate, about 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga.
Woodstock, which lies within Catskill Park, is famous for lending its name to Woodstock Festival of music, held about 43 miles on a dairy farm in 1969, but it has long been a center of activity for writers, musicians, and artists even before that. It is said to have played host to many Hudson River School painters during the late 1800s. It has the country's oldest Arts & Crafts colony, houses Karma Triyana Dharmachakra Buddhist monastery, and a separate "Artist's Cemetery". Jeff Moran is Town Supervisor.
Kaitlin Quistgaard is the Editor-in-Chief of Yoga Journal, which claims to "empower readers to make healthy lifestyle choices for their bodies and minds", and is published by El Segundo (California) based Active Interest Media headed by Efrem Zimbalist III as CEO.
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Rajan Zed is a religious statesman who has taken up Hindu, interfaith, religion, Roma and other causes all over the world.
He was invited by President of European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, in December 2008 in Brussels (Belgium) for a meeting to promote interfaith dialogue. He has read opening prayers in United States Senate in Washington DC, various state senates and assemblies/houses-of- representatives, city councils, etc., across the country.
Zed is one of the panelists for “On Faith”, a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post. He has been bestowed with “World Interfaith Leader Award”, “Nevada Religious Unity Award”, “Positive Pluralism & Unity Prize”, & other awards for interfaith dialogue.
He is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor to New York headquartered Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy, Director of Interfaith Relations of Nevada Clergy Association, Spiritual Advisor to National Association of Interchurch & Interfaith Families, etc.
Rajan Zed is on the Governing Board of Directors of Northern Nevada International Center, on the Board of Directors of Nevada World Trade Council, member Citizens Advisory Committee of Regional Transportation Commission, member Reno Police Chief Advisory Board, etc.
He possesses Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from University of Nevada-Reno and Master of Science in Mass Communications from San Jose State University, California.
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