Yoga is the new Yo!

New Delhi: The International Yoga Day on Rajpath has finally began. Kickstarting the program was Minister of Aayush, Shripad Yasso Naik, who delivered the welcome address, warmly welcoming everyone present to the event and hoping that Yoga will now become a part and parcel of everyone’s lives.

This was followed by the most awaited address by PM Narendra Modi. With respectful salutations to the great people who introduced us to Yoga, Modi highlighted the significance of Yoga.

“Who thought someday, Rajpath would become Yogapath,” he said.

He said his dream to stamp this day, every year, as a day of Yoga and mental well being has finally come true. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly had accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal of holding an International Yoga Day and had declared June 21 International Yoga Day, recognising the ancient Indian science’s “holistic approach to health and well-being.”

Modi thanked the several people who have already included Yoga as a part of their daily routines, saying it isn’t just Indians who have embraced Yoga as a practice, but people from all over the globe who are reaping its rich benefits.

He said that people from all nations and all colours have helped developed Yoga as an art and science. He stressed that Yoga is a science that keeps our minds calm and our bodies fit. He said that we often believe that Yoga is a way of physical fitness, of making the body flexible. However, the fact that some of us assume this is a mistake. Had it been like that, then children working in circuses would have have been the fittest and happiest, he added.

He took the analogy to a musical level, telling us how, before a big performance, there are many people tuning the tabla, adjusting the strings of the guitar and setting everything up, to the extent that sometimes we just wish the program started without this jazz. However, it’s the tuning that helps them all create a melody without any glitch. Just like instruments require tuning before a performance, similarly, the body needs tuning too, so that we too can go about our daily activities without any buffering required.

He thanked the 192 countries who are practicing Yoga Day, today. He said, “The sun never sets on Yoga practitioners…everywhere it goes, it will see someone doing yoga.” Yoga helps the mind, body and soul and helps keep these in balance.

He concluded by saying that this is just a program for welfare, love, unity and peace.

With this, International Yoga Day began in India, with close to 35,000 people beginning yoga practice on Rajpath, referring to the LED screens in front of them and following the instructions given both in English and Hindi.