Millions take part in Intnl Yoga Day in India

“Yes, it originated in India”, he declared to a multinational audience of diplomats and global officials. “It does not belong to India anymore”.

Modi, who has established a government ministry charged with promoting yoga, previous year led around 35,000 people in New Delhi in an outdoor session to mark the first world yoga day.

The event will include a musical incantation on yoga and British singer Tanya Wells will recite Sanskrit shlokas.

“Among all days marked by the United Nations, no day has equalled the mass movement the International Yoga Day has become”.

Indians holds hands as they attempt to create a record for the longest human yoga chain with more than 8000 participants at an event to celebrate International Yoga Day in Ahmadabad, India, Tuesday, June 21, 2016. This is where yoga came in as a scientific way of obliterating individual boundaries, he said.

China An aerial view of Chinese enthusiasts performing yoga the glass sightseeing platform in the Shilinxia scenic spot in Beijing, China, 20 June 2016. “This is most important because only then will it be internationally relevant”, he said. “I am insisting on it being as science and technology because you don’t have to believe (in yoga), you just have to learn to use it. Like any technology, if you learn to use it, it works for you”, he said.

“Yoga embodies unity of mind and body, thought and action… a holistic approach [that] is valuable to our health and our well-being”, he said.

Modi is a firm believer in the power of yoga to improve lives. She recalled her meeting with Mahatma Gandhi, who she said told her “not to be afraid”.

The Yoga Day celebrations at the United Nations this year, emceed by Miss America 2014, Nina Davuluri, focused on the ancient Indian tradition’s role in achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by world leaders last year.

The physical, mental and spiritual practice of yoga originated in India and has been practised for over 5,000 years. To further this, India and World Health Organization had recently signed an agreement. “Yoga is not about what one will get, but it is about what one can give up”. Yoga is extremely beneficial to women and helps in easier childbirth as well as regaining the elasticity of the body. Similarly, yoga exercises were conducted in various educational institutions.