Dwarka: As the people are forced to remain indoors during the pandemic, people have started realising the importance of physical activities. People are now taking to Yoga and including it in their everyday routine. Even children are getting serious about Yoga.
Rakesh Mehra, an independent director of a food company and a resident of Dwarka, is following his passion by teaching Yoga to children, free of cost. He is the founder of “Yog Seed” which is a foundation to educate children about Yoga.
“Seed signifies children and if children will start practicing yoga in their early years, they will be healthy in future,” said Mehra.
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Mehra was himself a 12th standard student in 1981 when he became passionate about Yoga. He learned yoga from watching yoga sessions of Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari on television and attending physical classes in Morarji Desai's Yoga institute.
Connection With Children
Mehra has been passionate about Yoga, especially for children, for the past 10 years. Unlike today, he had put up camps in Dwarka to teach Yoga Asanas related to concentration, height, and physical strength in children.
Even lockdown couldn't stop him from spreading this love for Yoga due to the presence of online platforms.
Recently, Mehra has conducted seven to ten days of online yoga sessions with around 500 students of “Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya” in Hari Nagar. “The children of this government school are very intelligent but couldn't afford to have Yoga classes. I do not want them to be deprived of Yoga, this made me conduct a session with them.”
Mehra has also given online Yoga classes to 35 schools of Anandram Jaipuria School also. Soon after the partial upliftment of the lockdown, he began with the offline classes with 20 people.
Summer Camp Yoga Classes
“I believe in interactive sessions with children. I do not want monotonous sessions with them. I teach Yoga in their language and this will make them more interested in the class. If you tell the benefit of any Yoga asana to kids, it will motivate them and they will want to perform the asana willingly. Always remember they are kids. Never make Yoga complicated for them. Listen to their problems and solve them,” said Mehra.
His Yoga classes are divided into four parts:
Sukshma Kriya (for the external body)
Asanas (for the external body)
Prayanam (for internal strength for the body)
Dhyaan (for concentration)
“I give a 40-minute Yoga session to children. If children will be able to do beginners Yoga then they will be able to do intermediate and advanced Yoga as well,” said Mehra.
He has also started a mission named “Ghar Ghar Yog, Har Ghar Yog,” which aims to spread Yoga over India. Currently, it has spread into around 15 states.
