While Our Prime Minister was to lead the International Yoga day celebrations at the UN headquarters in New York, a miniscule condominium in distant India’s map was celebrating the day in its own inimitable style and grandeur. The condo was none other than ATS Village and the person leading the event was none other than the Yog Maestro RP Joshi, whose name is a synonym to Yoga in ATS. While the New York event broke records in terms of maximum nationalities doing yoga together, the event in ATS Village was also a record of sorts in terms of number of participants and diversity of age groups.
Mr Joshi and his yoga sadhaks and sadhikas have been practicing Yoga every morning for more than a decade. He, revered by one and all across the Village, has always been forthcoming in nurturing a tradition that encourages people to unite, adopt and embrace Yoga as a way of life. It is because of his unrelenting commitment to get more and more residents practice and enjoy the benefits of Yoga, that the International Yoga Day has a special flavor in the Village that puts it distinctively apart.
The day was marked by a shift in venue from the daily yoga sessions to accommodate the expected high number of participants. And rightly so, the event in the community hall was attended by an unprecedented number of participants. The event started with yoga session with aasanas done with unmatched zeal and vigor, followed by some eminent residents sharing their experiences. President AoA BoM, Sharan Arora, highlighted how embracing yoga as a daily routine has helped several residents including himself. Shail Tiwary, heading the cultural committee, spoke about the inherent benefits Yoga can provide.
Mr Joshi himself talked about how each and every aasana benefits various parts of the body and plays a pivotal role in maintaining physical and mental well-being. The message was clear – Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition.
The event had a pleasantly surprising and cascading impact on the residents. The very next day, 22 June, morning witnessed a sudden increase in the number of sadhaks/sadhikas in the daily morning yoga sessions. The whole Village seems to be in the grip of Yoga fever – one fever that will help them climb stairs and attain pinnacle of healthy living!
by Anurag Sharma (0942, ATS Village; 9810249983)
Indeed the world is waking up to yoga as a way of life.
I managed to overcome turbulence with regular Pranayam. Yoga bridges gaps and brings cohesion within a community.