I just finished my evening meditation. From being a run-down worn-out rag at the end of a long working day, i feel totally refreshed, rejuvenated, revitalised ! Today, i'm full of new ideas for my blog posts! Other times, i'm just all set to face whatever challenges the day - and life - have on offer ! They say twenty minutes of meditation is equivalent to eight hours of deep sleep .. and my experience sure supports that !
In a life filled with gifts, i count meditation as one of the biggest gifts from the Divine ..
Its been a beautiful journey. I've been meditating practically every day for the last 12 and a half years or so .. since around Aug 1997, when i learned TM (Transcendental Meditation) from Ms Kamla Tina, Didi as we called her. And, in Feb 1998, i learned TM-Siddhi. I actually started meditating a little earlier ~ sometime in 1995 i think, but that was mostly self-taught, from books, so that didn't really count for too much (unfortunately).
And actually !, i first took my TM mantra - from Kamla didi herself - when i was probably around 19. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who founded TM had asked Kamla didi to teach the scientists. So one day my dad asked me, there is a meditation teacher who's taking some sessions near by .. would you like to try it ? Sure, i did ! It was a novelty for both of us .. and very gingerly, we went for the session and took our respective mantras. But i didn't really practise it .. till i went back to Kamla didi decades later, pretty much soon after he died. Interestingly enough, when i went to her the second time around, i had absolutely no memory of having met her before. But when i took the mantra from her, it all flashed back ! In the midst of all the grief and pain of loss, i was delighted and amazed .. i had been guided back to the very person my dad had taken me to so very many years ago.
Kamla didi steered me through some tough times. For years, i'd go for her Sunday morning TM sessions at Dadar. Then, there was those wonderful roundings - 3-4 day retreats at exotic places where we had nothing to do but meditate all day. Kamla didi allowed Amma to come on those trips too, though she'd only done TM not Siddhi .. and both of us loved those trips which made a big difference to our lives. For us, as for everyone else who knew her, Kamla didi was always available .. practically 24 * 7. Right upto the very end ..
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi :
gave the world the Gift of Transcendental Meditation. He also gave the world another gift, which transformed the image of Meditation and bestowed upon it respectability and acceptance in the West .. and thus (unfortunate but true) in India. This was the gift of research. He got researchers from some of the best research hospitals in the US and Europe to carry out intensive studies on the effects of Meditation on both, physiological and psychological parameters. The studies, published in some of the leading western medical journals such as the Lancet, showed that Meditation clearly had beneficial effects on both .. and eventually, some of this remarkable knowledge began to find its way into the social consciousness through best-sellers such as Dr Dean Ornish's "Reversing Heart Disease".
Maharishi spoke of the "10% effect" : if 10% of a given population meditates, that is sufficient for the entire population to experience the benefits of meditation, and the entire population can be transformed. On a tiny scale, i have seen this personally : in my family, on my office floor at my work place ..
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