Delete Distress from your Corporate life

Dutch-born Swami Purnachaitanya is currently Director of Programs for the Art of Living where he conducts a range of personal development training and oversees various service projects in India and Africa. These projects include but are not limited to rural development, prisoner rehabilitation and educational initiatives. He has also represented Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and The Art of Living at various national and international forums, seminars and conferences.

Apart from this, he is a senior teacher trainer with the Sri Sri School of Yoga and is known for his skill in teaching this style that connects a balanced and thorough discipline of physical postures, breathwork, meditation and yogic wisdom. He has studied Indology and has mastery over the Sanskrit language. His recently released book ‘Looking Inward’ is an interesting insight into how to achieve calmness in this insecure world, particularly in these pandemic times. The book is already a national bestseller and is being translated into many other languages, including Dutch, French, German, Russian and Arabic. He spoke to Corporate Citizen at length on various issues, including strengthening one’s mind through breathing techniques and his own fascinating life journey. Read on...

"In the corporate world, if you have a hectic schedule, too much responsibility, and seek peak performance, you need to be well-rested, calm and alert"

Corporate Citizen: In your recently published book, ‘Looking Inward’, you have said that there are many misconceptions and wrong notions about meditation. Could you elaborate?

Swami Purnachaitanya

Swami Purnachaitanya: Just like yoga, meditation is rapidly gaining acceptance and is widely known, to the extent that for many entrepreneurs, it is also an interesting business opportunity. We see a huge increase in meditation apps, meditation gadgets, and meditation books to make it easier for people to meditate. Many times, however, we see that these are moving away from the traditional concept of meditation, just like people started inventing stuff like goat yoga, beer yoga and so on, which have nothing to do with actual yoga.

Many people understand yoga as mainly the asanas-that is, the physical postures. In fact, anything that involves stretching also goes by the name of yoga nowadays while true yoga is so much more. In a similar manner, mindfulness is now often equated with meditation, and many corporates prefer to use the word ‘mindfulness’ rather than ‘meditation’. This is because they believe it is easier for people to relate to, and it has less of a religious or cultural connotation than the word meditation.

CC: Please elaborate on meditation...

Meditation is one step further where you go to a point of no effort; it is a state of effortlessness where you are no longer engaging the mind but you are going beyond it. This is where you get a different set of benefits, which are very profound. One of them is deep rest-physically, emotionally, and mentally. It allows you to recharge your battery and digest so many of the impressions and experiences that we are exposed to.

Many people nowadays, even when they come to me, share this challenge that even if they sleep seven hours a night, they don’t feel fresh when they wake up. Physically you may have rested well but mentally, the mind is not fresh and not clear. You might need a cup of coffee or tea or a Redbull to get you going. Even at night, if you want to sleep, your mind will be very active because of stress or anxiety. It is difficult to fall asleep even if you are dead tired. We have never learnt to consciously relax our mind, to consciously let go of impressions, as grasping happens naturally. Many times, something unpleasant happens and it gets absorbed in the system and it keeps coming back and troubling us-we don’t enjoy that. But we have never learnt to let go. It is as if we don’t know how to delete the file.

Meditation is essential if you want to be happy and peaceful. However, if people think that by downloading some app and doing a two minutes meditation, which may just be some sounds of nature to make you relax a little, then they are missing out on.

"Even in the pandemic, there are people who happily go on in life and don’t seem so affected, even though they face the same challenges. That means it is not really the situation but our own conditioning that makes us uncomfortable in a situation"

CC: You gave this beautiful concept of mindfulness and meditation that is haphazardly followed. What does one have to do to further one’s activities in a calmer way?

The best way is to learn from proper teachers. In my book, I have given step-by-step practical exercises and an understanding of how to reach to a point where you can relax the mind and go beyond it. The first step is the understanding of how the mind works. If you don’t know how to manage your mind, then even if you close your eyes, you will not be able to ward off unpleasant thoughts. One of the first places where people are stuck is that thoughts keep coming up and you don’t know what to do with them.

We have to realise that effort is what works on the level of the body but effortlessness works on the level of the mind. We have always been taught that if we want to achieve something, we have to put in efforts, whether it is to become flexible, to train our body, to learn to play the guitar, or anything else. But that doesn’t work with the mind. The more you try to remember something, you can’t. But the moment you say, never mind, then suddenly you remember. So, on the level of the mind, effortlessness works. That is the first step to starting to relax.

Many times you find that what is stopping you from relaxing are all the pending things. Either the things that you have to do, or want to do. So, to be able to meditate, you have to be able to drop all your cravings and desires, at least for a few moments. Feel that for the next few moments, you don’t want anything, as if you stop existing. Then you will notice that the mind starts settling down. Feel that for the next 20 minutes, all that is pending can remain so. If you are able to do that, you will find that the mind starts settling down a lot. That itself can give you a lot of rest already.

My Master, Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, said very beautifully that passion and dispassion should go together. Passion is like breathing in and dispassion is like breathing out. Any athlete knows this-if you want to progress the most, you need to exercise but also give your body the rest it needs.

If you say that you are too busy to meditate, then you need it all the more. As we see in the corporate world, if you have a hectic schedule, too much responsibility, and seek peak performance, you need to be well-rested, calm and alert. It has been my personal experience practising meditation for the last 20 years. The same job that earlier took me half an hour I can now do in 10 minutes. People wonder; how do I do it? Simple; it is about being fully charged.

"You can force people to do a lot with a stick but there is a different level of achievement, creativity, excellence, that can only be achieved by passion, devotion and inspiration. People who are most successful are the ones who are not forced-they are inspired, passionate and that is what drives them to excel"

CC: You have written that we can only aspire to be unshakable when we take ownership of the state of our mind. Could you explain the relevance of this in pandemic times?

More than ever people have realised that we rely on things outside of us for peace of mind, for a sense of security and stability. In these pandemic times, suddenly you may find that you have lost your job or your company goes down the drain, and suddenly you are not certain whether you will make it. People who never doubted their own health because they were healthy, suddenly may have grown insecure. It reminds us that the world outside of us is not in our control.

But even in the pandemic, there are people who happily go on in life and don’t seem so affected, even though they face the same challenges. That means it is not really the situation but our own conditioning that makes us uncomfortable in a situation. The moment you realise that, you have made the first step to regain your autonomy and real inner peace.

There is a part in you, which is untouched - the more you can consciously connect to that, you can experience that, irrespective of the situation around you, you will still be happy. This is something worth achieving and realising because that means that in any situation, no matter what happens, you can still be calm and peaceful.

CC: You mentioned that the mind is like a kite, and breath is like the string. Could you elaborate on it for the younger generation?

You see a kite, there is a string attached to it. If you let go of the string, the kite goes all over the place. When you hold the string, you can make sure that it goes in the right direction. In many ways, our mind is like that-it goes all over the place. For any young person who is sitting in a classroom, he may be physically there but his mind may be wandering, we have all experienced that. So, if we have a string that will help us to determine where the mind goes, how high it goes, it will be much easier. This is where the breath becomes useful. If your state of mind changes, the rhythm of your breath also changes, so there is a direct connection. If someone gets angry, breathing gets irregular; when you are emotional, there is a different rhythm; when you are upset, you will find exhalation is more prominent. When you are chilled out, your inhalation is more prominent. So, when we learn to utilise the breath, it becomes easy to manage our minds. For me, this was a big eye-opener.

When I was young, I was practising different martial arts, we used to do a few of breathing techniques but it was superficial. But when I did my first Art of Living program, I learnt more about how to really utilise the breath. For me, it was a revelation.

CC: Can you further elaborate on the ability to be satisfied irrespective of what you are doing?

Our corporate world is now highly competitive, there is a lot of focus on achieving; many times, it is almost at any cost. We feel that this is something that can drive people to excel. To some extent, it is true, if someone is very lethargic, if they are not very ambitious, then putting them in fight or flight mode can get them on their seat and working. The only thing is, you can do this only up to some extent. From the health perspective, whether it is physical, mental or emotional health, overdoing it is detrimental. That is when you get burnt out and suffer from lifestyle ailments because the hormones being produced are not conducive to your state of regeneration or healing.

You can force people to do a lot with a stick but there is a different level of achievement, creativity, excellence, that can only be achieved by passion, devotion and inspiration. People who are most successful are the ones who are not forced-they are inspired, passionate and that is what drives them to excel.

"A lot of the current corporate setting is still aiming for a mediocre result; it is not true excellence. That is why we have a lot of motivational speakers. But as my Master said beautifully: when motivation comes from outside, it is short-lived"

CC: What is the situation in the corporate world today?

A lot of the current corporate setting is still aiming for a mediocre result; it is not true excellence. That is why we have a lot of motivational speakers. But as my Master said beautifully: when motivation comes from outside, it is short-lived. Instead, if you inspire people, you would see a much bigger result. That is why in the corporate world, many people are realising the need for programmes that cater to not just the mental health and well-being of their employees but also to kindling those core values. That’s because we have a scenario wherein, earlier people used to be doing one job, work with one company all of their life, and they would feel it is their company. So the kind of ownership, the kind of belongingness they used to have was very different. People knew that if they did well, they would be there until retirement, and they would do whatever they needed to do to help the company.

Nowadays, you see people can get fired at any point. They don’t know how long they are going to be there, so they always keep a backup plan. They keep looking for a better option. And the company management fears attrition, so it too cannot bank too much on one person. Hence, there is a lot of insecurity. In such a scenario, there is less belongingness with the company, there is much less ownership, so people are much more tempted to work for the paycheque than for passion or loyalty. Even from the angle of productivity, quality or sustainability, it is much more beneficial to the company to create a space of belongingness where people feel this is my company because then they will go the extra mile.

CC: When was the turning point in your life?

When I was growing up, I had my fair share of challenges-my mother got cancer when I was very young; she survived, but it shook me. My parents divorced when I was 12 years old. We did not have a lot of money; we managed somehow to make ends meet. I realised that unless you learn to manage or master your mind, there is no guarantee that you will be successful or truly happy. As a teenager, I used to read about Zen, Buddhism, and other philosophical books, but it still did not give me what I was looking for.

When I was 16, my mother did an Art of Living Program, and that is how she experienced breathing techniques. She didn’t share too much about it with me or my brother at that point. But soon after, she got to know that the founder of the organisation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, was coming to the Netherlands, and he would be giving a public talk about human values, in Amsterdam. She got an invitation. She asked my brother and me if we would like to accompany her. We said yes-I was 16 and he was 14 years then. We went to Amsterdam for the program and I didn’t really know what to expect. But I saw his poster and he looked like a proper saint with the long hair, beard and complexion. We went in.

The program left a lasting impression. One thing I remember was that he was so natural, he was at ease, not at all artificial. It struck me that even though his language was so simple, it was very profound. It really struck a chord. He also conducted a guided meditation, which had felt like just a few minutes for me, but actually was about 20-25 minutes. When he said you can open your eyes and I saw the time, I realised that even though I had had some thoughts, there were gaps where I hadn’t had any thoughts, and I was feeling peaceful. That triggered my curiosity to learn more. That was the turning point.

CC: Then how did you go ahead...

In a subtle way, I went from seeking and looking for something authentic to now exploring what I had found. I did some of the Art of Living Programs there and I went to meet Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Germany. In a matter of a few years, I realised I would love to be a trainer for these programs because I saw how useful they were. I always had an innate desire to serve, to contribute to other people. I found the platform where I could do that - where I had the chance to keep going deeper into this knowledge, keep learning more, but at the same time also contribute through the meditation and service programs.

In 2007, after completing my university studies, I moved to the Art of Living International Center in Bengaluru to continue serving and deepening my knowledge to an even greater extent. Till date, I am so grateful to have had that opportunity. I go back to the Netherlands every one and a half years to meet my family and friends. My family is very proud of what I do. Many of my friends are doing well in different fields. A few have done the Art of Living Program, some may not have but at different points in time, each of them has shared with me that the joy or the contentment they see on my face is something they are still looking for.

"Nowadays, you see people can get fired at any point. They don’t know how long they are going to be there, so they always keep a backup plan. They keep looking for a better option. And the company management fears attrition, so it too cannot bank too much on one person"

CC: When did you become a Sanskrit Pandit?

I had come once to India after high school, and had had an experience at the Art of Living ashram in Bengaluru of various pujas, particularly the Rudra Abhishek (done every Monday) which left a very strong impression. That kindled the interest that was already there. I wanted to learn more about this tradition and practice. When I had to finalise what I wanted to study at the University in my home country, the Netherlands, I opted for the Arts Degree in Indology at Leiden University.

However, at the outset of the first year, we had an orientation program to meet the faculty. There was an elderly Dutch professor who looked like he must have never left the Netherlands. I asked him whether we would be learning some Vedic chanting. He looked at me and said: “Of course not, it is a dead language.” That broke my heart, as I had visited India and seen this ancient tradition which was very much alive. I realised that I was barking up the wrong tree. I decided to learn whatever possible there and then go back to India to learn more about the recitation of the mantras. My Bachelor thesis was a comparative study of some of the Shankaravijayas texts that comprise the life story of Adi Shankaracharya.

CC: What is the philosophy of life that you live by?

With the blessings of my Master, I now live my life not in the pursuit of happiness but as an expression of happiness. From a state of fullness and fulfilment, I am able to look at the world around me and see what more I can do to help make this world more beautiful and be useful for the people around me. And to share this beautiful knowledge that I have received with whoever I meet.