Yoga

Yoga, a physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The origins of yoga have been speculated to date back to pre-Vedic Indian traditions, but most likely developed around the 6th and 5th centuries BCE. The yoga practices were then spread throughout the world during the late 19th century and early 20th century by Yoga gurus following the success of Swami Vivekananda.

Indian traditions consider Yoga to be more than just a physical exercise, it has meditative and spiritual core. One of India's Tridev's, Lord Shiva is considered to be the earliest Yogi, so named as Adi-Yogi. He is also the first Yoga Guru Indian mythologies mention and thus also call him as Adi-Guru. Yoga, apart from being just a spiritual practice and daily exercise, is also a beneficial practice for improving many medical conditions a person might have.

Long term Yoga users have shown improvements in muscoskeletal and mental health. It has also been reported to improve mood and anxiety. With the betterment in lifestyles that are now proven with Yoga, it is one of the important things that we should do in our daily routine.

After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's suggestion to declare June 21st, the Summer Solstice, as the International Day of Yoga(IDY), UN did so on December 11, 2014. The 1st IDY was celebrated with whole nation doing Yoga while our PM Narendra Modi was doing with 35984 people on Rajpath, The largest Yoga class ever held and 83 other countries participating in the event. This event won 2 Guinness World Records.

Now Yoga has been included in everyday curriculum into the schools in India by Smriti Irani, HRD Minister of India. Let's make this effort made by our PM a success.

Vande Matharam