Hindus have issued a statement declaring their disappointment with the Church of Greece’s stance on yoga following a statement by The Holy Synod which denounced the practice.

The church hierarchy stated that yoga should have no place in the lives of Christians and found it to be incompatible with the faith.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA), said that although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilised 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/denomination one believed in. It was not at odds with any faith and rather made one spiritually healthier,” he said.

Mr Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Archbishop Ieronymos II to “rethink, revisit and reevaluate yoga” as many of its devotees reportedly practiced yoga. Denying them the valuable opportunities the multi-beneficial yoga provided, would be clearly doing a disservice to them.

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He said yoga is “a living fossil” and a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilisation.

According to a report of US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Yoga is the most popular complementary health approach in the United States – used by 14.3 per cent of the adult population, or 35.2 million people”.

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The United Nations proclaimed 21 June as International Day of Yoga to raise awareness worldwide of its many benefits. “Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche,” Mr Zed added.