By RADHIKA NAGRATH
RISHIKESH, 21 Mar: The seven-day International Yoga Festival, jointly organised by the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam and the Uttarakhand government, will conclude on March 22, with closing ceremony by Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh (Retd). The festival was inaugurated on March 16 by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami.
The success of the International Yoga Festival is attributed to Puneet Jain, a dynamic young officer who had recently taken charge as Managing Director of the Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam. Ever since, he has focussed his attention to making the International Yoga Conference a mega event. So far, more than 10,000 Yoga enthusiasts have received training in various forms of yoga at the conference.
Prateek Jain stated that this year, more than 2,500 registrations were received as Yoga instructors, as against 700 the previous year. People learned various Yoga postures, while prominent figures from music and spirituality made a presence. Among the well-known spiritual figures were guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Sadhvi Purnamati Mata from the Usha Mata Jain sect, National president of the Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad and Chairman of the Shri Mansa Devi Temple Trust. Many celebrities including president Mahant Shri Ravindra Puri Maharaj and president of Parmarth Ashram Swami Chidanand Muni attended, while in the field of music, Sufi singers Wadali Bandhu, Bhajan Bhajan Samrat Anup Jalota, etc., mesmerized the people with their performances.
The confluence of music, spirituality and yoga flowed parallel to river Ganga on the holy banks of Ganga Resort. A record 300 Yoga sessions have been conducted so far.
