Was reading with interest that our Prime Minister’s present visit to the US is to boost India-US defense industrial ties, and felt good we as a nation under the PM were slowly becoming self-reliant in our defense production. Then with quickened interest I read that the PM would also lead the Yoga Day celebrations at the UN!
I’m glad yoga is being exported from India, and that slowly the whole world is realizing that attaining peace and joy are more important than even attaining nuclear muscle. That peace within can change the world and make it more livable, but again isn’t the taste of the pudding in the eating? Shouldn’t we as the yoga capital of the world be showing the world that we Indians through mediation are the most peace-loving people in the world?
Am reading a delightful book, called, ‘The Book of Joy’ which is a New York Times Bestseller. The book speaks about a wonderful week which his holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu spent together. Desmond Tutu, became the first black Bishop of a predominantly white Anglican South African denomination. It was a time when the majority African blacks had taken over their country, but between Nelson Mandela, and Tutu who he appointed as head of the Truth and Reconciliation committee, they managed to bring unity between the majority blacks and the minority whites who had previously been their rulers and harsh administrators.
Archbishop Tutu won the Nobel Peace Prize for his great efforts.
We all know what the Dalai Lama has gone through. Thrown out of his homeland Tibet by the Chinese, where he reigned as the spiritual head, he was given asylum in India, but all that the world sees through him, is a man who bears no hatred or anger towards China but continues to win people through his messages of peace and his spontaneous joy.
If there were two gigantic leaders who had the right to discuss methods of bringing joy to a joyless world it was these two. They had earned their stripes by showing through their lives that peace and joy could be achieved even in the most trying circumstances!
Thus, when they talk of joy, the world listens.
The world listens when we practice what we preach!
Charles Blondin was a famous pioneer of tightrope walking, which, is properly called “funambulism,” and which could mean the intricate balance between fun and ambulances. In 1859 Blondin crossed the Niagara Falls on a 3-inch tightrope, walking about 400 yards across the water at a height of 160 feet. Thousands of spectators gasped at his boldness and skill.
In subsequent shows, he repeated his performance with various twists: walking blindfolded, prancing on stilts, or sitting down on the rope in the middle of the Niagara Falls to cook himself an omelet. Once he even carried his manager across on his back.
After lugging his manager across the Falls, Blondin went up to a spectator and asked, “Do you believe I could carry you across the Niagara on my back?”
“I sure do.”
Blodin said, “Hop on.”
The man replied, “Not on your life!”
Today as I look at violent scenes all over my beloved country is that what we are saying, “Yes, we believe in Yoga!”
“Then bring peace to your country!”
“Not on my life!”
Let us start practicing exactly what we are selling to the world. We are not just selling yoga, oh no, we are selling peace and joy to the world through yoga, and unless people the world over see that in our country, they are not going to believe in what we sell.
Today, as I hear about the violence in many parts of our country, especially Manipur; the brutal killings, the involvement of the state and the silence of national leaders, as I hear about families hiding in the forests, women and children murdered, and fear enveloping the whole state, I realize that to have the world believe in our inward peace they need to see the outward effect.
I remember many years ago, an editor of a religious magazine, brought out a book, called, ‘Truth Triumphant’. It was a compilation of all the editorials he’d written in the magazine. At a meeting of the trust, he was told by a member that since he had reached the age of seventy-five it was time he retired as the editor. He retired at the same meeting. When he reached home, he heard a piece of news about who would replace him, something that annoyed him, and when his staff asked him, if he had resigned, he replied, “Of course not!”
“Sir,” said a member of his staff, “I’ve just got a call that the whole meeting was recorded, and they have you on record, saying you are giving your resignation!”
“Recorded?” asked the man, “Ah, then in that case I did resign!”
Imagine writing a book about truth being triumphant and then lying? I know what his staff thought about him, and I wonder if that is how the world thinks of us?
If we are selling joy to the world, they need to see the effects of it, both in the salesman and in the people, only then will they believe our product is beneficial.
What’s preventing us from showing this to the world? Is it so difficult to bring peace? Is it so hard to move our thinking away from only capturing votes to areas where justice and fairness is required?
Just like Blodin the tightrope walker spoke with his spectator, do you see Yoga walking over to our leaders and asking, “Do you believe using me can bring joy and peace to your nation?”
“Yes!” they all shout.
“Hop on the peace bandwagon, bring joy to the nation!”
Do they shout, “Not on my life!” or do they whisper, “Yes!” joyously.
That is the way to sell joy sir..!

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