Do you know the Art of Living?

About 10 years back I stumbled upon Art of Living.

Actually I didn’t really stumble upon it. I just wanted to use this latest favorite phrase in Art of Living circles thanks to a certain book by an iconic figure in this organization. I was told about Art of Living by my cousin who had been trying real hard to get me to think straight and get my life in order. And long before that when I was still in India, don’t remember exactly when, I had read in some article that actress/ model Rhea Pillai had taken a course called Art of Living.

In spite of my numerous varied introductions to Art of Living, I really did not know what Art of Living was. I had no idea about what was taught, or that it was some kind of an organization or anything.

Then a time came when I was desperate for some help to straighten out my life. That’s when a voice in my head reminded me of “Art of Living”. Hmmm…its some kind of a course. Perhaps they will teach me how to live! Let me try it. Once this thought took hold in my mind, everything just flowed – a term with which I was to become more familiar much later. I searched for their web site, found a contact in Fremont, and called the number. The name was Uma (my mom’s name is also Uma – you would think it was a sign – but at that point in my life I don’t think I was aware of “signs” or I would have signed up for Art of Living much earlier).

A male voice greeted me when I called the number. He introduced himself as Prasad. When I inquired about the Art of Living, he passed the phone on to Uma, saying let me give the phone to my wife who is handling the registrations. I did not really know what that meant, but as I mentioned things were now just flowing. Okay, I guess its time to give a little explanation for this term – “flowing” – when events are happening without our intellect having any say on them; no time is given for our intellect to unnecessarily try to stop or change the course of happenings! 🙂 For instance, the breath is always flowing, with or without our consent! 🙂

Hence, Prasad was the first person in Art of Living that I spoke to (other than my cousin, of course) and Uma was the second. Both Prasad and Uma since then became, and still are, very dear friends.

Uma came on the line and asked how did I get the number, I replied from the web site. There’s a course starting in Fremont from this Thursday, I will mail you the form, and since its too short a time for you to mail it back, just bring it to the course venue, here’s the address for the venue, the course starts at 7pm, you be there by 6:45 to finish the registration formalities. I could only say yes. Looking at the address I realized the course was just two minutes away from where I lived. No room for any excuses.

Come Thursday and I was there prompt at 6:45pm. There was only one other person (the third person I spoke to from Art of Living and the first one I met) Harish – a volunteer, who was waiting for another volunteer (Ashu) to bring the keys to open the clubhouse. Slowly other participants came and we all settled inside the clubhouse room.

The set up was simple. White sheets, a table on one side in the front next to what looked like a spot kept for the teacher. The table had a picture of a saint that I refused to look at. I am not here to follow anyone, just to learn the Art of Living! (Hahaha – what a joke that turned out to be).

We were all sitting in an uneasy silence when the teacher walked in. A wonderful presence, a beautiful aura seemed to be surrounding her. I immediately fell in love with the teacher. As soon as the course started it felt as if we were transported into another world – the entire room existed in its own little bubble and whatever was outside had no meaning or effect on the inside.

The first meditation on the first day was also my first meditation ever. I had heard of the word called meditation, but had no clue what it involved leave alone thought I would be doing it myself ever! The way it was introduced in such simple terms – actually no explanation was given, just asked to close our eyes and follow instructions, but not make any effort – whatever that meant I thought. So here I was with eyes closed listening to the teacher’s voice. Slowly I felt all thoughts disappear, was I falling asleep? I could distinctly hear the noisy leaf-blower outside the window. It was a noise that turned into just another sound and soon to a very indistinguishable distant sound. Since I could hear this sound, I guessed I was not sleeping. I was meditating.

The feeling of freedom I felt at the end of the first day was surpassed only by the feeling I experienced after doing the Sudarshan Kriya for the first time on the third day.

Saturday morning I was introduced to Yoga. Another first in my life. When the teacher mentioned we will do some yoga stretches I was almost gripped by panic. Images of Swami Dhirendra Brahamachari guiding his demonstrators on TV into some extremely complicated postures such as placing their legs around their neck, or to do stuff such as put water through one nostril and take it out from the other, flipped through my mind (that’s what I thought yoga entailed). The only reason I used to watch that show was because one of the assistants on the show was my little brother’s class teacher and lived in our neighborhood in Delhi.

What followed was a pleasant surprise. The teacher’s comforting voice guided us through the postures with ease and it left us extremely relaxed as well as awakened at the same time. The body felt good. Ohhh so this is yoga. OK good, got through it without any issues, no problem!

Wait a second there is more to come! The next part of yoga – what is this thing called Sudarshan Kriya? We have to take a mandatory bathroom break, we will be sitting for a long time, how long? And in what position – once again the image of a man with his legs around his neck became vivid. And once again the teacher’s soothing reassuring voice calmed down all anxiety.

We closed our eyes and started to breath and the rest as they say is history! OK fine I won’t leave it at that. I guess I better talk about the one thing that completely changed my life. The old Sanjana was annihilated in the fire of breath and a new Sanjana was born – ok that’s a little too dramatic :).

After the process was over, I felt an extremely deep sense of relaxation. As if I had been walking around with an unnecessary burden that had been snatched away from me, leaving me extremely light, joyful and full of love. I was even feeling love for my husband, can you believe that? After all he was the reason for all my problems, or so I believed up until then. I realized I don’t have to carry the world’s problems on my shoulders, that there can be a state of being which can be without any worries. It was pure bliss.

I was now ready for my journey towards discovering the Art of Living.

P.S.: Ever so grateful for my first teacher Neha Patel who was such a wonderful instrument of the divine and my dearest Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.