Some years ago, while I was posted at Gorakhpur, an Art of Living devotee happened to read my maiden book, The Matter of the Mind, wherein I narrated the efficacy of the Sudarshan Kriya technique and how it extricated me from the cesspool of alcoholism.
It seemed aeons ago, when my mind was subsumed by tenebrosity and hurtling down the hubristic path on account of excessive drinking. My wife in sheer desperation enrolled me for the Part 1 course (now called the Happiness Programme).
Today by the grace of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and the breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya I am sober. The devotee connected me to an estimable psychiatrist and soon along with two other faculty members, we began conducting courses for alcoholics and drug addicts at a rehab centre.
They were around 40 and we were three. Some looked menacing, others disenchanted, a few enveloped by ennui. But in our arsenal was the potent cassette of Sudarshan Kriya and enveloped with the divine benediction of Gurudev.
We began with gentle warm ups. This was followed by pranayams and finally Sudarshan Kriya. A few hardened addicts attempted to derail the Kriya. But the febrile minds gradually settled as the rhythms of Soham resonated the dingy hall.
Meaning of Sudarshan Kriya
The unique breathing technique of Sudarshan Kriya is the fulcrum of the Happiness Programme of the Art of Living. Su means proper, Darshan implies vision and Kriya is a purifying action.
Through the actions of our breath, we appreciate a proper vision of who we really are. It is momentous to understand that nature runs on a rhythm. For instance the sun rises and sets at a particular time, similarly seasons arrive and exit at predetermined times. Humans feel hungry or sleepy at certain times.
Our emotions, feelings, thoughts are all cast in the symphony of rhythm. We are unable to distinguish between cacophony and symphony in this frenetic pace of life which is cannonaded by innumerable thoughts, continuous action and noise. When sounds are harmonised by the syllable of Soham we can term it as magical music.
Enlightenment is not accruing anything providential but harmonising our whole being rhythmically. During the breathing process participants feel varied sensations, emotions, tingling sensations, laughter, weeping among others.
But the objective is to keep breathing to the syllable of Soham in (chanted in Gurudev’s voice). Eventually all the accumulated stress is extricated and a person is thoroughly relaxed. One can experience this entire process only by undertaking the course.
The breathing technique was cognated by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar after being in silence for a period of 10 days on the banks of Bhadravati River at Shimoga, a small town in Karnataka.
Cassandra’s of doubt and prophets of doom have questioned the salutatory benefit of the course and the breathing technique. Researchers at NIMHANS and AIIMS have zeroed on the impact of the breathing technique, which improves the heart rate, benefits cognition, improves breathing pattern, restores calmness in the mind and body, arrests Alzheimer’s affliction, works positively on the endocrine system, all of which increase energy (or prana) levels in the human body. This technique has been used successfully used on victims of trauma, on terrorists and naxalites.
This wonderful knowledge and wisdom has triggered humanness to blossom. Every cell and article of the body overflows with jollity and life is abundant with the glow of love and the body becomes the wick. Love and belongingness becomes a natural process of our inner being if practised unflinchingly and unfailingly.
Several practitioners feel they can practice the breathing technique at home. But that is only walking half the path. It is indispensible and paramount that one must practice the technique daily and attend the follow up once a week, where a certified Art of Living teacher plays the chant of Soham in Guruji’s voice as it reinvigorates the body and mind.
One should also be wary of imitations available on YouTube these days. Breath is the very kernel of our very existence. Therefore it is essential to breath to the correct technique.
A person will gain more spiritually and physically by traversing on this journey by taking part in the bouquet of courses offered by the foundation.
The entire voyage is to spread waves of happiness across the universe.
