Dinesh Ghodke, International Art of Living Teacher, Director, Youth Programs
In IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), when I used to practice yoga and meditation, people would say “ye sab yoga, meditation karne wale dheele dhaale ho jate hain” (people who practice yoga and meditation become lazy and careless). I would just tell them, “Come and watch me on the football field”, and all their myths would just vanish as they would watch me play. So, meditation really helped me in sports, to have more strength and stamina and a go-getting attitude, whether it was in athletics, gymnastics, football or swimming.
With regular practice of meditation, I saw myself taking more responsibilities. I became a part of the organizing team at Mood Indigo (IIT’s cultural festival). Even when I was working with Infosys, I would be available for help to anyone. For instance, one of the workers in the office wanted to make his Resumé and I helped him out with it. Because of spiritual values, this feeling of helping others would come naturally to me.
This happens - with yoga and meditation, your presence speaks, people start feeling a sense of belongingness with you and they start finding you so approachable, authentic, dependable and trustworthy.
Meditation has deepened my roots and broadened my vision. Until the age of 20 years, I had not gone outside Maharashtra and within the next 5 years, I had traveled to all 5 continents, offering people the Art of Living workshops and service projects and contributing to their lives. I feel comfortable with anyone – from a child to an adult or from a farmer to a president.
When nothing works, meditation does
Once when I was working with Infosys, I left office at 6 p.m. because I was teaching Art of Living courses then and I had to take a course that day. I came back to the office at night to complete my pending work. I was working on a project from 12 midnight to 4 a.m. and that night, by mistake, I messed up the whole thing which I had worked on for a couple of months and also saved it. So, there was no way of undoing it. Although I was really scared, I knew that the best prayer was meditation and so I meditated at 4 a.m. As I entered office next morning, the first announcement that hit my ears was, “A problem was detected in the office mainframe servers and so we are going back to the same data that we had till 9pm last night”. Imagine my thrill!
Now you call it the effect of meditation or a miracle but this is it! When you feel nothing else seems to work, prayer and meditation do! Through meditation, you connect with that special power. You can call it God, Guru, or the universe, meditation is the key to unlock the secret door to that dimension.
Read more about Dinesh Ghodke's views on Yoga and Youth
