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Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board’s International Yoga Festival revitalizes visitors’ bodies, minds, and soul

• nationalherald
• March 14, 2023

 by Prashant Kapadia/NHN

For visitors from India and worldwide, the recently concluded Mahakumbh of Yoga and Aarogya, The International Yoga Festival 2023, has been a wonderful stay. Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board’s Yoga Festival not only gave visitors a taste of the state’s unmatched hospitality, but it also significantly contributed to their mental well-being.

From March 1 to March 7, the International Yoga Festival in Rishikesh attracted yoga instructors, teachers, students from yoga schools, and tourists from all around the country and abroad. Yoga students learnt a variety of yoga asanas from Yogacharyas from the Isha Foundation, Art of Living, Sivananda Ashram, Ramamani Iyengar Smriti Yoga Institute, Kaivalyadhama, and Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram.

In addition to yoga exercises, yoga students grasped the knowledge of a variety of asanas to avoid various diseases, which was another main feature of the the yoga festival. Yoga practitioners taught several asanas from Yogacharyas to address medical issues like diabetes, joint pain, back pain, digestive disorders, stress, and high blood pressure.

For the first time, free arrangements were made by the Tourism Department for tourists so that more and more could attend the Yoga Mahotsav. Visitors were given the option of joining any of the six participating schools’ yoga camps. Separate arrangements were made for each yoga school to hold yoga sessions along the banks of the Ganges in the morning. Each yoga school was limited to a maximum of fifty attendees. More than 200 trainees began practising yoga on the first day, and over the course of the following two to three days, this number increased to 296. The Yoga Festival brought together yoga students from 18 states, including Uttarakhand, as well as students from 21 different nations.

Upon their return, the Yog Mahotsav attendees were especially appreciative of the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board for offering a beautiful setup for yoga. Dilraj Preet Kaur, the state of Uttarakhand’s yoga brand ambassador, said that practicing yoga beside the Ganges emitted positive energy. The Yoga Mahotsav for this year was put together in a really opulent way. This allowed people to view and learn the various intricacies of each yoga pranayama. She expressed gratitude to the tourism department for their commendable efforts in maintaining cleanliness, hygiene, and management, in addition to offering a beautiful landscape for yoga.

Yoga instructor from the Ramamani Iyengar Smriti Yoga School and Colombian citizen Angelo said he has been visiting Rishikesh for a few years. For him, Rishikesh’s alluring surroundings, the blowing wind, and the opportunity to practise yoga while sitting by the Ganges were nothing short of a blessing. He expressed his appreciation and compliments to the tourism department as well as his awe at the breathtaking location of the Yoga Festival.

On the other hand, Priyanka, who is associated with Art of Living, said that she is feeling blessed by practicing yoga amidst the wonderful environment and thanked the tourism department for organizing this event. She told that yoga occasions like this have earned yoga , a worldwide accaptance.

In addition to yoga, the festival featured sessions including laughter yoga and meditation yoga, with a meditation session organised by the Heartfulness group for the first time for inner peace. The Art of Living and Brahmakumaris Institutes led additional meditation classes. For laughter therapy, specific camps were established.