Meditation Class Instructor
Our main class instructor in Nelson is Shardul (right) who has been a member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre since 1984. Shardul was born in Te Kuiti but grew up in Auckland. At the age of 24, while living in South Australia, he attended a series of 'Learn to Meditate' classes offered by the Adelaide Sri Chinmoy Centre and has been meditating daily since.
"Learning to meditate has been the best thing I ever did!" Shardul comments. "For various reasons, I was not at all happy with my life back in 1984, but I was fortunate enough to recognise that the reason for that came down to problems within myself. The burning question was how to fix the situation.
As fate would have it, a friend of a friend recommended that I learn to meditate and the suggestion struck a chord. I had been a huge fan of the television series Kung Fu when I was a teenager and I remembered that the main character, because he had practiced meditation daily from a young age, had tremendous poise and equanimity in all situations. Inspired by the idea of having the ability to attain balance, poise and purpose in life (all of which I lacked), I attended the meditation course.
In time I also realised that there was tremendous benefit in having a teacher, so I became one of Sri Chinmoy's students. Meditation has been an essential part of my life since then and, even more importantly for me, so has Sri Chinmoy's personal guidance, love and concern."
Shardul first met Sri Chinmoy in 1985 and visited him regularly until the Master's passing in 2007. Like so many of Sri Chinmoy's students, he developed tremendous respect and gratitude for his teacher's guidance and example. In Shardul's own words:
"Probably the most profound thing that a genuine spiritual Master does for his students is to help them to bring to the fore their innate spiritual qualities – to encourage what is often called 'the quickening of the soul'. When I first decided to learn meditation, my main motivation was simply to be happier and more peaceful. I had little or no concept of the soul, could not even bring myself to say the word 'God' and had no idea that spiritual Masters even existed in the modern world. But as I later discovered, if what we have inside our hearts wants something to happen, it is often irrelevant that our minds cannot even conceive of that reality.
As I continued with my meditation practice and spent time with Sri Chinmoy, I realised that what had been missing in my life was an awareness of my deeper spiritual nature – a key factor to making spiritual progress and finding true fulfilment in life. I slowly became aware that the best meditation occurs when we are able to calm the mind and allow that deeper part of our nature to come forward and meditate for us – which it wants to do. Then, with our focus on our good qualities, it becomes much easier to see the brighter side of life and live in a happy and progressive mode.
When we can learn to carry this awareness into our outer activities, it is really meditation in action – the practicle application of what we gain from our regular meditation practice. Sri Chinmoy always encouraged his students to adopt lifestyle habits that support and feed our spiritual aspirations in order to remain receptive to the goodness and to be consistent in our progress. All of this, I have found, is best accomplished by focusing on the spiritual heart and that is what we encourage in our meditation classes."
Question: Could you speak more about aspiration?
Sri Chinmoy: Aspiration is man's inner cry for the Highest. It is the mounting flame within us that climbs up high, higher, highest. In the outer world we use one thing to reach our goal and that is desire. In the inner world we use something else: aspiration. Now the difference between desire and aspiration is this: Desire tells us that we have to get one thing today and tomorrow two things. The day after tomorrow again we have to increase the number to two, three, four or more. But aspiration will not say that. Aspiration will say, "Enter into the infinite Vast and this Vast will give you boundless Peace, Light and Delight." (Source)
It is the calm of meditation that gives us a direct experience of our unique inner nature, our spirituality. Even a few minutes of meditation each day can have a powerful and positive effect in our lives. We cordially invite you to explore your own inner potential.
Shardul is also a musician and specialises in singing and playing the meditative music of Sri Chinmoy. He has been playing simple system wooden flutes made by the Irish flute maker Martin Doyle since 2001 and often performs for free in hospitals and in public spaces.
"Soulful music and singing are the perfect compliment to meditation", Shardul comments. "Meditative music is uplifting – it touches and brings forward the spiritual heart so easily. It is very much a part of my spiritual journey and I find it is very helpful to the people who attend our meditation classes as well."
"Music is a universal language. It is through music that the universal feeling of oneness can be achieved in the twinkling of an eye." – Sri Chinmoy.
Sri Chinmoy offered over 700 free concerts during his lifetime. Above he is pictured performing on his favourite instrument, the esraj.
