In pursuit of peace of mind

“When a large number of people meditate, proven experiments state that it facilitates creation of peace,” says Raghavendra Somayaji, who works at a study centre, researching spiritual realities at the Manasa Foundation created by Swami Krishnananda to enable individuals to achieve self-transformation via mediation. In this regard, Somayaji cites a research paper written on the worst of the Lebanese civil war in 1981 that showed that a small village in Lebanon was able to reduce war fatalities and bombing in the area after the village population began mediating.

World peace
Keeping that in mind, Swami Krishnananda decided to device a simple meditation technique called Light Channelling and introduced it in May 2008. When the brutal 26/11 terror attack struck India’s financial capital, Mumbai, a few months later, Swami Krishnananda was inspired to take the “Light Channels World Movement” to a wider audience, assisting creation of peace.
Somayaji, who was in the IT industry for a long time, working in the UK until 2004, had begun practising meditation in 1995, under the guidance of Swamiji. When he returned to Bangalore in 2004, he continued working for an IT firm, but decided to quit in 2005 and joined Swamiji’s Manasa Foundation, with the intent to serve in any possible capacity.

The Light Channelling technique, says Somayaji, is non-religious: “As air is around for everybody to breathe, light, too, is available for all, irrespective of religious or other affiliations.” The intention is straightforward: To spread love, peace and harmony on this earth. “The impact is more when many channel the light, more so when many do it at the same time,” says Somayaji.

Giving details of the technique, Usha Satishchandra, a light channelling expert who took voluntary retirement after teaching at various schools in the city for 20 years says, “It requires the practitioner to imagine light coming from the source of creation, descending and filling your body, and spreading gradually around you (your home/ neighbourhood, city, country and the world at large).”

She stresses that ‘intent’ of the individual practising it is of utmost importance.
In an attempt to spread the word, Manasa Foundation’s volunteers have been taking it to schools across the country. “Children are innocent, don’t carry baggage and don’t intellectualise the process and thus  the impact is far more,” says Somayaji. Convent schools, Muslim ones, government and other schools have been forthcoming, making it possible for these light messiahs to aid healing of the earth. “Initially, we were apprehensive about the way they’d perceive us. Surprisingly, the response from schools has been phenomenal. We clearly state that it’s completely non-religious,” says Somayaji, “And we do it for free, though we incur costs on printing material (freely distributed there) to enable easy practice at home.”

Under the pyramid
Meditation is scientifically proven to help people keep their cool. And techniques of many kinds are available in abundance. One method known as Pyramid Meditation necessitates meditating under a pyramid structure known to enhance benefits of any meditation technique.

Prayaga Prasad, trustee, director and in charge of Pyramid Valley, the world’s largest pyramid reserved exclusively for meditation says, “The geometric shape of a pyramid structure is scientifically proven to have an energy environment that helps preserve anything kept in it for longer than usual.” Prasad goes on, “The Egyptians are known to have built the pyramid at Gizeh as a storehouse of energy to preserve and balance energies of the world. As we all know, Egyptians later built such structures to preserve mummies.”
A civil engineer who gave up his profession to pursue meditation, Prasad was involved in the construction of the pyramid in Pyramid Valley, measuring 102ft in height and 160ft at the base, making it Asia’s largest pyramid. Located in Kebbedoddi village, 75km from the Bangalore International Airport, the place allows anybody to come there and meditate for free.

Prasad recounts that Subhash Patriji, a spiritual teacher built the first such pyramid for meditation in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh in 1990, when he initiated a movement called the Pyramid Spiritual Society. Now, this method has become common among many.

Prasad explains the basics of meditation as an exercise to help silence the mind, and that he says can be achieved simply by “observing one’s normal, natural breath.” When that is done under a pyramid, he says, “It will increase the energy power of the practitioner.” According to Prasad, meditating under a miniature pyramid at home also has the same merit. “When hung from the roof like a ceiling fan, the practitioner can derive the same benefits.”

Individual transformation

Shilpa Bapat, a homemaker, believed that spirituality was just mumbo-jumbo until she attended Isha Foundation’s Inner Engineering Programme after repeated insistence from a friend. An impressed Bapat is now volunteering with the foundation assisting in the propagation of its techniques. The core of the foundation’s activities is a customised system of yoga called Isha Yoga. Bapat says, “We are all so affected by everything that happens around us. Through its meditation and pranayama techniques, Isha enables individuals to maintain balance irrespective of external triggers.”

Founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, a prominent spiritual leader, Isha Foundation is a volunteer-run, international non-profit “dedicated to unlocking human potential and restoring the global community by aiding individual transformation”. The foundation holds regular one-week courses across the country, where individuals are taught a combination of meditation and pranayama (for three hours/day) for a fee of Rs1,500, which is ploughed into social outreach programmes after recovering costs.

Bapat says, “The increasing competition and insecurity that people have to deal with today, has made life a drudgery, and it’s things such as this that help one achieve some calm and solace — offering a possibility for transformation.” 

For more details:
On Light Channelling log on to www.lightchannels.com
On Pyramid Meditation log on to www.pyramidvalley.org
On Isha Foundation log on to www.ishafoundation.org