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A Look at the History of Meditation and Its Usefulness Today

An Exclusive First Page Fitness Article by:
Dr.Jogram Hatibaruah

Today's world is full of stress and strain arising from myriad problems like an increasing time spent at work, increasingly polorised politics, mutual discord and distrust, terrorism, external aggression, various kinds of pollutions, the effect of ozone layer depletion, etcetera - just to mention a few.

In a charged atmosphere like this, the American people, or for that matter the people all around the globe, are likely to suffer from mental stress and strain bordering on depression or other kinds of mental aberrations. Meditation has been used since the dawn of time to alleviate these symptoms of stress and help clear the mind.

Meditation dates back to the Vedic period in India and the Vedas and the Upanishads (ancient scriptures) eloquently describes about how the rishis (saints) took resort to meditation practices to control their mind for spiritual attainment.

Even in the present age, hundreds of sanyashis (saints) do meditations at the foothills of the Himalayas renouncing their wordly pleasures and seeking their thought process to be merged with the invisible divine force called "God" through dimensionless links. Some of these sanyashis develop the spiritual power of clairvoyance.

In metaphysical literature, meditation is defined as the art of self-control. It is an exercise to help understand and gain control over one's mind and thought. When a man suffers from depression, boredom, loneliness, and restlessness, meditation comes in a big way to give relief from such anxiety related problems. There are literatures galore which give connotation to meditation in its various aspects. Meditation can calm a man and help him to deal with stresses of daily life. It will probably allow him to sleep less, while increasing his available energy. Meditation can be used to lower the blood pressure and heart rate. It will help him to appreciate life more and face the life situations with greater acceptance and compassion. It should be remembered that meditation is not anything occult, esoteric or outside the normal parameters of daily life.

To quote Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba: "The mind will be means of liberation where it is rid of impurities residing in it. All spiritual exercises are designed only to cleanse the mind. Many to day practice meditation (dhyana).It can be done only with purified mind. First fine virtues have to be cultivated and one must concentrate first on good thoughts. If you seek peace of mind, shed all non-essential desires, envy, jealousy, hatred, anger and lust".

Meditation, yoga, pranayam are inter-related, the purpose of all of which is to alleviate sufferings and to attain a healthy mind with a healthy body. Following these exercises, the yogis (saints) in India could perform many miracles like levitate (float in air),walk on fire (or water) and materialize objects of various kinds.

An Indian woman yogi Giri Bala by name (from Nawabganj near Ichapur, a village in Northern Bengal,1936) had not taken food or liquid from the age of about twelve years till the age of sixty eight years-a period of over fifty six years. According to her own confession, she followed a kriya technique(certain mantra coupled with breathing exercise) which freed her body from dependence on the gross food of mortals. She employed a certain yoga technique to recharge her body with cosmic energy from the ether,sun and air. She was perhaps the only woman in the world who is known to have lived without food and drink.

As far back as 1936, many Indian saints like Swami Vivekanand, Swami Premanand, Paramhansa Yogananda and others taught kriya yoga Practices in USA and organized Self –Realisation Fellowship teachings to a series of American disciples in Los Angeles and Encinitas (100 miles south of Los Angeles), Chicago and Boston, etc.

Many Indian immigrants like Rajnish, Maharshi Yogi, etc have established Meditation cum Yoga Centres in some parts of USA to teach about meditation practices and yoga exercises to American clientele.

'Pranayama'(control of breath), a scientific method being a part of yoga preached and propounded by accomplished Yugis of yore and systematised by Maharshi Patanjali is gaining popularity in India under Swami Ramdev, Kripalu Bagh Ashram, Karkhal, Haridwar-249408, Uttaranchal (India).

Swami Ramdev has attracted several thousands of devotees to his Centre at Haridwar for pranayama as also for treatment of various ailments at his well- equipped Ayurvedic clinics with scores of qualified Ayurvedic physicians. There is also regular television channels(Astha channel) displaying pranayama exercises by Swami Ramdev.