PM
leads 50,000 people, mostly school students and youth, on fourth
international yoga day, does 20 asanas and three pranayams.
International
Yoga Day 2018 : Prime Minister
Narendra Modi led 50,000 people on Thursday morning to mark the
fourth international day of yoga here and said that the ancient
Indian knowledge system fosters amity, which can form the basis of
national unity and universal peace in these fractious times.
Modi
addressed the participants in Hindi and, uncharacteristically, in
English as well, as he reached out to yoga enthusiasts across the
world, and for 40 minutes led the way to perform 20 yogic and three
pranayama, or breathing, exercises in the backdrop of Dehradun’s
iconic Forest Research Institute building.
“Dehradun
to Dublin, Shanghai to Chicago, Jakarta to Johannesburg, Himalayan
highlands or sunburnt deserts, Yoga is enriching millions of lives
across the world,” the PM told the participants, comprising
predominantly school students and youths. The PM and participants
performed yoga on mostly saffron yoga mats, with a sprinkling of blue
coloured mats as well, on a green carpet.
Dehradun
was picked as the venue for the fourth edition of the event, also the
last before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. The PM as well as Uttarakhand
Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat spoke of the spiritual
importance of Uttarakhand, which they said was home to the ‘char
dham’ – Hindu religion’s preeminent pilgrimage centres.
Rawat
pointed out that it was thanks to the PM’s efforts that the state
now had an all-weather road for visiting the four pilgrimage centres,
or char dham, and that he prays to the deities of Kedarnath and
Badrinath to bless the PM’s vision of shaping a ‘new India’.
Modi
said river Ganga originated in Uttarakhand, and it was also the
birthplace of yoga and Ayurveda. He said yoga contributed to national
unity, and has become one of the most powerful unifying forces in the
world. The PM said India needed to learn to respect its cultural
heritage, and his espousal of yoga in the last three years has
inspired many individuals to take it up and several institutions
devoted to the study and propagation of yoga have come up.
A
text dating back to early medieval India considers yoga an activity
that can lead to the liberation of one's soul or 'moksha'.
Yoga
has been India’s answer to fancy fitness regimes followed in the
west. It has spread to all parts of the world to such an extent that
we celebrate the International
Yoga Day. Almost every Indian city has something planned to
celebrate on this day.
While
the Prime Minister practices yoga
in Dehradun with over 50,000 people, Vice-President Venkiah Naidu
will be the chief guest at a yoga day event in Mumbai. Yoga day is
being celebrated in other locations like Hyderabad too.
Where
to practice Yoga
But
here’s the irony- Yoga must be done in a secluded place, says the
Kurma Purana (Kurma Purana Part II, translated by Ganesh Vasudeo
Tagare, published by Motilal Banarsidaas in 1982), an early medieval
Indian text. It lays down few more rules for the practice of yoga.
The text has prescribed specific locations where yoga can be done - A
well-guarded place, in a cave, on the banks of the river, a temple,
and isolated place with no worms. It also prohibits its practice in
the Caitya( Buddhist place of worship), at four-cross roads,
cremation ground, dilapidated cowpen or, crowded places.
Yoga-
A concept that changed from early India to early medieval India?
In
addition to the popular belief that yoga is a medium of exercise and
is limited to practice of the Asanas, chapter eleven of the Kurma
Purana refers to the fact that meticulous practice of yoga leads to
the attainment of liberation as it ‘quickly burns the entire cage
of sins.’ This is in addition to what Patanjali says about Yoga.
Patanjali has called yoga, 'a way to out to rest endless chain of
thoughts'. Another meaning of yoga is found in the Markandeya Purana,
say historians. The Markandeya Purana has called yoga as ‘disunion
with ignorance and union with Brahman.’ Therefore, by the beginning
of the Common Era, had become a formula to attain liberation. In the
Rig Veda, historians have noted that ‘yoga’ was used to denote
connection between words. It came from the root word ‘Yujir’
which means unite or connect.
Having
already mentioned that the text dating back to early medieval India
considers yoga an activity that can lead to liberation, there is a
whole chapter elucidating the form. It goes on to say that knowledge
originates from yoga and yoga functions through knowledge. Further to
this, it is believed that Siva is pleased with one who is devoted to
the practice of yoga.
