Kurhouse Merano has been one of the symbols of the spa town of South Tyrol in Northern Italy since 1874, and it is one of the most famous masterpieces in the Art Nouveau style of the whole Alpine area.
The international public turnout at this venue for the sixth annual Yoga Festival confirms the growing interest in its sixth year of yoga and its ability to carve visibility and consideration on the European circuit of events dedicated to holistic disciplines.
Photo © Mario Masciullo
Yoga is very much in line with the call of its homeland of origin, India, where this discipline has been uniting the people of the world, just as was written in Vedic Sanskrit texts where yoga comes from “Yuj,” meaning to bring together. The practice of yoga leads to the union of human consciousness with that of universal consciousness, indicating a perfect harmony between the body and the mind, man and nature. The worldwide spread of this discipline today is a celebratory award proposed by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In 2014, the 193 members of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), with the agreement of 177 countries, supported a resolution proposed to establish that the June 21, 2014 would be entered in the annual celebratory calendar as “International Yoga Day.”
Seminars, conferences, classical Indian dance theater, and Om chanting are among the exercises for the body and mind at the annual Merano Yoga Festival. The program of seminars and conferences packed with 45 sessions were observed regularly in the 2 days of work including dance sessions of classical Indian dance theater with yoga movement led by Lucrezia Maniscotti and her group. “Bharatanaya,” says the artist, is considered one yoga in motion and is known for intricate rhythmic games, for the beauty of the geometry of the body, but also for the ability to step narrative theater.”
Chanting Om during the performance, a group healing technique is practiced by Rishis thousands of years ago, which has been re-introduced and adapted by Swami Vishwananda for the modern era. More than 1,000 groups of Om chanting in the world come together to create powerful healing circles through the primordial sound of creation. Each group chanting Om provides healing support for people and the environment.
Between policy seminars, a performance by Gualtiero Vannucci (Raja Yoga) demonstrates the discipline of yoga practitioners through the action method. “It is not only abstaining from the man reaction that man leads to freedom. The goal,” says Vannucci, “is the development of humanity and its values as awareness; art of living; solidarity in life; harmony between mind, body and spirit.”
Yoga for Kids
Barbara Serra has long collaborated with the Foundation UPAD for teaching yoga for children of nursery and primary schools, and to train teachers and courses for adults.
“Yoga,” she says, “is a complete system of education that can be given to all the children, because it develops strength and stamina, emotional stability, intellectual capacity, and creativity. It leads to the development of the total personality in a balanced way. Its introduction is done through play.”
In this regard, says Dr. Alexander Reihard Schettler (New Humanism), the Transcendental Meditation (TM), interpreting the thought of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of the TM program, “The potential of the brain of every human being is unlimited, infinity, thanks to everyone’s brain [which] has a physical instrument capable of experiencing, through TM, that level of intelligence which is an ocean of knowledge, power, and bliss.” He cites some governments where the adopted TM USA 250 in public schools as well as in England, and other European countries. Surprisingly it indicates that in Sicily, 120 children are placed in the TM program.
Stress-free school is a proposal submitted to Prof. Minnei the school superintendent of South Tyrol as an optional subject at the Institute, including Merano 1 and 2 Italian, elementary, middle and high schools,
Finally, thanks to the “David Lynch Foundation for Education based on consciousness and world peace” created by an American film director, hundreds of schools have introduced Transcendental Meditation into the curriculum.
