Celebration of International Day of Yoga (Photo feature)

Kathmandu: International Day of Yoga has been celebrated across the globe. The United Nations declared the 21st of June as the International Day of Yoga on December 11, 2014.

The day is also observed in Nepal. Joint sessions of Yoga have also been performed in various parts of Nepal. Yoga Sadhana Centre organized also a Yoga camp to mark the day.

Bellur Krishnamachar Sundararaja Iyengar was an Indian teacher of yoga and author, who beautifully and thoroughly explained everything about Yoga in his book “Light on Yoga.”He is the founder of the style of yoga as exercise, known as “Iyengar Yoga”

According to the book “Light on Yoga“, the word ‘Yoga’ is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj meaning to bind, join, attach, and yoke, to direct and concentrate one’s attention on, to use, and apply. Yoga also means union or communion. It is the true union of our will with the will of God. ‘

Yoga is one of the six orthodox systems of Indian philosophy. In Indian thought, everything is permeated by the Supreme Universal Spirit (Paramatma or God) of which the individual human spirit (j1vatma) is a part.

The system of yoga is so called because it teaches how the j1vatma can be united to, or be in communion with the Paramatma, and so secure liberation (mokshya). One who follows the path of Yoga is a yogi or yogin.

In the sixth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, which is the most important authority on Yoga philosophy, Shree Krishna explains to Arjuna the meaning of Yoga as a deliverance from contact with pain and sorrow.

In General, people understand Karma Yoga, Gyana Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, Power Yoga, Iyengar Yogam Hatha Yoga, Dhyana Yoga, as some of the types of Yoga.

(Glimpses of celebration of International Yoga Day)

(Photo Courtesy: Saroj Basnet)

Nepali version of news article