Five Things To Know About International Yoga Day

1. When is Yoga Day?

Yoga day is on June 21st of the year. This day will be known as the “International Yoga Day”.

2. Why June 21st?

June 21st is the Summer Solstice for those in the Northern Hemisphere.

The first full moon day after the Summer Solstice is known as “Guru Poornima”. According to Yogic lore, Guru Poornima is the day when the first yogi taught his disciples. This day has been since used to celebrate spiritual and academic teachers.

3. Who decided this?

The International Yoga Day has been created by the U.N. General Assembly. It came about because the General Assembly adopted a resolution to this effect. This resolutions was sponsored by a record 177 member nations (of the 193 member body.) The measure was proposed by the Indian Prime Minister.

4. What should I do on this date?

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the International Day of Yoga would bring attention to yoga’s holistic benefits. It is clear from this that the purpose of the yoga day is to help spread awareness of yoga and its benefits. To do this you can:

• Provide demonstrations of yoga.
• Give talks on yoga and its benefits.
• Blog about benefits of yoga.
• Use traditional media such as radio, TV, newspaper, etc. to spread the word.
• Use new media such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Medium, etc.,

5. What next?

The canvas of yoga is pretty broad so also we should not limit ourselves in our understanding of the meaning of “International Yoga Day”. So we could think in terms of:

• Doing any selfless act of charity on this day.
• Facilitating yoga teachers on this day.
• Organizing laughter yoga sessions on this day.
• Organizing yoga camps on this day.
• Doing meditation or attending meditation sessions on this day.

Yoga is an opportunity for human kind to change its destiny. While Science allows us to tap into the powers of new technologies, Yoga provides us the wisdom to use these powers wisely. The International Yoga Day is an opportunity to spread this word.

Credits: This has been written by Raj Shah and edited by Ketna Shah