JEDDAH — Stressing the fact that yoga is a way of life and in no way is connected to a religion, the Consulate General of India and the Indian International School Jeddah joined hands to mark Sunday as the International Yoga Day. Explaining that yoga is an ancient Indian art of living that brings about an integration of body, mind and soul, speakers at the IISJ boys and girls auditoriums extolled the virtues of this form of exercise that enables students to focus. The event was launched with a message from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who said, “India is proud of the fact that the United Nations accepted our proposal and passed June 21 as the International Yoga Day.”
In his message, Modi said: “Yoga helps bring about a sense of oneness in self… and in this stressful world, if the art of healthy living makes a person feel good then by progression society will feel good…from there mankind and then the world.” Consul General B.S. Mubarak, while flagging off the event, related that about 35,000 yoga enthusiasts in Rajpath, Delhi, displayed complex postures to mark the UN designated day. He emphasized that this form of meditating and exercise through various asanas (postures) does help in training one's mind while flagging off the event. Earlier, Head of Chancery and School Observer Muhammad Raghib Qureshi highlighted the importance of the day, stating that 177 nations supported the United Nations resolution to mark June 21 as International Yoga Day. “It is an important day for all of us,” he said, while expressing pride on the first celebrations globally. School Principal Syed Masood Ahmed welcomed the guests and highlighted the fact that there was a Saudi Muslim woman, Nouf Al-Marwaai, who is also the head of the Arab Yoga Foundation, present to join in the celebrations. Nouf, for her part, said: “Practicing yoga enables a person to harmonize the different dimensions in a human body — not only through physical exercises (the various asanas) and the breathing techniques but through a lifestyle regime (stress on diet) — thus benefiting the person holistically.” IISJ students, boys and girls in the separate sections, then demonstrated a few exercises — vriksha (tree) asana, trikona (triangle) asanas, among various other postures.
