World to celebrate 4th International Yoga Day today

The fourth edition of International Yoga Day will be observed across the globe today.

To celebrate the day, various Yoga training programmes, camps, seminars, workshops have been organised across the world at big levels.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join thousands of volunteers and perform Yoga asanas in the lawns of Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.

Yoga guru Ramdev will also be conducting a yoga session in Kota, Rajasthan at RC Ground respectively.

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu will participate as the chief guest at an event in Mumbai. Several Union Ministers will also join the celebrations in different parts of the country.

Union Ministers Rajnath Singh will participate in the event at Lucknow, Nitin Gadkri in Nagpur, Ravi Shankar Prasad in Patna, Piyush Goyal in Noida, Ananth Kumar in Bangalore and Rajyavardhan Rathore in Jaipur.

In Delhi, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi will participate in a Yoga session organized for pregnant women while Union Minister Harsh Vardhan will join the event at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Park.

The first International Day of Yoga was observed all over the world on June 21, 2015, where more than 30,000 people, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, performed yoga asanas (postures) at Rajpath in New Delhi.

The idea of International Day of Yoga was first proposed by Prime Minister Modi during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 27 September 2014.

"Yoga is an invaluable gift of India's ancient tradition. It embodies the unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and nature," said the Prime Minister.

He had then proposed June 21 to be observed as International Yoga Day all over the world, as it is the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and shares special significance in many parts of the world.