| Yoga for teachers rouses ire of Croatian
bishops
ZAGREB, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Croatian elementary school
teacher Marijana Ivanovic has taken up yoga to help
her relax. Nothing controversial about that, or so she
thought.
"Yoga really helps recharge one's batteries and
eases my lower-back pain," said Ivanovic, who has
taught for more than 30 years, during the first session
of a state-supported yoga programme for teachers.
But her ancient oriental exercise routine is at the
centre of a highly charged public debate because it
has fallen foul of the powerful Roman Catholic church
in this overwhelmingly Catholic country.
The education ministry introduced the programme this
year as part of efforts to help teachers work better.
The ministry awarded 50,000 kuna ($7,624) in annual
support to a local group known as 'Yoga in Daily Life',
which draws on the teachings of Hindu spiritual leader
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, known as Swamiji.
The yoga courses started in October. In addition to
relaxation, the programme aims to develop "a more
efficient approach in communication with pupils,"
according to the official booklet.
"Easing stress and improving health were the main
motivations for those who applied to attend," said
Vedrana Josipovic, who is in charge of the programme.
The sessions are held in the four largest Croatian
cities -- Zagreb, Split, Rijeka and Pula and Josipovic
insists they have nothing to do with the institutionalisation
of yoga in schools.
GUISE OF EXERCISE
But Croatia's Catholic bishops are not impressed. In
July they issued a statement protesting "an attempt
to introduce yoga in the Croatian education system".
The Croatian Bishops' Conference said the programme
would "make an unacceptable favour to an organisation
and its founder who wants to introduce Hinduistic religious
practice in Croatian schools". It said everything
was being done under the guise of exercise.
"It is evident that teachers will apply yoga practice
in their work with children," the Bishops' Conference
said.
A Croatian yoga activist, who asked not to be named,
said the bishops were "irritated by anything related
to disciplines of oriental origin."
The bishops' statement appeared to have an immediate
impact in a country where almost 90 percent of the people
profess to be Catholic. Local media reported that interest
in the yoga programme had fallen sharply after the protest.
Josipovic said 370 teachers had expressed preliminary
interest and "the first round of sessions was attended
by 273 teachers".
Yoga ran into similar trouble in Slovakia in 2001 when
a proposal to teach yoga in schools was eventually dropped
in the face of fierce opposition from Slovakia's Catholic
church and allies in the rightwing government.
Slovak critics called the yoga programme "a path
to total atheism" and the government shelved a
vote on the proposal. The plan never made it to wider
public debate.
"Croatian bishops reacted in the same way as Slovak
bishops, but I think they misunderstood what exactly
the programme 'Yoga in Daily Life' meant," Swamiji
told Reuters by telephone from his native India.
He said that physical and mental exercise was designed
to give teachers "better concentration and good
health" and meant to indoctrinate pupils.
"My work for world peace and tolerance in different
cultures is above (any) particular religion and any
dogma. It is exactly the context within which one should
look at the 'Yoga in Daily Life' programme," Swamiji
said. (Additional reporting by Michael Winfrey in Bratislava)
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