United Nations, Dec 20 Recalling Lord Krishna's teaching to Arjuna on meditation yoga in the battlefield, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar brought the lessons of the ancient practice to the UN, which encapsulates a world wracked by conflict and war.
Leading a practice session here on Friday (local time) at the observance of the Second World Meditation Day, the guru said, "When Lord Krishna taught Arjuna yoga and meditation yoga, Dhyana yoga, he taught them right in the warfield."
"We are not in less of a warfield today, of various issues in the society is not short of any war," he said. "In this conflicting situation, it is very important for us to go within (ourselves)".
Giving an example of Lord Krishna's lessons in practice today in a real battlefield condition, he said that in Ukraine, 8,000 soldiers who had to be there as fighters were feeling darkness and despair, but they "meditated and found peace".
Diplomats from around the world, UN officials, and yoga leaders joined him in a meditation practice aimed at bringing peace within and to the world at large.
The observance was organised by India, Andorra, Mexico, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, who sponsored the General Assembly resolution last year designating the Winter Solstice -- December 21 -- as World Meditation Day. (The other solar event, Summer Solstice, is the International Day of Yoga.)
The observance was held on Friday as the Winter Solstice falls on a Sunday this year.
India's Permanent Representative P. Harish said the General Assembly resolution "marks a significant milestone in acknowledging that meditation transcends cultural, religious and geographical boundaries, offering a universal template of transformation".
"For India, this recognition holds special significance," he said, because "meditation traces its roots back over 5,000 years to ancient India, where Patanjali's Yoga Sutra introduced a concept of Dhyana, a state of pure consciousness".
"India has always shared its heritage and wisdom with the world in the spirit of 'Vasudeva Kutumbakam', the whole world is one family," he said.
Several yoga and meditation experts extolled the power of yoga in bringing peace to and reducing violence in the world.
L.P. Bhanu Sharma, co-founder of Nepal's Jeevan Vigyan Foundation, said that the regular practice of meditation by leaders could be transformational in finding world peace.
"Peacebuilding, like any great habit, must be practised daily to become second nature," he said.
"Why expect leaders to suddenly embody peace at the negotiating table without daily discipline in meditation, wellness and returning towards shared human roots, not as members of any community per se, but as humans first," he explained.
John Hagelin, a physicist who is the president of the Global Union of Scientists for Peace, said, "The first stage in the emergence of war is mounting social stress, acute religious, political and ethnic tensions."
"If they build up unchecked, they frequently erupt into social violence, into war," he said.
Humanity has been trying to reduce the stressors like poverty, oppression or injustice without complete success.
However, when the solutions to those problems do not work, transcendental meditation could reduce stress that ultimately may lead to violence, he said.
"There are really powerful, scientifically confirmed evidence-based approaches to relieving acute stress, practices that are meditation-based, that can remove stress and its negative effects on the brain and human behaviour," said Hagelin, who is also a president emeritus of Maharishi International University.
It is not necessary for everyone to meditate, but some people meditating could be as effective, he said.
He gave the examples of joint meditation reducing both political conflicts and crime in Washington, and lessening the intensity of war in the Middle East, which he said has been scientifically documented.
Yogmata Keiko Aikawa of Japan said everyone has the potential for attaining enlightenment.
"Meditation guides us to true self, a state of peace and light, and (an) experience beyond time," she said.
Sister B.K. Gayatri from the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University said that the law of entropy applied to the global situation shows that "the quality of the world is gradually descending, and that we are moving farther and farther away from an earlier time of purity and goodness, of peace and harmony".
"But when the source of light enters the world, the dynamic of descending changes, and the new ascending energy of purity and truth works well in the world," she added.
This can be achieved through Raja Yoga that Brahma Kumaris espouse, she said.
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