America
Yoga Day launched at UN; Ban says way to life of dignity
By
Arul LouisUnited Nations, June 21
As a night of
thunderstorms and a dark, cloudy morning was broken by shafts of
sunlight, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the First
International Day of Yoga here with a call to harness the power of the
ancient art to usher in a life of dignity for humanity.
It has
the strength to usher in world peace and help bring a life of dignity to
the world, said Ban, who was dressed in a yoga track suit and
participated in the yoga demonstration, performing several asanas that
Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar led the audience in.
On
the summer solstice morning, the sun defied the weather predictions to
bathe event in its warm glow and a lone butterfly symbolically fluttered
among the participants clad in red and seated on the floor.
Calling
the International Day of Yoga "a wonderful addition to the UN
calendar", Ban said: "If it can promote physical dexterity, it can also
promote diplomatic dexterity."
That was a theme that ran through
the speeches at the celebration. External Affairs Minister Sushma
Swaraj said yoga was a powerful tool to promote peace.
Yoga Day
"celebrates our common humanity", she told the the audience of several
hundred at the UN plaza along the East River and the 30,000 massed at
the Times Square, who were watching it on video screens several stories
high.
Yoga brings a powerful message of men and women living together in peace and in harmony with the world, she said.
"It is not a part of religion," she said. "It should be seen as a science."
Underscoring
this message, 47 Muslim or Muslim-majority nations were among the 177
countries that co-sponsored last year the General Assembly resolution to
declare the Summer Solstice Day as the International Day of Yoga.
General
Assembly President Sam Kutesa said the initiative taken by India was
exceptional for the support it received from nations around the world.
Global
health has taken greater importance in the mission of the UN and yoga
can promote it, not only in physical well-being, but also in the health
of the mind.
Tulsi Gabbard, the lone Hindu member of the US
Congress, referring to the massacre of nine Christians at a South
Carolina church by a white supremacist last week, said this was the
result of ignorance and hate and the antidote to that is the wisdom and
spiritual love that lies dormant in all. "Yoga can awaken them," she
said.
India's Permanent Representative Asoke Kumar Mukerji,
invoked the 'shloka' "Om Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah" and said that its
message of health, joy, freedom from suffering peace was the guiding
principle for India joining the UN as a founding member. Yoga was the
force behind this concept and the outpouring of support for the yoga
day showed its time has come.