Spiritual Journey through Art of Living

I had heard of Art of Living several years ago and I recall perhaps a few years before the Art Of Living started its Indianapolis chapter, I had written a request on the AOL websiite to consider a chapter in Indianapolis, and I never heard anything back. In the meantime, the seed of spiritual yearning has started growing in my heart, and I would visit all the spiritual speakers and discources in town. I enjoyed all the talks tremendously, but once I got home and back into the rat-race of life, I would never be able to sustain the knowledge or keep up the things that I heard in the talks. Life was stressful, both professionally and personally. I would very often wake up in the morning with an anxious feeling in my chest; I found myslef being short tempered and easy to fly off the handle. I was guilt ridden about many things. I was irritated at my spouse at the slightest pretext. Life was all about being stressed out over the week, and heavy socializing over the weekends, but that did not give me much joy either. As friends gathered the talk would be petty, clothes, jewellery, who did what, who said what -- all pretty pointless -- and always left me feeling bad the next day. I think you get the general idea about my pre-Art of Living life.

I think it may have been the spring of 2008 when I ran into Shalin Desai, always smiling Shalin! He mentioned that he was an Art of Living teacher and I thought -- finally AOL is in Indy. But still my time to take the course had not come. Guruji says that the time must come. It finally came in September 2008, and literally in a couple of days I decided that I will take the course, and the turning point in my life ocurred. Even a few days of the course found me similing a lot more that I had before -- I felt a deep love for all those that were in the course with me.

That love, that inner joy, that peace, has been sustained. I don't dwell in the past. No more anxious feelings, no more constant agitation about the future, no more irritability all the time. Not saying that I'm a saint by any means -- tough things still happen, sometimes I still get irritated or angry -- but it just lasts a few minutes, and I regain my balance. If I have a tough day at work, I just think, tomorrow is another day; and like magic, things move on. Many good things have happened in my life since, some small miracles too. I would say that I was fairly introverted and shy before. Now a new found confidence resides within me. I can get up and speak in public with no nervousness, with the knowledge that those in front of me are all part of the same Divine consiousness. I do my practices daily and meditate daily. I cannot say for sure, but I think that my family sees a much move loving me. I'm not focused on small, petty things anymore. I forgive and forget quickly and move on.

I am deeply grateful to the Art of Living and to my Guruji for bring me closer to the Divine. I would like to give back in every which way that I can.

Jai Guru Dev

Kanchana Ishwar

Blissful Moments

I would like to share my experience about the Art of Living program. Let's start how I joined the AOL by a short story. I was a happy person always smiling and people will always love to see my smiling face. But suddenly what made that face change to sadness, I don’t know. But I was feeling lonely and never wanted to meet people and I felt something had happened to me. I kept thinking why God is doing this to me? My friends helped a lot to get the smile back on my face. They were successful to some extent but still I was not back to normal.

Then I remembered about the Art of living program mentioned to me by my friend two years back. Two years back when she shared her experience I felt I should also join but never got a chance to enroll in the next sessions. But in July 2010 I really wanted to take the course and I checked with my friend if they are offering any programs. She told me that there is one coming up in August. I enrolled for the course. On the first day of the course I didn’t know what to do and was really nervous and tensed. Luckily my friend gave me company on the first day and after few hours I started feeling better. At the end of the course I found myself happier and lot of things that were bothering me had disappeared from my mind. It is really amazing the way the course is designed and the way your teacher takes you through the whole process. Sudarshan Kriya that is taught in the course is really powerful and it takes stress and negativity out of the system.

Silence course was coming up the next weekend. I wanted to join but everyone kept on saying “why don’t you wait for some time, you can do it next time when they offer”. I really wanted to attend and at the last minute, I decided to go for the course. I checked if there were any seats available for that session and I was lucky enough to enroll for that session. I would like to thank Shalin for helping me enroll for the session. I wasn’t sure if I can be silent for the three or four days but I thought if other people can do it why can’t I? But the silence course was so nice and powerful that I could realize all that is happening around us has some meaning and everything has a happy ending. Nothing is controlled by us and whatever we go through in our life if we learn to “let go” nothing can let us down. By the end of the Silence course I found myself more energetic and the smile had come back to me. All the Yoga and meditation experiences were very blissful. I am practicing the kriya everyday and can feel the increased energy in me.

Smitha