Prime Minister Modi at International Yoga Day
Prime Minister Modi at International Yoga Day

DELHI (Diya TV) — While celebrating International Yoga Day on Tuesday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to embrace the practice for better physical and mental health.

Modi oversaw an assembly of 30,000 in Chandigarh’s Capitol Complex performing deep breathing and stretching exercises before joining them. “Just as the mobile phone is now a part of your life, make yoga too a part of your life,” he said to the group.

Participants in the event came from Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, and included school and college students, youths, elderly, specially challenged, security personnel and yoga activists. Modi and BJP top brass were seen participating in yoga event across the country, Kiren Rijiju in his home state of Itanagar, Amit Shah participated in an event in Faridabad, Rajnath Singh joined yoga enthusiasts in Lucknow while Smriti Irani was present at an event in Bhopal.

The International Yoga Day official website has come up with interactive quizzes, puzzles and help guide on yoga for the occasion while the government has also unveiled postage stamps featuring Surya Namaskar postures.

The celebration and gathering also garnered recognition in other nations around the world. Camps were held in Russia, the UK, Bangladesh and Egypt. In New York, as the NASDAQ was zooming up 69 points on microsecond transactions at 11 am on Monday, outside in front of the stock exchange building on Times Square, thousands of yoga enthusiasts celebrated the International Yoga Day a day early to coincide with the Summer Solstice.

The home of the United Nations joined in the celebration as well. The organization has declared June 21 as the International Day of Yoga.