Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday led at least 30,000 people in a mass session of exercise and meditation in Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi as millions across the country stretched and bend on the fifth edition of International Yoga Day.

The Prime Minister has been tweeting videos of various asanas since early June urging people to gear up for the International Yoga Day, which is being celebrated on a global scale since 2015.

“I thank people across the world for joining the International Day of Yoga celebrations. World over, the first rays of the Sun are being welcomed by dedicated yoga practitioners, it’s a beautiful sight. I urge you all to embrace yoga and make it an integral part of your daily routine,” Modi said as he addressed people at the Prabhat Tara ground.

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“We all know the importance of yoga very well. It has always been an important part of our culture. But now we all have to take the practice of yoga to another level,” he said.

“Now, I have to take the journey of modern yoga from the cities to the villages, to the poor and tribal’s house. I have to make yoga an integral part of the life of the poor and tribal. Because it is poor who gets the most pain due to illness,” he said.

As he stressed on the importance of yoga, the Prime Minister said the physical and spiritual discipline is ancient as well modern and that for centuries its essence has remained the same of “healthy body, stable mind and spirit of oneness.”

“Yoga is discipline, dedication, and it has to be followed throughout your life. Yoga is beyond the distinction of age, colour, caste, creed, creed, cult, rich-poor, province, frontier. Yoga belongs to everyone and everyone belongs to yoga,” he said.

“Yoga provides a perfect blend of knowledge, work and devotion,” he said at the event, where Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das and various other ministers were also present.

Modi said awareness of yoga has reached every corner and every class of India. “From drawing rooms to board rooms, from city parks to sports complexes. We can see yoga from streets to wellness centres,” Modi said.

Several Union ministers, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party and senior government functionaries are participating in similar events across the country.

Union home minister Amit Shah is present at an event in Rohtak and defence minister Rajnath Singh is in the national capital at a morning yoga session at Rajpath. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla also performed asanas along with other parliamentarians and Parliament staff outside the House.

The BJP’s working president JP Nadda will perform yoga, along with other party leaders and workers, at a park opposite the headquarters of the saffron party on Deen Dayal Upadhyaya (DDU) Marg in New Delhi.

Last year, more than 50,000 people joined Modi in performing yoga in the lawns of Dehradun’s Forest Research Institute.

The first International Day of Yoga was observed all over the world on June 21, 2015, when over 30,000 people including Prime Minister Modi performed yoga at the Rajpath in New Delhi.

The idea was first proposed by Modi during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 27, 2014.

First Published: Jun 21, 2019 07:32 IST