Effortless Meditation

Talking about Meditation, Guruji narrates a story of Buddha in the book “Buddha - The Manifestation of Silence”

Once, Buddha was walking from one town to another with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, “I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there.”

The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it he noticed that people were washing clothes in the water, and right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, “How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!” So he came back and told Buddha, “The water in there is very muddy. “I don’t think it is fit to drink.”. After about half an hour Buddha asked the same discirple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time he found the lake had absolutely clear water in it. the mud had settled down and water above it looked fit to be had. So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha. Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, “See what did you did to make the water clean. You let it be… and the mud settled down on its own. - and you got clear water. Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just let it be. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless.

What did Buddha emphasize here?

He said, “It is effortless” Having peace of mind is not a strenuous job; it is an effortless process!

Meditation is like that - it is an effortless process. Just sit down and see…Meditation will happen…

The Sudarshan Kriya allows one to get into a state of meditation right after the Kriya. Another technique that I have learnt is the Sahaj Samadhi meditation that allows one into slip into meditation without any effort. My practices or Sadhana is becoming more and more rich and beautiful. I have had lot of trouble keeping still doing Yoga-asanas and suddenly I realize now that it has all become truly effortless. And the day I miss doing my yoga asanas, kriya and meditation, my body feels sluggish and the mind longs for it.

Art of Living rescues Vidarbha Farmers!

There were no surprises out here. Not for me at least. Last year when the Chief Minister of Maharashtra asked Sri Sri RaviShankar to help stop the suicides in Vidarbha region, the reactions from Media (both Print and TV) and bloggers were one of skepticism, derision and cynicism.

Today’s DNA - a Mumbai based newspaper - carries an article titled “Art of Living rescues Vidarbha farmers”:

The distressed Vidarbha cotton farmers are now getting help. No, it is neither the state government nor the Centre with yet another relief package, but the Art of Living (AOL) volunteers. Over 1,086 trained young men and women are taking charge of several villages in the drought-prone district to encourage the farmers to roll back their lives.

Though started eight months ago, the ‘Project Vidarbha — Swavalamban programme’ has shown significant results. Under this programme youngsters in the village are identified and trained as youth leaders, who then take charge of the entire village. So far, the young leaders have reached out to 151 villages in Amravati, in which 55 leaders are reaching out to 90,000 lives.

The programme works at various levels — AOL part one course teaches breathing techniques to boost the farmer’s morale, Samagra Arogya Shibirs along with other relevant projects like organic farming, zero-budget farming, rainwater harvesting, hygiene, construction of toilets, etc.

With alarming statistics of one farmer ending his life every eight hours, Project Coordinator Jayant Bhole claims that not a single suicide was reported in the 151 villages they have worked in so far. “There are about 1,000 villages in the Amravati region. The current suicides are happening outside this region. We are training more youth leaders to reach out to all the villages.”

A search on google led me to this article from Tehelka.

Led by Bhole, a civil engineer with a deep laugh and huge reserves of energy, Art of Living volunteers arrived here in August with a government brief to teach the village to meditate. They were promised assistance, but no money. “It seemed tough in the beginning, but our processes had to be smooth,” Bhole said. “If people saw us struggling, they wouldn’t be receptive. But they accepted us in just two months.” The biggest challenge, said volunteer Somnath, was “convincing people that you were really here to help”.

Some day in the near future, I do want to visit these villages for myself, but for now I have to make do with newspaper reports. And what warmed my heart was to read the statement from Somnath. If I am not mistaken, Somnath is the same guy who did his Teachers Training course with me at the Ashram. A real dynamite of guy, always willing to step up and take charge of the situation.

More details about the service projects can be had from Art Of Living’ website

The learning for me is that one can chose to mock, complain, criticize or chose to take responsibility. The choice is always ours.