CHENNAI: A man’s soft voice breaks as he shares the age-old wisdom of living completely in the present moment as he begins his session on mindfulness and meditation. TS Narayanan, the founder of Atma Gnana Yoga Centre, was teaching the route to inner tranquillity to the Brakes India employees assembled at the Estell Resorts in November.
In this two-hour-long session, Narayanan briefed the attendees on the importance of Pranayama, good food habits, mastering the art of living, the benefits of meditation and simple exercises. These habits were initially taught over a period of 13 days, now it has been brought down to two hours because we live in a time when everything’s happening so quickly and people are in a race with time.
To take a lead in this competition, Narayanan provides a stark contrast: a method to take it slow, take a deep breath, and live in the present. He says, “Accept things as they are in that moment because nothing is permanent. But there’s a permanent aspect in you. It is your atman (the soul), an invisible power inside you. Each body has a birth and a death but it is not the same with the soul.”
The other lessons include Pranayama, also known as the breath of life. ‘Prana’ means the regulation of cosmic energies — a force that affects mental and physical health.
The 90-year-old shares, “Pranayama is a practice of taking life energy — required to survive — to rejuvenate the internal organs. It is also a respiratory practice that brings better body-mind coordination. Now, controlling the mind is very difficult. But if you can control your breath, it in turn controls the mind. This can be achieved by meditation.”
He adds that negative emotions such as stress, anger, and tension pollute the blood. “These emotions are the root cause of all ailments in our body. We react to situations that trigger emotions. Instead, we should respond to that particular happening.
Learn to respond and not react,” he explains. The next learning is on food habits. “I emphasise raw food. Normally, cooked food takes about 16 hours to digest. When we cook, all the nutrients and vitamins are destroyed. But, raw food takes about 12 hours to digest. It helps in better digestion,” he says.
After completing this programme, one can practice Pranayama twice for 15-20 minutes each in the morning for the first 90 days, followed by meditation for 15 minutes before lunch.
These lessons are a part of the programme that the centre teaches at venues including Mylapore, Anna Nagar, West Mambalam, Mandaveli, Adyar, Nungambakkam, and Vadapalani among a few other locations in the city. Five teachers — two women and three men — handle these sessions.
Over 40,000 people have done the programme since its establishment in 1989. The centre has a residential programme at their ashram in Pudupakkam on the banks of Pudupakkam Lake. The sessions are held once in two months for three days. It is offered in English, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.
He lives on the principle “So what? What next?”. Now that he has introduced these simple practices that make living a bit easier, we have to wait and see what he does next.
For details, visit: www.atmagnanayoga.com or contact: 9884096457, 9080459145