Jodhpur Muslim expert blends yoga with music

JODHPUR: While some groups are still in two minds about yoga on the eve of the first International Yoga Day, here is yogacharya Nayeem Khan, who is all excited about it.
Undeterred by the hue and cry over yoga, Khan, a yoga teacher for the past 10 years, is looking forward to leading one of the sessions in Jodhpur on Sunday.
Khan termed the controversy around the ancient Indian practice for health and fitness getting associated with religion as unfortunate.“It should be seen only as a means of well being at a time when health is being subjected to threats from all sides and thinking of well being of a person is beyond religion. I think it is the most noble thing one can do,” he said.
Khan, who has learnt yoga under the Indian gurukul parampara, despite being a Muslim, said that there was a dire need to promote yoga and the concept of healthy living among all and we also need to adopt it instead of associating it with any religion.
Khan (40) is the nephew of sarangi maestro and vocalist Padma Bhushan recipient Ustad Sultan Khan. He turned to yoga in search of peace and spirituality and learnt the subtleties of yoga from Karunakar, a disciple of renowned yogacharya B K S Iyengar for six months in Mangalore and later from Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati, successor of Satyananda Saraswati, who founded Satyananda Yoga.
Keeping in mind the first International Yoga Day preparations, he started holding yoga sessions for the past few months.
Khan has also conducted yoga lessons in all the 65 jails of the state. “I took sessions in four central jails of the state apart from other prisons ranging from 15 days to 3 months and enjoyed training prisoners,” Khan said.
He will celebrate the International Yoga Day at the historic Jaswant Thada in Jodhpur in association with his Ninad Sansthan and the Mehrangarh Museum Trust.
“This session is going to be distinct and interesting in the sense that we have also blended yoga with the Indian instrumental music with a view to absorb the participants in the activity,”Khan said.
Endorsing him, another young yoga trainer Puneet Mehta said that there is need to have qualified yoga experts to promote it. “Today, we see that the yoga centres have mushroomed in every corner of the town. Joining them without being sure about the credentials of the trainer can lead to health risks,” he said.