As I made way through the aisle of my first ever ‘SpiceJet’ flight, several eyes met mine. I looked searchingly for one smiling face, a rather high expectation these days from strangers in a public space. The flying time was a meager 45 minutes from Mangalore to my home city- Bangalore. I lit up when I saw the gleaming eyes of a little girl. Her innocent smile lit up my heart with the purest love.
I soon settled down on my assigned aisle seat, next to a young, bespectacled lady seated by the window. I turned to greet her, but she didn’t bother to spare even a side-ward glance to acknowledge my presence. Her cold attitude hardly surprised me. My expectations have rock-bottomed after witnessing many such exasperating responses from indifferent passengers on public transport. I stretched and twisted, absorbed in my yogic kriya purification practices, and watching massive clouds move at 27,000 feet, I began to enjoy the opportunity to be away from the buzz of mobile devices. I used this precious time to fine-tune my nadis with Himalayan yogic breath.
Immersed in blissful flow of prana and restive awareness, I woke up to the voice of the captain crackling through the speaker above my head. The flight was being prepared for descent. Meanwhile, I heard an air hostess offering a glass of water. I nodded a ‘yes’. I also felt the urge to use the washroom. As I was returning to my seat, I saw an obese, middle-aged man struggling to sit down. He was grimacing in pain. As I bent down to assist him, the two air hostesses warned me that this man was facing serious muscle cramps.
I dug my right fist deep into his solar plexus. Thankfully the man responded by instantly sliding into his seat, much to the delight of the air hostesses. They quizzed me if I was a doctor. I smiled and they assumed it as an affirmation. Little did they know that I had used an ancient ‘marma’ therapy technique to guide prana into his limbs.
As I strapped the belt of my seat, I noticed both the air hostesses rushing and greeting me with thousand watt smiles. They were thanking me profusely for my timely response and seemed curious to know what I had done to help that man in pain. The conversation later spilled over to their own personal journeys. It became obvious that they needed help to sort their emotional stress.
With time running out, there was no scope for long discussions. I gave one of them a quick demonstration of how one can use a himalayan technique on the nerve endings in their hands to de-stress. I could feel her genuine smile and gratitude pouring out. Interestingly, the girl next to me, who had ignored me all along, had turned around to face me. She did manage to express an intense and curious look.
The other air hostess had then walked back to me. ”You are so compassionate, may I offer you some food or beverage”, she asked. I politely refused. But she was persistent and handed me a box of peanuts. The most rewarding of these moments was to receive their genuine gratitude, which seems a far-fetched expectation in our distorted social milieu.
As I walked out of the flight, I felt happy to have made two new friends, who promised to stay connected and learn the Himalayan kriya yoga.
I encounter so many people in my extensive travels. It feels so beautiful to connect and make new friends. However in my observation, I see a disturbing trend of people lost in their consummate world of mobile devices. Very few people even make an effort to know their surroundings or connect with people seated beside them. It is unusual to find someone return a smile.
Many of us remain oblivious to the fact that we are supremely connected by the unseen ‘uni-chord’, whether we accept it or not. I strongly believe that strangers are friends from the past. However we will connect with those beings that are part of the soul arrangement and karmic drama of life. But the niggling question remains as to why we find it so hard to smile when we encounter strangers in a considerably safe setting. Most of us claim to be super-networked and aware with daily dose of wisdom forwards that we endorse and circulate through our ‘WhatsApp’ and ‘Facebook’ channels. It is starkly evident that there is a big yawning gap between our ‘claims’ and ‘actions’. We seemed to have lost our ability to be child-like and our rigid disposition has come to be globally acceptable. We live in a society that warns us not to speak with strangers, but gleefully arranges marriage to strangers.
We live in a world where fear and mistrust have ruined our natural ability to connect with fellow humans. With due respect to our ability to sense danger, we can use our discretion to exchange smiles with strangers. A deep yogic realization is that as we align, reinforce and balance our body, breath and its expansive network, we radiate a strong electro-magnetic field. This reflects as a protective energy shield known in yogic parlance as “vajra kavacha”. I have personally experienced the benefits of reinforced energy armour. This comes into play to protect against viral attacks and also negative vibes from strangers.
As an ardent student of sociology, I often immerse in ‘people watching’ which offers tremendous window into social patterns we blatantly copy. I only wish we could live blissfully in a world where we honour each other’s presence while we genuinely feel and express being human.
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Dr. Pradeep Ullal is a Himalayan yogi and founder of ‘Kevala Foundation’, a celebration destination in a sacred nature paradise in chikmagalur, India
Very inspiring….