Morning Meditation: Sangeeta Saxena Shares How We Can Apply Meditation and Spirituality in Our Daily Lives
“Our thoughts drive our actions. Actions produce consequences in due course.” Today’s woman dreamer, Sangeeta Saxena, shares her passionate journey with spirituality and meditation. She introduces key meditation principles and practices we can apply in our daily lives from when we wake up in the morning to when we fall asleep at night. She also reflects on her dedication to serving her community, particularly her inspiring work the Indian Circle of Caring. Interested in embracing meditation in your own life, but not sure where to start? Check out Sangeeta’s story!
1. Tell us about your journey, particularly about your journey into spirituality?
During my early teens, I discovered inspiring books in the home library as both my parents were educators and ensured to feed my curiosity in every domain of life. I lost my mom prior to my marriage and that left me with an unending stream of questions about life itself. However, since my marriage to Sanjay, I was exposed and engaged in learning the wisdom & philosophy of Acharya Shriram Sharma, the founder of All World Gayatri Pariwar. Sanjay inherited this tradition from his childhood. He also became a teacher and mentor to me. So, the foundation was already there for my spiritual journey as it unfolded later.
In due course, I discovered a strong passion for spiritual life after a few years of immersion and evolution as an immigrant in the USA, while being a fulltime mom. Just like that, at the turn of this millennium I decided to unplug myself from chasing the “American dream” and went to India to spend around 100 days at my Gurudev’s institution called Shantikunj. It’s located in Haridwar (the HQ of All World Gayatri Pariwar) and the fountainhead of its signature program is known as the “Thought Revolution Movement.”
At this spiritual powerhouse called Shantikunj, my enthralling & invigorating experience of sadhana with intense training in Vedic traditions totally transformed the trajectory of my life and my worldview as such. Shantikunj presented this treasured and priceless opportunity for me to learn and practice the triple foundations of spirituality namely: Upasana-Sadhana-Aradhana and mnemonically speaking, this USA turned into the pursuit of my upcoming life in my adopted land of USA. Like this, while leaving Shantikunj, I took a vow to diffuse this Vedic wisdom upon resuming my immigrant journey for the remainder of my life. In this way, the rest of my journey has become a cherished memory in the making!
While I lived at Shantikunj, I knew experientially that our thoughts drive our existential journey. So, I committed myself to live by the clarion call of the “Thought Revolution Movement,” which proclaims that “To reform the world, we must first transform ourselves.” (Hum badlenge - Yuga badlega). Inspiredly, I adopted this maxim as my life’s motto too. After returning from three months in Shantikunj, I literally ate, breathed, practiced and preached the philosophy and wisdom of Yugrishi Acharya Shriram Sharma, rooted in the timeless Vedic tradition.
My journey unfolded as a full time volunteer to begin altruistically sharing all I had learnt for the benefit of the society. With my husband, I also started to run a spiritual ministry in Vedic traditions. We make house calls to help celebrate the ‘sixteen-samskaras’ of Hindu way of life with the Gayatri yagya. This also includes the initiative of community celebrations of main Hindu festivals while explaining the true intent and meaning of these vibrant traditions. Further, to connect the college students with their roots and culture, we regularly volunteer at BU, MIT, TUFTS chapters of Hindu Student Council.
As a founder of the ‘Gayatri Pariwar New England’ (a chapter of AWGP.ORG), I am also running a virtual motivational study circle via daily conference calls for the past decade. It has become a part of the lifestyle of many aspirants seeking a positive transformation in their lives. I am also a YouTuber and my GayatriVideo channel offers motivational content. I am also involved with individual counseling on various topics of personal wellbeing, family empowerment, and spiritual advancement. In this way, many lives are touched, transformed and propelled into a more happy and purposeful future with the blessings of my Gurudev.
2. You are passionate about meditation. What are some types and principles of meditation and How can one use meditation in our busy day to day lives?
As I understand the tradition, meditation is technically called the Dhyana (the step #7 in the framework of Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra). Also, the Nididhyasana (निदिध्यासन) is another technical term for meditation in the path of Vedantic inquiry. Either of these approaches require thorough preparatory discipline identified as ‘Yama - Niyama’ (that’s the foundational code of conduct for spiritual aspirants).
I follow the process of guided-meditation with instructions in the voice of my Gurudev. His voice carries the high spiritual vibrations and conviction to propel the mind into the spontaneous flow of Dhyana. I alternatively pick from the guided themes of ‘Panch-Kosha-awakening’ & the ‘Three-body-awakening’ (as discovered through the structure of human experience). Our existential reality is akin to the layers of an onion. These are highly powerful dhyana techniques to reclaim our true identity that’s otherwise entangled into our hacked identity in the form of physical body-centric persona. This identity-theft is the root cause of misery and sufferings in our daily experience. Meditation is a great tool to reclaim our real identity as it is.
Those who are extremely busy can still benefit from Gayatri Mantra Meditation by visualizing the rising Sun. Gayatri Mantra cleanses the intellect of the aspirants and the Sun infuses positive energy. A pure intellect is the most critical need of the times because our life is shaped by our thoughts. So, whatever short window of time we can find, the Gayatri Mantra Meditation should become an integral part of our daily routine.
Another meditation technique for our busy life includes two very short, simple yet highly effective Dhyana routines championed by Gurudev Acharya Shriram Sharma. It’s wrapped around everyones daily routine, specifically when they go to sleep and wake up.
First, the Atma-bodha sadhana, which can be integrated with our wake-up routine while still lying down on bed (for an additional five minutes). As soon as one wakes up, they should think that it’s their new birth today with a lifespan of ‘exactly one day’ given to live. The greatest aim of our life should be to deploy this intervening day in the best and most effective way possible. With this profound awareness, we should plan the most efficient routine for the entire day. During this day, we must take care to execute our schedule as planned, with no excuse to postpone it for another day.
Second, we should integrate the highly effective Tatva-bodha sadhana with our bedtime routine while naturally waiting to fall asleep. This practice adds another five minutes or so. Before sleeping happens to be a quality window of time for reviewing our daily activities versus the plan created in the morning. During these moments, we should reflect that shortly death is going to embrace us in the wrapper of sleep when we get totally disconnected from the surrounding world and our own body-centric identity disappears in a state of deep-sleep. We should impartially & harshly analyze our day to identify mistakes committed. We should also admire and applaud ourselves for what went well as per plan. Death is a certainty. However, we tend to forget it and choose to spend life in many futile and frustrating activities. If one sleeps carefree in the night they can hope to get refreshed between this interval of daily ‘simulated death’ (in the form of sleep) and rebirth (peacefully waking up). If we spend our day happily, we enjoy a sound-sleep at night. This technique of ‘tattva-bodha’ activates the awareness of our real identity that’s truly separate from our mistakenly physical-body-centric identity. This very fruitful meditation removes the fear of death. Regular practice of these meditations can totally transform one’s life.
3. You are also a life coach and motivational speaker. What are some tips for our personal well being and spiritual advancement?
Spiritual advancement is an integral part of the state of holistic wellbeing. To benefit from the wellbeing-tips here, let's wrap our minds around the challenging context of our existence per say. Our thoughts drive our actions. Actions produce consequences in due course. Our state of affairs in the global, social, family, and personal spheres can be traced back to the cascading effects of individual and collective thoughts. It’s no wonder that the pandemic of perverted and toxic thoughts are a clear and present danger for humanity. We must fix our thoughts to fix our state of affairs! Only higher thoughts can counter the toxic and harmful thoughts and help us develop a positive outlook towards life.
We should first begin with modifying our lifestyles by integrating Gayatri Sadhana. Why? Because this directly works on our thoughts and also infuses positive energy and aura in our surroundings that lead to positive outcomes. We must raise an army of positive thoughts to conquer the negativity and Gayatri Sadhana makes this possible with consistent and continuous practice.
Self-awareness is a must to recognize our negativity, defects, and weaknesses. Here Gayatri sadhana comes to our rescue by creating a protective shield where people experience significant progression towards a state of holistic wellbeing.
Count your blessings everyday and be grateful that you are still alive, healthy, and have family and friends. This will make us feel supported, stronger, full of life, and inspires us to do good. Your life will become a blessing for others as well.
It’s also important to note that the food we consume significantly affects our minds. As the saying goes: “jaisa khayen anna - vaisa bane mana.” So, choose food that has a calming effect on your mind and while preparing AND serving food keep mentally chanting THE Gayatri mantra so that your food is infused with positive energy.
Finally, a prayer given by my Gurudev helps raise all around health and happiness. When you include everyone in this universal prayer: “Sabke liye sadbuddhi - Sabke liye ujjwal bhavishya (सबके लिए सद्बुद्धि - सबके लिए उज्जवल भविष्य)” -- “Pure intellect & bright future for all.”
4. Besides spirituality and meditation you are also involved with ICC (Indian Circle for Caring). What is ICC's mission and what is your role in this organization?
Indian Circle for Caring (ICC) is a non-profit organization, where helping hands and caring support provide comfort to the community. ICC is focused on providing urgent or emergency support for our fellow community members and their families as they may encounter unplanned events such as serious sickness, hospitalization, accidents, family crisis, and death and bereavement of a loved one. ICC also offers education, empowerment, and enablement for various events in life including preparation of a health care proxy and living will. Another one of ICC’s flagship offerings is the Lifestyle program in partnership with South Asian Heart Center to prevent onset of heart disease and diabetes or even to reverse it if you are already affected.
I advance the mission of ICC as a director of community outreach. My primary focus is towards increasing awareness about ICC activities and services throughout the community while concurrently raising the community engagement with ICC projects and initiatives. ICC has been recognized as the best non-profit organization in New England at New England Choice Award (NECA) under the exemplary leadership of Mr. Girish Mehta-ji, who is the founder and executive director. I would also like to take this opportunity to invite individuals to come forward and serve our community at various levels of this amazing organization depending upon their talent, skills, availability of time, and desire to give back to our community. For more details please visit http://www.ouricc.org/
5. As the platform for women dreamers, what is your next big dream?
As a champion of the “Thought Revolution Movement,” my next big dream is to be one of the potent carriers for the grand vision of my Gurudev Yugrishi Acharya Shriram Sharma. He rolled out this universal movement for the “unfoldment and ascent of divinity in all humanity and the descent of heaven on earth मनुष्य में देवत्व का उदय - धरती पर स्वर्ग का अवतरण” (manushya mein devatva ka uday - dharti par swarg ka avtaran). Indeed, a glorious vision with global scope & repercussions.
For me personally this dream translates into the diffusion of Gurudev’s Vedic wisdom and philosophy as the platform for total human excellence and its accompanying toolkit of scientific spirituality so that the young generation with their scientific outlook can benefit from this timeless wisdom in order to become an asset for humanity and promote universal well being in the world.
Thank You Sangeeta for Sharing Your Inspiring Journey with Us! We are Excited to Have You in our Global Women’s Network!
Bio: Sangeeta Saxena is a proud Indian American immigrant and lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, with her husband Sanjay & son Paramvyom. She is a visionary leader recognized for her aptness to marshal community support, boost relationships, and augment key coalitions with a shared sense of purpose. She is committed to empowering, enabling and mentoring women in all walks of life. During her two decades of community service, many lives have been touched, transformed and propelled into a more happy and purposeful future.