When I first did my Art of Living Happiness Program, my teacher Natasha Pratap asked all the participants to take a vow – “we would not miss our weekly Sudarshan Kriya practice with the group”. I said yes with a “But”. I told her I was travelling to Hong Kong on work and wouldn’t be able to join the group the following week. She did not as much as bat an eyelid and said “Find a follow-up centre in HK, while you are there”. And truth be told, I found a follow-up location in HK and turned up for the Sudarshan Kriya practice there.

When we decided to shift base to London a few months later, once again my teacher turned up like an angel at our place and took me to meet a very senior faculty of the Art of Living. He was resting in a room, dimly lit. He was big made with a flowing beard and hair and looked the part of a saint. He asked me what I did for a living. I told him I had just given up a perfectly well paying job to move to London to study. Looking back that decision now seems like the recklessnes and confidence of youth. This teacher simply looked at me and said “London can be dangerous. Before you go to London, do the ‘Maharashtra Advanced Meditation Program’ in the Bangalore Ashram”. It was just a few months before our departure to London. The packers and movers were going to come any day. But the seed of the Advanced Meditation Program had been planted in my head. Miraculously, I also got an offer of a free flight ticket as reward for my accumulated credit card points. I left the packing to my wife and went to Bangalore to do the Advanced Meditation program literally less than a week before our flight to London. The advanced meditation course I had done just before leaving for London was serendipitous (brilliant foretelling by the aforementioned teacher) because I had to deal with a great deal of challenges and uncertainty in London from the first night to my entire stint in London. (In fact on our first night, we heard a knock on our apartment door. When I opened the door, I saw a bloodied man standing outside my door, likely a gang member, asking for help)

In London, I once again sought out the local Art of Living Community and entrenched myself by going for weekly follow-ups close to where I lived and eventually created an eco-system of follow-ups myself along with some teachers who had then also moved from NY to London. In those days on a cold winter Sunday morning, with the sky dark and grey even at 10 a.m. I would drag my reluctant wife along for our weekly SKY practice much to her chagrin. I used to tell her that the only purpose of going for the practice is to remain connected to the wisdom. Gurudev has created these practices so people can come together in the form of a community and support each other.

When I became a teacher, I then started creating the ecosystem that would support creation of a community. And that kept me uplifted too. And when I dropped the ball on staying connected with the community, I felt I regressed too. I am now glad I am back to running weekly follow-ups in Singapore.

My progress on the spiritual journey would have been impossible with the support of the Art of Living community wherever I went.

Our environment hugely influences us. And who we keep company with greatly influences the state of our mind. If you want to improve your tennis, you have to find a supporting community that can grow your abilities at tennis. If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you have to hook yourself up with a group that can inspire your entrepreneurial endeavours. And likewise if you want to understand your own self the community accelerates progress (through both pleasant and unpleasant experiences) that on your own you would not be able to engineer.