JKYog International Festival of Yoga 2021 inaugural ceremony, Swamiji's keynote, Yoga for Success

JKYog International Festival of Yoga 2021, was off to a roaring start on Jun 15th with a grand inaugural ceremony featuring - an inspiring keynote by JKYog founder, global spiritual leader, Swami Mukundananda and special messages from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Consul General Aseem Mahajan, United States Senator John Cornyn and Allen City Mayor Kenneth Fulk.

JKYog President Shreya Bhat took us through a beautiful walk down memory lane, highlighting how the festival has grown from its humble beginnings in a tent to now impacting thousands of people worldwide in person and virtually through JKYog worldwide headquarters, the Radha Krishna Temple of Dallas through the generous support of officials, sponsors, volunteers and the community.

International Festival of Yoga: Inspiring keynote by Swami Mukundananda

Swami Mukundananda highlighted the true purpose of Yoga:

“The purpose of yoga is the disciplining and control of the mind to enable you to go within yourself and discover the glory of your soul.” – Swami Mukundananda

He underscored the importance of controlling the mind and maintaining the health of the body to discover our true soul nature and its inherent bliss and potential. He described the various forms of Yoga and their purposes – Hatha Yoga for discipline, Gyan Yoga to reach spiritual elevation through contemplation of divine wisdom, Karm Yoga to achieve purity of intention in all our works as a service to God and Bhakti Yoga to love God. He concluded with an inspiring call to action to implement discipline and small daily sacrifices for long term success through the practice of Yoga during the festival.

“If you wish to be healthy and well, you must be willing to embrace discipline, to accept the beneficial pain.” – he said.

Yoga for Holistic Health and Success

Swamiji’s keynote was followed by a fitting start to the International Yoga festival – celebrating India’s greatest export to the world – Yoga. A blissful lecture demonstration by Dr. Sangeetha Pethkar, pioneer of Nritya Yog Sutra highlighted several unique poses for holistic health combining dance, Yoga, calming music and controlled breathing.

This was followed by a Yoga dos and donts – suitable time, place, clothing, breathing and injury precautions, by Prem Yoga Wellness Center Master Teacher Devi, Office Yoga poses by Dr. Maruti Gudavalli and a deeply relaxing Yog Nidra session guided by Canada’s only Yog Nidra instructor Julia Long. Julia stated the benefits of Yog Nidra in altering the neural pathways through visualization to manifest the life we desire. Jagadish, an Isha Yoga volunteer then led a Yoga for Success session – yogic poses to relax the neck muscles and chitt shakti guided meditation to activate creative power. The main takeaway from the session was that to attract success one must know how to be equanimous and maintain exuberance of energies in all situations.

The day concluded with inspiring wisdom from the Patanjali Yog Sutras by Swami Mukundananda and an elevating discussion on Bhagavad Gita wisdom to control the mind for spiritual elevation.

Join the JKYog International Festival of Yoga from Jun 15-21 at live.jkyog.org!

Click on the “Day” link at the above website to view past sessions on demand for 29.99 (full week) or 9.99, the whole day.

Download the Program Souvenir – Your Complete Guide to International Festival of Yoga packed with articles and offerings from JKYog to improve your health and begin your journey to life transformation.

Share your main takeaways from Day 1 in comments!