On 21st June 2015, at sunrise, the first International Day of Yoga was celebrated with great zest and fervor in India. It is a matter of great pride that Smt. Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra, of The Yoga Institute Santacruz, the oldest organized yoga centre in the world (est. 1918) was invited to celebrate this auspicious day with Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi at Rajpath in Delhi.
Smt. Hansaji with PM Narendra Modi
Celebrating the First International Day of Yoga 2015
Smt. Hansaji was among the only four yoga Gurus conferred with the privilege of sharing the dias with the Prime Minister. A host of dignitaries including Smt. Sushma Swaraj, AYUSH Minister were also present at the occasion.Around 40,000 people were present at Rajpath to practice a 15 minute session on yoga. In his early morning speech, Shri Narendra Modi said, “This is a programme for human welfare, a tension-free world and to spread the message of goodwill…Yoga is more than just physical fitness. We are not only celebrating a day but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace.”
Yoga Gurus and Dignitaries with PM Narendra Modi
Smt. Hansaji also spoke on air on the Vividh Bharti radio station in celebration if the International Day of Yoga. “We are all unique individuals, according to spirituality, we are all potentially divine. So, if we live life following what others do, we will make mistakes. So the first thing we must learn to do is to know ourselves. The science of living life is yoga. Yoga includes psychology, philosophy and technology. Today, unfortunately, only the technology has become popular and the other aspects are more or less ignored. So we may claim we are doing yoga but we are not living yoga,” she stated. Hansaji also spoke on maintaining physical health, correct diet, simple lifestyle tips.
At the home front, at the premises of The Yoga Institute, there was a lot of activity on 21st June with many free camps held throughout the day to spread awareness of yoga among the people.