United Nations: Deputy UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has said that yoga can help the world in these troubled times by inspiring the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle to fight climate change and by promoting tolerance and peace.
Addressing the fifth International Yoga Day celebration here on Thursday, she said: "The essence of yoga is balance not only within us, but also in our relationship with humanity, with the world. As such, yoga can promote solidarity, social integration, tolerance justice and peace. "It teaches us a holistic vision of the world encouraging us to live in harmony with ourselves, society and nature."
The celebration was filled with symbolism relevant to the issues of the day. In a show of the nature's challenge, week-long rains continuing into the day, turned the UN lawns soggy, forcing the event indoors into the General Assembly chamber. And the hall that often echoes with words of disharmony and confrontation instead reverberated with chants of "Om, Om Shanti" led by the yoga gurus.
In a sign of human ingenuity meeting nature's adversities, the yoga masters quickly changed the planned mass outdoor yoga exercises into a performance of "office yoga" for closed in spaces by the diplomats, officials and yoga enthusiasts thronging the Assembly chamber.
-Arul Louis
