Puducherry celebrates yoga day

Puducherry: International Yoga Day was celebrated by thousands of people with full vigour across Puducherry with Union minister for food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti and Lt Governor Kiran Bedi leading the celebrations.

While inaugurating the fourth International Yoga Day celebrations on beach road here, Sadhvi highlighted the importance of yoga and its benefits to human kind. The Union minister along with Bedi, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy and his cabinet colleagues participated in the yoga and meditation. Around 3,000 students participated and demonstrated yoga on the beach road where nearly one kilometer, the students staged the yoga demonstration.

 Later Sadhvi attended a National Seminar-cum-CME on Yoga at Jipmer here.

“Yoga is not practicing asana and pranayama but uniting oneself with the divine consciousness while doing the work. This is called ‘Karma Yoga’ and this improves the quality of work which is done by surrendering to God,” Sadhvi said while addressing participants at the seminar.

Bedi emphasized the need for Yoga to decrease the stress in life and to improve the quality of living. She demonstrated the practice of ‘Hatha Yoga’ through palm exercise and acupressure technique.

The union minister performed basic yoga along with the staff of Raj Nivas.

The Lt Governor later participated in a yoga session with the inmates of Central prison at Kalapet here. The Lt Governor also participated in the closing ceremony of the 36-hour long yoga event organised by Kancheepuram-based Mahamaharishi Foundation  with the participation of 121 women, to create a Guinness record.

While talking to reporters earlier in the day tourism minister Malladi Krishna  Rao said the tourism department would extend funds to government schools for conducting yoga classes every day.

“The tourism department in coordination with the education department will do the needful in this regard,” he said.