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Ankur Naik

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<p style="text-align: justify;">Despite studying engineering, I chose Yoga as a career, so that I could take the benefits that I experienced to other youth, and contribute to the development of our collective human consciousness.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">To me, Yoga means to be free from the influences of the mind and to be in the here and now. It has many applications in daily life. Saying no to bad influences is easier on the days I am doing Yoga<br>
than on the days I am not. Once you fall into a rut with bad influences, it becomes increasingly difficult to say no and come out of that rut. Yoga boosts my willpower to listen to the little bird inside me that always knows the right thing to do.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">After completing my engineering degree, I was placed in the very first company that came for campus recruitment.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Everything was going very smoothly, but six months into the corporate setup I began to question the whole system. I started looking for alternative careers that were more meaningful. While exploring, I came across a postgraduate liberal arts program called the Young India Fellowship offered by Ashoka University. Having written the CAT exam, I had two options in hand: one was to choose the regular route of pursuing an MBA after engineering to climb the corporate ladder, and the other was to choose an off-beat path by pursuing a liberal arts education and exploring other options. I chose the latter and it turned out to be very soul satisfying. I met students from different streams of education, with different thought process, and amazing teachers. All this opened and stretched my mind to new dimensions.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">At Ashoka, I met a Heartfulness Meditation trainer and my life took a turn for the better. I started meditating with her very frequently, sometimes twice daily for many days. I took many friends along also – those who wanted to experience meditation – and all of them had profound experiences. I saw the impact Yoga and meditation were having on other youngsters and decided I should pursue them further and get a deeper understanding. Coincidentally my trainer introduced me to the Heartfulness Fellowship Program, which has a Yoga branch. What more could I have asked for? I decided to go for it. And now the journey continues.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">I consider that giving way to peer pressure and competition is because of a lack of self-worth, which happens when we lose touch with our inner self. When we don’t have a practice that allows us to connect with our inner self, we easily fall prey to our shortcomings and negative thought processes, and that can be detrimental for growth.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Once we start going down the path of self loathing, it becomes difficult to be happy with who we are, and we tend to think of ourselves as underachievers. The education system and the society in this era don’t help in this regard either.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">In contrast, when you find something that allows you to connect to your inner self, you no longer look outside yourself for validation. You channel whatever it is that wants to make an appearance in the world through you. Once I started meditating, I could choose things that were good for my growth. I became more comfortable with who I was, and didn’t need to prove anything to anybody else to find happiness.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">We have immense potential to achieve whatever it is we set out to achieve. And given the state of things in the world today, I am interested in making wise choices that are good for us and for our progeny. Now!</p>
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<h4 style="text-align: center;">Article by ANKUR NAIK</h4>
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