nashik the ancient practice of wellness of the mind body and soul is gradually picking momentum in the city but yoga teachers feel that more awareness and consistency is needed among practitioners particularly the youth such hav been the positive effects of this spiritual discipline that many people from far off placesm some even from abroad have been coming to the city to learn yoga and get rid of their serious illnesses in the process yog vidya dham citys oldest yoga institution has many foreigners enrolling themselves to learn this ancient indian practice it is a monthlong course that goes on throughout the year with just a monthandahalf long break during summer and three weeks in december the course for yoga teachers is conducted at the institutions sprawling 250acre ashram near trimbakeshwar that was constructed in 2003 the institution also has two 50bedded hospitals at jail road and jai bhavani road where patients are treated of their maladies through yoga and proper diet the institute claims to have cured many critical cases through the discipline since 2000 foreigners have been coming to learn yoga from us till date around 3000 foreigners from 95 countries have enrolled with us we have the maximum number of students from usa followed by uk brazil australia and others when we started in 1980 the municipal corporation gave us 125acre land on college road where we constructed a building and began conducting yoga classes said vishwas mandlik today the institute has centres in singapore bangkok hong kong bali in indonesia kazakistan russia and australia besides 40 branches in maharashtra yoga is a lifestyle a way of living and asanas are a part of it its all about learning to be happy in any given situation today people have a lot of money but no happiness and peace of mind yoga will keep them to be happy therapeutic yoga can cure mental stress he added he further said that the history of yoga dates back from the vedic times and even has a mention in the upanishads and the epics as a science the discipline dates back to 400 bc it was rishi patanjali who had created the yoga shastra refuting beliefs that yoga is associated with hindu religion mandalik said yoga has never been mentioned as a religion the only religious context that can be found in yoga is the practice of saying om which is symbolic of god and not specific to any particular religion since the hindus chant om while praying many assume that yoga is part of hindu religion om has a lot of good vibrations and even foreigners are enthralled by its effects and are doing research on it the institution claims to have cured 30000 patients with slip discs spondylosis and arthritis without surgery besides healing many psychosomatic disorders diabetes and hypertension among other disorders for instance sandip paithankar 43 who heads a branch of an ngo in south africa fell on his back six months ago and suffered a