PM Narendra Modi: Yoga can help fight COVID-19

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of International Yoga Day touched upon the issue of the COVID-19 while saying that the age-old Indian meditation method has been a source of emotional strength to many during this outbreak.

"Many people all over the world infected by COVID-19 are benefitting from yoga. They are getting the strength in fighting the disease. Yoga provides the self-confidence and mental strength by which we are able to face challenges and also overcome them. Yoga provides mental peace and power to endure pain," said Modi as he addressed the nation on Sunday.

He appealed, globally many COVID-19 infected individuals are practicing yoga and are getting benefitted.

In what can be seen as a subtle message in the wake of the India-China face-off in which 20 Indian soldiers were martyred, PM Modi on Sunday used the International Yoga Day to send out a message.

PM Modi proclaimed yoga allows ‘emotional stability to confidently negotiate the challenges before us’.

"Yoga enables us to stay balanced in every situation," he said invoking Swami Vivekananda to say, "that a principled individual remains active and in complete peace even amid challenges". He also invoked Lord Krishna from Bhagavad Gita to suggest "yoga is but efficiency in action". The Gita contains a series of dialogues between Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Lord Krishna in the middle of Battlefield Kurukshetra where the "dharma yudha" or a battle between right and wrong was to begin.

PM Modi said, "Lord Krishna said in the Bhagavad Gita that Yoga is but efficiency in action. This mantra always teaches us that Yoga provides us strength to become more successful in life".

Focussing India's role for universal brotherhood, PM Modi said, "Yoga, enhances our quest for a healthier planet. It has emerged as a force for unity and deepens bonds of humanity. It does not discriminate, it goes beyond race, colour, gender, race and nation."

However, he added, "Right eating and drinking, right play, right habits of sleeping and rising and right way of doing one's duties - Yoga is this itself," he summed up.

While he supported Indians to train yoga as a part of their regular lives, he made the point of making India a global inspiration of unity was distinctive, particularly at a time when China has been progressively facing global separation from countries such as USA, Canada Japan, Australia and more.

(With inputs from IANS)