By Chief of Bureau B S Prabhurajan
MYSURU: This City of Palaces has earned a spot on the international map vis-a-vis different sectors and boasts several institutions offering Yoga, Ayurveda and meditation classes that possess the potential to boost the travel industry.
The Tourism Department plans to capitalise on the demand for Yoga training and is emerging with guidelines for its global promotion. The classes within and around Mysuru have been witnessing a large turnout of foreigners as well, including many from the U.S.A. and Europe. Tourism authorities have geared up to attract more foreigners with new programmes, sources in the Department told ‘Developing India Mirror'.
The foreigners enroll for short-term courses in Yoga. One popular expert was K. Pattabhi Jois whose grandson R. Sharath is continuing the legacy of Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga that Jois popularised abroad. B.K.S. Iyengar and Desikacharalso mainstreamed the discipline in the U.S.A. The K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute is large enough to accommodate 30-35 students at a time. It is kept tidy and unpolluted. Ayurveda practitioners here and in the nearby temple town of Nanjangud are known for preparing herbal medicine. The district administration included Yoga in the Dasara festivities. In the words of the Sri Vedavyasa Yoga Foundation’s exponent K. Raghavendra R. Pai, “Given the present-day lifestyle and its deleterious impact on health, Yoga can help bring balance and harmony in one’s life. There are in excess of 150 centres here.” Yoga and meditation camps are conducted regularly at Osho Sannidhi, Siddha Samadhi Yoga Centre and Sri Pathanjali Yoga Shikshana Samiti (S.P.Y.S.S.).
The erstwhile royal family – the Wadiyars – not only patronised this branch of knowledge but also were expert performers. Mummadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar authored the treatise ‘Sritattvanidhi’.
The local Yoga gurus become busy bees between October and March, described as the ‘Yoga season’, as foreigners make a beeline for Mysuru. In these months, outsiders clutching Yoga mats are a common sight. According to the proponents, approximately 2,500 foreigners arrive here every month from October onwards. After March, the influx is around 500 a month.
The Mystic School’s Shashi Kumar argues that relaxation of visa norms for enthusiasts would augment tourism.
Forty years back, R.R. Ramaswamy established the Sri Pathanjali Yoga Shikshana Samithi -- in Tumakuru -- which taught the subject free. The Samiti has hundreds of branches. It recently constructed a Yoga mandira and intends to teach foreigners. The deal is that they should teach the discipline free to at least one batch when they return.