During his address to United Nations General Assembly on Sept 27 last year,  Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi is reported to have stated:.. “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. It embodies the unity of mind and body; thought and action; restraint and fulfillment; harmony between man and nature; a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and nature.”

Yoga has been very popular in the west ever since the western world became aware of the wonderful teachings of Sri Vivekananda, Swami Ramateertha, Sri Aurobindo and some other prominent Yogis who traveled to the western countries. But for last four years, Yoga has been spreading very fast since 2014, when PM Modi suggested 21 June as International Yoga Day. This is a special date which happens to be the Summer Solstice (longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere), and from the perspective of yoga, it marks the transition in the Sun’s celestial passage from north to south. There was an unprecedented publicity around the world about it and Yoga got a royal attention in most of the countries. According to a senior journalist Parveen Chopra: Today, yoga is practiced by an estimated 300 million people worldwide. In the western countries, you can find a yoga studio almost every few blocks. In the US, the number of yoga practitioners is estimated to be over 30 million.

In the West, Yoga is adopting some different and unique shapes and styles not similar to how we do it in India. It is very different, sometimes it is very controversial and often too commercial, which offends purists in India–as the Yoga taught by Bikram Choudhury. A website about him claims: Bikram is to yoga what Tae-Bo is to kickboxing. Like Billy Blanks, Bikram Choudhury took a long-existing practice and modified it to create a uniquely-packaged fitness franchise. According to the 66-year-old Indian-born yoga guru, the precise sequence of 26 postures and two breathing exercises must be performed within 90 minutes in a heated (100-degrees-plus) room to allow the body to stretch, detoxify, relieve stress, tone, and heal chronic pain such as arthritis, joint aches, knee injuries, back problems, and more.

During last few years Bikram Yoga has been spreading in the world like no other Yoga system and it attracted lots of condemnation also from the purists. Parveen Chopra points out: The purists can argue that in its current form, yoga has been reduced to a system of physical exercises. But the practitioners must be liking it, enjoying it and benefiting from it enough to continue to spend their time and energy and money on the practice. Besides, one can also argue that the asana practice, unlike gym workouts, does create a sense of peace and equanimity –  a meditative state in short. Interest is also kindled in practitioners about yoga’s other dimensions and its origins.

Osho had a very radical take on Yoga and said:  I am very happy that Yoga is getting out of this country, moving into new cultures. There it is bound to take new forms — less rigid, more exploratory. The West has much to contribute to Yoga, as yoga has much to contribute to the West. It is very good that many things that have remained stuck and dormant in India are moving out. It will be good because new people will start trying new things. New postures can be developed, new body rhythms, new breathing processes.

As a sanyasin, one has to learn the art of meditating and creating distance from the mind that is suicidal.

Bhaiyyu Maharaj, a popular spiritual leader who counted some of the country’s top politicians and celebrities among his followers, committed suicide yesterday, by shooting himself in the head at his ashram in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, on June 8, the celebrity world was shocked to hear about the death of the Anthony Michael Bourdain (Born on June 25, 1956). He too committed suicide. He was an American celebrity chef, author, travel documentarian, and television personality who starred in programs focusing on the exploration of international culture, cuisine, and the human condition. He was considered one of the most influential chefs in the world. Though best known for his culinary achievements and television presentations, along with several books on food and cooking and travel adventures, Bourdain also wrote both fiction and historical non-fiction.

In the same week, fashion designer Kate Spade took her life. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide rates in the United States increased by an alarming 28 per cent from 1999 through 2016. The CDC reported that in the US in 2016 there were nearly 45,000 suicides — more than twice as many suicides as  homicides.

Suicide is not just an American problem, it is a problem of the whole world. We become more shocked when we come to know about celebrities committing suicide. In India, so many ordinary people are committing suicide every day — even the young students and young girls, besides farmers. We are told that the main cause of suicide is depression and the inability to deal with it. People are feeling certain kind of loneliness even though they live with the family, friends and society. But they don’t feel at home anywhere, they feel alienated. We wonder what has happened. Even though there is so much comfort available to a large number of people, so much amusement and so much entertainment, even then the people become depressed and commit suicide.  Almost everybody in the world has strong emotional moments when he or she feels the utter meaninglessness of life. In earlier times, during such moments some people used to think of renouncing the world and become sannyasis. Even this decision is much better than committing suicide. Because by going away from the world, one can contemplate and meditate; one can have a self-realisation under the guidance of some evolved soul, and return to the world after feeling strong enough. Even a periodical sanyas of three months or just 21 days can make the person rejuvenated.

As a sanyasin, one has to learn the art of meditating and creating distance from the mind that is suicidal. Osho says: I will teach you the right way to commit suicide. Not the destruction of the body; the body is a beautiful gift from God; the mind is a conditioning by the society. The soul is a gift, the body is a gift, and sandwiched between the two, the society has played tricks with you: it has created your mind. It gives you ambition, it gives you jealousy, competition, violence, it gives you all kinds of ugly diseases. But this mind can be transcended, this mind can be put aside.

This sanyas is life-affirmative: Being in the world and rejoicing in oneself.

Osho says: Come into the heart. Let the heart pulsate, let the heart sing, let the heart dance.

Osho is known as Rolce Royce guru but he gave the world a Jet Speed meditation known as Dynamic Meditation. It is one of the most powerful meditations being practiced every morning in Osho centres all over India and around the world. The best time to do is the time of sunrise. One may ask: what happens in the morning with the rising sun? The carbon dioxide decreases and the oxygen increases. So the same chemical change is needed within us. This energetic process begins with vigorous breathing and can make us feel more alive.

This meditation has five steps and lasts for one hour.  The first step is chaotic breathing for ten minutes through the nose. Let breathing be intense, deep and fast — without rhythm, with no pattern. The emphasis is on exhalation — inhalation will happen by itself. This process makes us ready for an explosion of emotions.  So explode in the second step for ten minutes. Let go of everything that needs to be thrown out. Give your body freedom to express whatever is there. Go totally mad. Scream, shout, cry, jump, kick, shake, dance, sing, laugh; throw yourself around. Hold nothing back; keep your whole body moving. All the psychologists say that that we have much madness within us hidden in our unconscious mind.  It needs to be released. Osho suggests: Release it in the second step! If you want to scream, scream. If you want to weep, weep. If you want to jump, jump. If you want to dance, dance. If you just want to be like a child – playing with your body, jumping, dancing, screaming – do it!

The third step is also for ten minutes. With arms raised high above your head, jump up and down shouting the mantra, “Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!”. The “Hoo” comes from the Sufi tradition and it is a powerful sound used to hit specifically the sex center, where our life energy resides. The aim is to awaken this dormant energy and work against gravity to push it upwards. If you follow the instructions correctly, you will experience first-hand the power of jumping and how it stimulates the production of bio-electricity.

After half-an-hour of vigorous activity comes the full stop for 15 minutes. Freeze wherever you are, in whatever position you are. Don’t arrange the body in any way. A cough, a movement, anything, will dissipate the energy flow and the effort will be lost. Be a witness to everything that is happening to you.

After 15 minutes of absolute silence and stillness, we are filled with an unknown energy. We feel grateful to the divine that surrounds us — grateful for our wonderful aliveness. This virgin feeling of bliss beyond mind leads us gently into a dance celebration. The energy that was stuck in our heads falls into our heart. Osho says: Come into the heart. Let the heart pulsate, let the heart sing, let the heart dance.

Meditation happens to simple people very easily. It may take a long time to happen to those people who are too restless and too ambitious. Meditation requires us to sit for some time and settle into our being, experiencing pure consciousness beyond the constant chatter of our mind which is very monkeyish.

Osho tells a profound Zen story that a monkey came to Buddha. The monkey represents our mind. Charles Darwin came to know it very very late, but we have always been aware that man must have come from monkeys because he is still monkeyish. You just watch the mind, it’s constant chattering, and then watch a monkey in the tree. You will feel a similarity. The monkey said to Buddha, “I would like to become a Buddha.” Buddha said, “I have never heard of anybody having ever become a Buddha while remaining a monkey.

The monkey said, “You don’t know my powers. I am no ordinary monkey. “No monkey thinks that he is ordinary, all monkeys think that they are extraordinary; that is part of their monkey-ness. He said, “I am no ordinary monkey. What are you talking about? I am a king of monkeys.”

So Buddha asked, “What exceptional or extraordinary powers do you have? Can you show me?”

The monkey said, “I can jump to the very end of the world.” He had been jumping all along in the trees. He knew how to jump.So Buddha said, “Okay. Come onto the palm of my hand and jump to the other end of the world.”

The monkey tried and tried, and he was really a very powerful monkey, a very intense monkey. He went like an arrow, and he went and he went… he went. Months and —the story says — years passed. And then the monkey came to the very end of the world.

He laughed; he said, “Look! The very end!” He looked down. It was an abyss: five pillars were standing there to mark the boundary. Now he had to come back. But how would he prove that he had been to these five pillars? So he pissed near a pillar — a monkey! — to mark it! Years passed and he came back. When he reached Buddha he said, “I have been to the very end of the world, and I have left a mark.” But Buddha said, “Just look around.” He had not moved at all. Those five pillars were the five fingers of Buddha. And they were stinking. He had been there with closed eyes… must have been dreaming.

Osho says: The mind is a monkey with closed eyes, dreaming. You have never gone anywhere, you have always been here and now — because nothing else exists. Just open the eyes. Just open the eyes and have a look around, and suddenly you will laugh. You have always been rooted in the ultimate being, there is no need to merge. The only need is to become alert to where you are, who you are.