Skill Development Session on Meditation

As part of the Skills Development Session on Meditation, a guest lecture was organized by a few of the students of 3EPH for a class of 62 in 1English (H). The guest lecture featured Mr NS Nagaraj, an active volunteer of the Heartfulness Institute who has a meditation experience of about 23 years. Mr NS Nagaraj was formerly an employee of Infosys where he held several positions for nearly 17 years and worked primarily in a research team at the SETlabs until a few years ago when he set off with his independent venture Sen-Sei Technologies where he currently serves as Founder-Director. Mr Nagaraj thus juggles multiple roles as an entrepreneur, a meditation trainer as well as a householder.

The Skill development session started with a brief introduction about Mr Nagaraj. An interactive session on the problem of Logic, Love and Reality was conducted. The session kick started with him talking about his personal experiences with regards to his middle school and high school friends and the changing dynamics of their relationship in contrast to the 'idea' of the relationship he had. He went on to introduce the problem of Logic by citing the example of 'Parmanides's problem' which translates to a problem between a student and a teacher wherein the student promises to repay the teacher everything once he is educated by the teacher. Yet after acquiring sufficient knowledge, the student refuses to work and the teacher, denied of payment is upset and plans to sue him. A brief discussion took place regarding what the problem of logic was in this particular situation and the essentials of a relationship between a student and teacher. After a brief interaction it was decided that the problem was the use of "logic" to interpret the problem. We discovered that several of our life motivations were inexplicable by logic. 

Mr. Nagaraj went on to talk about the problem of Love citing examples of a young couple who constantly fought yet were going to get married, even though there was no apparent 'logic' behind it. He went on to say that Love was like that. An interesting and elaborate discussion about the nature of  Love citing the story of Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars and his decision to kill Padme was held. What followed was a healthy discussion regarding whether Anakin's act was really an act of Love and whether destruction in love was justified. This led to the students pondering over the larger question of what 'love' really was.

Mr. Nagaraj went on to talk to the students about the problem of Love. He beautifully explained the problems of expectations and emotions that interfere in the spectrum of love and are responsible for causing problems in a relationship. He examined the statement 'love demands more love' with great humour. Thus the idea of Identity and Self was established. Mr Nagaraj spoke about Reality and perceived Realities in the lieu of changing dynamics of behaviours of any individual. He explored the role of the mind in an individual's happiness and the feeling of love to ultimately drive home a point that the only thing that lies between us and our own happiness is the mind, thus informing the students of the importance of regulating the mind. 

He went on to mention that Individuals constantly viewed their realities from what was happening around them. "The unexamined life is not worth living" a famous quote by Socrates was discussed briefly through which the students understood the importance of examining the Self. He explained the use of meditation as a secular tool to achieve this. After this he conducted a guided meditation session without the use of Pranahuti for around 3 minutes. After this, a guided relaxation and meditation session was conducted for a duration of nearly 15 - 20 minutes with the help of Pranahuti energy. An atmosphere of calmness pervaded the classroom during the meditation session. The meditation session had ended by 3:15 pm following a feedback session of the students on how they felt while meditating. The response was mixed. Mr Nagaraj encouraged them to take the habit up as a challenge for themselves likening it to the sustained effort required in a weight loss programme.

The session thus was a structured and informal discussion on the problem of logic, love and reality and the importance of meditation in dealing effectively with these problems. The students happily participated in the discussions that were taken up and seemed to enjoy the session.