Despite my self-imposed exile from the civilized and the uncivilized world (outside of the weird few that I cannot escape),an opportunity to visit the Art of Living Center to participate in a ngosummit and get a free introduction to the 'art of living'
brand magic from the Gurudev himself at his Kanakapura Headquarters, was too much to pass.
With no real expectations from the conference itself, I arrived gung-ho , even a little excited, about discovering the world of Sri Sri Ravishankar, to understand what was it that made the art of living, so, well..hip.
The products I found advertised on the worldwideweb were 'Sudarshan Kriya', a yogic practice, divined by Gurudev and Basic Course in Art of Living, the latter incorporates the former and was being offered at the summit.
I smelt the toothpaste , before I heard the brushing strokes of my room-mates, all 3 strangers rising earlier than planned, hoping to make the best use of shared toilet space before we left to search for the Sita mandap in the 42 acres of uneven land with even more uneven sense of design.
At 6.00 am I was surrounded by 50 other strangers in a hall with a young teacher, who was going to help us realise that all of us are so very happy, whether we acknowledge it or not.
With great intent and even greater vigour, he made us all go through various exercises intended to help us connect with each other and the 'present' that we were currently visiting. Prassana Guru, if I remember what the regulars called him correctly, was adept at what he was doing with a bunch of disparate strangers at 6.am. Soon he had us completely focussed in thepresent, tuned in 100 percent into reality, absolutely engaged in the dialogue he had initiated and most importantly conscious, very conscious of our breathing.
Pranayama, the art of making the most of your prana, (sanskrit - life, breath as life-giving force is therefore considered life) by simply correcting your breathing, is an ancient Indian yoga practice that has been adapted at AOL. Here, the
stress is on destress, with a combination of pop-psycho dialogues, simple meditation techniques and yoga asanas that help make your conscious that you are breathing, therefore you are alive and and therefore you should make the most of it by living in the present,instead of contemplating past (regret, anger) or future (anxiety, fear).
At the end of the first day's two hour session, almost everyone was fully awake, alive-looking and in good humour as they rushed towardsthe dining hall for satvic, organic breakfast. I was happy too, but needed nicotine, coffee and solitary space to contemplate the first Sutra of Art of Living - Live in the Present.
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