Participants attend the yoga session on Sunday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, June 29: Inspired by yoga guru Baba Ram Dev, the employees of Jharkhand State Electricity Board (JSEB) are learning different forms of yoga to de-stress themselves.

Members of the Patanjali Yog Samiti, Ranchi, will start yoga classes in corporate houses and different state bodies like the police department, administrative department, education department, jails, remand homes and army headquarters.

Ram Kumar Singh, an employee of JSEB, who after learning yoga started the yoga lessons, said the idea was to help employees relax after a hard day’s work. “I started practising yoga after suffering from depression and anxiety. I followed the seven types of asanas and finally overcame it,” Singh said.

He started lessons among his employees by introducing a free six-day package. “We conduct yoga classes for batches of 10 at JSEB. Besides, I also get invitations from Patratu Thermal Power Station to conduct the classes,” Singh said.

Shiv Govind Pandey, the district president of Patanjali Yog Samiti, said before beginning yoga lessons in corporate houses and departments, a 15-day yoga training session for interested candidates and yoga teachers would be held. Further, they would be taken to Baba Ram Dev’s training centre in Haridwar.

Pandey added yoga has become popular across the country. “Now, Baba Ram Dev’s target is to train yoga teachers for Jharkhand by April 2009. In every village there should be one yoga teacher while at the block-level we would have trained 150 yoga teachers. They would be responsible to impart training to the common masses and also suggest cures for illnesses,” Pandey added.

Meanwhile, the general-secretary of the group, Girja Nandan Sharma, said the criterion for training candidates as yoga teachers is that he should be self independent, financially sound and healthy. They would have to submit a bank draft of Rs 1,100 to Patanjali Yogpith, Haridwar.

Besides, Sharma added that nowadays the stress-level in corporate houses is increasing at an alarming rate.

“Thus, we have decided to conduct yoga classes for which we would write to departments. If the plan materialises we would start training in the first week of August,” he pointed out.

Sharma said there are not enough yoga teachers in the state.

“We are training candidates in different districts of Lohardaga, Silli and also conducting classes in schools. We went to SS High School, Ormanjhi, and conducted a three-day session with students,” he said.

“We are also conducting yoga classes in different areas of the city curing people of various problems. Most people also do yoga to lose weight,” Sharma added.