Peace Efforts

Nithyananda’s global peace efforts can be summarized as follows:

• Specially designed meditation programs as the first step for realizing peace at the individual level.
• A unique system of yoga called Nithya Yoga for imbibing discipline at the levels of body and mind and realizing inner bliss.
• Employing powerful mass worship as a means to realizing collective peace and harmony.
• Organizing peace walks to spread awareness about global peace.
• Organizing Kumbh Melas – confluences aimed at raising collective consciousness.
• Heading spiritual journeys to high energy centers like the Himalayan mountains, Varanasi, Angkor Wat – Cambodia and other places, thus awakening the awareness to the higher Existential energy.
• Mass and home satsangs (spiritual gatherings) aimed at creating positive and harmonious vibrations at the individual and global level.
• Meeting world renowned leaders to discuss global peace and religious harmony.
• Powerful messages by Nithyananda himself on the critical need for global peace as well as practical techniques to realize it

STUDIES OF THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION ON PEACE

Various studies have been done by different organizations to measure the effects of group meditation on communities. Some observed the effect of a critical mass of people who meditated and these showed an eight percent decrease in the crime rate in the cities where group meditation was conducted. Other reports showed a significant reduction in acts of violence and increase in cooperative, helpful acts. In war-stricken areas there have been more than 50 percent reported drop in daily war deaths and more than 25 percent drop in war injuries. The overall statistics showed with group meditation, reduced crime rates, fewer hospital admissions, and reduced violence, leading to an increase in the overall quality of life.

KUMBH MELAS

Kumbh Mela is a spiritual confluence held on the banks of sacred rivers. Nithyananda Mission promotes and organizes Kumbh Melas worldwide.

In September 2006, Nithyananda organized the first confluence for world peace to honor the memory of those who lost their lives and of those who risked their lives to save others during the terrorist attacks at World trade Center on September 11, 2001. The event was held at the University of California, Irvine, USA in conjunction with over 20 other global spiritual organizations and attended by over 5,000 people.

The second peace confluence was held in Los Angeles on 9 Sep 2007 in collaboration with the Vedanta society. Many Southern Californian spiritual organizations took part in the festival including BAPS, ISKCON, Mata Amrutananda mayi, Siddha Yoga, Siddha Samadhi Yoga, Sanatana Dharma temple, Sindhi Center, Hamsa Yoga, Gujarati Association and others.

Nithyananda led a group of devotees in January 2007 to Allahabad, the venue of the Ardh Kumbh Mela which is the largest gathering of humanity on the banks of the sacred river Ganga to reinforce the ideal of a blissful, enlightened humanity and world peace.

Nithyananda was crowned the Maha mandaleshwar of the famous Nirvani Akkada on the occasion. He is one of the youngest Mahamandaleshwars.

On 2 Feb 2007 and in January 2010, Nithyananda graced the Kumbha Mela at Thirumakudalu T. Narasimhapura, Mysore, where the confluence of the three rivers namely Cauvery, Kapila and Spatika Sarova takes place. The Kumbh Mela is being conducted here since 1989 and has happened 7 times till now. This place is an abode of many saints and houses many ashrams. In the 2010 Kumbh Mela, Nithyananda Dhyanapeetam took up the responsibility of organizing the procession.

In the picture on the left, Nithyananda is seen here with Jagadguru Sri Shivarathri Desikendra Maha Swamiji of the Jagadguru Sriveera Simhasana Math, Suttur, Mysore, Jagadguru Sri Sri Sri Balagangadharanatha Maha Swamiji Adi Chunchanagiri Mahasamsthana Math and Sri B.S. Yeddyurappa, Honorable Chief Minister of Karnataka.

PEACE WALKS

To instill a greater sense of responsibility into people and spread awareness about global peace, Nithyananda Mission organizes peace walks for several hundreds of kilometers, particularly with the youth in India and USA.

In January 2009, a month long walk was organized with people participating from over 1000 villages covering 1000 km:

1. To dispel the insecurities caused by religion, caste and creed. People from all walks of life and various religious backgrounds have been participating in this. It symbolizes the religious harmony, transcending the boundaries created by society.

2. To promote friendliness, compassion and the ‘feeling connected’ and universal togetherness among people. This individual transformation will directly lead to group transformation and thus world peace.

3. To reach out to different villages and provide people good physical and mental health, get over unhealthy habits like addiction and be emotionally balanced.

4. To spread awareness in the areas of health and education and gather support for establishing a free school and free hospital for providing emergency health care in every taluka (group of villages).

5. Help attack the biggest challenges facing humanity today – increase in crime rate and terrorism.

6. To celebrate the success of the Mission so far and to promote further awareness and support for the social causes the Mission works for.

The Nithyananda Mission thus aims to provide a healthy ecosystem for a peaceful society, developed both in the outer and inner worlds – economically, socially, politically and spiritually.

MASS WORSHIP FOR INDIVIDUAL AND GLOBAL PEACE

Young monks of the Nithyananda Order conduct mass fire rituals involving the public, with up to 1008 individual sacrificial fire pits, thereby creating profound healing energy for a peaceful mind and healthy body in those living in the surrounding areas.

Such fire rituals are conducted as a means to connect to the universal Existence and thus reinforce the sense of connectedness with the whole world. They remind us that we are all not separate individuals but part of a grand Whole. They bring about peace and harmony and purify the space in which they are conducted. The whole city, state, nation and thus the world benefits from such fire rituals which tap into the cosmic energy and harness it for the benefit of humanity.

INTERNATIONAL PEACE DAY

21 September is observed as the International Peace Day. Millions of people worldwide come together in prayer, meditation, celebration and collaboration for world peace and global harmony. In the picture here, International Peace Day is observed through the (WTN) Wisdom Tree Network which is a signature campaign for world peace based on profound oaths that directly awaken the consciousness of the individual thereby awakening global peace.

On this occasion every year, Nithyananda Mission’s centers conduct collective group meditations worldwide. The collective consciousness is raised in a much more powerful way when meditation is done as a group.

SPIRITUAL JOURNEYS FOR INDIVIDUAL PEACE

As a peace ambassador to humanity, Nithyananda leads people from all over the world on spiritual journeys to high energy centers like the Himalayan mountains, holy shrines of India and other sacred places outside India. Delivering many talks during these journeys, he instills deeply into individuals the truth of the cosmos and creates the space for a peaceful mind within.

When peace is brought about within individuals, automatically global peace starts happening.

Nithyananda takes groups of people to high energy centers every year, with the Himalayas being an every year feature. The main places of visit include the char dham or the venerated four holy shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri in the Garhwal range as well as other centers like Gomukh, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Uttarkashi, Srinagar, Sitapur, Joshimath and Pipalkoti.

The Himalayas yatra is a very popular feature every year attracting people from all over the world to experience the grandeur and mystical beauty of the Himalayas in the presence of the living enlightened Master Nithyananda. Every year, the number of participants has been increasing exponentially and so has the global range of participants. Today, the Himalayas yatra led by Nithyananda is one of the largest groups with over 200 people that has been always successfully covering the char dham and other locations.

In June 2008, Swami took a group of people to the Jagannath Puri temple, Buddha temple and Kalingeshwar temple at Orissa, the Dakshineshwar Kali temple and Belur Ramakrishna Mutt at Calcutta, Cossipore which is the place where enlightened master Ramakrishna Paramahamsa spent his last days with his consort Sharada Devi and 16 disciples, Kamarpukur which is the birthplace of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Jayrambati, the birth place of Sharada Devi, Bodh Gaya – the birthplace of Buddha, Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi, Sarnath – the place where Buddha delivered his first sermon, the Manikarnika ghat in Varanasi where he himself had a conscious experience of death prior to enlightenment, and the holy city of Prayag or Allahabad with the sacred Triveni Sangam – confluence of the three sacred rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati.

SPIRITUAL GATHERINGS – SATSANGS

A satsang is a gathering to share and spread intense positive energy. It is a place to acquire and use knowledge-weapons which are the words of enlightened beings, meant to lead us to eternal bliss. When we create a community around us which encourages and strengthens love and devotion towards each other and Existence, we become a positive force, empowered to transform ourselves and others into blissful beings.

Members of the Nithyananda family gather regularly in their own cities to share the bliss that is growing in their lives. Satsangs are also the places where measures are taken to serve humanity better with every passing day.

MEETING LEADERS FOR GLOBAL PEACE AND RELIGIOUS HARMONY

Nithyananda meets renowned spiritual and social leaders worldwide, discussing the need to raise the individual consciousness to cause collective consciousness to enter into the superconscious zone.

Strongly recommending meditation as a sure solution, Nithyananda creates ties with the leaders in areas of education, energy healing, green drives, world peace, meditation and yoga to benefit humanity on a greater scale.
Following are a few pictures of Nithyananda with global leaders.