The United Nations has declared December 21 as World Meditation Day. It's a welcome step as meditation needed this much-awaited recognition. Meditation is not connected to any one religion. Like yoga, it is common to everyone.
Meditation has the answer to many modern-day challenges that humanity faces. It can help people come out of depression or aggression. Meditation helps perception, expression, and communication. It helps you physiologically. It can boost your immune system. It can bring you deep relaxation. Mindfulness is a byproduct of meditation. Focus comes to you naturally. You will feel good from inside. This World Meditation Day, I invite everyone to meditate for at least 20 minutes. All those who are meditating, invite everyone else around you. Let's all meditate together and create more positivity, productivity, and happiness.
Today, the biggest issue the world is facing is mental health. On one hand, there is aggression and violence and on the other hand, people are suffering from depression and suicidal tendencies. As per WHO, over 1 billion individuals suffer from various mental illnesses today. This is not a sign of a healthy society. For any society to grow and prosper, addressing these challenges is very important, and that can only be done through meditation.
Meditation brings a deeper understanding of life. Our life is the most precious gift. Yet we keep this gift wrapped, never opening it. We admire the wrapper, finding faults or praising it, but we don't discover the treasure inside. Just imagine someone giving you a gift and you don't even open it, how will you enjoy its beauty? My dear, each one of us is a fountain of joy and grace. To experience this—the real happiness and beauty of life—you need to go beyond the five senses. Life truly begins with the sixth sense, the gut feeling.
What is this gut feeling? Your intellect might offer logical reasoning to choose one path, but your gut feeling says no I shouldn't choose this path, I should choose the other. And when you do that, you're happy. Similarly, have you noticed that your judgements can go wrong, your intellect can go wrong, but your gut feeling or what we call intuition, can never go wrong? Your judgement changes all the time. You look at somebody and you judge but after a while, you may realise that your judgement was wrong.
Our mind is often clogged with so many such prejudices. To rise above these prejudices and access your sixth sense, you need to meditate. Only meditation can help you transcend the prejudices of the intellect. By giving a little time to yourself and practising meditation daily, a new dimension will open for you. Then you will see there is so much beauty and love in life. It will bring you to a state of total rest of wanting nothing, being nothing, doing nothing, and yet having total alertness effortlessly. It is the supreme prayer that will give you a glimpse of the joy and grace that life has to offer.
Meditation is for you
In a world filled with growing responsibilities and ambitions, it has become more important than ever to meditate. Once considered a path to enlightenment, meditation is now recognised as a very effective tool for managing stress and enhancing well-being.
It empowers you to confront challenges head-on by reviving your inner strength. It helps you navigate life’s challenges by keeping your mind focused on the present, free from past regrets or future worries.
Meditation is not just a luxury, it is an essential practice that can transform how you feel daily, making your life more harmonious and fulfilling. What’s truly needed to bring balance and peace into your life is a commitment to a few minutes of meditation and self-reflection each day. By setting aside just 10 to 20 minutes, you give your mind and body the space to relax and recharge.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will guide a live World Meditation on December 21, from the UN trusteeship council Chamber in New York for global peace and harmony.