Malawians and foreign dignitaries on Sunday joined the Indian Community in Malawi in commemorating this year's International Day of Yoga.
The United Nations (UN) proclaimed June 21 as the International Day of Yoga by resolution 68/131. However, the Malawian Community shifted the commemoration to June 23 to honour the soul of the former Vice President, Dr. Saulos Klaus Chilima, who died in a plane crash alongside eight others on June 10, 2024.
Speaking to journalists at the commemoration, which took place at the Indian Country Club in Lilongwe, the Indian High Commissioner to Malawi, S. Gopalakrishnan, while describing yoga as the union of the body, mind and soul, said the sport has a lot of benefits for individuals as well as societies.
"For individual. It brings a unique mind body and soul for the society. It brings a harmony between the human and the nature yoga though it is originated from India, it belongs to the Indian humanity. It is open to everybody as you see here today, there are schoolchildren who are practicing yoga, you see people over the age of more than 70, 80 years. So, it's for everybody. It's not for a particular nationality. It is for everybody talking about the mind Malawi has recently seen a very sharp rise," said Gopalakrishnan.
In her remarks, the Zimbabwean High Commissioner to Malawi, Dr. Nancy Saungweme, said the sport is an important instrument in strengthening bilateral relationships.
"Actually, last year was I supposed to come and test, but I failed due to other problems. Yoga is the best solution because it is a healing for your body and just coming together as a community makes it very good," said Saungweme.
The Indian Country Club secretary, G. Kalyana Sundaram, said the International Yoga initiated by the Government of India and spread the message to the entire world about its goodness and goodness for help.
Sundaram said the Indian Community in Malawi use the sport to interact with local communities as well as other local partners as much as working together to make their lives better.
"For example, this International Yoga is in mental harmony. So, observing these Festiva observing this internationally regarded, we bring them all together in one day so that we show our guests that we all work in harmony the good health and good one visible existence of humanity is set by the government of India every year as a message to the worldwide through our yoga position," he said.