Dubai – Dubai is reportedly expecting over 10,000 people from various parts of the world participating in mass yoga sessions in the two-day all-inclusive XYoga Dubai Festival on February 19 and 20.
Powered by XDubai and Dubai Tourism and dubbed as festival of the body and the mind, this open to the public free event, claimed to be the first lifestyle event and largest yoga event of its kind in the region, will be held at the Burj Park Downtown Dubai in the shadow of the Burj Khalifa, reports suggest.
According to reports, it will offer series of yoga sessions, workshops, meditation and talks from sunrise to sunset for people of all ages and abilities and shall be lead by globally-recognized yogis and will be an annual feature. Aim of this festival, which is anticipated as the largest mind-body festival in the region, is described as positioning Dubai as the leading destination for yoga in the region. XYoga Dubai also plans to hold other yoga events year round.
Welcoming Dubai for hosting the yoga festival, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed (pic), in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to an estimate, about 21 million Americans, including many celebrities, now practice yoga. Yoga is the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed adds.
Islam is the official religion of United Arab Emirates, of which Dubai is a part.
