Chennai: Asserting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make yoga a people’s movement as this will help humanity, Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said yoga is nothing but a discipline of body and mind together. And it is this integration that is the need of the hour, he said. The senior BJP leader said yoga was a global health programme for all ages.
“The Prime Minister of India wants to make yoga a people’s movement because it is going to help humanity... Yoga is nothing but a discipline of body and mind together. And it this integration that is the need of the hour. I am happy the Prime Minister’s call has not only evoked international response but also all sections of people are joining,” he said. He was speaking after taking part in a mega yoga programme organised by the Isha Yoga Foundation to mark the first International Day of Yoga here.
Participating in yoga was a great experience for him. “It is a great experience and I was so much impressed by the thousands of people Chennaiites for coming here early in the morning and joining this yoga practice. This makes me immensely happy,” Mr Naidu told reporters later.On December 11, 2014 the UN approved the proposal to celebrate June 21 as International Day of Yoga. Brahmakumaris said it was an occasion to share positive thoughts and good wishes by availing of the opportunity of collective and mass meditation for universal harmony and peace.
Young and old join city Isha yoga event
Yoga helped R. Sumi come out of depression that she was suffering from for the past two years. Sumi went into depression after she fared badly in her class 10 board examinations. In 2013, her Coimbatore-based uncle, S. Ramanujan, introduced Sumi to yoga. “My parents always compared me with others. I stopped eating and sleeping properly. But yoga changed my life,” she said.
The Poonamallee-based girl, who recently cleared her class 12 board examination, was at the biggest yoga event in Tamil Nadu at YMCA ground in Nandanam by the founder of Isha Foundation, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, to mark International Day of Yoga on Sunday.
Union urban development minister M. Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated the event.The event witnessed the gathering of thousands of people of all age groups from all over Chennai and the districts.
The other dignitaries present were Carnatic musician Sudha Ragunathan and BJP state president Tamilisai Soundararajan. Sumi, now pursuing Computer Science from Prathyusha Engineering College, was at the event with her parents, who also started practising yoga from 2013.
Many families who participated in the event were first-timers in yoga. M.N. Mani a 42-year-old man from Otteri, came with his father N. Natarajan. He said his father has been practising yoga for the past 10 years and is absolutely fit. “I plan to take up yoga in the future after today’s event.” J. Sujatha came with her sister S. Malarvizhe, her mother and aunt, who have been associated with Isha Foundation for the past three years, to attend the event.
