Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said yoga can help Jammu and Kashmir attract more tourists which will provide new livelihood opportunities to the local residents.

Addressing a gathering on the 10th International Yoga Day on the banks of Dal Lake here, the prime minister cited a competition held in Egypt wherein yoga was used to promote tourism in the North African country.

"I recently saw a video from Egypt. They organised a competition and awarded the best yoga photographs and videos from iconic tourist places in the country. In the pictures and videos, I saw girls from Egypt standing in front of the iconic Pyramids doing yoga, it was so attractive.

"For Kashmir, yoga can become such a big source of livelihood. It can become a centre of attraction for tourists," Modi told the yoga practitioners on the lawns of SKICC on the banks of Dal Lake here.

The prime minister's event was scheduled to be held under the open sky but early morning rain forced the venue to be shifted indoors.

However, Modi addressed the people after the rain stopped and lauded their determination to stay back even in adverse weather.

"Our daughters used their yoga mats to protect themselves from rain but they did not leave. It is heartening to see," he said.

The prime minister said many people consider yoga as a spiritual journey aimed at finding God which often makes them give up on meditation.

"When people talk about yoga, most of them think it is a spiritual journey as if it is to find Allah, Ishwar or God... Leave aside the spiritual journey, for now, you can focus on personal development and yoga is part of that.

"If you approach it that way, I am sure you will get a lot of benefits. Personal development leads to the benefit of the society which in turn leads to the benefit of humankind," he said.

The prime minister said yoga, once made a part of daily life, gives uninterrupted benefits for a long time.

"We have to understand the importance of yoga in life. Just like brushing teeth or combing hair becomes a daily routine, with similar ease yoga becomes a process to follow when you get used to it. It keeps giving benefits every moment," he said.

He cited the example of trainers who help people improve their memory power through the use of special techniques.

"The attention is linked to how much our mind is focused. You must have seen many people develop techniques to improve memory power and for those who follow the process, their memory power improves.

"Similarly, working with a focus on any issue will give the best of the best results, which leads to personal development and with the least exertion you get maximum satisfaction," he said.

"If you do something while your attention is divided among the 10 things, it increases exhaustion," he added.

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