15th INTERNATIONAL YOGA FESTIVAL

ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL YOGA FESTIVAL

PARMARTH NIKETAN, RISHIKESH, INDIA

www.channelnewsasia.com - Along this current week - March 1st to 7th - has taken place the annual International Yoga Festival which is organized by Parmarth Niketan Ashram in Rishikesh, India. This International Yoga Festival is grounded in the authentic origin of Yoga. Participants can practise and learn from masters from the Traditional Yoga Lineages from India, as well as masters of International well known yoga schools & styles. 
During this one-week Festival, attendants have the opportunity to participate in over 60 hours of Yoga classes from world-class Yoga teachers practicing multiple styles of Yoga including Kundalini Yoga, Power Vinyasa Yoga, Iyengar Yoga and Kriya Yoga.

The participants were also blessed with the presence, satsang and divine words of revered saints and spiritual masters from within India, including H.H. Pujya Shankaracharya Swami Divyanand Teerthji, H.H. Pujya Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji, H.H. Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, H.H. Radhanath Swamiji and H.H. Pujya Mooji. Yoga is not merely for our bodies, but rather Yoga is for our bodies, minds, hearts and souls. Yoga literally means "Union" - union of breath with the body, union of the mind with the muscles, and most importantly union of the self with the divine. 
Yoga is not a religion. It does not require you to believe in a certain God or chant certain mantras. Yoga is an ancient science which leads to health in the body, peace in the mind, joy in the heart, and liberation of the soul.

At the 15th annual, world famous International Yoga Festival at Parmarth Niketan, nearly 600 participants from 50 countries have come to take part in courses and classes given by more than 50 world renowned yoga experts. Revered Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji, the President of Parmarth Niketan Ashram, founder of Ganga Action Parivar and co-founder of the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance welcomed all the visitors. Among the highly respected personalities we can mention, Respected Shri Sushil Kumar Shindeji, the Honourable Home Minister of India, Respected Shri Harish Rawatji the Honourable Chief Minister of Uttarakhand; Revered Swami Madhavpriyadasji; Revered Radhanath Swami, - who heads the ISKCON Temple in Mumbai; Revered Bhakti Aloka Paramadvaiti Swami Maharaja - founder of the Vrinda Mission; Respected Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati dd from Rishikesh; some famous musicians such as Vayasaki Prabhu and Drummer Sivamani; renowned meditation experts such as Jack Kornfield and Trudy Goodman and more than 50 yogacharyas from 16 countries. Addressing the huge audience, Pujya Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji said: “The International Yoga Festival is not only a festival OF yoga, but the festival itself IS 'yoga,' a union of North and South, East and West, a union of countries, cultures, creeds and colors, coming together to imbibe the divine nectar of Yoga on the banks of Mother Ganga and the sacred Himalayas.” If we are able to put God at the center of our efforts and spiritual pursuits we will be offering to the materialistic world the real and concrete evidence that the path of Yoga is the solution to the suffering humanity and that it is possible to act as supportive and loving  humans beings, who considered themselves brothers and sisters and sons and daughters of the Supreme Father. If we focus on God's love, and we ignore our envies, jealousies and vanities, we will be able to walk the various paths of Yoga seeing the practitioners of other sampradayas and schools of Yoga as members of a large family and we can live together in diversity without losing the unity among all. (Editor's note).

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

On the 4th Day of International Yoga Festival, the morning began with Ashtanga Series of yoga taught by yoga-teacher to the celebrities Deepika Mehta from Mumbai; Movement, Flow & Transformation with Roberto Milletti of Italy, meditation with Maa Gyan Suveera, Lila Sun Salutations by Erica Kaufman, and Sukshma Yoga taught by Swami Yogananda. The spiritual lecture series included discourses by Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati on “A Divine Balance - from Stress Management to Self Management” and “Rewire your Consciousness with Mantra & meditation: A Talk & Guided Mantra Meditation” by Chandresh Bhardwaj. … Sadhviji explained that “The problems in our lives are caused by the artificial borders we erect between different aspects of our lives - this is my spiritual time, this is my work time, this is my family time. Then we try to 'balance' those aspects and it leads us into stress management classes or onto anti-anxiety medicine. When we realize, instead, that everything is our spiritual life - whatever we do, wherever we go, whomever we're with - it's all part of the sadhana of seeing the Divine in everything, it's all a sadhana in love, peace, presence and true, divine union, then the stress disappears, the depression disappears and the Self appears.”

15th International Yoga Festival
Parmarth Niketan, Rishikesh (Himalayas), India.
Report Day 4 & 5
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www.internationalyogafestival.com

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/