The city kept its annual tryst with the International Yoga Day as thousands of practitioners spread the mat to perform mass yoga on the palace premises on Wednesday.
Known to be a yoga hub since decades with scores of institutions imparting training to both domestic and international students, the yoga day celebrations was held at different venues and conducted by various institutions though the main event took place in front of the palace.
The Department of AYUSH in association with the district administration, zilla panchayat, Department of Youth Services and Sports, Palace Board and various institutions imparting yoga training, jointly held the event in which nearly 5,000 people took part.
In the inaugural event before the performance of yoga, Pratap Simha, MP, stressed the importance of yoga for maintaining both physical and mental fitness and recalled that Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the initiative to get the UN to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day and this was supported by member countries.
Deputy Commissioner K.V. Rajendra said that yoga as a discipline was universally popular and Mysuru was renowned globally as a yoga centre. He said the city once held the Guinness Record for the largest participation at a single venue and efforts should be made to retrieve that record again.
Sri Someshwara Swami said yoga was not only about physical exercises but was a mean to control the mind and 186 countries had recognised yoga as a discipline to achieve physical and mental fitness.
The actual performance of yoga as per the protocol stipulated by the AYUSH commenced with the blowing of the conch post the inaugural programme around 7.15 a.m. and concluded at 8 a.m. MLA T.S. Srivatsa, MLC C.N. Manjegowda, ZP CEO K.M. Gayatri, Superintendent of Police Seema Litkar and various yoga gurus were present.
Members of Yoga Federation of Mysuru, Chaitanya Yoga Kendra, GSS Yoga Foundation, Yoga Sports Foundation, Baba Ramdev Pathanjali Yoga, Sri Pathanjali Yoga Shikshana Samithi and others took part in the event.
