Yoga was the theme and wellness the agenda on Friday as India and the world marked the fifth International Day of Yoga with tens of thousands of people rolling out their mats to stretch and twist, breathe in and breathe out, reach for the skies and bend to touch their toes.
From the UN General Assembly hall to the Indian Parliamentpremises and from Beijing to Ranchi, enthusiasts of the ancient wellness regimeperformed ‘asanas’ simple and complex amid chants of “Om” and”Shanti” in several global capitals and across the expanse of India,where Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the observance of the day.
In India, the main event was held at the Jharkhand capitalRanchi with the prime minister performing various ‘asanas’ along with 40,000people at the Prabhat Tara ground.
Appealing to people to make yoga an integral part of theirlives, the PM Modi said, “We should make efforts to take yoga from citiesto villages and tribal areas. Yoga is above religion, caste, colour, gender andregion, it is above everything.”
“The essence of yoga has been stable and remained thesame — healthy body, stable mind, spirit of oneness. Yoga has provided aperfect blend of knowledge, karma and bhakti,” he told the gathering.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted June 21 asInternational Yoga Day in 2014 on a proposal mooted by Modi.
Scenes of mass yoga exercises in open grounds, parks andhalls were mirrored in various parts of the country, in the waters of theDigaru river in Arunachal Pradesh where ITBP men performed asanas and even inthe icy heights of the Himalayas where their colleagues put out their mats onthe Vasundhara glacier near Badrinath.
And in Jalandhar, members of the 2 Army Dog Unit performeddoga (dog yoga), the canines doing the asanas along with the Army personnel.
While PM Modi led the celebrations in Ranchi, his ministersspread out across the country with Home Minister Amit Shah participating in afunction in Rohtak, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in the national capital, wheremany hundreds did yoga in the rolling greens of Rajpath, and Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari in Nagpur.
Shah, who did yoga exercises along with Haryana ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar, said it is due to the efforts of Modi that theworld is now not only observing Yoga Day but making it a part of their everydaylives.
“Yoga is the symbol of India’s ancient history anddiversity which is showing the world the way towards a healthy life,” hetweeted after the event.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was at the PravasiBharatiya Kendra where 60 ambassadors as well as diplomats from variousmissions performed yoga exercises.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla led the Yoga Day events inParliament House where around 400 people, including newly elected MPs, Unionministers and Parliament staffers, participated in practising the asanas.While President Ram Nath Kovind was part of YogaDay at Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Ceremonial Hall, Vice President M Venkaiah Naiduparticipated at an event at the historic Red Fort where thousands of men andwomen, all in white, performed yoga exercises.