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One hundred and seventy-five nations, including the United States, Canada, and China, co-sponsored the UN resolution to create an international yoga day each year on the summer solstice, June 21. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi championed the resolution, and the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted this day on December 11, 2014. International Yoga Day began on June 21, 2015.
There is some controversy surrounding this day. Initially, yoga was a spiritual component of the Hindu faith. The first yogi, Adiyogi, is said to have turned south at the solstice and first set his eyes on the Saptarishis (his seven disciples), whose job was to spread the science of yoga to the world. For centuries Christians and others avoided yoga because of this. During the 20th century, yoga became popularized and lost its religious connotation in much of the West. Yoga purists think this day should not be celebrated outside of India because it marks the commercialization of yoga rather than its spiritual roots.
Whether you celebrate the spiritual origins or the fact that you can create a fantastic body with yoga, either is acceptable. Mostly International Yoga Day is about celebrating a form of mental and physical rejuvenation that nearly everyone can participate.
Images below show some of the key people in the creation of yoga.
Maharishi Patanjali
The father of yoga, Maharishi Patanjali, compiled the 195 yoga sutras and bhasya (commentary), the foundation of yoga philosophy. Patanjali's philosophy illustrates eight paths that marry yoga with other forms of Healthy Living.
Adi Shankaracharya
Born in 788 AD in Kaladi, Kerala Adi Shankaracharya was a philosopher of the Vedas and advocate of Advaita Vedanta. He founded the Dashanami monastic Hindu ordering the Shanmata tradition.
Swami Vivekananda
Born in Calcutta in 1863, Swami Vivekananda studied under Ramakrishna and introduced Advaita Vedanta and yoga to Europe, and America went to Swami Vivekananda at the Parliament of World's Religions, Chicago, 1893.
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