International Yoga Day celebrated at UN with special guided meditation session

United Nations: Yoga offers a time-tested path to live more peacefully at a time when stress and mental health challenges are on the rise, India's envoy to the UN has said at a special guided meditation session here to mark International Yoga Day.

Eminent physician, author and wellness guru Deepak Chopra led the session at the UN headquarters hosted by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations to mark the day on Friday evening.

Colourful yoga mats were neatly arranged at the North Lawns of the UN headquarters as over 1,200 yoga practitioners, diplomats, UN officials, members of the diplomatic corps and the diaspora community participated in the 11th International Yoga Day celebrations.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador P Harish, in his welcome address, said that this year's theme for the day - Yoga for One Earth, One Health’ is rooted in the ‘One Earth, One Health’ approach introduced during India's G20 presidency in 2023.

“The theme underscores the vital truth that our personal wellness and planetary wellness are inseparably linked. In caring for ourselves, we begin to care for Earth, reflecting the enduring Indian ethos of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’, or the whole world is one family,” he said.

Harish said that at a time when stress, lifestyle diseases and mental health challenges are on the rise, yoga offers a steady, time-tested path that helps one find "calm within ourselves and live more peacefully within ourselves and with those around us.” Chopra led a special guided meditation session on the occasion.

“As has been said many times before, God’s language is silence. Everything else is poor translation. Even the guided mediation, poor translation,” Chopra said as he concluded the session amid applause from the participants.

The event also featured Common Yoga Protocol sessions and an advanced Yoga demonstration with music, conducted by the Art of Living.  Earlier in the day, the Consulate General of India in New York, in partnership with Times Square Alliance, celebrated the 11th International Day of Yoga at the iconic Times Square. Acclaimed actor Anupam Kher attended the Yoga day at Times Square, described as the crossroads of the world.  The day-long celebration of Yoga, also known as ‘Solstice at Times Square’, featured seven yoga sessions, in which about 10,000 people from across nationalities participated, showcasing the widespread enthusiasm for yoga in New York City and the US.

Consul General of India in New York Binaya Pradhan highlighted the benefits of Yoga for both physical health and spiritual well-being, as well as its role in promoting harmony with nature. Kher spoke about the importance of yoga, which from the stillness of a single breath rises the strength to heal the whole world.

The Consulate is organising a month-long celebration of International Day of Yoga in States under its jurisdiction such as New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Connecticut which saw active participation from yoga enthusiasts.   Recognising its universal appeal, in December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed June 21 as the International Day of Yoga. The draft UNGA resolution establishing the International Day of Yoga was proposed by India and endorsed by a record 175 member states.