Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

SPECIAL REPORT: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF YOGA
SOUTH AMERICA
Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia,
Chile, Colombia and Uruguay
Our Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia and Uruguay celebrated this World Yoga Day with great
enthusiasm.
Although the day was very wintery in the southern-most countries,
students, teachers and people eager to know the benefits of Yoga,
participated in different events organised by local Yoga Centres and the
Embassy of India.
Columbia
Montevideo, Uruguay
The Montevideo Centre celebrated with a full week of yoga classes,
meditation and special talks open for everybody. On Sunday we joined
the local celebration organised by the Indian Consulate. The programme
was at the Sheraton Hotel in a very pleasant neighbourhood of Montevideo
close to the seashore.
About 250 people participated. Kanti Devi had trans lated a book
on Swami Sivananda to offer free to all those taking part.
Teachers and close students of the Centres supported the activities
with their presence and gave active karma yoga during the week and
especially on Sunday, The International Day of Yoga.
This was a very positive opportunity for people from all over the world
to join together in Celebrating Yoga. Gratitude, humility and a great spirit
of sharing was very present and we are already getting ready for next year!
Santa Cruz de la
Sierra, Bolivia
Valparaiso, Chile
Sao Paulo,
Brazil
Buenos Aires, Argentina
We had a wonderful International Yoga Day celebration in Buenos Aires.
We held a schedule with open classes and meditations throughout the
week. The main celebration organised by the Indian Embassy in Buenos
Aires was shared with many Yoga Centres. We set up a stand where
participants could get information about all the Sivananda Yoga Centres
and Ashrams.
The Indian Ambassador lit a lamp at the opening ceremony to start
the event. This was followed by a video message from India’s Prime
Minister, Narendra Modi, which was projected onto a large screen. The
programmed activities then started and there was good attendance
throughout the event, which commenced at 11am and ended at 5pm.
There were two main venues: A big stage, from where yoga classes
were led, and an auditorium in which brief talks and videos about yoga,
were conducted. Swami Premananda taught part of a yoga class together
with two teachers from other Yoga Centres on the main stage. In the Audit -
orium Swami Dayananda gave a brief talk about Swami Vishnudevananda’s
five points of yoga.
Kanti Devi sent from Uruguay the book, Yoga for the West, translated by
her and printed for this Yoga Day as a tribute to the Masters. The book was
given as a gift to attendees.
People enthusiastically participated in all the activities despite the cold
weather. The attendance at the celebrations throughout the day was about
1,500 people. 28 yoga teachers from the Buenos Aires Centre helped run
the event which concluded with the Indian Ambassador, government
authorities and representatives of the different Yoga Centres chanting
together the Saha Navavatu Mantra.
We ended the day with our usual Sunday Satsang in the Centre thanking
our Masters for their knowledge and guidance in this wonderful path of yoga.
34 YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015