The dialogue unfolds with an introduction to Mr. Rajesh Ganeshan, a prominent figure at Micron and a passionate volunteer with the Art of Living Foundation. Mr. Ganeshan recounts his transformative journey, which began eighteen years prior when he was engulfed in both personal and professional tumult. His initial foray into meditation and breathing techniques offered a sanctuary from the cacophony of stress, fundamentally altering his approach to life. The discussion delves into the pivotal role of Sudarshan Kriya, a specific breathing exercise he encountered through the Art of Living program, which granted him an unprecedented sense of calmness and clarity. He elaborates on the profound effects of this practice, underscoring its accessibility to individuals irrespective of their previous experiences with meditation. Furthermore, he extols the virtues of daily meditation and the importance of consistency, asserting that such practices foster a deeper awareness of one's mental and emotional states, ultimately guiding individuals towards a more fulfilling existence.

Takeaways:

• A healthy mind is crucial for a fulfilling life, and we must prioritize mental wellness.
• Meditation and breathing techniques can significantly alleviate stress and enhance overall well-being.
• The practice of Sudarshan Kriya offers profound calmness and clarity to practitioners of all levels.
• Volunteering provides immense satisfaction and perspective, contributing to a deeper understanding of life's challenges.
• Consistency in meditation is vital; ideally, one should practice daily to reap the maximum benefits.
• The presence of an experienced teacher can greatly enhance the meditation journey and provide invaluable support.

Links referenced in this episode:

• folsomhappinesshub.com
• artofliving.org

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Micron
• Art of Learning Foundation
• Intel
• Art of Living
• Sudarshan Kriya
• Sahaj Samadhi
• Happiness Hub
• Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Busy Free Mind.

In Busy free mind, we always believe healthy mind is healthy.

You.

Today, I am so excited to introduce our guest, Mr. Rajesh Ganeshan.

Rajesh is a senior manager at Micron and software engineer by trade.

He is also a dedicated volunteer teacher for Art of Learning Foundation.

Before 18 years ago, he faced immense personal and professional stress.

He found peace through meditation and breathing techniques and he said that it changed his life completely.

Let's get ready to learn his simple secrets for a happier and healthier life.

Hello, sir.

Hello, Shobna.

Very good.

I'm so happy to be here.

Thank you so much, sir.

We are so excited and this is our first ever podcast and you are a very special guest.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

I'm honored.

Thank you.

So from your words, we want to know how meditation changed your work.

Yeah.

You know, like you said 18 years ago, when I got introduced to the programs of the Art of Living, a lot of things were going on personally, efficiently that were very stressful.

You know, I'd just become a manager at that time.

I used to work at Intel.

So, you know, the pressures of, you know, new manager you want to do and depress your cost.

So professionally it was a lot of stress.

And personally, you know, diet, pain, I'm aware.

And also that was the time my back pain used to act up quite a bit.

I spent a long time.

So it was in this circumstance that I found hard of living and the programs really helped.

Physically, I was feeling much better.

You know, I wasn't popping in as many painkillers as I used to.

Slowly, you know, as I started volunteering for the foundation, that also gave me immense satisfaction.

What is the one important change that Heart of Living gave you and you want to continue that all these years?

You know, the.

When you do the part of Living program for the first time, we.

The breathing exercise that you learn is called Sudarshan Kriya.

And the very first experience of Sudarshan Kriya to me was I had never experienced that level of calmness and rest anytime prior to that.

So that was a big aha moment right there.

I never knew that I could experience so much calm and rest and peace.

And then once I experienced that I wanted to continue, that is the motivation to continue.

So you get a daily practice after doing the program.

So I continued doing the daily practice and I also started volunteering.

And that also Art of Living gives a lot of opportunities for people to volunteer.

And to me that was a big help because, you know, when you volunteer when you sit in the classes, you meet so many different people, you understand their problems, you get a better perspective, you get a wider perspective, you zoom on.

Right.

And then you're like, oh man, whatever I am going through, not that big of a deal.

So many people going through so many challenges.

That also helped.

And of course the practices are so important.

That calmness you feel when you meditate is priceless.

Yes, yes.

That we cannot measure.

Yeah.

So when you say Sudarshan kriya, is it only for the advanced person or.

Is it for beliefs?

Oh, it's for anybody.

Right.

You don't have to have any prior experience with meditation.

Anybody know, obviously it's open to everybody.

Every, every country pretty much in the world now has a presence.

Right.

So if you can breathe even resolution.

So in this Hariburi world, you know, what are the three techniques that you say for the beginners that they can do and get immediate promise?

There are quite a few, I name probably a few breathing exercises.

Very simple breathing exercise today.

Just simple abdominal breathing.

Right.

Where you're keeping your hands like this.

And as you're breathing in, you're noticing that your stomach and your chest are expanding.

Yeah.

And as you're breathing down, it's contracting.

Very simple breathing Brahmuth awareness can instantly come.

That's very simple technique.

Then there are techniques like alternate mastering breathing called Nadi Shodan.

That's another beautiful breathing exercise, Ujjayi breathing, which is something that you know as you're going about doing your day to day activities, you can breathe in Jay.

And that elongates the breath and gives you a sense of calm.

It's a lot of different, very simple and yet very powerful techniques that everybody can learn.

But we have to be mindful 24 by 7 about it.

Right.

So when we have so many thoughts coming in, we have to concentrate on.

Oh my God, today I forgot that what you mentioned during.

Yeah, I really forgot all those emotions and happenings.

So anyone never without any one way that we can remember that I have to do this.

Even with all those lives, I have to do this.

Yeah, I think a good question.

And this, that awareness comes with time.

See when you, like I was saying, when you do the, when I did this vision of anybody doing this vision for the first time you get an experience of how it should be state of mind should be the calmness, that rest.

Then you, you keep that in mind.

And as you're going about your day to day activities, if you notice that you're very far away from that ideal state of mind.

You have that awareness.

Then you say, okay, let me take a few seconds to do something.

There are some very simple techniques that we teach in the course that can instantly switch the state of and then the practice.

There's no substitute for doing it consistently over time.

As you do this consistently, your awareness also is enhanced.

You are more aware.

And even before you know something happens that takes you away from that state of now you realize that hey, I'm going to.

It's gonna happen and you can be prepared for comes the awareness also increases with time.

So what is a good practice look like for a beginner?

How long?

Yeah, so we say, you know, meditation at least 20 minutes a day to begin.

That's what a fairness.

And then doing it consistently, like I keep saying, that's going to be the theme of this talk.

Right.

Nothing beats consistency.

So being consistent, ideally the same time of the day, if you can do that right.

That will be the start.

And then if you can do twice a day, right.

Those of us who have been doing this for a while make it a point.

Meditate twice a day.

That's all ideal.

Okay.

So when you come to Tantra, you have to do it in the same time.

For example, like morning, 4 o' clock at the high time and evening is the right time to make sure this time.

There is value to doing it early in the morning.

We call it Brahma mood.

Obviously it's everything is calm.

There are no distractions, there's certain peace in the environment and it's very conducive for meditation.

But you know, for most of us it's not practical, right?

Yeah.

Because of our way of life, things to do, getting up every day at four light.

Not practical.

So you know, the time actually it's okay.

Whatever time works for you is fine.

There was a time at intel when I used to do my daily practice at work.

During lunchtime, before lunch, we had a room, a prayer room that I used to use.

And you were able to control your mind and keep it calm inside of your bed?

It's in the building, a separate room, prayer room for meditation.

How it's good to be for the beginners especially, is it okay if their mind wanders?

That's the biggest problem.

When they come and search, they have all the emotions, all the things that happen in their life.

Very, very common, right?

Okay, Very natural.

Very common for the mind to.

That's the nature of the mind.

It keeps going to the past and to the future and ends up all these parts and feelings and motions.

Very common.

So yeah, as a beginner, when you sit down to meditate, you will experience this mind wandering and spirit.

So how long we should do meditation to see any result that changes in life?

You know, it's funny, the meditation class that we teach in the art of living is called Sahaj Samadhi, which literally means easy samadhi.

So it's really easy.

You know, it's a myth that people have that meditation when done, you know, under the guidance of the right teacher.

Experiencing Samadhi is not hard, right?

But then to sustain it, you have to put the work.

Getting a first experience is not hard.

But then you have to put in the work to sustain daily practice.

Very important, right?

So what is the end point for the goal that you are looking for?

Samadhi is the goal, right?

What is samadhi?

Samadhi is that connection with your own self and Right.

Getting a glimpse of who you are.

So Sundarshan Kriya, the word Sudarshan su means proper.

Darshan is vision and kriya is any meditative act, right?

So it gives you a glimpse of who you are.

See a lot of times, right, we label ourselves for others label us saying, oh, you're an angry person, you're lazy.

Right?

And we think that these labels constitute who we are.

Right?

But in reality we are all peace and calmness and happiness and joy and love.

And that's what we are.

We are all made up of that.

So the goal of meditation is to realize.

Realize that hey, I am not my body and not the mind and not these labels that associated with me or somebody is using me.

At the end of the day, I feel sign realizing that is the goal.

And yeah, that's what you experience in the when you do the programs.

But that's what you learn to sustain.

Okay, If I miss a day without gift, okay, that is another big problem for them.

Patient.

Yeah, just be.

Be more accepting of yourself.

You do your best to do whatever you sometimes, you know, interruptions happen, life keep.

So that doesn't interrupt or reduce the positivity.

So 10,000 soft apps, thousands of mindfulness and meditation classes online.

And there are some yoga and meditation, especially like Kundalini Yoga.

People think that you have to do it other variants of food.

So what do you suggest for the product?

No, I mean I don't have a problem with apps.

Right.

Apps are good.

In fact, we have a really good app in the article they called Softlock beautiful app.

A lot of very nice meditations.

The voice of who they should hear.

Okay, so no issues with using apps.

But there's a lot of value in doing an in person program in the presence of a teacher with other people.

Right, right.

Because for one thing, you know, it motivates you because there's some level of continuity.

Usually when our students do the program, we have them, we do a 40 day challenge, everybody gets onto a WhatsApp group, and then 40 days, we keep each other accountable.

Hey, have you done your practice today?

Have you done your meditation?

So that is that motivation, that connection, the brute energy, that support system.

Yeah, right.

So having a teacher, having a class and that support system always helps.

And then if you're fortunate enough to find the know, like I'm, I feel really blessed to have found a guru in Sri Lanka.

Meditating in the presence of an enlightened master is a blessing.

That's a different level of vibration.

It's a different level of vibrations, different kind of experience.

Something that I hope everybody gets a chance to do in their life because it's something that I cannot articulate.

It's an experience like being in the presence of a master.

And meditating is a very, very unique and unforgettable experience.

Is there any techniques that beginners would avoid?

Yeah, I think, you know, let's say you pick a technique and you do it consistently, right?

You're doing it for, let's say you've done it for 21 days and you don't feel again.

The key is to listen to your own self.

If you're not feeling good, remember the goal of all of this is to feel calm and happy and peaceful.

So if you're not feeling that after you've given it some time, then you know that maybe you know, this technique is not for you or you can do some self reflection to see, you know, is it the food I'm eating?

Maybe my lifestyle is such that it's not conducive.

Sometimes, you know, you can be meditating, but if you're not eating right, you might not experience that.

If you're not sleeping enough, for example, right.

If you're watching horror movies late till late at night and then getting up in the morning and trying to meditate, you might not get a good experience.

So some self reflection to see, hey, is there some lifestyle change that I can to be the momentation?

So why.

And the things that we see in our life and our passion or interest also, these are important, right?

If a newbie who want to try out of the new medication, what is the first step that they have to do?

They have to enroll or is there an online course?

Or whether is it possible for normal.

People to find the room without saying absolutely.

So the easiest thing to do is.

So in Folsom, if you just look up Folsom Happiness Hub.

Our other two incentives in Folsom is called the Happiness Hub.

So you can go to the website and there are free introductory classes that we do.

So every Tuesday and Thursday, 6pm at our center, you can come in and get a feel for what reading technique you get to experience breathing and meditation.

It gives you a glimpse of what these techniques can do and then you can sign up for a program.

So the program is called the Art of Living part one.

So that's sort of the first program that people usually take where you get to learn.

And then there are many other programs that the Art of Living offers.

There is a meditation, like I was saying, Sahaj samadhi meditation.

There are Silas routines we can go on.

There are yoga classes.

There are classes for kids.

There is an incredible program for kids called the Intuition where kids as young as, you know, eight, nine can learn how to tune into their own intuition.

So what is the starting age for them too?

So we started eat our programs.

We have programs for kids for eight and then for high school.

Unless knowledge for.

Where does the Kriya Yoga fit into the framework of.

So what we do is Kriya, right?

Kriya is what we do.

So any technique, my understanding of Kriya Yoga, and I'm not an expert on this, but my understanding of Kriya Yoga is any technique that helps you realize who you are is Kriya Yoga.

That's exactly what solution.

Okay, so when you say Kriya Yoga, is it a breathing exercise like Pranayama or is it going to be like meditation?

So what is the first?

The Sudarshan Kriya is a rhythmic breathing exercise.

Okay.

And it takes about 20, 25 minutes to do.

Okay.

So it's a daily practice that you get after the program.

Okay.

At the end of which you if you have a meditation technique, after that you continue to meditate or just rest for five minutes and that's it.

That charges you up for the entire day.

And I'm a diehard fan of superstar dancer and he is following Triyaga and in one of his interview he said that after following Kriya Yoga so much, he has him now feel the result of that Priyada because everything is happening automatically.

So putting pressure on his work and everything is going so Good.

So he's one of our inspiration.

And his journey is also our inspiration.

Oh, nice.

So Priyada is one thing that I really think.

Yeah, that's wonderful.

I'm also a huge fan.

The vibrant, arking, positive wipe secret Nakria Pana Aram Chaga.

Amazing.

Sir, what do you prefer teachers or guru over the YouTube?

Yeah, guru, of course.

In the physical form, you know, Guru.

But there's also another, deeper meaning.

Guru is any person who leads you from darkness to light.

Literally, Guru means leading you from darkness to light.

And this guru is present inside of you.

We all have inside.

There is that light.

There is that knowledge which all of us possess.

It's just that we have forgotten how to tune into it.

Do you mean the intuition?

Yeah.

Intuition is the ultimate intellect.

It's just that we don't know how to calm ourselves enough to tune into that Guru speaking to us all the time.

So guru is also inside of us.

And if we learn how to listen, you and you, you know, you go sit with the guru, you feel like it's okay.

It's fine.

It's taken care of.

Right, right, right.

That a YouTube video.

Being in the presence of an enlightened master and experiencing that, you know, that really, this confidence that I'm taking care of comes from Guru.

For someone who hears Sudarshan Kriya for the first time, what is the little trills of that thing?

So what is the Sudarshan Kriya?

In one moment, Sushant, Kriya, like I said, is literally means breathing exercise that gives you a glimpse of who you are.

Okay, Right.

So you realize that you are that calmness.

You are that joy that you experience when you do the.

So both Sudarshan and Kriyay are one and the same.

Word is that I need to transmit things.

So Vishakria is a breathing, rhythmic breathing exercise.

Okay.

And I think Kriya Yoga, any practice that helps you understand yourself, experience yourself is Kriya yoga.

That's what Sudarshan Kriya also.

Okay, so it's one of the same images.

How can we do the practice when we are on travel or when we have deadlines?

So what can be like?

Yeah, I think one thing to remember is this.

You know, they say that you have to meditate more when you're busy.

Oh, okay, Right.

Because you become so much more efficient.

Right.

Solution Kriya meditation.

It takes you to a point where you're calm, energized, and focused at the same time.

It's not a jittery energy it is a calm, very focused energy, which is very important when you have deadlines, when you're busy.

Right.

So when you're busy, it's even more important.

Right.

Then if you miss a day here and there, like we were talking earlier, it's okay, you can always start over.

But I think the key that a lot of people, you know, you hear this excuse that, oh, I have disease, so I didn't meditate today day is actually counterintuitive when you're busy.

You should meditate.

When coming to meditation.

What is something that is oversold or misunderstood?

I think, I don't know about oversold, but misunderstanding definitely is people thinking that they cannot meditate or it's hard or it needs a lot of concentration.

Because you hear people say, oh, my mind is all over the place.

I get thoughts, all kinds of thoughts.

It's okay.

It's part of meditation.

Meditation is just observing what is happening at the level of the body, at the level of the mind, what emotions are coming, what thoughts.

That's it.

That is meditation.

So that is the misunderstanding with a lot of people that it needs intense concentration, focus.

Right, right.

One advice for young kids and things.

About just do it.

You know, if there are classes that you can take and you know, as a, as a young teenager, you know, we don't expect them to be doing a practice.

Yeah.

But having that tool in their toolbox, so to speak, can be super valuable because, you know, these days, let's face it, there's so much stress that the kids are under.

Right.

So having a technique, it's going to be crucial.

Even if they don't practice it, they'll know that when needed, they can always go back and use the techniques.

So extremely important to learn this.

What I feel is like we give grade to them.

Definitely they want to try because kids are like going running towards getting grades, getting colleges IV and stuff.

They don't find time for them.

Yeah.

And key is when they experience the benefits.

Yeah, right.

That doesn't substitute for that.

You know, how much of the parents try to push won't work until the kid has an experience.

Right.

You know, they have an experience.

You don't push, they will know that they can go back and use the magnet.

They realize the value and they know the times to use it.

Do you think there is passion between the positive alternations and manifestations to meditation?

You know, like we said, you know, when you meditate and when you know how to listen to your intuitive self, things manifest.

You know, like you were talking about Rajnikanth superstar Rajnikanth saying that things flow.

Yeah.

That flow happens when you're calm and relaxed and rested.

And it's almost like somebody's taking care of things, you know?

Some you will get a glimpse of that universe acting.

On your behalf.

Thank you so much.

It's such a valuable information that you gave us.

Definitely.

I think it would be useful for the viewers.

Oh, hi.

Thank you so much for.

Oh, my.

Thank you for having me.

We are looking forward for another beautiful session with you.

Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So beautiful.

So beautiful.

Your presence in my life.