Speech of Dr. T.V. Nagendra Prasad, Ambassador of India, Astana
Special Yoga Session to mark the Janmashatmi 
August 25, 2024

Dear Friends, Namaste ! 

On behalf of my wife, Mrs. Padmavathi and on my own behalf I welcome you all here at my residence.  As we came here more than year back, we found great enthusiasm among Kazakh people in Indian culture and especially for Yoga practice.  It is very encouraging to see tradition of teaching and learning Yoga all over Kazakhstan.  With support Yoga enthusiasts in Astana and other cities, Embassy has been getting tremendous response for the annual celebration of the International Day of Yoga all over Kazakhstan.  International Day of Yoga 2024 witnessed 36 celebrations in 26 cities of Kazakhstan during June this year.   Yoga promotion is now no more mere celebration of the International Day of Yoga rather it is gradually becoming part of routine life of common Kazakh person.  Credit for spreading the Yoga for holistic health benefits among Kazakh people goes to all of you who have been encouraging people to practice Yoga in a routine manner.  Embassy is taking all possible steps to encourage more and more people to learn Yoga through various sources including under the ICCR scholarship schemes as also under the ITEC programme of the Government of India.

Dear friends, the idea to conduct today’s special session of Yoga came to our mind firstly to get us acquainted with all of you and secondly to mark one of important Indian festival, Shri Krishna Janmashatami celebrating the birth day of Lord Krishna.  Preachings of Krishna enumerated in holy book Bhagvad Geeta are more than relevant in today’s time.  Geeta has been translated into almost all the important languages of the world.  Relevance of  Yoga practice marking Shri Krishna Janmashatmi becomes more than relevant that a lot has been explained about Yoga and Dhayana in Bhagvad Geeta.  I take this opportunity to congratulate you all on this important occasion and wish you good health and success in your life.

Concluding my remarks I would like to thank the entire team of Yoga Family Astana, Mr. Sundar and all our Kazakh Yoga teachers and practitioners who are here in this early morning to join us to celebrate Shri Krishna Janamashami.  I would also like to thank my colleagues from Embassy, Mr. Hoti Lal who conducts Yoga sessions at the Embassy for diplomats.  I would also like to thank Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre for organizing today’s Yoga session with Yoga Family Astana.  Now I would like to thank my wife, Padma ji, who herself is a trained Yoga teacher and has great passion not only to practice Yoga but also to spread it among our Kazakh friends and families of diplomats working in Astana.  It was her brain-child to celebrate this year’s Shri Krishna Janmashatmi by conducting a special Yoga session with you all.

Thank very much once again to all of you for joining us.

*******************