Millions of yoga enthusiasts bent and twisted their bodies in complex postures across India and much of the world on Sunday to mark the first International Yoga Day.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had lobbied the United Nations to declare June 21 as the global Yoga Day, spread his mat among rows of people, including his Cabinet members and foreign diplomats, at New Delhi’s main thoroughfare that has been transformed into one sprawling exercise ground.
Tens of thousands of schoolchildren, bureaucrats, homemakers, soldiers and ordinary folk took part in the exercise, which was repeated in all Indian state capitals.
In Modi’s home state of Gujarat, public yoga events were organized at nearly 30,000 places, state officials said.
“We are not only celebrating a day, but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace and harmony,” Modi told participants.
“This is a program for the benefit of mankind, for a tension-free world and to spread the message of harmony.”
In Taipei, more than 2,000 participants rolled out mats and performed 108 rounds of the “sun salutation” ─ the sequence of yoga poses often practised at the beginning of a routine as the sun rises.
“They give themselves a piece of time to observe their mind and their heart, which I think in the modern society we need a lot,” said practitioner Angela Hsi.
Fazel Shah, an Indian pilot working for a Middle Eastern airline, rushed from the airport on his stopover in Taiwan to join the event.
“Isn’t it awesome? I mean, just look at the number of people who are here, embracing it,” he said.
He said yoga was probably born in India but belongs anywhere. “If you go up from where I am and look from the sky down, you don’t see borders, you don’t see religions, you don’t see nationalities, you just see one group of people. So, I just go down and meet up with them, that’s all.”
Similar events were held in Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and other places.
