LAUGH YOUR WAY TO GOD! THE INCREDIBLE POWER OF LAUGHTER
When was the last time you had a really good laugh? A big, rumbling laugh that rose right up from your belly, and left you shaking uncontrollably with mirth?
These days, we have forgotten how to laugh.
Our laughter is only an extended smile - a social necessity. Even when we laugh, we are usually laughing at someone, or simply fulfilling a duty. Laughter has been replaced by giggles and sniggers.
In an office, the boss tells a joke. The whole team starts roaring with laughter, except one young lady who just sits there looking bored.
What's the matter? Why aren't you laughing? asks the boss in surprise.
I don't have to, replies the lady casually. I'm quitting next week!
Jokes apart, laughter has tremendous potential that we have forgotten how to use.
It is an excellent way of connecting to people!
Look around you. The smartest marketing experts, the best orators, the most effective advertisements use humour to get their message across. When a leader joins his team in laughter, he easily breaks the barriers that exist between himself and them.
The truth is, even the most radical ideas, when presented in a humorous manner, are more easily accepted by people.
As the saying goes, if you want to fill an extra handful of rice in an already full rice-sack, you'll need to shake it up a bit. In much the same way, when people are already overwhelmed with heavy philosophies (like all of us are!), a little laughter can provide that 'shaking up', it can open their minds so that fresh ideas can settle more easily.
In earlier times, kings and learned men were well aware of the importance of laughter. No wonder every great king had in his court a popular court-jester - who was often the sharpest and wisest of the king's advisors. The 'royal fools' of Shakespearean plays, and our Hindu jesters, Tenali Raman and Birbal, all had the art of presenting profound truths with charming and compassionate humour.
Not everyone has the wonderful capacity to laugh, and to create laughter around themselves. Most of us are afraid to laugh, especially when we are with strangers - because laughter exposes you.
Laughter exposes the innocent, vulnerable You hidden inside you.
Those who find it difficult to laugh have no idea what a gift they've lost. Believe me, there is no business more serious than the business of laughter - it is seriously important to be able to laugh!
As the joke goes, Learn to laugh at your problems. At least you'll always have something to laugh about!
People who don't mind laughing at themselves are truly blessed, because they have found a way to go beyond the ego. Laughter is no more than an overflowing of health, of abundant energy. Laughter blossoms as a natural result of being at ease with yourself and your surroundings. That's why happy, smiling people are usually the most creative and spontaneous.
I'm reminded of a street play I once watched in my childhood. In our Hindu villages, street plays are almost always drawn from the ancient epics.
One of the most popular episodes from the Mahabharata is the Draupadi Vastraharana, where the villain Dushassana tries to disrobe Queen Draupadi in full view of the royal court. Having lost their wife to the villain in a treacherous game of dice, Draupadi's five husbands are forced to look on helplessly. Ultimately Draupadi appeals to Lord Krishna, and he blesses her by making her saree endless in length, so that no matter how much of it the villain unwinds, still more cloth remains to protect her modesty. Thus it is that the villains are defeated by the grace of God.
During one rendition of this enormously popular scene, it so happened that the regular Krishna was absent and a stand-in Krishna had to be roped in at the last minute.
In villages, both male and female roles are traditionally performed by men, and Draupadi was a young man who was, naturally, wearing a pair of pants beneath his fancy sarees.
When the villains swung into action, the visiting Krishna panicked and forgot to dole out the 'miraculous' additional lengths of cloth from backstage. As a result, in ten seconds flat, Queen Draupadi was standing before an astonished village audience in an embroidered blouse and a pair of well-worn pants!
But Draupadi was a seasoned actor with a great sense of humour. Even before the audience could react, he fell on his knees and cried out, Hail Krishna, Protector of the Weak! Refuge of the Wronged! You have preserved my modesty by transforming me into a man! Thank you, thank you!
Needless to say, never had the Draupadi Vastraharana scene received the thunderous applause it got that day!
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Seriousness is truly a disease.
Have you ever seen a serious child? Children have a great ability to find something funny in every situation - especially when you have guests at home! And we adults, who can't see what is so funny, try to force them to stop laughing.
This is where the problem begins! Suppression of laughter is the beginning of disease.
Just a few weeks ago, a man approached me in my ashram with his teenaged son. His son was suffering from severe depression. At the age of fifteen, the boy had already tried to commit suicide three times.
Depression is the special gift of our century! In no other time and age would you find healthy young men and women getting so tired of life that they want to kill themselves. Anyway, the boy's father had tried every possible treatment, with no results. He appealed to me to heal the boy.
I asked the father to leave the boy in the ashram with me for a few days. During that period, I spent time with the boy every day - sharing jokes! I gave him joke books to read; I asked him to go around the ashram and interact with the ashramites. Every day, we would meet and have an informal 'jokes session'. In ten days' time, the boy was completely cured of his depression. This actually happened!
Laughter has great therapeutic value. Today, the healing effects of laughter are being acknowledged by doctors and psychiatrists worldwide.
The deep, chaotic breathing induced by laughter produces positive vibrations in our body, relaxes the belly and improves digestion. Laughing also cleanses out the manipuraka chakra, the subtle energy center in our navel area, which is also the seat of worry and depression. The simple act of laughing has the power to unlock deep-rooted psychological suppressions. Laughter is a natural healing power that Nature has gifted to us.
But laughing has more than just health benefits. Laughter is also a proven meditation technique.
In fact, in Zen monasteries, it is compulsory for all the monks to spend some time every day laughing.
A small story:
Once there was a conference of Buddhist monks on the meaning of true spirituality. Each monk went up on stage and made long speeches, practically putting all the others to sleep. Finally, it was the turn of a particular Zen monk to speak.
What do you think he did?
He simply started laughing!
Laughing, laughing with all his Being.
The laughter just rose up from his belly. He started shaking uncontrollably with laughter.
And his laughter was so infectious, soon all the others in the room started laughing, without even knowing why.
Without their even being aware of it, the common laughter of all the monks produced a huge wave of positive energy in the room. The monks reached a state of tremendous elevation. In the course of the laughter, they experienced a moment of no-mind. The Zen monk declared, This is true spirituality.
Laughter is the highest spiritual quality. It can lead you to enlightenment! In fact, laughter is called the royal route to enlightenment. Because laughter is the easiest and most powerful way we have of connecting with the prapancha shakti, the boundless energy of all Existence.
So keep laughing always!