Interview on Wellness and the Humaniversity AUM Meditation
with Chandrika
by Khumal and Gandha November 2007
for the Osho Times International

Chandrika trains AUM leaders, and Vibhavan is a regular AUM facilitator in the Meditation Resort. We asked them to share their experiences with us.

How has the AUM helped you?
Chandrika: It helped me to find flexibility and a center in my daily life. The AUM repeatedly brings you from one extreme to another and it teaches you not to be identified with any of them. We have a tendency to cling to certain ways of being and the AUM helps you to see that you can you can go totally into different expressions and watch how you are when you are exploring that part of yourself. Then you stop and go back into your center where there is nothing; there is just being. Then you look at another emotion…but you always come back to your center. The awareness point, the center, is the main thing.

How does the AUM help wellness?
It helps you let go of a lot of repressed emotions. You have a safe space where you can let off steam, where you can let go of the tension and stress that build up in daily life, without destroying anything or hurting anybody. It helps you relax again.
Being total in your life, whatever it brings, is a sign of wellness. If you can be totally happy, if you can dance and just let your body go, if you can let the laughter come up, or the tears…all these polarities are part of being human. The AUM gives it all space.
People can become flexible and see what a situation requires; you can call it emotional and social intelligent behavior. So if someone is nasty to you, you can look at the situation and you can respond. You don’t immediately give back all your anger. It’s not that somebody pushes a button and you just explode.
It teaches a lot of key-elements that promote wellness. That’s why it’s good to repeat the AUM until this learning settles into your daily life.

How does it affect people’s relationships?
Many people get caught up in blaming, hurting, rejecting the other person. That often happens when you are in a relationship. You get into an argument and instead of owning your own negativity and frustration, you blame the other for not fulfilling your expectation.
In the first stage of the AUM you unload your negativity and you become aware of what is inside. To be able to express that releases a lot of energy and brings people closer. Not expressing what frustrates you is actually poison in a relationship. When you don’t say anything anymore, misunderstanding happens.
When people go through all these different stages, they come out shining! A burden falls off. It is like letting go of emotional garbage and finding your buddha within. That’s why the last stage is namaste: “I recognize that you are love, that you’re unique, that you’re a buddha.” To give that recognition and respect to each other – to everybody’s being – creates a beautiful love-field. You can feel it.

How does it support meditation?
The AUM is a social meditation: you use the other person to find yourself; you meet yourself in another person.
 When you don’t have judgments about what is happening, you come into meditation. Your body is flowing and vibrating in total expression. Your body is alive, it’s energy! It doesn’t have the label – negative, positive, sexual, meditative – anymore. It’s pure energy flowing inside of you and you’re witnessing it. That’s a very fantastic experience.

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