Yahoo - AFP, Annie Banerji, 21 June 2015
 |
Indian Prime
Minister Narendra Modi (C) participates in a mass yoga session
along with other
yoga practitioners to mark International Yoga Day on Rajpath
Avenue in New
Delhi on June 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)
|
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi Sunday hailed the first International Yoga Day as a
"new era of peace", moments before he surprised thousands in New
Delhi by taking to a mat himself to celebrate the ancient Indian practice.
Yoga-loving
Modi led more than 35,000 people, including bureaucrats, students and soldiers,
performing poses such as the half camel and cobra in a 35-minute mass outdoor
yoga session beginning at 7:00 am (0130 GMT) on a New Delhi boulevard.
Organisers
are hoping the event qualifies for the Guinness Book of World Records for the
largest yoga class at a single venue.
 |
People take
part in a mass yoga session
to mark International Yoga Day on
Rajpath in New
Delhi on June 21, 2015
(AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)
|
The current
title, according to the Guinness website, was set by 29,973 students in
Gwalior, India, in 2005.
"Yoga
is more than only physical fitness. We are not only celebrating a day but we
are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace," Modi told the
crowd at Rajpath avenue.
He thanked
the United Nations and the 177 co-sponsoring countries for adopting his idea
for a world Yoga Day.
"This
is a programme for human welfare, a tension-free world and a programme to
spread the message of love, peace and goodwill," said the premier, wearing
a crisp white outfit with a national tricolour scarf.
Modi then
surprised the crowds by leaving the stage, removing his glasses, and securing a
spot at the front of the massive session to mirror the stretches, breathing,
and meditative moves beamed on giant screens along the historic avenue.
He took a
brief break in the middle of the session to walk around and inspect students
doing yoga around him before rejoining the routine of 15 different poses,
including the crocodile and "wind-releasing" posture.
The prime
minister, who credits yoga for his ability to work long hours on little sleep,
had been scheduled only to make a speech at Rajpath, where colourful mats were
lined across the stretch that connects the president's palace with the iconic
India Gate monument.
 |
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C) gives instructions as yoga practitioners
take
part in a mass yoga session to mark International Yoga Day on Rajpath in
New
Delhi on June 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)
|
Sea of
white
Aerial
images taken near dawn showed Rajpath, or King's Avenue, as a sea of white with
scores of people, clad in new Yoga Day T-shirts, bending and stretching in sync
with the English and Hindi instructions to a background score of Indian
classical music being played over loudspeakers.
Central
Delhi was sealed off and carpeted, with dozens of metal detectors and multiple
checkpoints erected for the big day that saw other VIPs including Delhi Chief
Minister Arvind Kejriwal participate.
People in
650 districts joined in, with pictures pouring in on Twitter from across the
country.
Some showed
soldiers performing various yoga poses -- or asanas -- against a backdrop of
soaring snow mountains at Siachen glacier, the world's highest battleground, in
disputed Indian Kashmir while others showed residents stretching it out in
local parks.
India will
be joined by yoga enthusiasts in 192 other countries -- including in Britain,
where mats will be rolled out along the banks of the River Thames.
 |
Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi (front L) participates in a mass yoga
session
along with other yoga practitioners to mark International Yoga Day on
Rajpath
in New Delhi on June 21, 2015 (AFP Photo/Prakash Singh)
|
In his
maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly, Modi proposed to
dedicate a day devoted to the ancient Indian discipline, prompting the UN to
proclaim June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.
Indian
scholars believe yoga dates back 5,000 years, based on archaeological evidence
of poses found inscribed on stones and references to Yogic teachings in the
ancient Hindu scriptures of the Vedas.
And Modi, a
vegetarian who practises the art daily, has made Yoga Day a key initiative of
his Hindu nationalist government since he took office 13 months ago.
He wants to
reclaim yoga as an historical part of Indian culture which has been lost to the
West, where it has become a multi-billion-dollar industry.
Since
storming to power, the Hindu nationalist premier has set up a ministry
dedicated to promoting yoga and other traditional Indian treatments, and also
started free yoga classes for his government's three million bureaucrats and
their families.
"Yoga
is the soft power of India and through that soft power the whole world can be
one global village... (and) violence can be removed with this kind of
peace," Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj has told reporters.
 |
Guinness
World Recocrds Representative Marco Frigatti (2nd L) speaks with a
yoga
practitioner as attendees prepare to participate in a mass yoga session to
mark
International Yoga Day on Rajpath Avenue in New Delhi on June 21, 2015
(AFP
Photo/Prakash Singh)
|
Swaraj is
at the UN's headquarters in New York for Yoga Day, when scores are expected to
strike a pose in Times Square.
But the
government's push for "yoga for harmony and peace" met with criticism
in the run-up to Sunday, with some religious minorities accusing Modi of
pushing a pro-Hindu agenda in officially secular India.
A few
Muslim groups have complained that chanting the sacred Hindu sound of
"Om" during yoga and certain poses, such as "surya
namaskar" or sun salutation, have clear Hindu overtones and were against
Islam.
 |
UN
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon(C) takes part in a special event celebrating
the first
International Day of Yoga on June 21, 2015 at UN headquarters in
New York
(AFP Photo/Mark Garten)
|
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“. New Tolerance
Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.
Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."
Look for a softening of finger pointing and an awakening of new tolerance. There will remain many systems for different cultures, as traditions and history are important to sustaining the integrity of culture. So there are many in the Middle East who would follow the prophet and they will continue, but with an increase of awareness. It will be the increase of awareness of what the prophet really wanted all along - unity and tolerance. The angel in the cave instructed him to "unify the tribes and give them the God of Israel." You're going to start seeing a softening of intolerance and the beginning of a new way of being.
Eventually, this will create an acknowledgement that says, "You may not believe the way we believe, but we honor you and your God. We honor our prophet and we will love you according to his teachings. We don't have to agree in order to love." How would you like that? The earth is not going to turn into one belief system. It never will, for Humans don't do that. There must be variety, and there must be the beauty of cultural differences. But the systems will slowly update themselves with increased awareness of the truth of a new kind of balance. So that's the first thing. Watch for these changes, dear ones. ...."
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