- Yoga is gaining popularity due to its time tested utility in boosting mental agility and contributions towards Peace behaviour.
- Yoga helps us get in touch with our source, the very essence of our being. When we are established with that source, we experience bliss, peace, love for all, compassion, and a smile that does not fade, come what may!
By R. Anil Kumar
Bangalore, June 22. The United Nations (UN), proclaimed June 21 as the International Day of Yoga to raise awareness of the many benefits of practicing Yoga. Thanks to the efforts made by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who in a very short time of assuming office of the Prime Minister, on September 27, 2014, placed a proposal in the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, to mark 21st June, as the International Yoga Day, by recognising its power to bring, World Peace and Harmony.
In essence, the UN recognized the intrinsic power of Yoga to unite people from all walks of life, irrespective of religion, borders, and culture, to experience wellness and harmony within and in our environment.
One might wonder how a simple practice of Yoga can bring such a transformation in oneself and in our surroundings.
To answer this question, one must go back to the very origin of Yoga.
The word Yoga is derived from the root, ‘Yuj’ which means union. When sustained as a holistic practice, “Yoga unites the body, mind, and spirit and helps each individual experience much-needed peace and harmony within and without! …Yoga is acknowledging the unity of the individual self with the universal self.”
This 5000-year-old Indian body of knowledge of personal transformation has found new recognition in the modern era for its health and therapeutic benefits, as documented by various scientific studies.
“Yoga is feeling the connection with oneself and everyone around. Yoga is aspiring for the highest goal in the world – to feel one with everyone and with the divine.”
Yoga helps us get in touch with our source, the very essence of our being. When we are established with that source, we experience bliss, peace, love for all, compassion, and a smile that does not fade, come what may!
At a time in our world when there is so much attention on division and conflicts, Yoga comes as a powerful force to heal our differences and bring harmony.
At a time in our society when much of the focus is on how different we are in race, colour and creed, Yoga offers an opportunity to experience and celebrate the fact that we all belong to one race, the race of humanity. As the saying in Sanskrit goes, “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam”, One-world Family!
“Yoga is feeling the connection with oneself and everyone around. Yoga is aspiring for the highest goal in the world – to feel one with everyone and with the divine.”
It is currently practiced in many countries all over the world and is becoming more and more popular.
The purpose of the International Day of Yoga is to increase public awareness of the various advantages of yoga practice.
Balance is the key component of yoga, not simply balance within the body or between the mind and body, but also equilibrium in one’s interaction with the outside world.
The virtues of attention, moderation, discipline, and perseverance are emphasized in yoga. Yoga gives a way to live sustainably when it is applied to societies and communities.
Yoga is that single universal principle which balances the entire universe. All elements, visible and invisible, as well as all stars, moons and sun systems, are entirely sustained by the balancing principle of Yoga.
Social health is an individual’s ability to communicate without conflict – to live in harmony with other people and creatures, and to maintain a deep respect for nature and the environment.
It should be the aim of every individual to create a responsible and caring society in order to experience the beauty of life and realise God.
Work for the benefit of all and we ourself will benefit. Satsang is of great importance for spiritual development.
Unified thus in the spirit, Yoga helps being together for the common welfare of all of us. work together in the spirit of harmony and spiritual brotherhood, work together in the spirit of mutual love, help and co-operation, so that all clashes, conflict, hatred, violence, war may cease to exist in the light of this harmony, in the light of this inner feeling of oneness, inner feeling of brotherhood.
Yoga helps humanity become united, work together in the spirit of mutual goodwill, in the spirit oneness, and take us towards the twenty-first century that may see the world without violence, war, with the world recognising the need to work dynamically for peace, unity, harmony and universal wealth and welfare.
May Yoga confer upon us a future full of love and peace; not a future of insecurity, uncertainty and fear. May Yoga confer upon twenty-first century mankind, the ever-lasting Peace and Harmony,
