On account of the 10th International Day of Yoga today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is in Jammu and Kashmir for a visit led celebrations at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) on the banks of Dal Lake.
In his address at the event, he urged people to make yoga a part of their daily routine and said that the world is looking at it as a powerful agent of global good.The United Nations has chosen the theme ‘Yoga for Self and Society’ for the decennial year.
The Prime Minister extended greetings to the people of the country and said we can feel the energy in Srinagar that we gain through Yoga.
“International Yoga Day has completed a historic journey of 10 years. In 2014, I proposed International Yoga Day at the United Nations. This proposal by India was supported by 177 nations and this was a record in itself. Since then, Yoga Day has been creating new records,” PM Modi said.
“This year in India, a 101-year-old woman Yoga teacher was accorded the Padma Shri. She had never come to India but she dedicated her entire life to creating awareness about Yoga. Today, research on Yoga is being done in prestigious universities and institutions around the world; research papers are being published,” he added.
The prime minister said the number of yoga practitioners across the globe is growing every day and the regimen is becoming a part of their daily life. “In many countries, yoga is becoming a part of the people’s daily lives,” Modi said as he cited the examples of Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia, and Germany, saying the ancient form of meditation was fast becoming popular there”, he said.
Modi said that Yoga is not only knowledge but it is science as well. In this era of information revolution, there is a flood of information sources and it is a challenge for the human mind to focus on one subject. “A solution for this is also in yoga as it helps the mind to focus. That is why from army to sports, yoga has been included in their routine,” he added.
The prime minister said astronauts and people working on space projects are also trained in yoga as it increases “productivity as well as tolerance”.