Deep down in our hearts, we’re still children…

Couple of years ago, I was introduced to the ‘Art of Living’. By now most of us have heard about it (Thanks to the boon called Advertising) and some of us have even so much as gone ahead and attended the various courses. The focus of this course is to introduce you to your SELF and you’ll be surprised to know that for this introduction they don’t make use of complicated techniques ….all they make you do is BREATHE. Now that sounds funny doesn’t it, considering that the only reason we are alive is because we breathe. However, what we don’t realize is that although breathing is the most natural and essential thing to do, for a long time now, most of us have been breathing in an incorrect manner. While I am very tempted to give you some tips here on this post, I’ll refrain from doing so, for the simple reason that breathing is to be experienced and not read about. Also, I would not want you to miss out on the chance of attending this course.
You may be wondering then what is it that I wish to talk about here and what do breathing exercises have to do with being children. I’d say…..read on…The experience that I want to describe here is linked to a very important feature of this course called, ‘Sudarshan Kriya’. It is a breathing technique where you are required to breathe in rhythmic patterns introduced by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s voice. This process centers on breathing IN the fresh air and breathing OUT the impure air from our system in rhythms that bring you in sync with the rhythms of nature and harmony. The first time I was introduced to this technique, I must add I was more than just nervous…I was outright ‘Frightened’. The whole idea of keeping your eyes closed for the entire exercise (else the energy would release out of your body) in a dark room with a group of people and breathing to rhythms of unfamiliar sounds….I’d say, it had soaked the ‘Breath’ out of me. However, now that I had taken this plunge, I decided to go ahead.
As the exercise began, the whole room began to vibrate with an all encompassing energy. In the initial few moments, I had several urges to open my eyes and run away from that room. I could hear people sobbing and some were laughing uncontrollably. As far as I was concerned, I had started to experience cramps and it felt as though there was a surge of electricity running through my entire body. Our facilitator had warned us of such changes and hence I tried to relax, thinking it was normal. However, the cramps continued and when I couldn’t take it any longer, I got up from my place. I had to walk to get rid of them. I continued to keep my eyes closed and the facilitator helped me, in order to avoid bumping into the other participants. Finally the cramps eased and I decided to settle down on the floor. However, they came back, and this time with a force that was absolutely unbearable. My head seemed to be spiraling into such darkness that I lost control of all my senses and screamed the loudest that I’d ever done in my entire life. Suddenly, there was a silence inside me which seemed to resonate ever more with my breathing patterns. On the outside though, people still cried, laughed and exhibited emotions that would be considered abnormal for adults to display in a public setting. Gradually, it all stopped. When the exercise was almost over, we were asked to lie down, relax and breathe slowly. In this position (which must have lasted about 5 minutes) I had no awareness of where I was. It felt that I was lost in space and time and my soul seemed to have left my body. I lay in this position for few minutes when almost suddenly I felt a jerk and came back to my senses (it did feel that my soul had re-entered my body). We were then asked to sit up and very, very slowly open our eyes. As I opened my eyes and became aware of my surroundings, there was a feeling of intense calm and peace. All the stress seemed to have abandoned my body and it felt that I had been born again. It was an experience I wanted to live over and over again. There was no fear in my heart and I felt I was one with God.
Children……have you ever watched them???? Seen them in their spirit???? Carefree, overflowing with love and forgiveness, natural, honest, fearless, innocent, pure, unconcerned with the outside world, simple, full of trust, think from the heart and live each day as if it was the best day of their lives. When they laugh, their laughter reflects in their eyes and when they cry they are least concerned with who is watching them and where they are. When they play, they do so with a passion that engulfs even those who are sitting and watching them. There is a desire to know about the world and explore new things. However, as we grow up, these natural qualities are often replaced with guilt, fear, control, thinking from the mind, stoic expressions, diplomacy, possessiveness, insecurity and an obsessive concern with the outside world. People who display their emotions freely and exhibit qualities that are forbidden in society are looked down upon as being MAD. Mad, a word associated with people who have lost contact with reality and choose to behave the way they want to irrespective of the place and time. Society has bound us in so many ways and being the social beings that we are, the only choice we feel we have is ‘to comply’.
Gautam Buddha said, ‘Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.’ Yet we choose to ignore our experiences and rely on what society has laid down for us. Rules were developed to minimize pandemonium and organize social order but we allowed the order of our lives to be directed by them. Since when did we start constructing ‘Reality’ for others? Where did we learn that all of us must abide by a ‘Common Truth’? What happened to welcoming the richness of our own experiences and learning from them? A mother holds her child’s hand to protect him from falling and hurting himself, yet the child learns to walk only after falling several times. Children teach us to accept life as it comes, to never question our faith and do things from our heart. The ‘Sudarshan Kriya’ teaches you to break the chain and let go of all control. It expels all the negativity inside you and lets you absorb the positive energy. But most of all, it brings out the child in you. Because, deep down in our hearts we’re still children…we still long to be free, innocent, pure, long to let our emotions flow freely, to love whole heartedly, to avoid complications in life, to have never-ending faith in our loved ones and most of all, to allow the laughter to reach our eyes….Ask yourself, are you truly free???

‘As a child, I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I became civilized.’- Ohiyesa.

~ by Ankita on July 21, 2007.