Why am I happy?

The summer of 2014 was pretty amazing. Having discovered the Art of Living’s Happiness workshop and having learnt the S.K.Y (Sudarshan Kriya Yoga) breathing technique, life turned around. It was like a light bulb going on in my head and seeing all this energy to finally live life fulfillingly.

Life began to flow. I had a melodious rhythm to life. I was able to organize my life to focus on my priorities and develop good habits. I was becoming better, and that is a feeling I loved. But, put all that aside. Why was I happy?

That summer, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of Art of Living was visiting Montreal. And… I got to hear him speak live and meet him in person. Not often in life do we meet people who are smiling and help us smile. Fewer still are people you hear going out of their way to help the needy. I have only read in history books of the handful of men who have left a mark in their respective century, let it be the more recent likes of Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. And, that’s how I felt when I sat in his presence.

And, what felt more weird was when I looked around and realized the community I was with. A group of amazing folk who are striving to bring the world together, raise the level of awareness, joy and wellbeing in individuals and communities at large, dissolving the boundaries of religion, caste, creed, ideologies and bringing humanity as one. That’s when it hit me. I have finally found a collective community spread across the world with the simple goal of making this world a better place, to elevate our level of human suffering to levels of epic celebrations. I was home.