At the end of a two week family trip to India, I made this video. I asked Varinder Singh, our tour guide about the most valuable message worth spreading.
Varinder is a college professor of history in India. He has a degree in meditation and the science of living. Here is the secret sauce of how to spread peace and happiness in our society.
Henry / Varinder
Can you tell me about yoga and meditation, your personal practice, and how it has impacted India?
Most people believe that yoga is just 1 thing, but we divide it into 3 parts.
The 1st is physical exercise. You do different postures while standing, lying, and sitting.
The 2nd is breathing exercises. According to Indian people, breathing exercises are more important than physical activities. Breathing exercises make us strong inside our bodies. We increase energy, and we believe that our body regenerates dead cells. We have millions of cells that are dead, and this is a chance to create new cells. There are 5 or 6 forms of breathing exercises.
The 3rd is meditation. Meditation is when you sit silently and concentrate your mind. When you start your practice, you can meditate for brief periods and expand those periods with constant practice. Meditation means absolutely no ideas or thoughts can come in your mind. It is the space between thoughts.
When you meditate, you will see stars and bright colors with your eyes closed. This means you are meditating. If this does not happen, you are not.
When you have advanced your practice, you will find a circle in front of your eyes. At the initial stages, the circle will be tiny. It will not be a 360 degrees circle. When this circle appears fully, that means you are going towards 100% meditation.
Sometimes when you are approaching full meditation, your eyes do rapid blinking. If you do not open your eyes, that means you are continuing the meditation. If you open your eyes, that means again you have to start again. This is a slight disturbance in your meditation. This is one kind of interference. When you feel this one, open your eyes and try again to meditate.
Around 75% of India’s society does yoga. How has this impacted India?
I will give credit to our culture, religion, literature, traditions, and our family system. This has been our tradition for 4,000 years.
We live in an extended family system. People of different ages live in the same house and learn from they learn from their parents or grandparents. They teach us from childhood how to perform the various practices and exercises of yoga and meditation.
Most people have the concept that only rich people do yoga and meditation, but I do not agree. Poor or middle-class people do more yoga and meditation in comparison to high-class society. Why is that? High-class people are more busy multiplying their money. They have a materialistic lifestyle.
On the other hand, poor and middle-class people, even though they have limited resources, have a lot of time and are happy. They are satisfied with those limited resources, and with their time, they can do more yoga and meditation.
It is also related to health and medicine. Most people believe that if they do not do yoga and meditation, our body will be affected by some disease. When we are concerned, we go to doctors, and it is costly. Being hospitalized is expensive. Yoga and meditation help you balance your blood pressure, nervous system, digestive system, heartbeat, and metabolism.
How can other countries achieve similar results?
For a new country, I would say the media and, most importantly, classes in school. That will be the most effective because young boys and girls will learn in school and eventually teach their parents.
The government can also start awareness programs. The education department should take the initiative to introduce this in schools.
Has the government helped to make it widespread?
Oh yes. In most schools, you will find a yoga instructor. Every day there are 1 or 2 periods were students do yoga and meditation. There are many Non-Governmental Organizations too.
Gurus are also responsible. These gurus spread the message of yoga and meditation mainly through their ashrams.
You told me there was a television channel focused on yoga?
We have several channels. These channels invite many yoga instructors, so they have a chance to talk directly to the people through media. They talk about the benefits of yoga and meditation. This is how yoga is trendy in India.
Thank you for teaching me this. This journey was a fantastic experience.
Your welcome. Thanks. 🙏
P.D.: This is also a call to yogis, helping with the creation of this culture in Porta Norte. Let’s unite. 💪
