‘How Meditation Changed My Life’

As the Chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust and a bureaucrat who has had one of the most distinguished careers in public service, Sanjay Bhatia’s journey into the spiritual realm has been a rather testing one. However, his desire to seek the truth and to find the true purpose of his life, have helped him achieve all that he has today.

In an autobiographical manner, this unassuming master explains how meditation changed his life, the people around him, and the various organizations where he introduced this practice.

“Like most IAS officers, I was a highly competitive person with an A+ personality (wherein B is introvert, A is extrovert, and I was an extreme extrovert) with a lot of ego. To me, life at 40 meant work, party, again work and some sports.”

“Both, my wife, Anuradha and I are in civil service, and we were posted in Delhi at that time. This was 15 years back… Suddenly a few deaths took place and they shook us completely. My perspective of what life was had been completely shaken. I started reading a lot of books on what happens after death, and they all concluded that if you want to understand the purpose of life and its reality, you must meditate.”

“On inquiring, I was introduced to transcendental meditation by one of my wife’s colleague. He took me to his guru, who gave us a mantra and I started following it. I did that for about six months. Whenever I would sit for meditation I would feel peaceful, but I was not getting any answers.”

“Then someone told me about Vipassana. So I went for the 11-day Tapasya a number of times and learned it completely. However, even after six years I felt that there was something lacking in me.”

“In my search, I met Justice M L Dudhat, who used to teach Bramhavidya. I learned that from him, but could not move ahead as he passed away. In fact, there was a time when I was doing nine different types of meditation, feeling crazy and praying to God for guidance.”

“Having read the Secret, I started putting out a positive thought that I have found a guru and the purpose of life, and I’m doing the correct form of meditation. So while this was happening, strange scenarios were developing in my life. I got shifted from MSEB to head the training academy in Pune.

There I had a lot of spare time, so I started meditating twice. Although, I was not seeing any results but the positive thought was going on.”

“The chief secretary too was quite annoyed so I was sent to Bagpat as an election observer. As soon as I reached there, something inside me said that I would find what I was looking for here.”

“At the dinner hosted by the Collector, I asked him if there was a spiritual guru in Bagpat. The Collector who was younger than me, laughed and said, ‘yahan to sirf ganna ya makkhan milta hai, ye aap kya maang rahe ho?’ Continuing further he said, ‘ye aap ke baju mein jo Superintendent of Police behthey hain, wo kuch kuch karte rehtein hain.’ On enquiring, the SP informed about his meditation technique in which he received transmission.”

“Eager to find out the ‘transmission’ he was talking about, we decided to meet the next day. When Mr. Mishra arrived, I asked him to show me his method. He sat down in front of me and said, ‘sir, you have to close your eyes, and give a thought that there is divine light in the heart’. So I asked him, what else, as I was used to doing a lot of things. He said, just sit down with this thought and do not concentrate, even if other thoughts come, do not pay attention to them and let them pass.”

“During that time, something started happening inside me. So once it was over, I asked him what happened. He said ‘sir, you were receiving transmission and your cleaning process was taking place. If I had not experienced something, I would have laughed at him, but I had. I did about 3-4 sittings with him, and each sitting was a separate experience. Then, within 18 days, I found my heart telling me this is it. That’s when I started doing this form of meditation and left everything else completely. It’s been 10 years now and my whole life has changed.”

“What is unique about this meditation is that you don’t need to believe anything that I say, you have to experience it yourself, and that will