Danas daily 25.05.2015 By Borislav Korkodelović

Yoga – India’s soft power

If you want to attain heaven, body and mind need balance. Yoga is an art to balance our body and mind. Today frustration is looming large on every part of the world and yoga is the way to tackle this problem," India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said last week.

Modi and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang attended the joint Yoga-Taichi event in Beijing near the Temple of Heaven. Two hundred children from India performed, showing their Taichi skills, while the same number of Chinese children performed Yoga.

In an effort for India to become become a major player on the world stage, Modi i is keen on projecting the soft power of India. In his foreign policy, Prime Minister Modi is trying to project India’s philosophy and religious traditions. Yoga is the first area that Modi utilised for breakthrough diplomacy. In his address before the UN General Assembly in September last year, Modi described yoga as an invaluable gift of our ancient tradition. “Yoga embodies unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature”. “By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness”, Modi suggested, yoga “can help us deal with climate change”, he said, among other things.

The Indian delegation quickly mobilised support for the proposal to declare June 21 as the annual ‘International Day of Yoga’. Modi’s proposal was supported by 177 UN member states, including the US and China. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which enjoys the support of the majority of India’s population, in its election manifesto, promised to increase public investment to promote AYUSH, the then Department of Ayurveda (India’s traditional medicine), Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani and Siddha medicine and Homoeopathy) and start integrated courses for Indian system of medicines and modern science.[2]The Department has been elevated to an independent Ministry with effect from November 2014, purposed with developing education and research in alternative medicine systems. Ayush is also a common Hindu given name, meaning ‘’Long-life’’. The Ministry of AYUSH in its protocol regarding the International Day of Yoga stated that during the 69 session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), it recognized Yoga as a holistic approach to health and well-being and recognized the positive effects of wider dissemination of information about the benefits of practicing Yoga for the health

The word "Yoga" is derived from the Sanskrit root meaning "to join" or "to unite". According to Yogic scriptures, the practice of Yoga leads to the union of individual consciousness with universal consciousness. One who experiences this oneness of existence is said to be "in Yoga" and is termed as a yogi who has attained a state of freedom. Yoga also refers to an inner science comprising of a variety of methods through which human beings can achieve union between the body and mind to attain self-realization. According to Yogic lore, Shiva was seen as the first yogi or ādiyogi and the first guru.

According to AYUSH several thousand years ago, on the banks of lake Kantisarovar in the Himalayas, ādiyogi poured his profound knowledge into the legendary saptarishis (ancient poets of hymns from approximation of c. 1700–1100 BC) later known as "seven sages". These sages carried this powerful Yogic science to different parts of the world including Asia, the Middle East, northern Africa and South America. However it is widely considered as an "immortal cultural outcome" of an civilization from the Bronze period situated at the Indus river the Saraswati Valley– dating back to 2700 BC.

Prime Minister Modi in his address before the UNGA stated that ‘’on 21 June the mankind has recognized the real meaning of yoga and holistic protection’’. Some are of the opinion that PM Modi hopes that with yoga included, India’s soft power will help boost its international position, winning it security, friends, and much-needed foreign investments and technology.