- YOGA FOR HARMONY AND PEACE -

If you had to guess which bill presented to the United Nations General Assembly had the highest number of co-sponsors ever, which would you guess? You probably wouldn’t think of International Day of Yoga… but that’s the answer! A total of 177 nations co-sponsored the resolution, which is the highest number of co-sponsors ever for any UN resolution of such nature.

India’s Prime Minister called for the adoption of June 21st as International Day of Yoga, and here we are celebrating today! On this special day the Sun begins to move from north to south in the context of the earth. By the 21st of June, the sun moves in front of the Northern Hemisphere. After 21st June it starts moving towards the Southern Hemisphere. From the viewpoint of yoga, it is a time of transformation period. This time is considered to be a better time for conversion. That is why International Yoga Day is celebrated on 21st June and this is it’s 5th year! This year we focus on ‘Yoga for Climate Change’, a cause very close to our hearts and mostly as a collective, yogis see themselves as global citizens and what greater global challenge faces us now more than ever than that of climate change? It has got to be the top agenda for citizens around the world to take action so we can save our planet. We can all spread the word!

Yoga is regarded as one of the most effective methods of establishing a connection between the body-mind by Indian sages since time immemorial. You may know yoga as a workout trend or something for the bendy, but yoga has Indian roots that date back as far as 5000 years ago! In ancient India, yoga was considered a mental, physical, and spiritual way to practice meditation and transform the body and mind… it still is to this day. The Yoga-Sûtras were written in the 2nd Century and these were the first systematic guide to yoga, setting up the foundations of the practice we know today.

Yoga can easily become a part of every human being’s life. It is such a powerful tool against stress, keeping your body and mind in check and working your entire philosophy of life around how the practice motivates you to feel. It can be a great tool of climate enlightenment, drawing your experience of life and nature into one focus. So grab your yoga mat and let’s get to work! We can work together to spread the message for International Yoga Day of Yoga for Climate Change!

In 2016, UNESCO recognized Yoga as the immortal heritage of human culture. Today there are also many states in India that have accepted Yoga an education venture so that future generation can become familiar with this ancient science. Based upon this, it was demanded that in all schools and colleges around the world, yoga training classes should be given to the students, we have discussed this and meditation in our earlier blog ‘Let’s bring peace to the next generation’. So today is all about spreading the joy of yoga to the masses of the world! Sharing how yoga has impacted our lives and how we approach life and our own deep love and respect for nature. Whether we become a master of yoga or not, become an achiever or not, we can all become a yoga practitioner.

There are many options of being healthy but wellness is more important than health, and therefore yoga is a very big medium for achieving complete, holistic wellness in life. Yoga is a meditation between agony and conflict. It turns despair into hope and trust. Yoga is beyond the boundaries of age, gender, race, religion, and nations and connects to nature, family and society, produces mutual affection, and creates a peace-loving nation and such nations form a harmonious, and beautiful world. That is, yoga is a journey from I to We. Today, due to modern lifestyle people are suffering from many problems and have lost their self love and ‘we’. Diseases such as stress, depression, diabetes, and blood pressure are a modern day epidemic. Yoga is a solution to avoid diseases, improve your overall health and even bring communities together in peace and love and not war.

It is time for all yogis, from the very greenest of us to the eco-conscious naive, to consider what effects our actions are having on the world around us. We each weave our own tangled web of karma as our reality is being created from our own actions. So when we chant, speak or even just think the words lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu, if we include, not just all beings, but the environment in which they live, and cannot live without, we can make a significant contribution to addressing the changes that are happening in our world. That is why we now donate FIVE acres of land to the Rainforest Trust with every mat purchase. We all need to put back into the earth a little more that we ever take out.

The practice of yoga can guide us toward right action and a lifestyle guided by compassionate concern for the happiness of others. A happiness that relies on having a safe and healthy planet to live on. I am happy that the popularity of yoga is growing at a global level. After a day of exhaustion, when we wash our face with water, we feel the freshness, in the same way after a day of work, if we give little time to Yoga, then our body gets new energy as well.

We have already looked at the current climate emergency in our blog ‘Can we help nature heal’ and it’s definately not all doom and gloom, there are so many wonderful charities, organisations, documentaries and social enterprises - it just all starts with education and awareness, which is spreading rapidly.

The lotus flower grows from mud. The most beautiful flower in the world, grows from the mud and dirt. Happy International Yoga Day!

How will you respond to this call to action? Share your yoga journey, whichever stage you are on…

We will be doing our practice today outside in the garden in the sunshine! Practicing outside can breathe some fresh air into your yoga poses. Practice on the beach, at your local park, or in your garden. Surrounding yourself in a new environment can be much more engaging by having new things to focus on. After a week of rain and flooding here in the UK, let’s pray for our leaders to take climate change seriously.

Namaste