My spiritual journey began very early in my life. I was born in a spiritual family. My parents were initiated by Guru Saint Kirpal Singh ji Maharaj of the Radha Soami lineage. I grew up attending satsang (a spiritual gathering) and listening to spiritual discourses, though I could not understand much at that age. My father devoted much time to Dhyan (meditation). I also tried to practice meditation, but I never enjoyed it; I at least learned the basics. When I left my hometown and my family to pursue higher studies at Delhi University, my interest in spirituality declined. While studying Physics in college, I lost faith in God because I needed evidence to believe in God’s existence. I remained an atheist for about 25 years. My belief in God returned after a realization during meditation.
I was working on a project named Indus-I. I completed my subsystem well within the time, but the project was delayed for many other reasons known to everyone working on it. But they made me a scapegoat and held me responsible for delaying the project. Major differences existed between me and the higher authorities overseeing the project’s development. A lobby was trying to sideline me. The stressful situation continued for years, leading me to depression. My doctors referred me to a psychiatrist and a psychologist for counseling. The psychologist taught me relaxation techniques to calm down my mind. I practiced the relaxation exercises religiously for two years, but my mind did not calm down a bit, and streams of thoughts continued that weakened me emotionally and physically. I was a very strong and active person earlier, but the depression made me sick. My breathing was going out of control, and choking episodes became frequent. Once, food got stuck in my windpipe, and I could not breathe for a few minutes. I saw death very closely. I decided to take charge of myself to come out of depression. By then, I had realized two things: first, the culprit was a continuous stream of thoughts, and second, the relaxation technique was a kind of meditation that wasn’t a complete practice, and I needed to learn more about it. I began searching for books on meditation. I reached out to a book shop and bought a book on Meditation by Christina Feldman. I read the book slowly and carefully, but it never addressed the issue of controlling involuntary thoughts. Then I turned to many books on meditation by great spiritual figures in India, but to my surprise, no one addressed the problem of overcoming involuntary thoughts. I was in a fix: why is nobody discussing this important issue? An episode in my life began when I started thinking about what controls our lives.
It was the day India celebrated its 50th Independence Day. Normally, I was filled with enthusiasm on this day, and I had never missed a celebration; I always attended the celebrations at my workplace and at school with my daughters. But this time I was feeling very depressed and didn’t have the energy to go to the flag hoisting ceremony. My seven-year-old daughter came to me and asked me to visit a book exhibition organized after the Independence Day celebration to buy her books. It was a family tradition to visit any book exhibition held anywhere in the city. I refused, saying I wasn’t feeling well, but she didn’t listen and insisted that I come with her. She held my hand firmly and dragged me. I started walking with her as the school was within walking distance of my house. After reaching the book exhibition, I began looking for books for my daughter. Suddenly, I spotted a book titled How to Win in Life by Norman Vincent Peale. I bought the book without delay. Normally, I take time to read about the author and the remarks on the back cover before buying a book. I spent the whole night reading the book. I got the solution to my problem. The writer explained that the mind wanders in search of solutions to the problems we face in life, and if the mind is given an appropriate solution, it stops wandering. Next, he said our mind works like a computer and can be programmed to produce the desired results. He further explained NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and NIP (Neuro Imaging Programming). When I applied this idea whenever my mind was distracted during Meditation, it really worked. I felt remarkable improvement within a month. The continuous stream of thoughts began to slow down and even stopped momentarily. I felt a pleasant high. It was a mystical experience I had read about in meditation books. In addition, I felt as energetic as before. My health began improving in a magical way, and without a doubt, I was getting rid of very old health issues like migraines, severe asthma, and frequent throat infections with fever. I stopped taking many regular medicines prescribed by the doctors, including Alprax. The improvement was so fast as if I had got a panacea. This inspired me, as a scientist, to explore the science behind this dramatic change. My career as a scientist at RRCAT was at stake. My department was scrapped, and staff working under me were taken away, and I was sidelined. But the thought of discovering a new and useful research field filled me with energy. I began studying Neuroscience, Physiology, Molecular Cell Biology, and Psychology to prepare for a new research field.
After practicing meditation for a few years, I felt my progress had slowed. I studied the book by Norman Peale once again, and this time I found that the author referred to spirituality very often. He was a church minister and believed in Christ’s teachings. I was not able to digest it because I had become an atheist a long time back. Again, my mind became turbulent, and I could not find a way out. I decided to explore the new field of spirituality, about which I had faint ideas. I read books by Swami Vivekananda because he explained spirituality from a scientific perspective. I also learned that he introduced Yoga and Vedanta to the West during his tour to America and his participation in the Parliament of World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. Swami Vivekananda’s book, a commentary on the Patanjali Yoga Sutra (PYS), proved a milestone in my spiritual journey. In Yoga-Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Raja Yoga, and Jnana Yoga, he explained spirituality and yoga in scientific terms. After studying this book, I became interested in spirituality, and I also began studying the Bhagavad-Gita and the Brahma Sutra Bhasya by Adi Shankaracharya, the only authentic text on Vedanta.
After studying the Patanjali Yoga Sutra, I was surprised that while Norman Peale gave the idea of controlling the mind 100 years ago, the PYS, written 3000 years ago, is all about controlling the mind. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra begins with the sutra (aphorism) PYS-1.2, which, in the simplest words, means Yog is a practice to control the wandering of the mind. Rishi Patanjali further describes different kinds of thoughts, their origin, and ways to control them and focus the mind. The technical word Samadhi refers to the degree of concentration of mind, or the degree of control over mind. After reading and understanding PYS, I was convinced that the mind cannot be controlled without resorting to spirituality. Two sutras, PYS-1.12 and PYS-1.23, describe spirituality completely. The former sutra is about Non-Attachment, which Hindu and Buddhist monks have interpreted wrongly. They advocated renunciation because the mind wanders due to involvement in worldly life, too many desires for worldly things, and the problems of worldly life. Adi Shankaracharya had a different, more realistic view of non-attachment. According to him, Attachment means attachment to our thoughts or attachment to our Ego. When we abandon or sacrifice our Ego, the thoughts begin to slow down. The latter sutra is about surrendering to Ishwar, the Nature God, and developing firm belief in Ishwar’s power. It implies that things are not in our control, and it is fruitless to think much over an issue and leave it to Ishwar for a solution.
I got stuck here because I had turned Atheist 25 years back, and reviving faith in God was a big challenge. By then, I realized that we form opinions or mindsets without rational thinking. According to Swami Vivekananda, we intellectuals gain a little information by reading books, feel proud of knowing everything, and never think outside the box. A similar thing is also mentioned in a sutra of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. To learn the truth about God, I read about the personal life of Max Planck, my favorite scientist. I found that he was a very spiritual person. His quotes on spirituality and science strongly influenced me. Swami Vivekananda and the Dalai Lama also express similar views. Albert Einstein also believed in Spinoza’s God, another name for Ishwar or the Nature God. My experiences with meditation also corroborated these views, and it did not take long to revive my faith in God. People who are practicing meditation without understanding spirituality can never develop control over their mind. Only the practice of Yog based on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra can lead to a completely thoughtless state of mind. In spiritual literature, this state of mind is known as pure consciousness because when there are no thoughts in the mind, what remains is consciousness. In Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, this state is known as the lowest Samadhi, with the name Sabeej Sampragyat Samadhi
As I continued my Yog practice, Samadhi grew stronger, so the mind was less easily distracted despite life’s problems. This is the next level of Samadhi, called Nirbeej Sampragyat Samadhi. During this Samadhi, a crawling sensation begins in the pelvic area, which spiritual literature calls Kundalini Awakening. Interestingly, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras make no reference to Kundalini Awakening. Many spiritual Gurus and scholars of spirituality boast too much about Kundalini Awakening and equate it with a sort of Energy that remains dormant in the pelvis. According to them, Kundalini Awakening activates this dormant energy, which performs miracles. Many religious gurus equate Kundalini with the Goddess of Power. My experiences during Yog do not endorse such claims. The crawling feeling does occur, and it does rise upward, but it is nothing more than an intermediate stage in the practice of Yog that lasts only a couple of weeks. In my experience, Kundalini Awakening is a physiological phenomenon that marks the beginning of Yogic breathing, which I explain in detail in my book on Yog Science. In the advanced stage of Yog practice, Samadhi strengthens further and becomes very stable, meaning the mind would not be distracted even in the worst condition, such as the demise of a beloved one. This is considered the final Samadhi, known as Nirbeej Asampragyat Samadhi. According to Vedanta, this is a state of Moksh (A state of complete liberation) and the Kaivalya in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Like Kundalini, Moksh has also been interpreted differently across Hindu Philosophies. The most common interpretation is the liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth. There is a disparity again. According to Vedanta, one can attain Moksh while alive, but in Samkhya and Buddhism, Moksh is attained only after death. Thus, Hinduism offers diverse views on a single concept. According to Swami Vivekananda, a great scholar of Yog, do not go into arguments, do not believe anyone; just practice the Yog and experience the truth yourself. Most scholars refer to Yog as a philosophy, but after practicing Yog for years and seeing the results described in the Patanjali Yog Sutra, I concluded that Yog is not a philosophy; it is a science backed by a theory. The concepts presented in the theory of Yog can be verified by experiencing them through Yog practice. In ancient times, there were no instruments, and people experienced the effects of Yog only subjectively. Now, technology can record the physiological effects of Yog practice. This made it possible to transform a subjective practice into a scientific one, and I can present Yog as a science, which I describe in detail in my book, An Introduction to Yog Science with Theory of Mind. A remarkable physiological effect that occurs when the mind is fully focused is that the brain generates oxygen in sufficient amounts, making it possible to survive without environmental oxygen. Another physiological effect I experienced is that when the mind is focused, the body’s muscles begin to contract. Muscle contraction is a mechanical parameter that can be measured with special sensors and instruments. It is now possible to develop sensors and instruments that monitor progress in Yog practice by measuring these physiological effects.