Vivekanada Yoga University lecture in Minnesota

N.V. Raghuram, international coordinator for Vivekanada Yoga University in Bangalore, India, lectured on the "Science of Yoga" in the Minnesota Commons room of the center.

The university's use scientific research to examine thebenefit of yoga , more than 5,000-year-old Indian philosophy. According to Raghuram,Vivekanada probably is the first university of its kind in the world.

Since 1985, the organization has been working in direction ofscientific research on yoga
and published studies indicating that yoga has been shown to improve asthma, memory, stress management and helped women suffering from breast cancer.

The university has also treated more than 100,000 patients exclusively with yoga therapy at its hospital, he said.

Although some consider yoga to be mainly a form of exercise, Raghuram explained that physical activity really is a small part of yoga, and those who perceive it only as exercise underrate yoga and themselves."Yoga is the conscious journey from doing to being."