Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to make yoga a people's movement because it is going to help humanity.
Naidu, who participated in the International Yoga Day celebrations at Chennai, said that it was a great experience for him.
"I will press that I have come here and participated in the International Day of Yoga with Satguru Vasudevji. It was a great experience and I was so much impressed by the thousands of people, Chennaites, for coming here in the early morning and joining this yoga practice makes me immensely happy," Naidu told the media here.
"The Prime Minister of India wants to make this yoga as a people's movement because it is going to help humanity...Yoga is nothing, but a discipline of body and mind together. And it is an integration, integration is the need of the hour...I am happy the Prime Minister's call has not only evoked the International response....all sections of people are joining," he added.
Prime Minister Modi has dubbed the International Yoga Day as the beginning of a new era of peace and goodwill, thanking all those who have contributed to the development of the great discipline.
Dressed in all-white and a tricolour scarf, Prime Minister Modi performed a variety of poses, including the Vajrasan and Padmasan, at the Rajpath where an estimated 40,000 people participated in the celebrations. Nearly 2,000 digital cinema screens were set up across Rajpath for the people to witness the live streaming of the performance of yoga asanas.
Similar yoga events took place simultaneously across India, with Chief Ministers like Vasundhara Raje, Chandrababu Naidu and Raghubar Das joining in.
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The yoga celebrations are being organised after the United Nations had in December last year declared June 21 as International Yoga Day.
The idea of celebrating the International Yoga Day was pitched by Prime Minister Modi at the United Nations General Assembly last year.