Thousands perform yoga in Tamil Nadu

Thousands of people woke up at the crack of dawn on Sunday and headed to open grounds across Tamil Nadu to perform yoga asanas, marking the first International Yoga Day.

Union Minister for Urban Development M. Venkaiah Naidu participated in an event along with spiritualist Jagi Vasudev at the YMCA Grounds, in which several thousands participated.

In Nagercoil in Kanyakumari district, union Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan participated in several yoga events.

The Mahamaharishi Foundation Charitable Trust Mahayogam here began a 30-hour non-stop yoga event by 20 people.

The defence forces based in Tamil Nadu too organised yoga events.

Lt. General Jagbir Singh, who heads the Dakshin Bharat Area, alongwith Minnoo Singh, zonal president of the Family Welfare Organisation, commenced the session along with all ranks in the Army Training Area, according to a statement issued by the defence ministry here.

Similar sessions were held in all cantonments across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Kerala, where 492 officers, 1,400 junior commissioned officers, 18,250 soldiers and 5,600 family members under the Dakshin Bharat Area participated in the event.

Around 5,000 people, mostly school and college students, participated in a yoga session organised here by the Art of Living Foundation.

"Students from nearly 20 colleges and six schools participated in the yogathan. Around 5,000 people participated in the programme," Rajalakshmi Swaminathan told IANS.

The yogathan was held at Pachaiyappas College ground.

Swaminathan said participants learnt and practiced Surya Namaskar (Sun Salutations) from Rudresh Kumar from Bengaluru, who holds the speed record for performing this asana.

"The participants did 25 sets of Surya Namaskar. After that meditation was done," Swaminathan said.

According to her, members of the foundation do yoga at the Marina beach here every day.

Meanwhile, Brahmakumaris - a spiritual organisation - will conduct a yoga programme here at the Meenakshi College for Women on Sunday evening.

B.K. Sundaresan, media coordinator, told IANS there will be a talk on the benefits of meditation following which Raja Yoga will be practised.

"The yoga will be for 40 minutes. Raja Yoga is for the mind to connect with the super power (god)," Sundaresan said.

At the DMDK office, party leader A. Vijayakanth led the yoga event.