When Vikram Hazra decided to leave his lucrative job in India to pursue becoming a teacher for the Art of Living courses, his parents were apparently, and understandably, perplexed.  It didn’t help any when he further told them that what he wanted to do was to go around the world teaching people how to, well, breathe. To breathe.

“But what can be more important than breathing?” Hazra, who is also a Mumbai-based concert artist and musician, asked around thirty participants at an Art of Living Part 1 class held in Makati City just last week. While in the Philippines teaching Art of Living corporate workshops to two prominent Multinational companies, Hazra found the time to do this public workshop, and just days before had conducted the same in Boracay. “You can live without food for a couple of weeks; you can live without water for a few days. But take away the breath for a few minutes? You’re gone!” Yet no one, he asserts, teaches people how to use our breath in order to make us more effective. Not in schools, not at work, nor at home. 

And that is one of the many extraordinarily basic ideas the Art of Living courses set out to show people from all walks of life the world over.

Beyond mere inhalation and exhalation to stay alive, proper breathing has been proven to relieve physical discomfort, to de-stress, to relax the body and calm the mind. Alternative health care practitioners will even go so far as to say that the breath can actually eliminate diseases and toxins, not only acting as a preventive but also as a cure.
Then of course there are legions of meditators that acknowledge the breath as the key to spiritual awakening, the incontrovertible link between the body and the mind. “Observe your breath when you are upset, “ Hazra instructs, “and see how different it is when you are happy. Or sad.” Manage your breath, and you manage your life.

Over five week nights and one Saturday morning, participants at an Art of Living workshop are carefully guided by a trained teacher through a series of precise breathing exercises. The fulcrum of the workshop is the Sudarshan Kriya, a rhythmic breathing technique that energizes, detoxifies, and clears the mind of tension, fatigue and worry. In between the breathing processes are group conversations on living life to the fullest, yoga and a lot of self-exploration.

A few days before the workshop, the public was also treated to an exquisite, eclectic concert with Hazra, accompanied by the renowned songbird, Cynthia Alexander who also happens to be an Art of Living teacher gifted with the uncanny ability to pick up tendrils of unknown melodies and gently improvise. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Hazra’s vibrant energy drew in participants to enroll in the very next Art of Living course that was scheduled just a few days after the concert!

The over 1500 graduates of the Art of Living courses in the Philippines join millions worldwide. The Art of Living Foundation presents itself as one of the world’s largest volunteer-based educational and humanitarian organization, founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar(Sri Sri). Many graduates of the course have reported better overall health and more relaxed mental and emotional states. Stress clouds the individual’s true nature of joy and love, and the aim of the courses is to eliminate stress so that people can wholly attend to living their lives to the fullest.

In a recent interview, radio personality Jaime Licauco asked Hazra what was the purpose of Art of Living. “To put a smile back on every face on this planet,” Hazra simply said, quoting his teacher Sri Sri.

More smiles will be put back on people’s faces the week of August 24-29 when the next Part 1 course will be held in Edsa Shangri-la Hotel. To register for the program and for other inquiries, please contact Lorna at 216 6139 or 09178484898 or Ruth at 09175275466. Email info@artofliving.org.ph or visit www.artofliving.org.ph.