DEPUTY UN Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has saidthat 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 theme of the celebration was yoga and Climate Action, and Mohammed said that yoga ‘has a valuable contribution in addressing climate change, the defining issue of our time, by inspiring us to shift away from the unsustainable practices towards inclusive green growth, conscious consumption and much more sustainable lifestyles’. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a video message that the global significance of yoga is that like it unites tbe body, mind and soul, it can also unite the world.

 

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.