Why meditation & yoga essential in today's world

Meditation & Yoga are two great ways to give our body mind a break. It gives us deep rest which is much needed in modern times.

One thing common when a family or a couple sitting together these days is their mobiles in hand. The sight of people sitting together but glued to their respective phones is not uncommon. Brain is constantly getting bombarded with information through smart phones.

Let’s understand how does it harm our health?

We know that lifting weights is good for health but can be detrimental if done all day. Similarly our brains should be fed information which is needed to manage our work & life but too much of it can damage the mind. It negatively impacts not only our mental & physical health but also our relationships. It is an addiction which needs to be dealt with. Meditation & Yoga are easy and doable tools for dealing with modern minds which are busy thinking at all times.

One could start with active meditations like Osho Dynamic, Kundalini or Nataraj meditation and gradually move to Nadabrahma or Vipassana meditation. Active meditations help a great deal for us whose minds work even more when we sit in silence. Constant flow of thoughts is released in these meditations and we are able to feel the silence within. Yoga is also helpful but best done along with the active meditations mentioned above. The reason is that active meditations help us cathart our suppressed emotions and thoughts whereas yoga or the silent meditations have no cathartic process. It is therefore important to start with Dynamic or Kundalini meditations designed by Osho and then move semi-active or passive meditations.

Dr Sam Harris, a famous neuroscientist notes, "it's possible to be miserable having everything one could possibly want, and it's possible to have practically nothing and be beaming with joy. Your happiness isn't predicated on the next good thing happening." Meditation which is another word for staying in the present moment is possibly one and the only way to feel happy with or without things we want.

We often need to make decisions in our daily lives and for that it is important to have a mind which has clarity. However, a mind which is always busy thinking thoughts of the past and future can’t think clearly. Meditation will clear the mind and we would be able to use that space & energy for making better decisions. Another reason why clearing the mind through meditation is important is that usually we are constantly caught in stories of the mind. Let’s understand it with an example: we often fear the future. We get caught in what could go wrong in the future. Thinking about the future takes so much of our energy and time that the present time is wasted. Also, our mind thinks way too much about what others are thinking about us. It is not our business what other thinks about us. Meditation helps immensely for us to develop strength to stand alone in the crowd, to take risks and to walk on uncharted paths.

Osho says, Meditation is a way of settling in oneself, at the innermost core of your being. Once you have found the center of your existence, you will have found both your roots and your wings.

The roots are in existence, making you a more integrated human being, an individual. And the wings are in the fragrance that is released by being in contact with existence. The fragrance consists of freedom, love, compassion, authenticity, sincerity, a sense of humor, and a tremendous feeling of blissfulness.

The roots make you an individual, and the wings give you the freedom to love, to be creative, to share unconditionally the joy that you have found. The roots and wings come together. They are two sides of one experience, and that experience is finding the center of your being.

(Osho Dham)