What has been called the largest yoga demonstration in a single venue in history took place in India as tens of thousands of people gathered in New Delhi to mark International Yoga Day.
The India gathering was echoed around the world as yoga enthusiasts in every country celebrated the occasion Sunday.
In India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with his cabinet members and foreign diplomats spread their yoga mats along New Delhi's main ceremonial thoroughfare, Rajpath Boulevard, transforming it into a giant yoga exercise area.
"We are not only celebrating a day, but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace and harmony," Modi, who had lobbied the United Nations to declare a day of yoga, told the crowd in New Delhi. "This is a program for the benefit of mankind, for a tension-free world and to spread the message of harmony."
The Indian government has spent weeks publicizing the event that Modi had lobbied for during his visit to the U.N. in New York last year.
The yoga-practicing crowd in New Delhi was estimated at 35,000, setting a world record for the largest number of participants in a single yoga session.
People of 84 nationalities were said to have taken part in the city's mass yoga exercise, another world record.
In Paris yellow mats were spread for thousands of yoga adherents dressed in yellow, and similar scenes were taking place in Beijing, Seoul, Bangkok and other global cities.
In India, the birthplace of yoga, participants spoke of their pride in the event.
"It is very good for India," said a student named Sakshi, "and I am proud that India is the first country which invented yoga and this day, it is very big thing for us."
The New Delhi yoga routine, captured by television cameras and broadcast across India, was designed by Prime Minister Modi's personal yogi. Similar yoga events were held in all state capitals in India.
Not everyone was pleased by the widespread event.
Some Muslims in India objected to the government urging participation in what many Muslim leaders said is a strictly Hindu practice, while some Christian groups complained about the widespread yoga sessions being held on the day they normally attend Sunday church services.
Modi, for his part, said that it did not matter where yoga originated and to what countries it had spread.
"It has been enriched by the contributions of people from across the world, and I bow to all of them," he said.
Photo: Amanjeev | Flickr
