The GOPIO-Manhattan (NYC) and Happy Life Yoga in cooperation with The Indian Panorama and Indian American Forum (Long Island) organized an International Yoga Event to raise awareness of Yoga and raise funds for “The Covid-19 Relief in India”. SiddharthDeoraj Jain, Founding Life Member GOPIO Manhattan; introduced Tirlok Malik, an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Happy Life Yoga speaker and invited him to start The International Yoga Day-2021.
Malik hosted a highly interactive and informative Yoga session featuring experts and speakers across various walks of life. He explained his vision, “A way of living inspired by the wisdom of Ayurveda, Yoga and Indian Philosophy is beneficial for everyone. In the aftermath of COVID, the world has realized that it is of paramount importance to have a good health, physically and emotionally, and the Happy Life Yoga platform can show how to achieve it.”
Ambassador Randhir Kumar Jaiswal, the Chief Guest, commented “Yoga is a way of life. The idea of Yoga is truly universal and it must be heard, celebrated and promoted in each and every part of our society and community. The key is to not just celebrate Yoga as a health practice, for it needs to be celebrated in its entirety,” asserted Jaiswal. He highlighted how the International Yoga Day has evolved into in major annual event that’s celebrated across the globe ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed the idea during his speech at the United Nations General Assembly back in September 2014.
Dr. BhuvanLall, the award-winning filmmaker, international entrepreneur, motivational speaker and author, touched upon the importance of Yoga in our day-to-day life and advised “Everybody wants to be happy. Everybody wants to have a long life and Yoga provides the answer by teaching us how to deal with unhappy situations that we come across. So, Yoga is really the way forward.”
Prof. IndrajitSaluja, Chief Editor/Publisher, The Indian Panorama quoted “The key is to love yourself and love the world around you. When you are trying to achieve equilibrium among the various faculties in your life that’s where Yoga comes into play.” Sangeeta Agrawal, CEO and Founder, Helpsy added “The first step involves preparing oneself as that equips one to deal with the situation. Further one must reach out to experts for their advice and guidance allowing one to make and execute plans aimed at recovery from the ailment.”
Deborah Fishman Shelby, Founder & Executive Director, FED talked about teachings of Judaism while sharing examples from Torah and exploring the idea of happiness. RanjuNarang emphasized upon the need to inhaling and exhaling out all the negativity and toxicity. Indu Jaiswal, Chairperson, Indian American Forum, an accomplished dietician and nutritionist spoke about the importance of balance diet for happy life.
Neil and Andrea Garvey, Publishers/Editors of the Creations Magazine, who have been vegans for over three decades emphasized about the need for communication between partners. Anil Narang, Vegan activist, talked about the benefits of vegan diet for a healthy living. While talking about the importance of harmony between mind, body and spirit, he stressed upon the need to go vegan during the COVID-19 times in order to boost immunity and health. Dr. Renee Mehrra talked about meditation and the need to control thoughts as a means to calm down the brain. PallaviVermaBelwariar, Founding Life Member GOPIO Manhattan; entertained the viewers with her melodious voice with Malik egging on the viewers to dance in their chairs.
ShivenderSofat, President GOPIO-Manhattan; spoke about importance of Yoga in daily life, discussed chapter activities and motivated everyone to donate generously towards the GOPIO Manhattan Fund Raising for The Covid-19 Relief in India. Dr. Thomas Abraham, GOPIO Chairman; complimented GOPIO-Manhattan, NYC for taking this initiative and organizing several other programs during the last one year. Dr. Abraham also appealed the audience to support the Covid Indian Relief Fund and GOPIO-Manhattan’s Community Feeding conducted every last Monday of the month.
Chitranjan Sahay Belwariar, Founding Life Member GOPIO Manhattan; concluded with the Vote of Thanks to all Speakers at the event and provided technical support with Zoom streaming and recording. The event ended with a thunderous applause even as Malik promised to bring more Happy Life Yoga events in the near future. Happy Life Yoga is the creation of Tirlok Malik and the Ayurveda Cafe team. It is essentially an educational platform that offers a unique holistic approach to health and happiness using tools from Ayurveda, Indian Philosophy, and Yoga to help better manage modern-day challenges such as work, finances, relationships, family and other social pressures. It was launched in June 2019 in New York.
In accordance with its mission to serve the larger society and those in need, GOPIO-Manhattan Chapter has taken several initiatives in the recent past. A Community Feeding is organized by the Chapter providing vegan or vegetarian lunch for the homeless and needy at Tomkins Square Park in Manhattan on the last Monday of every month. The chapter appeals to the community to support the initiative by being a volunteer and/or a sponsor. For more info on GOPIO Manhattan, call President ShivenderSofat at 731-988-6969, e-mail: [email protected] or visit here: https://gopiomanhattan.org/