Privredni Pregled 22-24 May 2015 By Borislav Korkodelović

Modi includes Yoga in foreign policy

Prime Minister Modi and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang attended the joint Yoga-Taichi event in Beijing near the Temple of Heaven, a complex of religious buildings, visited by the emperors of the Mig and Qing dynasties. Two hundred children from India performed, showing their Taichi skills, while the same number of Chinese children performed Yoga.

India’s soft power

India has long seemed unable or unwilling to become a major player on the world stage. But the country’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, who began his premiership last year is looking to change all that. Modi is keen on projecting the soft power of India, the world’s second most populous nation with a population of 1.25 billion and one of the oldest civilizations whose history dates back to the 8th millennium BC.

Looking back into the past. Modi is tried to project India’s philosophy and religious traditions. He is tapping into India’s considerable soft power: its emigrants, intellectuals, and yogis. India boasts Bollywood, Yoga, Buddhism and its rich philosophical tradition. It has a world-class cadre of global public intellectuals from Amartya Sen to Salman Rushdie. India also has a 22 million strong, wealthy and increasingly politically engaged diaspora spread across the political and economic capitals of the world.

So far India’s soft power resources have not been able to translate into the levelsof foreign investment the country would like to see, it has benefitted little from the global Yoga boom and it attracts far fewer foreign tourists than China or other comparable countries.

Modi first relied on Yoga

Yoga is the first area that Modi utilised for breakthrough diplomacy. In his first 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’ (IDY). 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’’.

What is Yoga

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 of the world population. Yoga also brings harmony in all walks of life and thus, is known for disease prevention, health promotion and management of many lifestyle-related disorders. Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science which focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. It is an art and science for healthy living, according to the AYUSH protocol.
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.
According to AYUSH, 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. The aim of Yoga practice is to overcome all kinds of sufferings that lead to a sense of freedom in every walk of life with holistic health, happiness and harmony.

Origins

The science of Yoga has its origins thousands of years ago, long before the first religion or belief systems were born. According to Yogic lore, Shiva was seen as the first yogi or ādiyogi and the first guru or ādiguru ( Hindu and Sikh words for a spiritual teacher). 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. Along with  Egypt and Mesopotamia, it was one of three early civilisations of the Old World, contributing to the material and spiritual rise of humanity. The great sage Patanjali systematized and codified the then existing Yogic practices, its meaning and its related knowledge through Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. After Patanjali, many sages and Yoga masters contributed greatly for the preservation and development of the field through well documented practices and literature.

It’s also big business

Yoga has spread over the world through teachings of famous masters from ancient times until today. Millions and millions of people across the globe have benefitted by the practice of Yoga and the practice of Yoga is blossoming and growing more vibrant with each passing day. Yoga is included in the lives of all races nd communities of the modern world. Google mapofyoga shows its presence from the farthest city in the east- Kamui, Japan to Halibut Cove, Alaska in the west; from Norge, northern Norway to Chilean Antarctica, Chile in the south.

The business around Yoga is today worth billions of dollars. According to the ‘Huffington Post’ newspaper, Yoga is today a $27 billion industry, only in the US. To this we must add the value of the Yoga Industry that is developing in Europe, its widespread branching in its cradle, India, and other Asian countries, Africa and South America. It is estimated that in China 15 to 20 million people practice Yoga, and 100,000 are yoga teachers.

Indian author Birad Rajaram Yajnik wrote that Yoga is a branded gift that the world has just partially seen. “It has great potential to become the world’s leading wellness & health industry, to employ thousands of people with the aim to build a more substantial world’’, Yajnik said.. 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.

A society with less violence.

Members of the European Parliament (EP) mentioned the positive effects of Yoga during their gathering on the 21st of April. This event, organized by the Delegation for Relations with India in the EP, was a first step in constituting the International Day of Yoga on June 21st. At the event, famous humanist Sri Sri Ravi Shankar held a speech on Yoga after which a debate followed in the EP. This event was the first time all seven political groups in the EP were united, stated Geoffrey Van Orden a British Conservative Party politician. Indian Ambassador to the EU Manjeev Singh Puri, who helped organize the event, said “Yoga is something that although invented in India, is a great source of fun and wellbeing which has been given to the rest of the world. Therefore in one of the world's largest parliamentary assemblies, the European parliament, it seems appropriate to bring MEPs from across Europe together to carry out these celebrations." Slovenian deputy of the EPP Mr Alojz Peterle stated "This event and particularly the international yoga day, is an invitation for European leaders to engage in more intercultural dialogue that would lead to less violent societies, through 'violence-free' individuals. Fostering and sustaining peace, is a shared interest of both the EU and India", claimed Peterle, former Slovenian Prime Minister.

Guru is required

According to AYUSH, Yoga works on the level of one's body, mind, emotion and energy. This has given rise to four broad classifications of Yoga: Karma Yogawhere we utilise the body; Jnāna Yogawhere we utilise the mind; Bhakti Yogawhere we utilise the emotion and Kriya Yoga where we utilize the energy. Every individual is a unique combination of these four factors. Only a guru can advocate the appropriate combination of the four fundamental paths as is necessary for each seeker.