March/April 2003 Alternative Health
Imagine Joy

by Miriam Knight interviews Janael

Janael was a successful psychologist in Beverly Hills, working with people who wanted to be happy. She had taken a million seminars for her own development but something was missing. One day in 1987 she attended an Art of Living course with Ravi Shankar. Although she had been meditating for over 20 years, this seemed to lift a heaviness off her in a way that nothing had ever done before. In just one weekend she was seeing the world with brighter colors. It felt that this went right to the root of what people were seeking – joy of living and meaning.

This was the late 80s, and Janael had become disillusioned with all the psychological approaches. She had read all of the latest books and theories, but observed that their authors seemed to be depressed and unhappy. By comparison, Ravi Shankar seemed to be living in so much joy, bubbling with life and energy. He gave voice to what she’d wanted to know for so many years, and he said it in such a childlike, playful way that it went right to the heart.

Ravi Shankar takes traditional wisdom, and restates it in such a way that it goes deep. He then mixes it with techniques that take off years and years of built-up stresses that stay in the very cellular structure. Stress, he says, comes from the mind vacillating between the past and the future – regretting the past and anxious about the future. How much of the time are we really present? Janael agreed that Eckhart Tolle’s "The Power of Now" is an excellent book, but how many people will really understand from it what it means to be fully present and be able to apply it? The Art of Living makes living in the now available to everyone through a practice called the Sudarshan Kriya. Its techniques will take even skeptics and lead them to experience their own being.

How does it work? It happens naturally when you can get your mind clear and fill yourself with pranic energy. Part of the course centers on Pranayam, deep, slow breathing techniques that let you build the energy inside you. This begins the relaxation, which is deepened and expanded through a meditation that connects with the realization of one’s true nature—knowing ourselves as creatures of joy and bliss.

Listening to the news, social interactions, commuting, computers are all exhausting. What can we do to rebuild that energy? Even exercise pulls our energy down—though it may release toxins. Yoga, however, is a big help because it slows you down and gets you in touch with the body and the present moment. Most people don’t sleep well. It may be early memories pulling them down, but it isn’t necessary to go back over the incidents and relive them. Just a few months of the breathing technique and the tensions dissolve. Janael met a group of practitioners in India at the beginning of her involvement with Art of Living. Meeting them again 15 years later, she thought they looked 20 younger than they had when she first met them!

How long is the course? The course is a total of 18 hours over six days. It takes that long to clear out old "stuff". Thereafter, 20 minutes a day is all that is needed. Ravi Shankar has also structured shorter courses for addicts, the disabled, and others focused on how they look at themselves. As he said, "Maybe the biggest job we can do on this planet is to give people a vision of their own inner dignity."

A radiant smile spreads across Janael’s face as she recaptures the deep joy brought about by the practice. "It’s feeling like you’re in an ocean of divinity. Imagine being able to experience bliss every day, and eventually moment to moment. Imagine what would happen in our world if millions and millions of people were living this way..."

Janael is a senior instructor for the Art of Living who travels around the country training trainers. She will be presenting the Art of Living course in Portland, March 27 thru April 01. For more information call 503-296-6656 or 503-533-0824 or visit their website at www.artofliving.org