fatwa against Surya Namaskara(Sun salutation)

The huge furore of some people and a Fatwa against yoga came  as a shock to me and i am sure many more must have felt the same. The way some people have given Yoga a religious and political colour and branding it unislamic is totally unwarranted , nothing but intolerance .I watched the debate on National Television and to my surprise,according to one gentleman " Surya Nanmaskara" was worship of Sun,which  is not allowed in their religion,where as its a mere exercise to strengthen  the core .Wanted to tell him, Yoga is Indian and has got nothing to do with any religion .

Surya Namaskara, known in English as Sun Salutation , is a common sequence of Hatha yoga asanas. . This sequence of movements and poses can be practised on varying levels of awareness, ranging from that of physical exercise in various styles..
The physical base of the Practice links together twelve asanas in a dynamically performed series. These asanas are ordered so that they alternately stretch the spine backwards and forwards. When performed in the usual way, each asana is moved into with alternate inhalation and exhalation (except for the sixth asana where the breath is held in external suspension). A full round of Surya namaskara is considered to be two sets of the twelve poses with a change in the second set to moving the opposite leg first through the series.
Some proponents of the use of Surya namaskara as part of the modern yoga tradition prefer to perform it at sunrise, which is considered to be the most  favorable  time of the day does not mean offering prayers to the Sun .

photo credit Kulkarni's Surya Namaskara

mayawati unveiled

Mayawati to be unveiled after elections has raised a lot of questions on election symbol of other political parties.Years back in 80s cong was forced to change cong symbol from a cow and a cub to a hand,at that time opposition had raised an objected to the cong party election symol . They considered it to be good enough to influence the  emotions of a voter. Now the opposition has objected to the elephants and king size statues of mayawati.Though the BSP has tried to prove their point and cited several examples and lambasted the opposition parties asking for justification of their own election symbols.

If we go point by point by her justification  aired yesterday on national television , that BJP also has a lotus as their election symbol would it also be asked it to remove it from the ponds , markets and temples, it was also suggested that bicycles which is an election symbol of samajwadi party, either be removed or veiled in that case . Attacking the Congress party and their  election symbol which is a hand  that each one of us have,that too not one but two of them so what does the election commisssion suggest in that case ?  where as her own statues are concerned BSP tried to defend by saying that several roads ,hospitals,roads also delhi airport have been named after the Gandhi family.

But little does she realise, that if we start veiling  the lotus and removing the bicycles from the markets and roads  ,we would also need to veil elephants in the wild  ,zoos and where as the hand is concerned we all will need to either chop off our hands or perhaps wear gloves but we shall still not be able to ignore the significance of our hands and keep staring at the hands under cover and curse her for having made us veil them and that would hit the emotions of a person even stronger.

I also wonder what does she have to say about the BSP engraved under the statues , and her comparison with Gandhis and other leaders is not quite convincing.if hospitals,roads or parks have been named after some leaders it has been either after they have been slain or  their death and that too were not made by their  ownselves in fact have been erected or named after , in their memory. it  needs to be conveyed to her that we certainly dont mind a couple of her statues or a hospital or a road  be named after her once she takes an exit from this world.right now her statues are coming heavely on us and some one needs to advise her to get rid of her bag that she holds in each of her statue or a poster ,it gives an impression that she probably seems to be clutching on to her bag which  has all the keys to her closet full of skeletons .