20th International Yoga Festival 2014

The 20th Annual Yoga Festival was organised in a grand manner by the Dpeartment of Tourism, Pondicherry Government from 4 – 7 January, 2014.The inaugural function, on the evening of 4th, was presided over by Virendra Kataria, Lt. Governor of Pondicherry, N. Rangasamy, Chief Minister, P. Rajavelu, Tourism Minister and other dignitaries. Following the traditional inauguration of the event with lighting of the lamp and the guests of honour addressing over 1000 participants present, a dance drama titled “Homage to Mother Earth” was presented by Yoganjali Natyalayam as part of the cultural programme.

The International Yoga Festival is an annual event organised by the Tourism Department, since its inception in 1991 by Yogamaharishi Swami Gitananda Giri. It is an internationally famous event for which participants from all over the world come and put on display their excptional yogic skills. This yeat too over 800 participants took part in the yogasana competition conducted on 5 and 6 January. Participants from every state of India as well as from countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Russia etc were present. Along with the competition, workshops, lectures, demonstration by experts were organised during the morning, while various dance and music programmes where staged in the evening. There were also book stalls selling various texts on yoga and related matters through out the three-day festival. The final championship round for the yogasana competition was held on 7 January and the festival was concluded with a valedictory function, presided over by Guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of Banglore.

Sathyabala G

2nd MCA, Computer Science