Image Credit: twitter.com/narendramodi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi marked the 7th International Yoga day on Monday, June 21 by addressing a Yoga Day event. In his remarks, he called Yoga a ray of hope amid the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic across the world. He said that despite the restrictions put upon public events during the pandemic, the enthusiasm for Yoga Day hasn’t decreased.
The Prime Minister also announced the launch of the mYoga app created in partnership with the United Nations and the World Health Organization. The app would contain many videos for Yoga training in several languages of the world, he explained. “This will help us achieve our One World, One Health motto,” he further said.
Addressing the #YogaDay programme. https://t.co/tHrldDlX5c
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) June 21, 2021
Talking of Yoga’s importance, the Prime Minister said that Yoga takes a person from negativity to creativity and from stress to strength. “Along with physical health, emphasis has also been given to mental health in Yoga,” he added talking of the teaching of age-old saints of India.
Even though Yoga is not an old cultural festival in many countries across the world, people have not forgotten it in the difficult time of the pandemic. On the contrary, their enthusiasm has only increased, he told addressing the event.
PM Modi also mentioned the importance of Yoga in the midst of the pandemic saying that when the invisible virus entered the world, no country was prepared for it in any way. “In these difficult times, Yoga became an important medium of self-confidence,” he added.
While fighting the pandemic, doctors used Yoga to protect not just themselves, but their patients as well, he said. “Yoga helps in the healing process,” he quoted while talking about the emphasis medical science places on the healing process during treatment.
In his concluding remarks, the PM expressed the hope that Yoga would continue to play a preventive and promotive role in the healthcare of the masses.
To recall that the first International Yoga Day was celebrated in the year 2015 after PM Modi proposed the idea in his speech to the UNGA in September 2014. Subsequently, India introduced a resolution to declare 21 June as the ‘International Yoga Day ‘ which was supported by about 177 countries.