Prelude to a grand International Yoga Day celebration on June 21

Mysore/Mysuru: Over 500 Yoga practitioners of the city took part in the Yogotsava, the countdown programme for the International Yoga Day (June 21) celebration, at the sprawling Mysore Palace premises this morning.

The event was organised under the joint aegis of the Union Ministry of AYUSH, Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, New Delhi, SKRSPM Sri Vedavyasa Yoga Foundation, Mysuru, JSS Mahavidyapeetha and Yoga Federation of Mysore. It began with Shankanaada at 6 am held under the guidance of Dr. P.N. Ganesh Kumar and Dr. K. Raghavendra Pai.

Later, the event continued with prayer (Dr. Sheela Sridhar and team) followed by various Yogasanas such as Chalana Kriya (Girish), Himalaya Yogic Vyayama (Dr. K. Raghavendra Pai), Surya Namaskara (Pavan Krishna), Shavasana and Dhyana (Kalavathi), Pranayama (Devaraj), Sankalpa (Vishwatilak), Nauli Kriya (Dr. Hatayogi Chandra Acharya) etc.

This is the third in the series of the countdown programme, with the first one held on Ratha Saptami Day at the Mysore Palace premises and the second one at Yoganarasimhaswamy Temple in Vijayanagar, which featured a workshop for Yoga teachers.

Earlier, MP Pratap Simha inaugurated the Yogotsava with the theme ‘Yoga and Rashtriyata’ by lighting a lamp with Ravanamai devotional songs music in the background, as today also marked Ramanavami festival.

Speaking on the occasion, Pratap Simha said that there are plans to create a record by organising more than 1.5 lakh people in Mysuru for the International Yoga Day celebration to take place on June 21, for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi was invited.

Pointing out that he had appealed to the Prime Minister to take part in the International Yoga Day celebration earlier too, he said that Mysuru, which was among the three places (others Ranchi and Ladakh) selected for the PM’s visit, missed out on some reasons.

But this time, he will make all-out efforts to ensure the PM’s visit to Mysuru, where efforts are going on to create a world record for the largest International Yoga Day gathering.

Recalling the efforts made by the erstwhile Mysuru rulers for promotion of Yoga among the masses, Simha said that Mysuru is rightly called the hometown of Yoga.

Noting that Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India, he said that International Day of Yoga is being celebrated annually on June 21 since 2015 following its inception in the United Nations General Assembly in 2014.

In-charge Mayor Sunanda Palanetra, MUDA Chairman H.V.  Rajeev,  Dr. M.V. Sridhar, an International Yoga educator of Bengaluru, District AYUSH Officer Dr. Seethalakshmi, Dr. B.P. Murthy of Yoga Federation of Mysore, D. Srihari of GSS Yoga Pratishtana, Mysuru, Shashikumar of Bharath Swabhiman Trust, Gopalakrishna of SPYSS, Dr. P.N. Ganesh Kumar of Yoga Sports Foundation (YSF), Dr. K. Raghavendra Pai of Vedavyasa Yoga Pratishtana and others participated in the Yogotsava.