World Meditation Day

 Recently, the General Assembly of the United Nations, approved December 21 as the World Day of Meditation. It was proposed by Liechtenstein and supported by countries like India. Earlier, India proposed June 21 to be celebrated as the World Day of Yoga and it was approved as well. Yoga and meditation go hand in hand. These two things have been an integral part of Indian culture.

If we trace through the history of Yoga or meditation in India, a few believe that it was first introduced during 5000 B.C. But since literary sources will not be available dating back to that period, we don’t have solid evidence. Even the prehistoric cave paintings depict only the social life of those times, but there is no proof for the practice of Yoga or meditation. 

The most acceptable point of Yoga and meditation is that they belong to the vedic period. It is when social practices started getting printed as literary texts. Upanishads talk about Dhyana, which is meditation. But it would’ve been the practice of the top most Varna and we can’t be sure about the Varnas.

A few say that it belongs to Jainism and Buddhism. Jainism emerged before Buddhism. And the founder of Jainism is Mahavira Vardhamana who is not the first but the twenty fourth Thirthankara. In the case of Buddhism, Gautama Sidhartha decides to renounce the materialistic life after seeing an old man, a diseased person, a death and a monk. So, monks existed even before Buddha. So, Yoga and meditation might have been invented during the vedic period, but Jainism and Buddhism popularized it.

If we go around the temples, we can find numerous statues. It includes statues depicting social life, the mythologies and even erotic statues. On those days, people visit the temples daily. So, many things were passed on to the next generation through these statues. In that case, we can find a lot of statues around the premises of the temples doing Asanas or meditation. It shows that it has been a part of daily life of Indian people and was passed on from generation to generation. 

Meditation is not as easy as it sounds. To bring the entire focus on one point is the toughest thing in the world. But the sages who have been living a very simple life remained powerful because of it.One should practice Yoga and meditation not only for a healthy life but a peaceful life as well.