Author: Igor Ilic
Publication: Reuters
Date: November 2, 2003
URL: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=3738137&pageNumber=0
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
program for teachers.
But her ancient oriental exercise
routine is at the center 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 program 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 program 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 program.
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 institutionalization 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 program would "make an unacceptable favor to an organization 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 program 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 program
"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 program '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' program," Swamiji said. (Additional reporting by Michael Winfrey
in Bratislava)
