LUCKNOW: Union home minister Rajnath Singh , who participated in yoga day celebrations at Raj Bhawan on Thursday said that yoga transcended all religions and was not limited to Hinduism.“Earlier, people thought that yoga is only connected with religion. But if it were true, people from more than 192 countries across the world would not have adopted it. This also includes 46 Muslim countries. India has recently awarded the Padmashri to a woman from Saudi Arabia who practises yoga. Prime Minister Narendra Modi calls it cultural diplomacy,” the MP from Lucknow said.Rajnath, along with governor Ram Naik, chief minister Yogi Adityanath and deputy CM Dinesh Sharma, led hundreds of people in an hour-long yoga session at the governor house lawns.Singh added that Modi was single-handedly responsible for getting international recognition to yoga. “The entire world has accepted and adopted it. US is one of the richest countries in the world and even there, more than 2.5 crore people practise yoga. It surprises people to know that yoga finds mention even in the Rig Veda,” he said.The chief minister, who marked a departure from tradition and wore a saffron tshirt instead of his trademark saffron robe, told the gathered crowd that yoga has been a way of life for rishis or Hindu seers for centuries.“Within a few years, people from across the world have become connected with this tradition. Yoga is an umbrella term which encompasses various other traditions. All those who practise yoga appear to be at least 10 years younger than they actually are. This itself explains the connection between practising yoga and being free of illnesses. By practising yoga regularly, one can save a lot of money that would have otherwise been spent on treatment of various illnesses. Yoga is the balance in one’s life and it is for this balance that everyone must come forward along with PM Modi and accept yoga as a way of life,” he said.June 21was declared International Day of Yoga by the UN General Assembly in December 2014, following a request from PM Modi. This was the fourth year of the event in which yoga camps were organised at hundreds of places across India and the world.

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