United Nations: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the First International Day of Yoga in New York on Sunday with a call to harness the power of the ancient art to usher in a life of dignity for humanity, while External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who was present at the event, said that the occasion was a perfect platform to bring the world together in a spirit of unity and harmony.
It has the strength to usher in world peace and help bring a life of dignity to the world, said Ban, who was dressed in a yoga track suit and participated in the yoga demonstration, performing several asanas that Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led the audience in.
On the summer solstice morning, the sun defied the weather predictions to bathe event in its warm glow and a lone butterfly symbolically fluttered among the participants clad in red and seated on the floor.
Calling the International Day of Yoga "a wonderful addition to the UN calendar", Ban said: "If it can promote physical dexterity, it can also promote diplomatic dexterity."
That was a theme that ran through the speeches at the celebration. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said yoga was a powerful tool to promote peace.
Addressing the International Day of Yoga celebrations at the world body, which was attended by UN Ban Ki-moon, Sushma Swaraj thanked the 192 other members of the UN for their support which allowed the India resolution declaring June 21 as the International Day of Yoga to be adopted by consensus.
"In a world increasingly divided by what the great poet Rabindranath Tagore called `narrow domestic walls`, Prime Minister Modi had a vision of India`s ancient treasure that would do the opposite - that would, through the notion of holistic health, and a conscious search for the self, seek to bring us all together.
"Yoga literally means to join, to unite, and we see the International Day of Yoga as the perfect platform to bring the world together in a spirit of unity and harmony," she said.
Sushma Swaraj said yoga was not a religion and should not be seen as belonging to any particular religion.
"It is a science, the science of well-being, the science of integrating body, mind and soul, the science of actualising our true potential."
She said tens of thousands of New Yorkers performed yoga at Times Square.
"Millions of others all across the world in 192 nations joined them in their own unique national celebrations of this historic day.
"By celebrating the International Day of Yoga together, we celebrate our common humanity. We are recognising that we have shared opportunities. We are also acknowledging our sense of a shared global fate," she said.
By celebrating the International Day of Yoga at the UN, she said, "I believe we send a powerful message about men and women living in harmony with each other and also in harmony with nature".
She expressed confidence that yoga can become "a potent tool for the UN to promote the message of brotherhood and amity in the finest Indian tradition of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. The entire world is one family, and we can unite it with yoga."
Underscoring this message, 47 Muslim or Muslim-majority nations were among the 177 countries that co-sponsored last year the General Assembly resolution to declare the Summer Solstice Day as the International Day of Yoga.
General Assembly President Sam Kutesa said the initiative taken by India was exceptional for the support it received from nations around the world.
Global health has taken greater importance in the mission of the UN and yoga can promote it, not only in physical well-being, but also in the health of the mind.
Tulsi Gabbard, the lone Hindu member of the US Congress, referring to the massacre of nine Christians at a South Carolina church by a white supremacist last week, said this was the result of ignorance and hate and the antidote to that is the wisdom and spiritual love that lies dormant in all. "Yoga can awaken them," she said.
India`s Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji, invoked the `shloka` "Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah" and said that its message of health, joy, freedom from suffering peace was the guiding principle for India joining the UN as a founding member. Yoga was the force behind this concept and the outpouring of support for the yoga day showed its time has come.
(With IANS Inputs)
