More than 170 countries around the world celebrate 21 June every year as International Yoga Day and resolve to make Yoga a part of their routine. The United Nations established the International Yoga Day on 11 December 2014 in response to the proposal made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly and the first International Yoga Day was celebrated on 21 June 2015 globally. This year, the whole world is celebrating the 11th International Yoga Day with the theme ‘Ek Earth, Yoga for One Health’. The purpose of celebrating this day every year is to promote yoga as a movement that improves the tensions of the person and promotes welfare for every person of the society. Although yoga was adopted in the year 2015 due to the continuous efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the global level, but the history of yoga in India is centuries old. It is believed that yoga is being done on earth since the beginning of civilization, but if we talk about evidence, yoga is about five thousand years old Indian tradition. There are historical evidence of the presence of yoga in the Vedic period around 2700 BC and then till Patanjali period.
Maharishi Patanjali had said yoga as practice and disinterest to control the circles of the mind. There is also a wide mention of yoga in Hindu scriptures. It is said in the Vishnu Purana that the fully union of the soul and the divine is called Advaytubhuti Yoga. Similarly, it is described in the Bhagavad Gita perception that it is yoga to behave with duality from duality, and to behave from equality, free from duality. In India, yoga is recognized as a mental, physical and spiritual method of being about five thousand years old, which is an important part of the lifestyle of Indians. In the true sense, Yoga is such an invaluable heritage provided by India, which India has been taking physical and mental advantage for centuries, but in the period of time, the result of ignoring this rare heritage is that people have been holding the mood of various diseases. Although Swami Vivekananda also gave the message of yoga to the whole world in the speech of his Chicago conference, but only after yoga guru Swami Ramdev brought yoga from house to house, its widespread publicity was possible and the common people were attracted towards yoga. On seeing this, people in many countries started adopting it. The importance of yoga has increased manifold in today’s run -of -the -mill lifestyle.
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Yoga not only proves to be helpful in getting rid of many serious diseases but also provides spiritual peace by eliminating mental stress. Actually, it is such a practice, such a medicine, which is capable of treating physical and mental illnesses without any cost. It keeps the body energetic throughout the day by increasing the brain activity. This is the reason that now the youth are leaving aerobics and gym and adopting yoga. It is believed that it is possible to treat diabetes disease even with yoga and pranayama throughout life. It is also considered helpful in weight loss. In view of these importance of yoga, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called on the United Nations General Assembly on 27 September 2014 to celebrate Yoga Day every year worldwide so that the whole world can take advantage of this invaluable method of nature provided India. It was a very proud achievement of India that within three months of the Prime Minister’s proposal in the United Nations General Assembly, 177 countries stamped the proposal to celebrate International Yoga Day, after which it was announced by the United Nations General Assembly on 11 December 2014 that the day of June 21 would be celebrated as International Yoga Day every year.
The day of 21 June was also a special reason for International Yoga Day. Actually, this day is the longest day of the entire calendar year of the Northern Hemisphere. The date of this day was designed to match with the summer solstice, which is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and symbolizes light and health. From the perspective of Indian culture, the Sun becomes Dakshinayan after the summer solstice and this time is considered beneficial in attaining spiritual siddhis. Modern medical science has also started accepting the importance of yoga. Therefore, to live a healthy life, it is important that yoga be made an unbreakable part of its routine. However, yoga is not just an exercise but it is a great way to strengthen the body and mind as well as the mind.
– Yogesh Kumar Goyal
(The author has been a senior journalist active in journalism for 35 years)
