It is not just Indian Yoga that has become commercially successful in
the Western world, a deeper and a higher science of meditation is also
growing on the same lines. Suddenly, so many scientists and
psychologists have become so interested in researching the benefits of
something that the East has been practising since eternity. The East
with its inexhaustible treasures of meditative practices has always
mystified the West. But the West does not accept anything without
scientific examination.

Today, Western science and psychology are supporting the beneficial
effects of meditation on practising individuals. A recent research
published in Biological Psychiatry, coordinated by Carnegie Mellon
associate professor J. David Creswell, demonstrated that meditation
does, in fact, change the brains of practitioners in positive ways
that appear to equip them to cope better with life stresses.

The East didn’t practice meditation for mundane gains — becoming
successful in the world or slowing the process of ageing — but to find
the deeper meaning of life and existence i.e., the innermost realms of
conciousness.

The seekers sacrificed their material world for the spiritual world
and to share their realisation with the world at large. The end result
of meditation has been compassion.

But the West has a totally different, diametrically opposite approach.

In a report, the co-founder of the Wellness Project said her company
is finding success selling meditation trainings to companies for their
employees in New York.

Most clients, she said, are small to medium-sized businesses and she
noted that “companies are more open to this today”.

She elaborated: “Companies that take a vested interest in meditation
and wellness could see vast jumps in their bottom line, not just from
better work produced by rested and more focused brains, but also from
the production of more creative ideas and more honed problem-solving
skills.”

This influences practitioners from the East to travel to the West and
sell their practice.

There’s an ancient story told by Osho.

King Bimbisara once went to Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainas
and said “I want to attain to the truth and I am willing to give
anything that I possess, I must have the truth that rids man of all
sorrow.”

Mahavira saw that the ruler wanted to conquer truth in the same way he
was trying to conquer the world and that he even wanted to buy the
truth.

The master told Bimbisara to first go to Punya shravak, a poor citizen
of his empire and get from him the fruit of meditation.

Bimbisara went to him and said, “I have come to ask something. I want
to buy the fruit of your meditation. I will pay whatever price you may
require”. Punya Shravak replied, “My lord, meditation means serenity.
It means keeping the mind free from temptation and hatred and
remaining steady in one’s self. You want to buy it, but this is
impossible. I cannot sell meditation.”

Meditation is like love and prayer. It is self-realisation. It cannot
be sold like a commodity. The fruit of meditation is compassion.