UN Adopts Modi's Proposal Of Yoga Day, Modi Tweets Elation
UNITED NATIONS: By acclamation the UN General Assembly declared June 21 International Yoga Day, recognizing the ancient Indian science's "holistic approach to health and well-being."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had proposed holding an international yoga day in his UN General Assembly speech in Sep 27 this year, voiced his elation on twitter. "Elated! Have no words to describe my joy," he tweeted.
Going beyond the view of Yoga as physical and mental disciplines, Modi promoted it as a holistic way of life that stresses "harmony between man and nature" and simpler lifestyles and can help fight climate change.
The UNGA resolution said a goal of the Yoga Day is the "wider dissemination of information about the benefits of practising yoga would be beneficial for the health of the world population."
"In the Sanskrit language, the meaning of the word Yoga, is 'to join' or 'to yoke'," India's Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji told the UNGA. "We hope that the impact of this resolution will yoke our efforts in the area of Global Health."
Symbolic of that yoking of efforts, the resolution for the Yoga Day was cosponsored by 175 of the 193 member nations across the whole spectrum of the globe, bringing together countries as diverse as the United States and Syria, Russia and Britain, and China and the Philippines, and countries from every continent and of diverse cultures and religions. The resolution was adopted by acclamation, without having to take a vote. Mukerji called it "a testimony to the enthusiastic cross cultural and universal appeal that Yoga enjoys amongst members of the United Nations."
The overwhelming support for the resolution, UNGA president Sam Kahamba Kutesa said, "demonstrates how both the tangible and the unseen benefits of yoga appeal to people around the world."
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