Countries across the globe, as also big and small cities in India are gearing up to celebrate this year’s UN International Day of Yoga on June 21, the fourth in the series even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted the common man to make yoga a lifestyle since “it makes
people better individuals in thought, action, knowledge and devotion.”
Ahead of the D-day, Modi, who will lead a massive mass yoga event in Dehradun in Uttarakhand said in a video message posted on his Twitter handle recently that yoga is not just a set of exercises that keeps the body fit, it is a “passport” to health assurance and a key to fitness and wellness.
He equated yoga as one of the most precious gifts given by the ancient Indian sages to humankind. “Yoga is not only what you practise in the morning. Doing your day-to-day activities with diligence and complete awareness is a form of yoga as well,” he said. Free from illness, a path to wellness — that is the path of yoga, he said.
Just two days left for the D-day, the country is already in the grip of the yoga fervor. State Governments as well as NGOs engaged in the sector are leaving no stone unturned to make the day successful by ensuring maximum participation.
For instance, Brahma Kumaris Organisation will hold mass yoga event at Red Fort Ground, Delhi wherein over 50,000 yoga enthusiasts from Delhi and NCR including women personnel from various Central Armed Police Forces such as CRPF, CISF, BSF, ITBP etc will participate. They will be led by 102-year-old Rajyogini Dadi Janki, Global Chief of Brahma Kumaris.
Similarly, if in the extreme South, volunteers from Isha Foundation will teach Upa Yoga to prisoners of the 16 prisons across Tamil Nadu, then Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev will impart yoga skills to Army personnel guarding the Siachen glacier in ladakh region of Jammu & Kashmir.
Not keen to leave behind in the race, an all women’s team of Indian Army officers, under Col Omender K Pawar, scaled the mighty Mt Bhagirathi II and set a world record for performing yoga at an altitude of 19,022 ft. The expedition that was done in May-June 2018 was to celebrate the International Day of Yoga.
In the national Capital, yoga demonstration will be held by NDMC at Rajpath with CISF being the nodal force for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) of said function. The paramilitary force will coordinate with concerned authorities for participation of 1,000 CAPF personnel. Master trainers trained at the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) will be leading the CAPFs — Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and National Security Guards (NSG) which have lined up Yoga competitions and training camps for the event.
At Ahmedabad’s Sardar Patel Stadium, more than 10,000 people from various walks of life are expected to take part in the State-level yoga event organised jointly by the State Government and Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Yogpeeth. World over too, the enthusiasm for the yoga event is visible as nations have already kicked off a host of programme to mark the day. Hundreds of yoga enthusiasts participated in the yoga event at historic monuments of the US, including the Capitol Hill while in New York, people gathered at the Governors Island in the backdrop of the iconic Statue of liberty and the Manhattan skyline to participate in the Yoga Day commemoration organised by the Consulate General of India
In neighbouring Nepal, the Embassy of India organised a yoga camp in Kathmandu wherein hundreds of people including representatives from various Yoga associations, friendship societies, film personalities, school children and officials of the embassy and their family members took part in the camp with enthusiasm.
A large number of people led by Indian High Commissioner Gautam Bambawale in Indian Embassy in Pakistan performed various asanas while in China, thousands of Chinese Yoga enthusiasts performed asanas in Wenzhou which became the sixth city in the Communist nation to host the celebrations.
Ministries have come up with innovative ideas to promote the event. While the mobile app ‘Yoga locator’, has been launched by Ayush Ministry, giving details of ongoing yoga activities in surrounding areas, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched “#YogaFor9to5”, a contest to generate awareness on the benefits of yoga at workplace for women.