Agencies/New Delhi

It was an unprecedented demonstration of India’s soft power as tens of thousands across the world, besides millions in India, performed yoga yesterday to mark the inaugural International Yoga Day (IYD). A record-breaking 37,000 people, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took part in the main early morning event at Rajpath in the heart of New Delhi.
Yoga was performed at events across the world - from New York to Trinidad and Tobago, from the Maldives to Australia, from Tel Aviv to Moscow, from on board Indian naval ships to the high Siachen glacier, at schools and at innumerable residential localities - all to mark the IYD.
The mega event at Rajpath, the ceremonial boulevard and the surrounding green expanse that connects Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential palace on Raisina Hill, with the World War I memorial India Gate, was replicated across state capitals, cities, towns and rural areas in the country. Modi described the event as the start of a new era for training the human mind for mind-body balance, peace and harmony.
Organisers are hoping the event qualifies for the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest yoga class at a single venue.
The current title, according to the Guinness website, was set by 29,973 students in Gwalior 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.
He thanked the UN 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 prime minister, 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.  
Aerial images taken near dawn showed Rajpath 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.
“This is about the mind and the body. Let us not play politics with yoga,” Kejriwal, a bitter Modi foe, said.
Over 200mn people across India marked the day at official events, AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik said. Events were held in the morning hours in 192 countries, organised by the Indian missions and yoga centres. As the sun rose on the globe, the yoga events began kicking off, with the eastern most countries sending in their pictures.
Remarking at the sea of people, Modi said: “Did anybody ever think that Rajpath can become Yogpath?”
In his maiden address to the UN 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 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.






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