More than 100 differently-abled children proved yoga as a tool to overcome their disability and increase their confidence levels.
“We are not taking yoga classes as one of the exercise being taught in our school, but it is giving us confidence and also mental peace, freshness and some more which we can’t explain in words,” said visually impaired, differently-abled and destitute children in a school which is being run by a private management.
Popularly known as Zion Blind School, the institution was allotted a small place in the backyard of a government hospital and is sheltering about 120 students. After conducting yoga classes under the banner of “Patanjali Yoga Sadhana Centers” across the coastal districts, the yoga teacher, popularly known as ‘Yoga’ Srinivas thought of conducting classes for children of Zion school free of cost.
The head of the school Ms. Estheru readily agreed and made the children available to the master to conduct classes daily in the evening. About 20 days ago, Mr. Srinivas and his disciple Rajasekhar started yoga classes with breathing exercises.
Tough task“I know it is a very tough task to teach yoga to the children who cannot see, hear or speak. Then I engaged a boy, Khan, and girl, Ratnam, among them who are destitute children (orphans). I addressed all the 120 children through public address system with the help of Khan and Ratnam, who touched the visually impaired and asked to do aasanas.”
Mr. Srinivas started with ‘Pranayama’ (breathing exercises) which cleans lungs and then taught ‘Kapala Bhathi’ (for stimulating the body and to keep away indigestion). He also taught ‘Naadi Sodhana’ to improve their memory power through yoga sadhana.
Dr. Akula Satyanarayana, MLA, Rajahmundry who is a doctor by profession said, “It is wonderful to see my children (visually impaired) doing ‘surya namaskaras’ and difficult aasanas such as Chakrasana, Paschimothasana.”
Students Rani, Durga and Sivaprasad said that there was a lot of difference after attending classes. “Though Kapala Bhathi and some exercises are very difficult, we are getting lot of relaxation,” said Rani.
