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Hindus critical of Gwyneth Paltrow’s yoga remark
Hindus are highly critical of Oscar winner Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow’s (Shakespeare in Love) recent reported
statement that yoga “ruined” her body.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, 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. How this world heritage and liberation powerhouse utilized by
so many humans in all these years with positive results could “ruin” Paltrow’s body, Zed asked.
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. Yoga is there to help and not harm and Paltrow needs to put the blame somewhere
else and not on yoga if there is something wrong with her body, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism,
argues.
Rajan Zed pointed out that 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. According to an
estimate, about 16 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga.
Reports suggest that Gwyneth Kate Paltrow, 38, meditates daily and is also sometimes known as “part yogini”.
ends