"Burning Peace..."

On 14th February 2014, A private channel Dunya News aired a program called “Kyoun” which was hosted by Mr.Arshad Shareef. The topic of the program was the agenda of International Secret Agencies behind funding International Non-Profit Organizations working in Pakistan. Now the topic sounds really interesting especially to those who cannot imagine that a country would give so much money just to actually help people. There were guests invited from different International NGOs, one of them being The Art of Living (AOL). I dont represent AOL but I have attended many courses of them and have worked with them for a few months also. My office was based in the peace center of The Art of Living, an amazing house in Banigala where the moment you enter you get calm and relaxed. You can hear beautiful sound of wind chimes, a gorgeous lake to view and everyone extremely nice to you.  It is open to all, with programs promoting good mental and physical health. The inclusiveness extends to create a blossoming of consciousness,well-being and good health through simple breathing techniques, yoga and positive thinking. They also encourage people to take responsibility for society and get involved in serving those in need. AOL has played an active role during the 2005 earthquake and many other community projects.

Coming back to the TV show, Anchor showed some pictures of people doing yoga and he passed some harsh comments on them and sounded very angry especially on a picture in which a number of AOL members were in a yoga position called “child pose”. Child pose looks like the picture below as I couldn’t find the picture the anchor displayed. This is a simple relaxation position in yoga as they say it’s a child’s resting position. I wonder why he was so angry about this position.

While showing a picture of AOL representative with the founder of Art of Living Foundation Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, The anchor asked another very famous guest Mr. Ansar Abbasi invited on the show, if the smiles that Sri Sri brings on people’s faces weren't a threat to our national security and if RAW was behind it. Sri Sri is an enlightened person who has established AOL centers in more than 150 countries and has millions of members all over the world. He aims to spread peace in the world and has designed all the courses of Art of Living himself. He was also nominated for Nobel Peace Award.

I wonder when, SMILING became a threat to a country’s national security. It’s possible that some secret agencies might be funding NGOs for their own interest but it would be a speculation not a fact until there is any evidence.

Knowing the increasing amount of radicalization and terrorism, knowing the effects of such accusations resulting in destroying families, the anchor gave these opinions without any evidence. 

From what my understanding about Art of Living Foundation is, they don’t take funds from any organization. They have a fee for yoga and breathing courses and that fee is used for community service projects. Most of their employees are volunteers while those who are paid are from the teacher’s own pocket.  Art of living has 8000 members in Pakistan including people in veils, hijabs, T-shirts,burqas, beards, clean shaved etc.

 

On 8^th March,2014 a group of eight people entered the Art of Living Center, tied the only two guards that were present in the center, took their mobiles and hit them on their heads. The innocent, hardworking Pashtoon guards who have enough problems in life already were traumatized. Those 8 men put three rooms on fire and had put fuel on another room when the neighbors saw the fire and ran towards their favorite neighbor’s house. Luckily those 8 cowards quickly left the centre in their cars, one being white corolla as seen by one of the neighbors. I hope that the culprits are found and arrested for this heinous crime.

This center is owned by Ms. Shahnaz Minallah, a beautiful spirit who has given ten years of her life to this place making it more beautiful day by day. Her bedroom was burnt to ashes. 

Fortunately, she lives in simplicity so her bedroom didn’t have a bed or a table or a nice lamp but just a pillow, some paintings and lots of books. She sleeps on the floor. Shahnaz Minallah comes from a long line of Sufi Saints from the “KakaKhel” tribe resulting in her, having a deep spiritual nature.

After the incident, I and many others pointed fingers at the mentioned TV show for inciting this violence through hate speech. I blamed it because i know that anybody who has met Shahnaz cannot harm her because she hasn’t hurt anyone. I blamed the show because they accused an INGO without any kind of verification, to be funded by an Indian secret agency known to everyone in Pakistan. 

My request to Mr. Arshad: Sir, I have nothing against you as I know that somewhere you definitely have humanity in your nature too. For the sake of humanity, kindly accuse someone after you have evidence against it as radicals end up burning private properties or even worse. Those two guards did not deserve to be traumatized and hit in the head. Shahnaz didn’t deserve to lose her years of efforts but the radicals don’t understand it. Same topic could be covered responsibly. You can ask as many questions as you want but as a journalist you are not supposed to give your own opinions on TV. You are free to work on your research against the Art of Living Foundation, in fact I suggest you should take one of their courses too. It helped me get rid of insomnia and also anxiety. I stopped biting my nails, many people I know quit smoking and many turning out to be really positive people. Stay Blessed J