The Nepal Weekly 
June 21, 2022
Yoga, an ancient discipline, is one of the best practices one can adopt for both physical and mental wellbeing. As a combination of careful body postures and meditation, yoga can help you achieve harmony of the mind, body, and soul. In fact, it can boost your immunity and resistance to common illnesses, stress and anxiety – just what one needsin the contemporary life style.
Yoga is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in with aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness untouched by the mind (Chitta) and mundane suffering (Du%kha). There is a wide variety of schools of yoga, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and traditional and modern yoga is practiced worldwide.
Yoga is first mentioned in the Rigveda, and is referred to in a number of the Upanishads. The first known appearance of the word “yoga” with the same meaning as the modern term is in the Katha Upanishad, which was probably composed between the fifth and third centuries BCE.
The term “yoga” in the Western world often denotes a modern form of Hatha yoga and a posture-based physical fitness, stress-relief and relaxation technique. consisting largely of the asanas. this differs from traditional yoga, which focuses on meditation and release from worldly attachments. It was introduced by gurus after the success of Swami Vivekananda’s adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Vivekananda introduced the Yoga Sutras to the West, and they became prominent after the 20th-century success of hatha yoga.
International Yoga Day 2022 is being celebrated on Tuesday, June 21, 2022. Since 2015, International Yoga Day is observed on June 21 to spread awareness among the masses about the importance of Yoga and its effects upon human health.
United Nations Organization (UNO) designated International Yoga Day in 2014 on public demand that occurred on a large scale. International Yoga Day celebrations occur in India, USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, China, Australia, and some other countries of South Asia including Pakistan.
