20 years of Yoga in Daily Life in Slovenia

"Spiritual Awakening for World Peace" - Swamiji's tour marking the 20th anniversary of YIDL in Slovenia

His Holiness Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda at the celebration of 20 years of YIDL in Slovenia

Following an invitation of the Slovene Union of yoga societies, H. Holiness Vishwaguru Mahamandaleshwar Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda, the Ambassador of Peace, Professor of Yoga and the Author of Yoga in daily life System visited Slovenia between 2 – 9 May 2008 on the occasion of 20 years of organized practice according to the system of Yoga in daily life.

The Ambassador of peace started his visit of Slovenia in Novo mesto, where he held a three-day international week-end seminar, attended by over 1000 participants from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Austria, Hungary, Germany, Czech republic and Slovakia. He continued his tour of Slovenia with a series of public lectures, held in Maribor, Ljubljana, where the official celebration on the occasion of 20th anniversary of organized practicing of Yoga in daily life took place, and in Portorož. This jubilee is marked with the initiative of His Holiness Swamiji for a blood donation campaign organized by the Union of Yoga Societies of Slovenia and the Red Cross under the name "You too can save a life!", which will be taking place till 15 August 2008. At the beginning of the blood donation campaign His Holiness Swamiji met with the general secretary of Slovene Red Cross, M. Janez Pezelj, with whom he spoke about humanitarian activities and trends in blood donation activities in Slovenia.

H. Holiness Swamiji, who pays a lot of attention to preserving the environment, during his visit of Slovenia met with mayors of Novo mesto - Alojzij Muhiè, Domžale - Toni Dragar, Piran - Tomaž Gantar and Celje - Bojan Šrot, and the Minister of the environment and spatial planning Janez Podobnik. In all his meetings preservation of the environment was the major theme of discussions. To all his interlocutors H. Holiness Swamiji presented projects for preserving the environment, initiated by himself, and pointed out the importance of nourishment for preservation of the environment. He stressed the fact that animal farms are one of the biggest polluting factors and proposed his hosts to join the efforts in further promoting vegetarian diet. On the occasion of His Holiness's visit mayors and the Minister presented projects, carried out by individual municipalities in Slovenia with the aim of preserving clean environment. After meetings at municipalities the mayors and their guest symbolically planted Peace Trees with an aim to maintain the world peace and preserve the environment.

During his visit of the municipality Celje His Holiness Swamiji and the vice-mayor of the urban municipality (UM) Celje, Stane Rozman, formally opened the Yoga centre Celje, which is run by the Yoga in daily life society in Celje, while in the evening hours he accepted the invitation by the mayor of UM Ljubljana, Zoran Jankoviæ, to join him at the dinner organized by UM Ljubljana for the mayors of European capitals on the occasion of their meeting, and attended the solemn concert held in Pogaèarjev trg to celebrate the Europe Day. His Holiness ended his visit of Slovenia on Friday at Ljubljana castle, where he attended, following an invitation by the mayor Zoran Jankoviæ, the solemn session of the municipality council during the celebration of the Municipality Day and presentation of highest municipality awards.

Novo mesto

Maribor

Domzale

Ljubljana, Cankarjev dom

Ljubljana, Ministry

Piran, Portoroz

Celje

Ljubljana, meeting of EU Mayors