Large crowds of Indians stretched and contorted themselves Sunday morning in mass public events across the country to commemorate the first International Day of Yoga.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led an estimated 35,000 people -- in what organizers billed as the largest yoga demonstration ever -- on Rajpath, a ceremonal boulevard in New Delhi, the capital.
“We are not only celebrating a day but we are training the human mind to begin a new era of peace,” said Modi, who has called yoga an integral part of Indian heritage.
Modi proposed the event last fall at the United Nations General Assembly, and his year-old administration held yoga demonstrations events around the globe Sunday through its more than 190 diplomatic missions.