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Prime minister says yoga can unite world; record set in Kota

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Dehradun/New Delhi: The Fourth International Yoga Day was enthusiastically observed on Thursday within the country and abroad, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who attended the main event at Dehradun, saying yoga has emerged as a major unifying force in a world facing conflicts.


A Guinness world record was created at Rajasthan’s Kota where over two lakh people performed yogic ‘asanas’ at one place on the occasion.


Across the country, union ministers, chief ministers and governors participated in event along with many thousands of people.


Modi, who led the International Yoga Day celebrations, said the world had embraced yoga and June 21 had become one of the biggest mass movements in the quest for good health and well-being.


Terming yoga beautiful because it is “ancient yet modern”, he said: “It is constant yet evolving. It has the best of our past and present and a ray of hope for our future.


“In yoga, we have the perfect solution to the problems we face, either as individuals or in our society.”


Modi added: “From Dehradun to Dublin, Jakarta to Johannesburg and Shanghai to Chicago, people are celebrating Yoga Day all across the world.”


More than 35 foreign volunteers participated in the Dehradun event and performed 21 yoga postures along with nearly 50,000 people.


In Kota, the record-breaking event took place in the presence of yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje at the RAC ground where people started assembling from 5 am.


A certificate was given to Raje, Ramdev and District Collector Gaurav Goyal by two Guinness World Record officials who came from London to monitor the proceedings.


Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, who participated in a Yoga Day event in Mumbai, said yoga adopts a holistic approach towards health and well-being and it has “nothing to do with religion”. Bollywood celebrities like Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Shilpa Shetty Kundra and Soha Ali Khan posted yoga poses and cited its benefits.


In New Delhi, hundreds of people, including Union Minister Jayant Sinha, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi and Lt Governor Anil Baijal, gathered on Rajpath and surrounding parks to perform ‘asanas’.


In Tripura, thousands observed the day practising yoga across the state, with the main function held at Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council headquarters in Khumulwng, 30 km north of Agartala.


— IANS


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