Life: A Pure Celebration of Joy and Gratitude

Posting on behalf of Asha Mulchan (Hoschton, GA, USA) (amulchan@bellsouth.net)

I have read hundreds of books, listened to hundreds of lectures, and visited many religious and spiritual places in my search for my personal spiritual path. But I've discovered that that intellectual knowledge is not enough. I think many spiritual teachings remain an intellectual exercise, concepts, words - until one has an internal experience which links the knowledge to the deepest level of his heart. Little by little, I am able to go beyond intellect and mind to experiential knowledge through Sudarshan Kriya.

Through the simple process of purging the toxins of negative emotions, physical toxins, and the toxins from life stress, I feel myself move gradually from disharmony to harmony and synchronicity of mind, heart, body and spirit. Even in those moments when I feel helpless and out of control, there is still a quiet space inside which reminds me that everything is fine and that life is unfolding as it should. It is an amazing thing to experience such calmness in the midst of disharmony and chaos. I think that once we’ve moved from the head space to the heart, we know with absolute certainty that we are greater than the sum total of our emotions and senses. From this state, we can experience the blossoming of wisdom, the outpouring of divine love, the manifestation of love and peace in relationships, with nature, and with the world around, and life becomes a pure celebration of joy and gratitude. I have been abundantly blessed with this unfolding experience since meeting Guruji in 1998 and doing Sudarshan Kriya and other spiritual practices regularly.

An experience is worth ten thousand words... or more.

A picture is worth a thousand words. But an experience... maybe more, many more words.

I have been practising Sudarshan Kriya and meditation for more than six years now, and yet the efficacy of these techniques never fails to amaze me. There is a good reason why we refer to these techniques as "spiritual practices," meaning they are not theories or hypotheses waiting to be proved. Instead, they are tried and tested methods that have been used since centuries to relax the mind, refresh the system and dive to the source of thought.

Very often, the human mind chooses quantity over quality. So it baffles us when we hear that twenty minutes of meditation can be more restful than eight hours of sleep. The math does not match up! Well, it needs to be experienced. It has happened to me on multiple occasions that I wake up after 7-8 hours of sleep, feeling hardly rested. My limbs feel sore and heavy, and I cannot shake off the dullness in my mind. On such mornings, it is tempting to fool the mind into thinking that lying in bed for those five extra minutes will make all the difference. Does not work, really. But spending an hour on yoga, Sudarshan Kriya and meditation will most certainly help. One such morning, I just about managed to make myself sit for my daily practice. And an hour later, I could hardly believe how different I felt. The body felt much lighter and my legs had lost their soreness. The mind felt calm and completely relaxed. The draining fatigue of the night before had been replaced with an incredible sense of energy and clarity.

I remember listening to a talk by Sri Sri where he explains that the more subtle an object/entity is, the tougher it is to describe. This, in my opinion, perfectly describes the experience of Sudarshan Kriya and meditation. But I have tried to do that... and you can read it in the lines above! Or you can go and experience it yourself because my words can barely convey an iota of the beauty and magic of these spiritual practices.

A personal account of the Silver Jubilee, AoL’s 25th year anniversary

You know how there are those incredible moments in life that we wish we could capture and keep with us forever? How many times have you wanted to write about these moments or experiences and were at a loss for words? Every time you sat down to write about it, the words just didn’t capture the essence. And then it’s the old feeling of what’s the point in even writing about it anyway. It’s just an experience. I can’t recreate the experience for myself or for anyone else.

Well, years later, I’m sitting down again in an attempt to share one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. Part of the reason why I haven’t written about it in so long is because I’m still digesting it. It was a unique experience – one that showed me another aspect of life that I didn’t know existed.

Peace. Happiness. Without reason.

In February of 2006, I took a trip to India to attend a 2.5 million person meditation. This event was part of the Art of Living’s 25th year Anniversary.

I’m so glad I went. I laugh when I think about what almost prevented me from going. Studying for the MCAT exam. I had to honest with myself, which was tough for me to do at the time. I asked myself a question which I had known the answer to all along. When I am about to die, what will I remember…an extra week of MCAT studying? Or, this trip to India? Well, that was easy now wasn’t it. It’s amazing how tunnel-visioned I was at the time, but I suppose that’s what stress does – making it a little tougher to see all perspectives in a situation in the moment.

Let me describe to you the beautiful scenery of the Ashram. First imagine a tropical paradise, including palm trees, monkeys imitating your movements from tree canopies, an elephant roaming to and fro, a gentle cool breeze punctuated by a feeling of the sun’s strength, villagers cutting the tops off of coconuts for tourists to enjoy a nice a cool refreshing drink, mangos, papayas, pineapples, exotic lizards, thousands of people from over 144 countries smiling at you as you pass them by, gardens exuding an overwhelming fragrance, and enchanting, hand cut rock statues.

I should say a bit more about why I went to India in the first place in case this wasn’t clear. The Art of Living Foundation, an organization I joined about 5 years ago, had its 25th year anniversary celebration, culminating in a 2.5 million person “One World Family Silver Jubilee” event at Jakkur Air Field in Bangalore, India. This event lasted 3 days and included speeches from many dignitaries from across the world including Presidents, foreign dignitaries, and saints, among others. Many topics were addressed, all of which fell under the broad topic of human values & ethics.

The final day of the event culminated in a 2.5 million person Sudarshan Kriya and meditation. The Sudarshan Kriya is a breathing technique developed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to wash away stress and negative emotions and to give the mind a much needed rest.

For one who has not experienced this technique, it’s hard to describe. Describing it comes from the level of the mind and the technique itself transcends the mind. These techniques are great to practice at home individually, but can you imagine the collective power of 2.5 million people doing this practice together? What about the effect on the global consciousness? I swear we even changed the global wind currents with all the breathing that we did.

At the event, people from Israel, Palestine, America, Iraq, India, Pakistan, China, and Tibet to name just a few of the numerous countries represented were all celebrating and dancing together! Where else on earth could you find this? What other type of event could bring so much bliss? It truly did feel like a one world family. Everyone put aside their identification’s and remembered that life is about celebration, not violence. It is no wonder that Sri Sri has been nominated to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on multiple occasions.

Just a word concerning the logistics of the event – can you imagine putting together an event of this magnitude? As I had previously mentioned, over 2.5 million attended this event, however, only 10,000 of this 2.5 million stayed at the Bangalore Ashram. This ashram was only equipped to hold 3,000. Yet, it all seemed to just magically work out. Perhaps the biggest miracle of all was that only a few people of the 10,000 got sick. Can you imagine how many buses were needed to transport 10,000 people from the ashram to Jakkur for the Silver Jubilee three day celebration? Can you imagine the amount of vegetables that needed to be cut and scraped? Can you imagine all the traffic at Jakkur? Can you imagine sifting through millions to find a seat at the Silver Jubilee celebration? Can you imagine setting up millions of chairs for people to sit on? Can you imagine innumerable massive projection TV’s spread across acres and acres of land to televise what was happening on the stage (the size of a football field)? Can you imagine the amount of wire this would have necessitated? Can you imagine chanting “OHHHHMMMM” and how unbelievable the resonance of 2.5 million voices sounded together? Can you imagine all of the love and peace that emanated from this one spot on the earth?

I still can’t.

Like I said before, I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this trip. I felt completely rejuvenated and am so grateful to have shared in this celebration. This organization, established in over 150 countries, is the largest NGO in the world. Although the focus is on service projects around the world, there are so many courses that you can take that are absolutely phenomenal. To become a teacher, you have to take most of them.

You can go as deep as you’d like with this stuff. Whether you’d like to do these breathing/meditation techniques purely for the health benefits (mental and physical), to touch upon spirituality, or to just learn about some very cool ancient philosophies, they will undoubtedly have a very positive impact on your life.

Translating and integrating this experience was easier to do while in India than once I returned to the US. Coming back to a way of life that involved deriving happiness from possession and continually adjusting my life to fit the expectations of others now did not seem healthy anymore given this new experience I had. I had experienced happiness from another angle. It wasn’t transient and empty anymore; it was lasting and full. It was a gratitude for being alive in the first place, for beginning to understand how conditioned I had been, for having been able to be a part of this experience, and for finally being able to write about it and to pass on it's fragrance.

Breath, Water, Sound - Boston (April 2010)!!

Something amazing just happened up here in Boston, Massachusetts. The Breath, Water, Sound course was taught at Hyde Park High School to about 40 kids who recently came from Haiti. Some had arrived before the earthquake, while others had relocated to Boston shortly after the earthquake.

The school was looking for a way to help these kids because they were traumatized and they didn’t have a way to process the emotions that they harbored. The kids needed a way to decompress. Talking about it helped, but it wasn’t enough according to the teachers and administrators.

The school felt that the Breath, Water, Sound course would empower students by providing them with tools to help them relax and manage stress as well as difficult emotions. The tools include breathing techniques, sound relaxation, meditation, and yoga.

The course is offered through the International Association for Human Values, an Organization founded by His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It works in concert with the Art of Living Foundation.

Though I was not able to participate and teach on this particular course, I made sure to check-in with the Breath, Water, Sound teachers to hear of their experiences. Justin (who flew in from California), Tejeswi, Jayshree, and Dhanashree all taught together.

Justin writes:

“The students were regular students, just with a very deep and rich outlook on life because of their experiences. They were still playful, still smiling and laughing, but underneath there were the worries and anxieties and all of the other negative emotions caused by stress. I laugh at it because I knew that these students were going to teach me more about life than anything I was there to give them. All it took was the LA LA meditation for everyone to accept that these breathing techniques were something they’ve never experienced. They wanted more. It was just the space they had been looking for, a quiet place where they could just forget about everything for a few moments. Their voluntary testimonies were poetic, feelings such as “floating in space, being released from jail, and finally free.” As a YES! for Schools teacher, I am used to teaching in a 5 week format. It was incredible to see how much transformation took place here in just a few hours. Everyone involved at Hyde Park noticed the shift and are excited to make these techniques available for the rest of the students and teachers. I am just grateful to be allowed to play a part in it!”

Tejeswi writes:

"It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life…In spite of being so young and having gone through such a traumatic experience, I was surprised to learn that most of them had such a positive outlook on life and most importantly they kept their smile. This was very inspirational. The course experiences that some of the students shared were amazing. I remember one of girls who said: “I used to be angry all the time...but after doing this technique I feel so happy. I want to feel like this all the time.” Another one who did not even say a word the 4 days we were there, said on the last day, “ I feel I was born again. I feel powerful.” I believe we truly made a difference in their lives…”

The school now wishes to teach this course to all 180 of their students based on the results of this select course for Haitian students and would even like to televise portions of it. Needless to say, the course was a great success and it can serve as an example for how other schools can model the integration of such programs into their curriculum. The adolescent years, in general, are a time of great transformation and stress. And, the way stress is channeled at an early age can often lead to beneficial or destructive behavioral tendencies that can persist into adulthood. All schools should consider including a program that addresses stress management.

The What, When and How

I landed in Atlanta on Christmas Day 2003. Truly speaking, 25-Dec is one of the gloomiest days in the year in the United States - dull weather, a few solitary cars on the road, zero sunshine. When you're coming from hot, humid and crowded Mumbai, the contrast is striking. I was newly married and had come to the US on a dependent visa. I left behind a job, my family, my independence. It wasn't a very happy bride who landed at Hartsfield Jackson Airport that day. The days following were equally troubled. I couldn't travel anywhere by myself since I didn't know how to drive and there isn't much by way of public transport in the Atlanta suburbs where we lived. I couldn't get a job since I was on a dependent visa that disallowed me from working. I hated the gloomy weather and the perpetual silence (remember, I came from noisy Mumbai). I missed my family and India terribly. I spent days moping around the house. My poor husband was confused and had no idea what to do. The laughing girl he'd married a few weeks ago had transformed into a sad woman who looked like she would dissolve into tears any given moment. As funny as it sounds now, it wasn't funny at all back then.

Come 2004, and it felt like things were looking up. I learned to cook and the Internet was my teacher. I started a blog and began to write regularly. And then I attended an Art of Living Course. The yoga postures and breathing techniques taught on the Art of Living Course are simple to practice but they have the most beneficial effect on the body and mind. As I began to practice the Sudarshan Kriya (special rhythmic breathing technique taught only on the Art of Living Course) and other breathing techniques, I literally felt as if someone had wiped clear the windshield of my mind. And I could see everything clearer. I felt calmer, more relaxed, happier. It was almost as if I had taken a deep breath in and inhaled a load of fresh air, and with a long exhalation, I let out all the homesickness, stress, dejection and despondency.

It has been more than 6 years since I did my first Art of Living Course. And I am still reaping the benefits. Can I just say that at the ripe old age of 31, I feel far younger than I did at 25? Maybe I exaggerate but I also think that I look younger! Comparing photographs from 2004 and now, it feels like the years just fell off my face. It is truly amazing to realize what a profound effect these breathing techniques have on the body and mind.

So my journey began 6 years back and I have been walking ever since. Sometimes skipping, sometimes dancing, dragging my heels sometimes... but never a dull moment there is when you're on the spiritual path. And miracles continue to unfold.