The disaster called COVID 19 has badly battered humans across the world with millions losing their job, people dying either due to the virus or depression.
And, at a time when there is no medicine or vaccine around, Yoga comes to bailout and heal humanity locked in confinement, desperately trying to break mental barriers, seeking freedom from scary isolation and quarantine.Like other states of our country, Jharkhand and its capital Ranchi is badly hit by the killer called COVID 19.
While the rest of Ranchi looked like a hell marked with scary silence, often interrupted by shrilling siren of ambulances, where even God was kept under protective custody by their earthy guardians during the lockdown, the ashram of Yogoda Satsang Society, in the middle of the city, on Paramahansa Yogananda Path,is offering solace and solution to humanity to come out of the crisis. The Math was setup in 1917 by Paramahansa Yogananda, who began his spiritual mission by establishing an ashram here which over the years has become a universally acclaimed cradle of spirituality and the Yogi’s teachings of Kriya Yoga.
Around 60 monks, clad in white, yellow or saffron dress, pray, meditate, and offer themselves in humanitarian and spiritual service every day. Countless people throughout the country seek their guidance and help in attaining physical well-being, inner strength, and divine joy.
Though detached from materialism and mundane affairs, the math and monks are aware of the sufferings of common people.“It is our duty to serve; that is what our revered Gurudeva Paramahansa Yogananda taught us.
During the pandemic we are reaching out to people who need help and extending support to them,” said Swami Shraddhananda Giri, a senior monk in the Ranchi math. A student of nuclear physics from Bombay University, Shraddhananda is a man of scientific temperament. He had an inclination towards the divine right from his school days. In 1976 he dedicated his life to the spiritual quest in Yogoda Satsanga Ashram at Ranchi where he has been serving in various capacities. Asked how Yoga can serve as a panacea to cure humanity from depression, anxiety, a sense of insecurity and negativity that COVID 19 has piled upon the humanity, Swami said that Yoga deals with the root cause of the problem.
“COVID 19 is one of the worst disasters that humanity has faced in the last one century; and it has left a scar on the psyche of people. Many have lost their job or even their life; and their health has been adversely affected. People were forced to remain in lockdown within the confines of their home, affecting their social life.
We have also witnessed mass migration and displacement. All these things have filled people with negativity. But we should not surrender. We have to recollect and reinvent our inner courage to move on, which is possible through Kriya Yoga,” he said. “Kriya Yoga involves discipline of body, breath, energy and mind. It raises our consciousness beyond the limitations of the body and the outer world. We experience the energy that pervades the universe as we learn to draw that into our body. This fills us with inner strength and courage. We experience well-being in body and mind. Thus Kriya Yoga and meditation help to overcome pessimism and fear.”
Asked how spiritual seekers could learn yoga meditation, Swamiji said, “Paramahansa Yoganandaji’s guidance regarding yoga-meditation and principles of right living are given in his home-study course of the Yogoda Satsanga Lessons.
The Lessons give detailed guidance on how to practice the scientific techniques of the Kriya Yoga path. Paramahansaji’s books, particularly his spiritual classic Autobiography of a Yogi, recorded talks and other literature also introduce spiritual seekers to the path of yoga and meditation.”