PM Modi Led 11th International Yoga Day, Termed Yoga a “Tool for Peace, Well-Being and Sustainability”
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, June 21: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday led the 11th International Day of Yoga from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh at a state government organised massive celebrations.
Addressing a gathering at the event, Mr Modi highlighted yoga’s global impact and its deeper potential as a tool for peace, well-being, and sustainability.
He emphasised that yoga had emerged as a unifying force across the world, cutting through boundaries of age, nationality, and background and said Yoga give the teaching to the people that no one was an isolated individual but an integral part of the nature.
PM Modi traced yoga’s journey over the past decade, recalling how 175 nations supported India’s proposal at the United Nations to mark 21 June as International Day of Yoga. He noted that yoga has now become a way of life for millions—from the visually impaired reading yoga texts in Braille to astronauts practicing yoga in space.
Iconic sites from the Sydney Opera House to Mount Everest and naval ships were cited as stages for yoga’s global adoption. He reiterated, “Yoga is for everyone—beyond boundaries, backgrounds, age, or ability.”
The Prime Minister connected yoga with India’s civilisational ethos of moving from personal welfare to collective well-being. “The spirit of ‘Me to We’ is the soul of India,” he said, citing India’s ancient prayer “Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah” (May all be happy). He stressed that yoga fosters empathy, service, and social harmony, reinforcing community cohesion and shared responsibility.
The Prime Minister highlighted India’s effort to integrate yoga into modern medical systems through research. He cited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as a key example, highlighting its research findings that point to yoga’s significant role in treating cardiac disorders, neurological conditions, women’s health issues, and mental well-being.
He noted that India is encouraging evidence-based therapeutic applications of yoga across its medical and research institutions under the National Ayush Mission.
PM Modi called upon people to turn yoga into a daily practice and a mass movement—one that leads the world towards peace, health, and harmony.
“Let every individual begin their day with yoga, let every society unite through yoga, and let ‘Yoga for One Earth, One Health’ become a global mission,” he said.
Andhra Pradesh bagged Guinness record for staging the maximum number of people doing Surya Namaskar at a place. More than 25,000 tribal students from Alluri Sitharama Raju district participated in a massive yoga session in Visakhapatnam on Friday, setting the stage for a new world record.
Students from various tribal welfare and Ashram schools across Paderu, Ananthagiri, Pedabayalu, Chintapalli, Araku, G. Madugula, and Hukumpeta performed a series of asanas, with impressive coordination and confidence. While a section of students had been rigorously training for three to four months, others had only a few weeks for the preparation.
Before the session, the students were provided with yoga mats and issued barcodes, which were scanned to record attendance. Under the guidance of senior yoga instructor Pathanjali Srinivasa Rao, the participants began the session with ‘Omkaram’ and completed 108 Surya Namaskarams in 108 minutes.
After the yoga session, the Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh lauded the students for their discipline and dedication. He announced that yoga classes would be made a regular part of the curriculum. It would be practised once a week in all government schools from now onwards.
While the Madrassa students and clerics in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh performed Yoga, the Mysuru District Administration, Department of Ayush, and Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysuru, jointly organised the 11th International Yoga Day celebrations in front of the historic Mysore Palace.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said ‘yoga’ should not be confined to a single day but practised daily. As special yoga sessions were held across Uttar Pradesh centred on the 11th International Yoga Day theme “Yoga for One Earth, One Health,” the SP chief posted his message ‘X,’
The Indian army organised Yoga session near the LoC in Akhnoor, the BSF personnel orgnaised Yoga near the India-Bangladesh border and the Southern Railway employees performed Yoga on the Pamban bridge on the sea in Tamil Nadu.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel celebrated the International Yoga Day by participating in yoga-related events at various places of the State. While Mr Shah performed yoga with citizens at Prahladnagar Garden in Ahmedabad city, CM Patel participated in the mass yoga session in Vadnagar town of Mehsana district, the birthplace of Mr Modi. “The CM attended the State-level celebrations at Sharmistha Lake complex in Vadnagar,” an official release said.
As many as 10,000 people participated in a yoga session organised by the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Authority (JNPA), India’s largest container port, at Uran in Navi Mumbai on the occasion of International Yoga Day. The JNPA claimed the ‘Yoga Sangam’ was the second largest Yoga session in India held on Saturday.
The International Yoga Day was also celebrated enthusiastically in many other countries. In China, thousands of people across the country spread their yoga mats and participated in events on Saturday to mark the International Day of Yoga, signifying the growing popularity of the ancient Indian spiritual and physical wellness practice.
In Beijing, Indian Ambassador Pradeep Kumar Rawat took part in an event at the old Indian Embassy complex along with other diplomats. The two-hour-long event, which also involved a yoga competition, was attended by hundreds of Chinese yoga enthusiasts. Guided by a growing number of Indian yoga teachers, participants in Beijing took part in a host of yoga exercises.
Amid the surging enthusiasm, the embassy had to stop registration after over 1,500 registered for the yoga event.
