Category: Yoga Sutras

Trip to Mt Kailash and Manasarovar Lake

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in consciousness, Enlightenment, Friends, Happiness, meditation, Moksha, Music and Poetry, Nature, Pilgrimage, Sef-awareness, self-development, spirituality, Transcendence, Transformation, Veda, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Mount Kailash and Manasarovar Lake, located in Western Tibet, are among the holiest and mystical of pilgrimage sites across many religious traditions including Hinduism and Buddhism. Mt Kailash, considered the abode of Lord Shiva, is at a 6600+ meter elevation, while the Manasarovar lake nearby is the highest freshwater lake in the world. This trek is a tough 52-km circumambulation (parikrama) of Mt Kailash, using limited housing and other facilities.  This is a report on our small group’s 17-day trip to this magnificent place in July 2024. It concludes with some recommendations for future pilgrims, especially seniors.

Think of this pilgrimage trek in two parts. The core part is the 3 days spent doing the parikrama around the holy mountain and the lake. The longer 14-day part is getting to this high place from home, and back. There were 13 of us pilgrims in our group, with 12 from the US and one from Singapore. All were citizens of Indian origin, including four senior married couples. All members had different personalities, and half of us were Ph.Ds.   Three of the pilgrims were repeat visitors to Mt Kailash. We went to this trek with an experienced Kathmandu based tour operator to organize the tour.

We all landed in Kathmandu (KTM) from our respective home locations all over the US. We spent four nights in KTM (1350 meters above sea level) doing a little bit of acclimatization, while the tour operator applied for and received travel special permits for us to travel to Tibet. While in KTM, we visited the world famous Pashupatinath (Shiva) temple at their evening puja time. We also climbed to the Tarkeshwar (Shiva) temple to an elevation of 1900 meters. 

After four days in KTM, we packed a subset of our baggage into a big duffel bag and a backpack, and left our travel suitcases in the hotel. We took the flight to Lhasa. There is a direct flight but it was sold out. So, we had to make an indirect flight through Chengdu hub airport. That took up an extra day which could have been used for sightseeing and acclimatization in Lhasa (3500 m above sea level).  In Lhasa we had time enough to visit the spectacular Potala Palace, a huge 1000 year old structure, that contains the offices and tombs of many Dalai Lama’s from the first to the 13th.  From Lhasa, we did a 2-day 1000 km long bus drive through the beautiful Tibetan mountains and valleys to reach Lake Manasarovar.

It felt magical to reach Lake Manasarovar which is the highest freshwater lake on the planet. We immediately did a parikrama of the lake itself by bus. We gathered holy water from the Manasarovar lake to bring back home.

Our parikrama of the lake showed two additional things. One, it provided a broad view of MtK from different angles. It also showed up another nearby lake called the Rakshakshthal (or devil’s place), a salty cursed lake. There is fascinating mythology around how a freshwater lake and a dear salty water lake happen to coexist at this high elevation, and both of them barely to the south of Mt. Kailash. (Kailash in English means a pure crystal).

At Manasarovar Lake, we spent a night in a modest dormitory, for acclimatization at this height of 4500 meters. The next day we did a nice short drive to the small town of Darchen and stayed there at a nice hotel, for another night of acclimatization.  The parikrama of Mt Kailash formally begins from the Yama Dwar (Death God’s Gate) in Darchen. We left our duffel bags at the hotel in Darchen, and packed only water and lunch and a raincoat in our backpacks. We began the first leg of the parikrama, which is a 12 km semicircle walk from Darchen to Derapuk (at 5000 m elevation). This was a tough but exhilarating uphill 8-hour walk, with clear views of the west face of Mt Kailash all through the hike.  We took many beautiful pictures and videos on the way. I was happy to have completed this half of the parikrama on foot without a horse or sherpa, though the rest of the group had used sherpas to carry their backpacks. However, my heart rate became highly elevated and stayed that way through the 8 hours it took us to cover the 12 km. My wife and I had great trouble completing the journey, as did most of our group.

By the time we reached the monastery at Derapuk, most of us developed cough and/or cold and mild fever. The dormitory accommodations at Derapuk were very modest and had no toilets. Defecating outside in the open felt too primitive to most of us. Consequently most of us also began to become severely constipated. I felt that the most significant part of the parikrama had been completed, and there was no point in pushing oneself at risk of deterioration of health.  My wife and I therefore made the call to abandon the second half of the parikrama. Not only us, but three others also decided to return to Darchen by jeep the next morning.  

At Derapuk the view of the north face of Mt Kailash is totally awe-inspiring. This is Shiva’s abode. I felt that I am one among many Shivas. Mt Kailash is everyone’s abode.  The other 8 people in our group continued the parikrama using horses to climb up to Dorma la pass. Then they walked downhill 4 km on foot with their respective sherpas. Then they took a jeep to be extracted from there for the remaining 30 km of the parikrama and returned to Darchen. 

After resting in Darchen for two days, we again visited and stayed close to the Manasarovar lake on the auspicious Guru Purnima day (July 21). We did an auspicious RudraAbhishek puja o the banks of the lake. From the lake I also recorded a nice 2-min video showing both Kailash and the lake so near each other. Some people visited the Mansarovar lake during the late night hours to see ‘stars falling in the lake’.  

The next morning we began the return journey with an 800 km long bus ride from Manasarovar to the town of Keirung on the China-Nepal border. It was not an easy journey with most of us in constipated conditions, with no proper toilets on the way. However the Keirung valley was a spectacular green mountains with flowing river and waterfalls. The following morning we crossed the border into Nepal by road. The conditions on the Nepal side were extremely chaotic, and the roads were broken. Five of us took a spectacular but expensive helicopter ride to get to KTM, while the others came by jeep. After gathering our suitcases from the hotel in KTM, the next day we bid adieu and took our flights to our next or home destinations.  

Conclusion 

The trip was a glorious success for all of us, differently and at many levels.  For myself, I got to spend abundant time at Mt Kailash the abode of Shiva who is the god of pure Silence and Peace. I also gathered the exquisitely tasty holy water from the lake to bring home for various uses. I also enjoyed some of the most beautiful greenery in the Keyrung valley and enjoyed the helicopter ride through a spectacularly green Nepal. We also made new good friends among our team of pilgrims. 

Lessons learned: This trip exposed several logistical challenges. Here are a couple of  insights and lessons for those wanting to visit Mt Kailash.  

  1. Altitude: The lived reality at a 5000-meter elevation is very different from that at normal city level. The air is very thin. One needs to acclimatize for many days. Even then one’s physiology may or may not cooperate. So, prepare hard and yet be open to surprises.  Next, the accommodation at these high altitudes are very basic. Nothing prepared us for the open-air defecation, even though we cognitively knew that there will be no proper toilets. Our health suffered. Then there were a few landslides that slowed down the travel.
  2. Guides and Sherpas: These are the people who understand the local terrain and reality. They can soften the shock for the pilgrims. We had an excellent team to support us. However, the availability of porters and horses can be difficult depending upon season. It led to many heated altercations and disagreements between the support team and the pilgrim clients, which did not reflect well on anyone. We therefore found ourselves constantly comparing our support team with the other teams supporting other pilgrim groups. A more organized and mature tour operator may cost a little more, but it may be worth it in terms of good use of your time and good comfort. 
  3. Clarity of purpose: One can go to Mt Kailash as a tourist to complete an item on the bucket list. One can also go there as a seeker to brave the harsh situation with total devotion to Lord Shiva. Or the purpose can also be a mix of a tough mountaineering experience mixed with some pilgrimage. Only a clarity of purpose will provide the endurance to complete the mission, when unforeseen challenges occur. 
  4. Security: The Chinese security and immigration system was intense but efficient. We found security cameras everywhere in China/ Tibet, including five cameras in our tour bus from Lhasa. Our tour guide in Lhasa told us not to take pictures of police patrols on the way to Manasarovar. We were also advised that we should not discuss the politics of Tibet and China even in the bus.

In closing, given its remoteness and the tough terrain, the trip to Mk Kailash is long, tough and expensive.  As Adi Shankara noted, no amount of pilgrimaging can lead to enlightenment. The bliss of Silence or shanti is within us, here and now. Shivoham Shivoham. However, it feels good to be visiting one of the holiest and most mystical of sites on the roof of the world. Good luck on your visit to Mt Kailash. Bon voyage! 

Life is Pure Existence

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Bhagavada Gita, Bliss, consciousness, Creative Writing, Enlightenment, Friends, Happiness, Health, Leadership, Love, meditation, Moksha, Positive Psychology, Positivity, Sef-awareness, self-development, spirituality, Transcendental Meditation, Veda, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Life is pure existence. It is pure consciousness at the bottom of the V in V-theory of Transcendence (Figure below). The top of the V is the dynamic manifestations of life. These manifestations arise and transform and disappear at different time frames. Human beings appear at the ~ 80-year time frame. Other entities appear at longer or shorter time frames. Trees last 100s of years. Bacteria last just a few days. Longer life span is not a sign of greater intelligence or success. Attachment to this human body and its perpetuation is the ultimate mithya or illusion. We should detach from our human body (and near and dear ones’ bodies etc.) as it goes through its cycle of maturing and dissolving.

So, what are we to do with our individual short gross physical bodily existence? Doing is manifesting. We can create things and situations but should not be attached to those manifestations. Objects such as houses and cars and jewelry are a very low life form. The higher life form is that which is free from illusions and boundaries and is intent on accomplishing its assigned task of manifesting ever greater reality. Our hearts should be open to receiving guidance from higher life forms, or from pure life itself. We should be aware of our own divine powers and be a channel for creation as the time and situation demands.

Why do we manifest gross physical forms? Why do we take pleasure in creating such low-level toy forms? Why are we attached to these less significant creations? The answer may lie in social conditioning and legal structures. Such attachments provide a handle to any powerful evolved entity to manipulate us. Why do we fall for such manipulations? Some call ii God’s lila or divine play. It sometimes takes up to fag end of the individual human life span to realize the futility of attachments to manifestations. The young are mostly unable to learn this lesson from the elders. For the young, these toys are seductive. That is just the way it is!

There is enormous seduction of numbers, words, and language. Everything important should be measurable and comparable. By dividing, discretizing, and abstracting everything into tokens, the intellect allows the creation of new toys with ease, especially using machines and more recently Artificial Intelligence. Analog processes such as feelings vanish. Hearts close to what one does not already know. Awe and wonder vanish from awareness. The notion of an open divine unbounded invincible self seems ludicrous. This continues till some misfortune such as cancer or pandemics strikes and breaks that spell. Then the wisdom shines, and life appears valuable for its own sake!  

Mental Health for the whole world

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Ayurveda, Bhagavada Gita, Bliss, Climate change, consciousness, Covid-19, Enlightenment, Friends, Happiness, Health, Love, Maharishi Vastu, Mahatma Gandhi, meditation, Moksha, Music and Poetry, Nature, Positive Psychology, Positivity, self-development, spirituality, Transcendence, Transcendental Meditation, Veda, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

I appreciate the discussion about mental health. In my next avatar or phase of life, I want to become some kind of a mental health practitioner.  A big cause of mental health may be financial insecurity in a capitalist world. …And the social inequalities and pressures and heartburn that causes. The pharma lobby and DSM lobby and many other money-making machines in the West are hard at work to not fully cure but mostly contain the problems. The Federal government has created a strategy to combat mental health issues, however it remains to be seen how effective it will be.

The human body and mind have many ailments arising from whatever thoughts or beliefs or practices etc. Patanjali’s yoga sutras provide the 8-limbed formula to get away from it all.  Different practitioners or gurus have emphasized different limbs to suit the times and their purpose. Mahatma Gandhi emphasized Yama and Niyamas to uplift hundreds of millions of Indian people out of colonization. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi used dhyana and samadhi to uplift millions of people from deep stress and anxiety of nuclear annihilation towards a vision of a permanent peace. Ramdev used Asana and Pranayama to uplift a billion people from all sorts of ailments.  But from personal stories one knows that any combination of these could cure eyesight, hypertension, and backache etc. Add to it Bhagavad Gita’s message that ‘you are neither born nor do you die’ that also reminds us of our true higher / Yogic self. That is the Truth (capital T) that alone can deliver strong healthy minds.

The language of health needs to change. We are becoming self-educated semi-experts at cancer and hypertension and diabetes and an infinite number of specific diseases and disorders and syndromes that may afflict us. The solution may lie in the language of Chitta vritti nirodha (yoga sutras) and balance of doshas and vikritis (Ayurveda) and harmony (classical / Gandharva music), … and activation of chakras and kundalini and more such vibrational and energetic constructs. The dualist and disease-naming language could be replaced by a more holistic joy-feeling language. As Chomsky famously said that the primary role of language is the self-talk or inner chatter, and not so much communication with others. If the inner monkey-mind chatter could be transformed to coherent silence and awareness, health will be a natural outcome. If health is what we want, a health-ful language may be a starting point.

A health-ful language should be beneficial to the health of body or mind. It should describe something corrective or beneficially effective, even though it may be unpleasant. It should speak to the helpful effects of clean air and water and surroundings. It should speak to what benefits and sustains life physically, mentally, and spiritually. It should make a positive contribution to a healthy condition.

With gratitude to all of you for reading it! 

I am Inspired ….

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Enlightenment, Friends, Happiness, Leadership, Love, Maharishi Vastu, Mahatma Gandhi, Moksha, MUM, Positive Psychology, Positivity, Sef-awareness, self-development, spirituality, Sustainability, Veda, Vedic Technology, Yoga Sutras

Inspiration is more important than motivation. The former pulls while the latter provides a reason. That is what set me thinking about who or what inspired me. So, I listed some of my major inspirations in life, and what they meant.

I was inspired … 

  • By my paternal uncle who was a terror and yet  jolly as President of our ethnic community in our native town in India, and who said that I could achieve anything 
  • By my maternal uncle who was an excellent teacher always suggesting do what you like 
  • By my father for his disciplined hard work, unshakable confidence, work ethic,  commitment to excellence and financial prowess 
  • By Mahatma Gandhi whose life inspired the whole country of India, and whose thoughts were lofty and  formed a central component of Indian Administrative service exams
  • By Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for his ability to see the unmanifest Vedas and make enlightenment accessible through a great movement and a Vedic university
  • By Swami Ramdev for the size of his ambition fearlessness and boldness in bringing well being at all levels 
  • By my friend and IITD / IIM classmate the perfect student and gentleman now at Harvard 
  • By my friend and IITD classmate the magical perfect student who did Ph.D. at Stanford 
  • By my friend and IITD / IIMA  classmate and free soul who did Ph.D. at MIT and is a great seeker and social reformer and entrepreneur 
  • By my mom for her deep investment in and ferocious defense of her children, and great tolerance 

I am also inspired …

  • By my colleague and mentor at MIU who is here to pursue moksha and which made me get it 
  • By my colleague and mentor who is the foremost  researcher on collective consciousness and led me to organize international conference on consciousness based leadership and management 
  • By my students who said that they loved my data analytics course and for whom I wrote the data analytics book that is globally #1 recommended book 
  • By my student and colleague who is ultra-blissful and does soft thinking and is a trail blazer
  • By Vastu architecture for its ability to create de-stressing and high creativity 
  • By my bold and beautiful wife who is unafraid and a creative entrepreneur 
  • By my beautiful daughter who is a fanstastic English editor, and holistic health practitioner and communicator
  • By my other beautiful daughter who is a smart engineer and a great packer 
  • By my brother who knew about group dynamics, yoga, and Vipassana way before me and which all I spontaneously followed into. 
  • By my book club community especially its founder and coordinator who is a cool, creative and compassionate architect.

Question for you: What inspired you in life? What continues to inspire you?

Do you inspire yourself? Do you inspire others? Chances are that you are proud of some of your own accomplishments. And they probably inspire many people close to you!

Maharishi International University (MIU): Epicenter of Peace

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Bliss, consciousness, Enlightenment, Health, Leadership, meditation, MUM, Nature, Positivity, Sef-awareness, self-development, spirituality, Sustainability, Transcendence, Transcendental Meditation, Veda, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

MIU’s Global Country of World Peace is a beautiful organization that embodies what we are:  peace-loving citizens of the world, who are not divided by political or governmental surface levels of difference. As Maharishi said: What we put our attention on grows stronger. We are coming together and experiencing that field of life which is the field of unity consciousness – the unified field of natural law. Vedic technologies of consciousness, that operate from this deepest level of natural law, are a million times are more powerful than nuclear technologies.

MIU launched an Institute for Permanent Peace (IPP) this month, for applying a scientifically validated Vedic approach to creating an environment for permanent world peace. It is urgently needed to mitigate an existential risk from local wars evolving into an uncontrollable global conflagration. The purpose can be achieved by the sustained group practice of Vedic technologies, including Transcendental Meditation™ and TM-Sidhis, to create coherence in global collective consciousness.  The square root of 1% of any population—about 10,000 for the world– practicing these technologies in a group is sufficient to form a lighthouse of peace and prosperity for the whole world. Over 50 demonstrations and 23 scientific published studies have documented the benefits of large group practice of TM and its related advanced techniques on society as a whole. In every case, this approach produced marked reductions in crime, social violence, terrorism, and war, and increased peace and positivity in society.

IPP is proposing the creation of a permanent coherence-creating group comprised of 10,000 specially- trained Vedic experts to perform yoga and yagya. Results will be measured and monitored by an independent board of scientists.  Global celebrities have expressed support for the project. IPP broke ground on a project to create Vastu housing for thousands of such Vedic experts to live on MIU’s campus in Fairfield, Iowa. 

Meeting with India’s finest actor Anupam Kher

Noted filmmaker David Lynch, founder of an international charity that has brought Transcendental Meditation to more than one million under-resourced children worldwide, has issued a challenge to the world’s philanthropists: use a fraction of your wealth to establish large groups of advanced peace-creating Vedic experts in Ukraine and other critical hotspots, and leave a legacy of world peace that will last for generations.  https://davidlynch.gusp.org/

Everything is perfect!

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Bliss, consciousness, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, meditation, Moksha, Positive Psychology, Sef-awareness, self-development, Transcendence, Transcendental Meditation, Veda, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Everything is perfect!

I believe that there is no purpose of evolution, except to get better at being ourselves, and escaping from the physical manifestation and its pains from contact with objects.

I have been off tea and coffee for the last almost 20 years since I first went to a Vipassana 10-day retreat, and the teacher asked us to eschew these and other intoxicants for the ten days and ideally forever. I think from there and my decade long practice of Vipassana brought me to the understanding that we are ourselves the ultimate reality. Then during the last decade, being in Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s University, brought for me the idea of unbounded unified consciousness as the Vedantic nondual reality. It made complete sense during progressively deeper and longer and advanced sessions of Transcendence. All this while we have been eating and drinking non-agitating foods to purify our nervous systems to experience the oneness within our own selves. I have been amused by the growth in these soft-toxin businesses such as coffee and tea. I heard about the Oxford Circle of scientists using Assamese tea and then creating the dominance of the Scientistic Revolution in the service of the British East India company. The poor tea-pickers from Darjeeling will be tickled to learn that their tea was instrumental in creating the scientistic paradigm as we know it.

Just a few days ago, I chanced upon a young Argentinian man named Mattias de Stefano, who speaks about the unbounded consciousness as being the ultimate dimension, and then goes on to describe up to 9 dimensions. The second dimension produces a duality, which is mostly a thought system. The third dimension provides a neutral level also, and physicality appears. Time appears when we rise to perceive the fourth dimensions. Our 3-4 dimensional (space-time) body is a projection of our high-dimensional self. This is like a small 2-dimensional picture is a projection of our 3-dimensional body. At the fifth and sixth dimension we are pure energy, and later on pure vibrations that are the creator of all reality. At the seventh dimension, there are seven laws of existence represented through the seven chakras. At the eighth dimension, existence is the field of infinite correlations, the unbounded universe that contains everything. We are not of the universe, or in the universe, … we are the universe. A the ninth dimension, we are pure void, like a black hole, which provides the context in which the universe appears. That resonates so much with Buddha’s teaching.  

Two things from here: The first thing is that I find Mattias’ message very similar to that of Maharishi’s. Maharishi also had the baffling ability of speaking about the dynamics of the unmanifest consciousness. ‘How did he know?’, the world wondered. But that did not stop people from following him and using his descriptions of reality, that was tested through thousands of experiments published in over 700 scientific publications. In particular, I am extremely interested in Maharishi’s theory of collective consciousness. This Super-Radiance effect, that can only be understood from a consciousness-as-a-field paradigm, has been statistically proven and published beyond reasonable doubt (over 50 journal publications).

The second fascinating thing from this Argentinian young man is to hear what else he says. He speaks about his past lives, going back thousands of years, in great detail, with specific locations and names and what happened. He reports living in civilizations from across the various galaxies, tens of thousands of years ago. He is reporting solar systems with 2 or 3 suns with planets facing a night-time of only 2 or 3 hours. That means a lot of what we see and do could be biologically different in a different solar system. Many civilizations arise and die, and this one too will die, he says. The important thing from us is to raise our perceptions to the highest levels. If we die of consciousness (nothing left to do) then we do not return to the lower dimensional existence. Instead if we die of time, we will be back. One particular metaphor caught my attention: We are the spider that creates the web. We are not the web. We certainly are not an object caught in the web. The day we realize that we are totally liberated. We are the creator.

He says, that everything is perfect as it is. There is no purpose to existence. The path is the way. Have fun!

We are more than we think

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Bliss, consciousness, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, Leadership, Love, meditation, Moksha, Music and Poetry, Nature, Positive Psychology, Positivity, Sef-awareness, self-development, Sustainability, Transcendental Meditation, Transformation, Veda, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Our thinking is limited to things one can think about. Some of those things are sense objects and some are mental objects. Our perceptions and feelings are difficult to think about. Our being is beyond thinking. 

We know more than we can tell. That is tacit knowledge. Our words have more power than we think. These could be words spoken with others or with oneself. This is our latent power. 

We exist in more ways than we can tell: The body, the mind, the intellect, the spirit, the soul. We are the unbounded Brahman.  At some level of thinking all these things vanish. We become no-thing. No-thing is actually everything. But there is no way to think about everything.

We have more than we know. We have all the laws of nature within us. We exist in conformance with, and are the manifestation, of all the laws of nature. We permeate every part of every galaxy. 

We are beyond qualities, beyond names, beyond words, beyond language. We transcend and include all of those. We are silence in dynamism, wholeness in motion. We are naturally blissful, like the earth is grassfull and the sky is starfull. 

We are naturally full, or fullness, or wholeness. We just need to be aware of it at every moment. We are a wave flowing and rising and falling. Particle wise, we are at best a little boat that rises and ebbs with the waves. The life force naturally flows through us in its own rhythm.

As Pascal said, the Heart has its reasons, that Reason has no knowledge of. Nurture your own heart. Be with those that nurture your heart. Let your heart swell with joy. Share the joy with the others. And you will get 10x in return. And the whole world will be one big happy family!

Life is a donut!

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Ayurveda, Bliss, consciousness, Enlightenment, Happiness, Health, meditation, Moksha, Positive Psychology, Positivity, Sef-awareness, self-development, spirituality, Transformation, Vedic Technology, world peace, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Life is a donut. 🍩 (or doughnut).

We are donuts. Our bodies are donuts. Bodies have a hollow tube running through them. When the hollow tube remains flowing and clean, our bodies are healthy. The moment it clogs, diseases appear. Our life is also like a donut with a hollow hollow tube through it.  The upper side of the donut is the absolute, the unbounded cosmos. The bottom part of the donut is the relative, bounded by resting on the earth. Both sides are essential. So long as the hole in this donut connects the absolute with the relative, the mind functions well and remains healthy. Life gets into unbounded flow at some times, while remains engaged in specific chores at other times. 

When we eat too much or eat junk stuff, our body’s hollow tube begins to clog. When we don’t flush it down it with enough water the tube clogs. Similarly if we take in too much data and information we need time and energy to digest it. Undigested information clogs the hollow tube. The connection between the top and the bottom of the donut gets clogged. The donut becomes more like a pancake. At that point, the view is mostly of the relative side of life, the bottom of the pancake, and the view of the top is totally obscured.  Yogic techniques such as pratyaahara are ways to unclog our mind. Meditation helps to reopen the hollow tube of the mind and makes the pancake back into a donut. Attention of the mind goes round and round in the donut in a self-referral manner, even as it connects with the infinity above and the minuscule stuff below.  

A donut can be fresh thick soft and sweet. It can be glazed and have toppings, and be of different sizes. Similarly our life can be fresh expansive smiling joyful and grateful. It can have its idiosyncracies and passions and wisdom. OR else life can be short brutal nasty dour fearful stale and putrefying. 

Be a fresh donut 🍩everyday.  

Covid19 Survey – US vs India

by Dr. Anil K Maheshwari, posted in Ayurveda, consciousness, Covid-19, Data Analytics, Happiness, Health, meditation, Nature, Positive Psychology, Sef-awareness, self-development, Transcendence, Transcendental Meditation, yoga, Yoga Sutras

Covid-19 virus has unleashed mayhem in the world, and it has caused many deaths. The pattern of deaths has, however, been uneven. As of the date of publishing (May 18, 2020), there have been 30 times more deaths from #Covid19 in the US (90,000 deaths) than in India (3,000 deaths), even though the US has only one-fourth the population of India. I was curious to find out why it was so.

We conducted a quick 5-minute survey with a simple One-big-question of rank-ordering 9 factors in terms of their importance in causing this huge differential in death rates in the US and India. The 9 factors were: Demography (older population in the US); Sickness (high chronic conditions in the US); Immunity (Indian soil; Yoga, pranayama etc); Culture (greater social cohesion and family support in India); Public Policy (how seriously each country mounted a unified approach); Resources (availability of medical equipment); Genetics (difference in two populations); Diet (more vegetarians in India); Measurement (less reliable data from India). There was a None-of-the above option too. In addition, we added two question on their expectations of the way forward. One was about how long it will take to come out of Covid19 situation into normalcy. And the other was about what might be the markers for returning to normalcy.

We did convenience sampling using social media contacts of the researcher who should be in a position to compare and express their perceptions. 66 respondents from US, India, and other countries, filled out survey. Of the 66 respondents 60% were resident in India, 29% in the US, and 11% in other countries. The respondents including 55% from the researcher’s own age cohort of 55-64 years, while 42% were younger. A couple of respondents were over 65 years. The respondents were 71% male and 29% female.

Here are the main results (see bar chart below). Demographics (Older population) in the US was perceived to be the major cause of higher deaths from Covid-19 in the US than in India. Public policy choices and higher rates of Chronic sickness in the US were also identified as the next important causes for higher deaths in the US compared with India. Higher levels of Immunity was ranked highest as the major reason for lower death rates in India. Culture, Diet and Genetics received only moderate support. Surprisingly, availability of resources was ranked as least important cause.

66 Respondents’ ranking of 9 factors to explain differential death rates in USA and India

Moving forward, half the people (48%) said that it will take 1-2 years to return to normalcy. 31% of respondents said it will take less than one year, while 21% said it will take more than 2 years (see pie-chart below). US residents were twice as likely as Indian residents to think that it might take 2 or more years. For return to normalcy, the preferred enablers were availability of a tried and tested vaccine and a tested cure for Covid19, in that order (see bar graph below). Declining death rates were a lesser important marker, while availability of resources such as PPE was considered the least important marker.

66 Respondents’ expectations of time frame for return to normalcy
66 Respondents’ ranking of factors for return to normalcy

Here below is some more granular analysis.

Age: Respondents in 55-64 years ranked Public policy and Measurement issues higher, while those in 35-44 age group ranked Immunity and Culture (social cohesion) higher, as factors for explaining the differential death rates.

Gender: Male respondents ranked Demographics (aging population) and Measurement issues higher, while Female respondents prioritized Immunity, Diet, and Availability of resources.

Location: Respondents living in Rest of the World (11% of total) ranked Public policy choices and Measurement issues by a wider margin than those living within the US and India. Indian residents ranked Immunity and Culture (social cohesion) as more important. US residents ranked Public policy and availability of Resources as more important issues.

Additional comments from Respondents: One respondent wrote that it may be taboo in the Indian culture to report Covid death from a social stigma perspective. One reported that there is greater resilience to pain in India. One reported that traditional Indian homes include a central space to grow Ayurvedic plants such as Tulsi. Some reported that the cause as well as cure for Covid19 were unclear and should be thoroughly investigated.

Summary: This survey shows that there are different perceptions of what has caused dramatically lower death rates reported in India compared to the US. Development of immunity is considered the best ameliorating factor. An effective public health policy could be another.

Lessons learned: Healthy holistic lifestyle including Yoga Sutras based practices such as asanas, pranayama, and meditation are among the best ways to a create a strong platform of immunity on which specific vaccines can work effectively! In fact, the development of a special vaccine for Covid-19 is essentially a way to increase immunity against this specific virus.

Covid-19 is a very important world-transforming, life-and-death matter. Please write to us as to what you think. If you wish, you may also take 5 minutes to fill out this survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CovidAKM . Thank you!