Jan 10, 2020

On matters of the spirit - Prajna Yoga practice and results

Last year I completed reading Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari's take on what human evolution will look like in a few decades. He predicts the creation of a super powerful rich section of society that will have all the new technology at their fingertips while the havenots suffer from the lack of the same. He speaks of the addition of biotechnology to the homo sapien that will finally create the homo deus, a completely new species. But Harari omits an important facet of human life even though he traces the evolution of religion and science through history. I am not sure why he left it out since he is a dedicated practitioner of Vipassana meditation. May be because he is trying to show people the direction scientific development should not take?

The factor that he has left out in the book is the spiritual evolution of mankind - especially that which comes through practices like meditation and yoga. As it happened, I have been witness to this new unfurling of human potential just this last year. My kids attended the Prajna Yoga course conducted by Art of Living. My elder son Kunjunni attended it in February, 2019 and Ani did it in April. In my previous post I have described how I reached the decision to admit them to the course. Children from the age of five to eighteen can attend this course.

The course looks deceptively simple. It lasts for 3-4 hours each for two days. When the kids come home, they are to follow a daily regimen of a combination of physical exercise, breathing and guided meditation that lasts for around 20 minutes, twice a day for the first 40 days. Thereafter, the practice can be done just once. There is also a small 'homework' component that takes around 10-15 mins. The course asserts that children will be able to access their intuition in a fruitful, consistent manner that will manifest itself in several ways according to each child's personality.

I have seen live demonstrations and videos of what Prajna Yoga children can do that would probably read like tricks if I were to write them down here. Instead, let me tell you what I have seen my children do. Ani, my 11 year-old was the first to exhibit new abilities. Within the second month of practice, he started identifying colours and reading alphabet and number flash cards while blindfolded, by just touching the cards. Then he could identify colours without touching them and fill in pictures with appropriate colours. Now he can even read text on smartphones and watch videos while blindfolded. Kunjunni who is 15 is slower to develop abilities (because the older we get, the further developed our logical mind will be, making it harder to access our intuitive mind). He can now match colored cards and identify letters and single digit numbers in one or two attempts while blindfolded. 

These are the obvious changes that I have seen in them. But there are other, subtler changes. For example, Ani used to be very reluctant to leave his bed in the mornings. After I rousted him from his cozy nest, he would curl up on the sofa for another snooze till I found him during the morning rush and set him off again. Since doing the course, not one day has he lingered and that too, I wake him up at 5 am, one whole hour ahead of his usual waking time. If we are going on a journey and have to leave at 5 am, both kids get up and do the exercise at 3 am if need be. 

Although I'm an avid crafter, my boys have seldom shown any interest in it. Imagine my surprise when Kunjunni asked me for my Kumihimo board and braided himself a flat braid bracelet, not losing patience even though he had three failures on his hands before he made one that was just right. Ani had been an avid science fan early in his childhood and would draw a lot of imaginative pictures and comics, filling several notebooks each year. Over the last couple of years, most of his interactions with friends were about games that they played on their phones or computers. Naturally, he came home and pestered me to let him play them too. But DH and I seldom allowed him to do so. And in the same last couple of years, I noticed that he no longer drew much. But now he has started drawing again. He has stopped pestering us with demands for online games. And he has started reading books with a passion, his current favorites being Rick Riordan's books.

Just yesterday, I was KonMari-ing my book collection. Ani came along and gasped at the pile of books that no longer "sparked joy". He hates giving away anything. So to distract him, I took the first book that came to hand among the 'keep' pile - it happened to be an unabridged version of Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. I gave it to him some time after 8 pm. He put it down only for dinner. Once or twice he came and asked me about some horses (to say the truth, I didn't remember any of them except Ginger and Black Beauty). I shooed him away saying he should find it out himself. Just after 10 pm, Ani came back looking glum and said he'd finished it. He had been harrowed by the horses' experiences. After he went to bed, I checked the book. He had finished 200 pages in less than two hours! 

As I said, the changes are sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle. But changes there are, for sure. We might be witnessing the beginning of the next period in the evolution of human beings without the aid of biotechnology or spontaneous gene mutation! I can't help but think that this is the best investment we have made for our children, one of the greatest gifts that we have given them. 

What blessings are stored in their future, I have no idea. For now, my job is to make sure that they continue Prajna Yoga practice with dedication and without interruption.

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