 India is a land with an ancient soul, but a modern heartbeat. From ancient times, India has made extraordinary contributions in the field of architecture, astronomy, cartography, metallurgy, logic, mathematics, medicine and many other disciplines. India gave to the world the 9 digit numeral system and the concept of zero, without which the binary system would not exist and we would not have computers today. However, there is another discipline that originated in India and is well known to the modern world. That is yoga. Yoga acquired a new dimension when in December 2014, the United Nations declared June 21st to be celebrated every year as the International Day of Yoga. But yoga did not begin on June 21st. It began centuries ago. Yoga has transcended time and boundaries. This 5,000 year old discipline was brought to the shores of the western world in the late 19th century. Swami Vivekananda, hailed as one of the first yoga pioneers, travelled to the United States in England and first introduced the western world to the practice of yoga. By the early 20th century, the physical and physiological benefits of yoga gained more attention in the west when Paramahamsa Yogananda came to Boston in 1920 to address a conference on religious liberals. With a heightened interest in spiritual and holistic practices of the East, in the 1930s, students from the west began travelling to India to learn and practice yoga. Sri Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry became one of the popular destinations for seekers of yoga and spirituality. Modern yoga perhaps got its greatest traction and popularity through Tirumalai Krishnamacharya, who one referred to as the father of modern yoga, who emerged as a potent force in yoga worldwide. He influenced a generation of yoga teachers like T. K. V. Desikachar, Indra Devi, Bhattabhi Joyce and the most famous of all, B. K. S. Iyengar. Yoga had found its way in the daily lives of millions of people around the world. Its dissemination across the world over the last 150 years, and thanks to the contributions of yoga pioneers and contemporary yoga gurus like Gurani Anjali, Yogi Sunita, Krishnamacharya, Joyce, Iyengar, Jaggi Vasudev, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Baba Ramdev to name a few. Yoga as we know today has undergone significant transformation from the five-thousand-year-old ancient discipline of the sages. Yoga is practiced today by millions of people around the world. If we manage to transmit and impart even simple steps of yoga to the entire citizenry on this planet, we can bring down the ailments that human beings are suffering right now at least by twenty-five to thirty percent within a matter of next ten years. This will be a huge step in terms of physical, psychological and the inner well-being of every human being. Realizing the virtues and holistic benefits of yoga for all mankind, the Honorable Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, in his address to the 69th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2014, proposed that the world should start celebrating an international day of yoga. Member countries of the United Nations supported this call and the UN proclaimed June 21st as the International Day of Yoga. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon observed that by proclaiming 21st June as the International Day of Yoga, the General Assembly has recognized the holistic benefits of this timeless practice and its inherent compatibility with the principles and values of the United Nations. There was special significance in choosing June 21st as the International Day of Yoga. The summer solstice falls on twentieth to twenty-first June, when the rays of the sun directly strike one of the two tropical latitude lines. June 21st being the longest day of the year marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and heralds the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere. June 21st June is known as the summer solstice or the planet's relationship with the sun shifts from northern run to the southern run, which is traditionally known as Dakshinayana. In the holy history of yoga, Adiyogi, when he was shifting from Uttarayana to Dakshinayana, he noticed the first seven sages who were in preparation for a long period. It is at this time of the solstice that the first transmission of yoga began from Adiyogi to the seven sages who are celebrated as the Saptarishis today. Yoga helps a human being to unfold his full potential. Yoga improves the quality of life. It is so much needed today. Yoga can wipe the tears and bring smiles on every face. It can bring celebration and skill in everyone's life. International Yoga Day, it's an opportunity for us to introduce yoga to people who otherwise wouldn't have taken yoga up. They wouldn't have considered it or they'd never seen it in its full-fledged light. It's an opportunity for us to bring it in front of them and show them what it's about. India and the whole world set about preparing to make the first International Day of Yoga on June 21st, 2015, a landmark event. You guys are part of your knowledge which belongs to mankind. According to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi, though yoga originated in India, it now belongs to mankind and each one of us. International Yoga Day aims to spread the awareness about the immense benefits of yoga. It aims to spread the knowledge of yoga to every corner of the world. I feel great that as small as we are, we have entered the community of nations through an idea brought forward by India and today's sessions in that close India-Sesials cooperation. We are part of it but with the whole community of nations as a whole. Meanwhile, preparations were on in full swing all across India, from Kashmir in the north to Chennai in the south. Everyone was busy preparing for the first ever International Yoga Day. Children and teachers in schools across India were gearing up to celebrate the Yoga Day. The Indian armed forces were planning to celebrate the Yoga Day and freezing temperatures in Siachen, the highest base camp in the world, would not deter them either. Social media was abuzz with tweets and comments of the preparations. In the capital city of New Delhi, organisers were planning the largest ever gathering of people, doing yoga in one place. This would happen at the Rajput, the famous boulevard that plays host to the Republic Day Parade every year on 26th January. As the longest day of the year begins and as people wake up to a new dawn in their time zones, thousands of them get ready to reach for their yoga mats and a dose of health, well-being, peace and harmony. Yoga can offer you tools to experience a dimension within yourself that nothing else can really give it to you. If one really is willing to strive, it's very much available and it's very much possible. We've been wanting and working towards this to show people that yoga is not some esoteric science somewhere. It is something very real and applicable. Just like we study mathematics, science, chemistry in school, there's also a science very available and it's been fine-tuned in such a way that now everyone, including children, including people from all kinds of cultures, backgrounds, religious backgrounds, can make use of without necessarily changing their lifestyle. We're inviting the United Nations in Turkey to celebrate the first-ever International Day of Yoga together with Metin and the Indian Embassy in Turkey. I was so excited that yoga can finally be taught properly in its proper precision, in its proper methodology in a way that people can really know what yoga really, really is. Yoga is something for humanity. It's not dependent on whether you're male or female, whether you're fit or unfit. Yoga is not about any of that. It's about being human and exploring that. The International Day of Yoga, I think, well what it has as a meaning for me is I think it has the potential to spread a wider perception of yoga to both the people practicing it and the people who are just knowing of it. The International Day of Yoga is really a milestone in the evolution of the world, I would say, because yoga has always been there, but that everyone in the world would recognize that one day is there for all of us to have the chance to know more about yoga, to start practicing it, to expand our consciousness. I'm Matt Nozenchuk and I work at the White House and I want to extend my warmest greetings today on behalf of the presidents. This is an amazing, amazing day with President Obama. The International Day of Yoga is a perfect day to have because it's something which can bring meaning to anyone's life. It's something which is relevant to anyone. The stage was set on the iconic boulevard Rajbath in New Delhi to bring people of diverse beliefs, nationalities and age groups to come together not only to do yoga but create a new awareness of peace and harmony. The Yoga Day celebration on Rajbath set a Guinness World Record for the largest yoga lesson at a single venue with 35,985 people performing yoga at once. It broke a previous 10-year-old record set in India in the city of Gwalior in November 2005. With people of 84 different and unique nationalities taking part in this event, a second Guinness World Record was also set for the most nationalities in a yoga lesson. The impact of the International Day of Yoga is quite huge. I've taught yoga in over 100,000 locations on that one day and the online reach has been phenomenal and many other organizations have done incredible work. Well, the entire world has not started practicing yoga yet but at least the entire world is now generally conscious that there is a solution for all their problems within themselves. We have worked hard to divide humanity into many bits and pieces on the basis of race, religion, gender, caste, creed, nationality Yoga can be a tremendous tool for unifying the humanity like never before unifying from an inner experience. June 21st is no longer just the longest day in the year. It is now the International Day of Yoga, a day when people across the world come together to practice this age-old discipline to take care of their health and well-being. Seek mental peace and happiness and attain synergy between body, mind and spirit. The word yoga is derived from the Sanskrit word yog meaning to unite. Fittingly, yoga has united the modern world on this day and forever.