AHMEDABAD: He became a yogi even before he could begin to walk. Practicing yoga since he was one year old, Reyansh Surani, now 10, achieved the impossible feat of becoming the youngest certified yoga instructor in the world, setting a new Guinness record on July 27, 2021, at a tender age of nine years.
Now settled in Dubai with his family, Reyansh received his certification from Anand Shekhar Yoga School. He had completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher’s Training Course to be awarded the certificate. The young guru now wants to teach yoga in the metaverse!
Reyansh was introduced to yoga when he was just one year old, said his mother Aashna Surani. “Everybody in our family including his grandparents practices yoga. That influenced our young child,” she said.
Reyansh’s parents, Aashna and Mitul, had been attending a yoga teacher’s training course in Rishikesh which inspired him to aspire to teach. Reyansh had left Dubai to live in Rishikesh for a month for the certification exam.
Yoga trainer Anand Shekhar, 36, told TOI, “I have been training Reyansh’s family for six years now. Their diligence and discipline and love for yoga is commendable.”
A press release from the Guinness Book of records quotes Reyansh, “It was different! The first time I came to know we were going to Rishikesh, I was curious to live a rural life. I saw that side of the world for the first time — a place with such spiritual grip.” Reyansh had no internet access or even air conditioning. He soon quickly adapted to his new surroundings. “I learned alignment, anatomic philosophy, and the nutritional facts of Ayurveda. It’s an intense course,” Reyansh was quoted in the press release. Speaking to TOI, Aashna said, “We owe this achievement to Reyansh’s yoga teacher Anand Shekhar without whose patience, my son wouldn’t have absorbed yoga deeply and in detail.”
Today, Reyansh teaches yoga to 50 students, mostly Dubai-based kids. “We have settled in Dubai for the past four years and visit Surat every year during vacations,” Aashna added.
