Focus must be on wellness as well as protection from illness: Modi on 5th International Yoga Day

On the occasion of International Yoga Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged the world to embrace Yoga and to make it an integral part of one's daily routine, asserting that the focus must be on wellness as well as protection from illness.

Let our motto be Yoga for peace, harmony and progress, he said adding that Yoga belongs to everyone and everyone belongs to Yoga.

"In today's changing times, our focus must be on Wellness as well as protection from Illness. That is the power we get with Yoga that is the feeling of Yoga and the ancient Indian philosophy," Modi said while addressing the crowd at the Prabhat Tara ground where he led close to 30,000 people in the morning session to mark the fifth International Yoga Day celebrations.

"I thank people across the world for joining the International Day of Yoga celebrations. World over, the first rays of the Sun are being welcomed by dedicated Yoga practitioners, it's a beautiful sight. I urge you all to embrace Yoga and make it an integral part of your daily routine," he added.

The Prime Minister maintained that Yoga is beyond the distinction of age, colour, caste, creed, rich-poor.

"We should also get knowledge about Yoga, like the way we keep updating our phone. Yoga is discipline, dedication, and it has to be followed throughout your life. Yoga is beyond the distinction of age, colour, caste, creed, creed, cult, rich-poor, province, frontier. Yoga belongs to everyone and everyone belongs to Yoga," Modi said.

The Prime Minister said that for centuries, the essence of Yoga has remained the same. "Today, if our world is adopting yoga, we also have to focus on research related to yoga. For this, it is important that we do not keep yoga bound as the science needs to be added to the fields of Medicine, Physiotherapy, Artificial Intelligence," he said.

Modi greeted people in the local language and said, "I am in Ranchi as the city has a lot of forests and is near to nature and there is a close relationship between Yoga and Nature."

The Prime Minister shared the stage with Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das, Governor Droupadi Murmu, Union Minister of State (Independent) for AYUSH Shripad Yesso Naik and state Health Minister Ramchandra Chandravanshi.

The theme of 5th International Yoga Day 2019 is "Climate Action".

The word "Yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit root 'yuj' meaning "to join", "to yoke" or "to unite". Yoga is based on an extremely subtle science which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. Yoga works on one's body, mind, emotion and energy.

The first International Day of Yoga was observed all over the world on June 21, 2015, when over 30,000 people including Prime Minister Modi performed yoga at the 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.