Hindus critical of Connecticut yoga tax proposal
Hindus are critical of Connecticut (USA) Governor Dannel P. Malloy’s new proposal of imposing tax on yoga.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who strongly criticized the attempts to regulate yoga in the recent past by various states in USA, urged Governor Malloy to reconsider his proposal and keep the sales tax exemption on yoga.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that yoga was one of the six systems of orthodox Hindu philosophy whose traces went back to around 2000 BCE. Yoga never had any formal organization and yoga practice had been handed down from one guru to the next.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was mentioned in ancient Hindu scriptures Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. The Bhagavad-Gita, one of the most popular Hindu scripture, was considered a comprehensive yoga-shastra (treatise on yoga). Mahabharata, also an ancient Hindu scripture, said that one unconversant with yoga could never have happiness while Yogabija Upanishad pointed out that one became liberated from bondage only through yoga. Why to tax such a liberation powerhouse, Zed asked.
Zed stressed that yoga was a mental and physical discipline by means of which the human-soul (jivatman) united with universal-soul (parmatman). Some sages had described yoga as the silencing of all mental transformations, which lead to the total realization of the Supreme Self. Some had used yoga attempting to gain liberation by removing all sensory barriers. For Patanjali, author of the basic text, the 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 the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche and regulating it was kind of a religious infringement, Rajan Zed added.
About 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, are said to practice yoga.
Connecticut, known for its wealth, which received statehood in 1788, is famous for its inventions of watchmaking, insurance, submarines, lollipop, typewriters; Long Island Sound shoreline, rolling Litchfield Hills, and unspoiled Connecticut River Valley. Its prominent residents included inventor Charles Goodyear, former President George Walker Bush, author Mark Twain, lexicographer Noah Webster, actor Paul Newman, showman P.T. Barnum, Nobel laureate Eugene O’Neill, actress Katharine Hepburn, etc.
Hindus decry derogatory remarks against Roma in Hungarian Parliament
Hindus have strongly criticized reported recent derogatory comments against Roma (Gypsy) community in the Hungarian Parliament.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, asked how this act of further stigmatizing the already most prejudiced against community was acceptable in the Parliament of Hungary who currently holds Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) and who proclaims “Creating a European roma policy” as one of the main issues of its Presidency.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, argued that Hungary should first clean its own backyard before preaching others in the EU and creating policies about an ethnic community which was mocked even in its highest body of Parliament. It smelled xenophobia, attempts at creation of an easy scapegoat, trying to gain political capital by targeting helpless people, etc.
Rajan Zed further said that religious leaders of Hungary, lead by majority Roman Catholics, should also come out openly against this unjust Roma stigmatization as religion told us to help the helpless. It was a sin to watch Roma continually suffer maltreatment day after day for centuries and not do anything.
Europe’s most persecuted and discriminated community, Roma were reportedly facing apartheid conditions in Europe. Roma reportedly regularly encountered social exclusion, racism, substandard education, hostility, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, etc., Zed pointed out.
Please do the numbers with regard to the significant reduction in healthcare expenses experienced by anyone that takes up a regular yoga practice. A regular Bikram Yoga practice almost immediately alleviates chronic pain, stress related illness, reduces High BP, High Cholesterol, actually increases good cholesterol which modern medicine has never figured out how to do, straightens scoliotic spines, reduces the pain associated with all forms of arthritis, heals herniated and bulging discs in the spine, the positive effects on depression and anxiety are extraordinary and the list goes on.
Difficult decisions must be made to address our financial state but poorly researched, blindly reactionary taxes reducing our access to the low-cost, simple ways we have to address monumental issues such as healthcare will not only not solve the problem but make it worse.