June 21, 2015
NEW DELHI – India set two Guinness world records on Sunday with the Yoga mass session at Rajpath in New Delhi – one for largest number of participants and another for the most number of nationalities at a single event.
Army chief General Dalbir Singh and air chief Marshal Arup Raha perform yoga at Rajpath in New Delhi.
June 21, 2015
NEW DELHI – India set two Guinness world records on Sunday with the Yoga mass session at Rajpath in New Delhi – one for largest number of participants and another for the most number of nationalities at a single event.
Army chief General Dalbir Singh and air chief Marshal Arup Raha perform yoga at Rajpath in New Delhi.
As many as 35,985 people from across 84 countries attended the yoga event at Rajpath setting the two new world records, PTI reported.
The announcement was made at the United Nations headquarters at New York, where external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj participated in the first International Yoga Day celebrations at the UN.
Thanking the 192 member states who passed the resolution declaring June 21 as Yoga Day, she said" the world can unite with yoga."
"At a time when ethnic conflicts and extremist violence are threatening to destabilize societies, yoga can serve as the perfect antidote to stem such negative tendencies and move us on the path of harmony and peace," she said.
"I am confident that Yoga can also become a potent tool for the United Nations to promote the message of brotherhood and amity in the finest Indian tradition of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam'," she added.
The gathering at the UN included Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations, Sam Kutesa, president of the general assembly, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, and US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
"This is the place where it all began," Swaraj said recalling that on the September 27 last year when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had first made the proposal in the UN General Assembly to have an International Day of Yoga.
"In particular, I thank the 176 other member states who, by co-sponsoring the resolution, took equal ownership of the initiative. That the resolution was adopted within 75 days of Prime Minister Modi proposing it bears evidence to the fact that it was an idea whose time had come," she said.
Courtesy: HT
