The man-made disaster called Covid-19 has badly battered humanity across the world with millions losing their jobs, people have died a deplorable death either due to virus or depression.
And at a time when humanity is in crisis due to Covid, conflicts and contradictions of life, Yoga and meditation come to bail-out and heal humanity because it has the power to break mental barriers and help people to attend to joy and freedom from scary isolation.
The century old ashram of Yogda Satsang Math in the middle of the Capital cityon Paramahansa Yogananda Path is one such place that has been offering solace and solution to humanity to come out of the crisis.
Sprawling around 20 acres of land peeping inside the campus through the majestic iron gate of the math looks like a heaven attracting and surcharging passerby with its positive energy.
The math was set-up in 1917 by Paramahansa Yogananda, who began his spiritual journey by setting-up an ashram here which over the years became a universally acclaimed cradle of spiritualism and teachings of Kriya Yoga.
Around 40 monks of different orders clad in white, yellow and saffron dress join in the prayer and meditation every day. Driven by the desire of spiritualism countless numbers of people — men, women, young, children and the dying — join the prayer, meditation and Yoga that culminates into whispered prayer exploding into a collective chant of joy — Jai Guru.
Though, detached from materialism and mundane affairs; the math and monks are aware of the sufferings of common people.
Meet Swami Smarananandaji, the vice president of Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS) who devoted his life for the service of humanity and the divine.
People will hardly believe that this sanyasi has been a scientist too who left everything—fame and fabulous life—to pursue the divine.
His association with the YSS dates back to 1979 when he was pursuing PHD from IIT Kharagpur. He came in touch with monks here to learn meditation to enhance concentration. He joined Concordia University Canada for further study. He worked at IIT Kharagpur as a senior research assistant, senior scientist at Osmania University, taught engineering at an engineering college in Vijayawada. He got the opportunity to handle a couple of important defence projects at Hindustan aeronautics Limited. During this period, he came close to noted scientist APJ Kalam who rose to become President of India. He worked on a couple of projects with Kalam for a while.
It was around 1985 when he got an offer to join the team of Kalam as scientist on a permanent basis.
“There was a question whether to choose the ashram or the missile team. I decided to become a sanyasi because I found joy to serve people by becoming sanyasi,” he said.
Smarananandaji recollects his first acquaintance with the ashram and monks.
“I wanted to learn meditation to improve my concentration because it was very much required in the research work. That time I was not driven by any desire for the divine. The guru instructed me to perform meditation for 20 minutes each in morning and evening. Here I learnt the procedure of meditation called hansa technique. I was convinced by personal experience about the existence of inner joy and started realising joy on a regular basis. Joy is something which is not unknown to us. After meditation I was feeling so joyful that even I had a bad day and there was a bad experience in research work. That was personal experience not that someone told me. And the duration of meditation increased not because I wanted but because I was feeling inner joy,” he said.
He said that when he started reading the autobiography of Paramahansa Yoganandaji he realized God has many manifestations and qualities.
“And joy is among many manifestations of God. The joy we feel inside is nothing but the presence of God. God can be experienced as love, joy, the light of wisdom and many more,” he said. This motivated him to join the ashram life as sanyasi.
He learnt advanced techniques of meditation adding as sanyasi he found a purpose in life.
Asked how he believed in God while science denies he said that some scientists may deny God not all scientists.
“Science doesn’t go by the belief. If something is proven the science will accept this. And this happened in my case. The existence of God was proven to me. I experienced God because God is a matter of experience,” he added.
There is a scientist inside him and he scientifically And logically explains people’s meditation and the teaching of Lord Krishna to make the world a better place to live.
He has been rendering his service in several capacities—friend, philosopher and guide — besides he supervises Kriya Yoga teachings.
Asked how Yoga can serve as a panacea to cure humanity from depression, anxiety and a sense of insecurity and negativity he said that Yoga talks about root causes of the problem.
