Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday participated in a yoga session in Ranchi in Jharkhand along with around 30,000 people to mark the fifth annual International Day of Yoga. “Yoga for peace, harmony and progress,” he said on Twitter.

The prime minister said yoga goes “beyond the distinction of age, colour, caste, creed, cult, rich-poor, province, frontier” and belongs to everyone, The Indian Express reported.

Modi urged everyone to make yoga an integral part of the daily routine. “I thank people across the world for joining Yoga Day celebrations, world over the first rays of the sun are being welcomed by dedicated yoga practitioners, it is a beautiful sight,” ANI quoted him as saying.

Modi said he hoped to make yoga a part of poor people’s lives. “Diseases make a poor person poorer,” the prime minister said. “I want to take yoga from cities to the villages, to the jungles, to the poor and the adivasis...Peace and harmony have always been associated with yoga, and yoga can further unity and can heal several challenges the world faces.”

Modi said India has to do further research on yoga. “We have to unite yoga with fields of medicine, physiotherapy, artificial intelligence,” he said. The prime minister said yoga provides a perfect blend of knowledge, work and devotion. He said: “It is constant and evolving. For centuries, the essence of yoga has remained the same: healthy body, stable mind, spirit of oneness.”

Modi performed asanas along with volunteers at the Prabhat Tara School Maidan in Ranchi. The theme of this year’s Yoga Day is climate action. In 2018, the main event was held in Dehradun at the Forest Research Institute.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar performed yoga at Rohtak. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh participated in a yoga session at Rajpath, New Delhi. He urged everyone to make yoga “an integral part of their lives”.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla led a yoga session at the Parliament along with MPs and staff of the Parliament, ANI reported.

On Thursday, yoga postures were projected on the north facade of the United Nations Secretariat building in New York. The north facade of the building was awash with surya namaskar postures projected against a colourful background, The Indian Express reported.