On June 21, elaborate celebrations in New Delhi will mark the first United Nations International Day of Yoga. What this UN day highlights is part of a process that has been unfolding for well over a century and transcends the boundaries of nation states.
In India, this process is commonly perceived to date back to Swami Vivekananda’s address at the Parliament of World Religions at Chicago in 1893. When the young Hindu monk declared that all humans are “children of immortal bliss,” he was sharing a philosophical and spiritual truth that transcends human-made boundaries of race, religious doctrine, and nationhood.