The historic Forest Research Institute (FRI) witnessed a spectacular 4th International Day of Yoga celebration with enthusiastic participation of over 50,000 people who performed myriad asanas along with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday. In his address, PM said that the people from Dehradun to Dublin, Shanghai to Chicago and Jakarta to Johannesburg were doing Yoga on the day, something which the people of India can justly pride themselves on.
Exhorting the people to do Yoga regularly to keep diseases at bay, PM said that Yoga shows the path from ‘Illness to Wellness’ and the bill of medicines can be drastically reduced if one seriously practises Yoga seriously. Terming Yoga as something which unites individual with his family, society and nation, he said that it dispels all the negativities from life.
Making a reverential mention of Uttarakhand where Yoga is supposed to be born, he said that it was a matter of destiny that they had gathered on the occasion here in their thousands in the land of Gods ( Dev Bhoomi) and Mother Ganga, where ‘Char Dhams’ are situated, a pious land which Adi Shankarachayra and Swami Vivekananda visited many times.
He said that Uttarakhand has been the nerve centre of Yoga for millennia and the mountains give motivation for yoga and Ayurveda, giving one a transcendental experience. Modi said that the United Nations (UN) resolution to observe an International Day of Yoga was passed in the shortest possible time and with the consent of maximum number of nations.
In his address, the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said that the people of the State were charged over Uttarakhand being chosen to host the principal International Yoga Day programme.
He said Uttarakhand has a special place in the heart of the PM. “We are elated to perform Yoga with him,” he said. Rawat also hailed PM’s efforts in making UN to declare the annual observance of the International Day of Yoga.
The Union Minister of State for AYUSH, Sripad Yesso Naik said that Yoga is like a health cover which comes free of cost. He said that the PM had bestowed the task of celebrating International Day of Yoga on the AYUSH Ministry and it had subsequently firmed up a protocol to perform Yoga.
After the address, PM along with other dignitaries descended from the dais and took places among the common people to perform Yoga. The students of Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga played guides on Yoga Asans to the sea of humanity found flooding the lawns of the imposing edifice. The director of the institute, Dr Ishwar Vasav Reddy led the Yoga performance which lasted for 45 minutes in tandem with the Yoga protocol.
Governor of Uttarakhand Krishan Kant Paul was present on the occasion along with state AYUSH minister, Harak Singh Rawat and ministers Subodh Uniyal, Dhan Singh Rawat and Rekha Arya aside from MP Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’, Anil Baluni and some eminent saints.