We Nurture Wonderful Human Beings

Honestly I'd given up – surrendered them to fate. I was ready to leave them to their devices: their freshly eaten chapatis and big donuts.

This was for them.

The meditation was meant to transform their lives – not mine – so why was I begging them to do it?

They had known ahead of time that they had to do their second meditation later in the day. They had known that their stomachs had to be empty before doing it. They knew they had to do it consistently, twice a day, for 40 days for the meditation to blossom within their bodies and minds.

A mandala – that’s what it’s called – this 40 day period.

According to yogic tradition, every human being goes through a complete physiological transition every 40 to 48 days.  If you want any new habit(meditation) to become  completely imprinted within the human system – within your body, mind and energy level, you must practice it twice a day, every day for at least 40 days, for a complete mandala. 

These are the rules of Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya.

These are the rules of the meditation practice they had learned two weeks before, in Inner Engineering, an online, 7-step, transformational program from Isha foundation. 

Until this day – this ill-fated day – they had consistently meditated twice everyday at school – yes even on weekends – so what was so different about this day?

I'll tell you. 

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Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya is a powerful 21-minute meditation practice offered by Sadhguru through Isha foundation. But, hear me when I say the word, "powerful' is an understatement. Words can not do this practice justice.

Born-again!

That's how I felt when I did my Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya.

Everything about me changed: Food tasted better; Music became more interesting than it had ever been; I was more loving, more creative, more joyful. It was almost as if God had descended and taken a seat inside my soul. I slept better. My concentration was through the roof, and boy oh boy I got this faith – in myself or God or the universe, or whatever higher power there is – that if I just applied myself, I would be successful in anything I chose to do.

These are the miracles of Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya. This is how this simple 21-minute meditation transformed my life.

On the Weekend of 30th and 31st May, 16 volunteers – teaching and non-teaching staff – supported 13 students at Sadhguru School as said students received this miraculous mediation online. The first of their kind – the first batch of students to ever receive Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya at the School, these 13 students made history that weekend.

In the days that followed, Lulu Sturdy, Max Bwire, and Natasha Muhindi, trained Isha hatha yoga teachers at the school, were not about to let that miracle go to waste.  

They did everything and I mean everything under the sun – kept the food for the kids, carried chairs for those who couldn't sit down, chaperoned them over the weekend, performed miracles  just so the kids completed their practice twice a day for 40 consecutive days, for a full mandala.

But that was until this ill-fated day.

On Wednesday, 17th of June, 17 days into their 40-day cycle, after doing their morning meditation, 9 of these13 students went out of School for a sports tournament.

Before the students left school, the hatha yoga teachers overseeing the meditation program had communicated the rules to them. The students knew what they had to do. They needed to remain hungry, find time to do their second practice, and yet here I was fighting a chapati out of a year 8 student's mouth.

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"They say they've all eaten," I complained to Max the moment she picked my call.  

"Find out which kids have eaten," she asked me calmly. "You have to talk to them. Remind them why it's important for them to do their second practice. You have to tell the ones who have eaten that they shouldn't eat anything else until they go home. They have to do their second practice once they get home. And if there are any who can do it now, make them do it in the van, on your way back to school."

Do it in the van, she said. Do it in the van!

These people, these yoga teachers, are mad, I thought to myself. Max and Lulu and all the Isha volunteers I've ever come across have always acted crazy, if I am being honest. The lengths they go to conduct a program successfully is nothing short of asylum-worthy behavior.

How could I forget the volunteers who had contacted me four years ago when I signed up for my online Inner Engineering program. To say they were obsessed with my success would be an understatement.

They made me run tests on my computer: Network speed tests. Device compatibility tests –  tests to figure out if my computer would load the videos on the online platform. Tests to figure out if my network would support the bandwidth requirement for streaming the videos. And when my data run out during the online program, when I went offline, a volunteer contacted me from India and provided me with a backup stream link which was atleast 30 minutes behind the original video.

And afterwards, these mad men and women created a Telegram group for us to ask practice related questions while finishing our 40-day mandala. And they answered. Every single day, a volunteer showed up and held our hands as we completed our practices.

This is the madness of Isha volunteers. 

This is the madness the volunteers before me went through just so I could receive this practice. And how could I forget the teachers at school who were working so hard to make this happen for the students. How during initiation weekend, one of the teachers camped out in a classroom with her daughter just so she was early enough to support the 13 students.

No one grows alone. No one succeeds alone. And I was lucky to be surrounded by these mad people. 

I decided there and then that I was now one of them, the mad people.

With the new crazy streak of madness running through my veins, I gathered the students.

"If I see you eat anything else, you will restart your mandala," I threatened the year 8 student immediately. Massa Birabi, the teacher I had gone with for the tournament, talked to the chapati-eater and told him he had to do his second meditation at home later that night. The student agreed.

I asked the other students one by one what they ate and when they had eaten it.
All of them, and I mean all 8 of them had had but a simple ice beverage, or a snack more than two hours before that moment. We were in the clear. The students could sit for their second meditation. 

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It was one of the most beautiful things I experienced.

I don't know what made it beautiful. Was it the silence – basking in the energy of 8 meditating kids, or was it the fact that the kids had  listened to our instruction? 

That night, about an hour later, while returning to school after their tournament, 8 of the 9 students meditated for about 21 minutes. They sat in a moving van, crossed their legs at their ankles, closed their eyes and did their second Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya. It was, it was nothing short of a miracle.

Watching those kids do their Shambhavi Mahamudra as we headed back to school was one of the most beautiful things I experienced. Watching Max, and Lulu, and Natasha, and all the other volunteers willingly offer themselves – perform miracles –  just so these kids could successfully complete their mandala was one of the most beautiful things I've had the privilege to be a part of.

I thought I was doing it for them. I thought the meditation was for their benefit, but making them do their Shambavi that day – volunteering – was my gift from the kids.

On 10th July, all 13 students who did Inner Engineering at Sadhguru School –  the first of their kind –   completed their 40 day meditation cycle. This story, these are the miracles Sadhguru School teachers performed to ensure that the kids completed their 40 day Mandala successfully.