Yoga is the journey of the self through the self, to the self. Bhagwad Gita
Today I got up in the wee hours of the morning to watch the live telecast of the yoga event held at Rajpath in Delhi. It was a pristine sight and a synchronized event with the Prime Minister of India performing yoga with thousands of people including government officials and students. For a change, it was good to watch the news channel telecasting yoga events and good health practices instead of newsflashes on crimes and terror.
Just a day ahead of the International day of Yoga, and I saw many not so enthusiasts of Yoga, posting their pics on the social media in several Yoga poses. Another amusing sight was that of the potbellied Government officials perfecting their poses and postures for the mega-event. However, it was good to learn that Yoga is being used in schools, prisons, and other places too to help alleviate suffering. There are some non-profit organizations in India that helps families and schools with autistic children through yoga. It is said that the children respond to simple breathing exercises that help them to slow down and ground themselves. Also, research says that yoga helps children between the ages of 6 and 11 to improve their academic performance. This information was enough for me to roll down my mat too and begin practice yoga with my daughter.
We also saw that as the Prime Minister of India propounded the International Day for Yoga sometime in September last year at the UN, he was met with protests and controversies from within our own country wherein lies the origin of Yoga. An article in TOI essentially pinpoints on how yoga is beyond religion. The first translation of the Patanjali yoga sutra was in Arabic and was commissioned by Mahmud of Ghazni. It was translated in Arabic by a renowned scholar Al Beruni and called 'Kitab Patanjal'. Moreover, one doesn't need to be a Hindu to practice yoga. Across the globe, yoga is seen as an alternate method to strengthen your mind and body. 47 Muslim countries including UAE is co-sponsoring International Yoga Day. Yoga is for everyone irrespective of age, gender or nationality. More than 20 million people in the US itself practice yoga where the top five reasons to practice yoga was flexibility, general conditioning, stress relief, improve overall health and physical fitness. Today we have several forms of yoga, from acro yoga to aerial yoga, but the essence of it lies in its timeless quality. Yoga is about self-development, being productive and creative. It's about acquiring deftness of your skills, achieve peace of the mind, which in turn helps acquiring motivation.
Hope people around the world understand the long-term benefits of yoga and not make it a one-day affair by just 'twisting' and 'tweeting' for the day.
Hope yoga changes the world for better! Have a rejuvenating day.
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