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5 Reasons Why Sahaja Yoga is Relevant for Millennials Now, More Than Ever!

As a 90’s child born in the concluding days of the millennium, my adulthood in the 21st century is distinctly different from that of my parents. I, like my fellow millennials, have witnessed, first hand, the technological revolution that took over India in the late 90s and which has only been expanding since.

We are the transitional generation – not too old to be resistant to new ideas and not too young to be completely oblivious of the pre-smartphone lives. While this may seem like a wonderful thing when the adult lives of me and my parents are compared, it comes with its own set of problems. After all, back then, they could not have imagined having a product delivered to their doorstep with the click of a button.

When quizzed about what kind of things he was worried about in his 20s, the father answered after a long pause with a shrug, a classic Indian nod followed by a quick response that went – “Just career and means of earning a livelihood”.  That’s it. There was nothing else I could get out of him. Worrying about a career was understood in his context of being the eldest son of middle-class parents. But apart from that, he was basically worry free through his adult life. He got married to my mother in the most predictable Indian arranged marriage way – no drama there. They had a system of closely knit family that celebrated all volumes of events together. They soon had a daughter born to them. And all was hunky-dory in the 20s.

How strangely impossible this seems in today’s context! The many advancements that we thought were boons of our lives have been slipping their way into our problems bucket without even us consciously noticing. This is where Sahaja Yoga comes in with its benefits! As a practising MEDITATOR I rarely got affected by these problems and even if I did, I was empowered to overcome them. The main consequence of meditation is a complete holistic well-being of oneself. One’s mental, emotional, physical and physiological problems get solved automatically as a by-product of this. And so, for all my other fellow millennials, who would much rather not pay money to a therapist or for a self-help book, here’s a list (because we all love lists) of the 5 most common ways, us millennials, get affected by the so-called modern developments and how Sahaja Yoga meditation can help:

Modern Development

Negative consequence

How can Sahaja Yoga help?

On-demand video services and improved gaming consoles (Digital Addiction) Binge watching and binge gaming are very common phenomena that most of us fall prey to. This causes us to lose focus on our own wellbeing which has many physiological and physical consequences Through meditation, one’s focus is shifted within oneself, towards one’s well-being. This means that the minute one feels something or someone harming oneself, one automatically gets a conviction to give that up – be it, toxic substances or toxic relationships.
Consumerism and paradox of choice The culture of consumerism causes individuals to depend more and more on material goods for a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction. This can lead to wastefulness, braggartism and trigger a vicious circle of never-ending desires causing a perpetual feeling of dissatisfaction. One becomes extremely satisfied and at peace with oneself. So much so that, material desires begin to diminish slowly. As Buddha has said, desire is the root cause of misery. With diminishing desire of possessing material things, sadness due to the loss of or failure to obtain these material things one becomes extremely satisfied and at peace with oneself.
Instant communication through the internet Expression of ideas and thoughts without much effort or a moment’s deliberations causes easy miscommunication which directly impacts relationships. Ease of expressing an opinion on the net is also abused by the likes of trolls or cyber bullies. Another by-product of the sense of self-satisfaction is that, other’s judgements or harsh words do not have a negative impact on oneself. After all, if a person is content with themselves, they do not wish to flatter or impress anyone. Hence others’ negative opinions are only seen, based on self-judgment, as potential areas for improvement. The feeling of being ‘hurt’ never occurs. Additionally, one becomes forgiving of others for any seemingly harsh behaviour inflicted on them without letting the inflictor dominate oneself. Through this very stable and balanced approach, relationships are salvaged and remain healthy.
Social Media Social media provides a one-sided and carefully curated view into other’s lives right on one’s phones. A peek into others ‘happy’ lives has been known to cause lowering of self-esteem which in extreme cases can lead to depression. Self-contentment also helps in avoiding comparing oneself with other’s lives. This way, one can look at other’s successes in a completely neutral manner without feeling let down. This encourages overall mental health, helping to keep depression, due to social media, at bay.
Increased ambitions Increased personal ambitions have only made today’s workplace extremely competitive. Keeping up with the high demands of the work-life harms personal relations and causes a high amount of stress which directly affects physical and mental health. Stress at the workplace, today, is more common than finding a good coffee machine at your office. It’s easy to get consumed with the skyrocketing workload. Stress in such scenarios is caused by chains of mental reactions that spiral into an avalanche. But through meditation, one develops a very important attribute of being a ‘witness’. As a witness, one begins to watch the problems without reacting to it. There are 500 tasks that need to be done in a day? There are personal commitments that need to be accommodated at the same time? And there is also a headache to spice things up? A meditator in this scenario would simply know to very calmly approach the day one moment at a time. It has also been observed that meditation increases one’s productivity as one can concentrate on the task at hand without any mental distractions. For the tasks that remain undone, one can communicate in advance, without feeling guilty about it, to the relevant stakeholders.

Imagine doing all this without any mental strain! But in order to avoid these, from being just words without practical meaning, I would encourage everyone to think of this as a hypothesis and test it out like a science experiment. After all, for our benefit, we are also a generation of Sceptics!

Author: Krutika Telang

3 thoughts on “5 Reasons Why Sahaja Yoga is Relevant for Millennials Now, More Than Ever!

  1. But how do I commit to spending time for meditation? In today’s world with so many things to do god has squeezed time.

    1. Hello there! I know it sounds overwhelming to think of taking time out for something new in your packed schedule (as would anyone, today). I too, initially struggled to balance work, social engagements and some personal space. But its really a struggle only before you have tried meditation. So to get yourself to start, I would recommend 2 things:
      1. That you find 10 minutes time during your busy days for meditation.
      2. That once a week, you visit one of the Sahaja Yoga Meditation centres closest to you. There are many that happen on the weekends and are completely free of cost. They wouldn’t take more than an hour of your time.
      Just this can do the trick, provided of course, that you truly deeply desire to know about yourself. Because in the end, meditation is really for self realisation (atma gyan). All the benefits are the by-products. 🙂

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