Sangeeta Jani was born on 23rd May 1963 in Seattle Washington, USA, and was there till the age of 6. At an early age, she developed an interest in jewelry design and started pursuing Gemology at GIA (Gemology Institute of America). After that, she started doing an internship in jewelry design at Gordon’s jeweler in the USA.
At the age of 20, she came back to India and started exporting fashion jewelry. This was the time when she started feeling some sense of emptiness as if something was missing in her life. Several questions about her existence came up in her mind and she wanted to know the purpose of her life. During this course of time, she came across someone from the Art of Living and did the course for the first time.
She was introduced to Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji and soon she met him. The instant she met him everything changed for her, whatever she did in life felt irrelevant to her. The only thing that made sense to her was being with Gurudev, spreading his wisdom, and furthering his cause. Within a month of meeting Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji, she became the first Art of Living teacher in Bombay.
She was not a trained teacher but it came very naturally to her. She began teaching courses in her living room in Bombay and more people were introduced to the Art of living. The first course that she taught was to a batch of 60 students of IIT. Then, she was motivated by Gurudev to teach an advanced course. She wasn’t confident about it but she was able to do it with ease. Later she realized that it was HE who was doing all the teaching and she just had to take herself to different places as a representative.
At that time, a lot of Art of Living teachers traveled everywhere and around the world. She mostly traveled to the west and then to a lot of countries such as China, Russia, New Zealand, Indonesia, etc. She kept spreading the knowledge and taught a lot of advanced level courses, blessing courses, DSN and Eternity, and Sri Sri yoga level 1 or 2, etc.
In those days, the Art of Living was unknown and she used to think why people don’t know her Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji. At first, she organized a big Satsang with about just 100 people at her Bombay home. After all this, the Art of Living began growing bigger and bigger. In earlier days when Gurudev used to come to Mumbai, he used to stay at her home and her home was known as Gurudev’s home.
Many people had their first experiences when they met Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji for the first time at her house. A lot of Art of living teachers got married at her home and her home has memories of many people. Didi fondly says, “Gurudev is not in my life. He is my life. Without him, there is no me.” This year Art of Living will celebrate its 40th anniversary and with it, didi will celebrate her 30th year.
Why is it important for everyone to meditate?
It is important for everyone to meditate just the way it is important for people to eat to keep the body healthy and bathe to keep the body clean. Meditation is the fuel for the soul and it energizes the soul, keeps the mind clear, and body healthy. People don’t understand the power of meditation. Meditation brings so much positivity to the mind, enhances the skills we have, and brings forth the skills that we didn’t even know we had. It also makes us intuitive. Intuition is a faculty that we all have and we all have a sense of knowingness but with meditation, it gets revealed and enhanced and so meditation is important for everyone.
As an accomplished gemologist did you face any backlash from family on what you were doing?
The family was extremely supportive. They would have been happier if I would have been married. They are happy to see that I am happy and now they think that marriage would have just confined me. They are content with my current situation. The resistance that I found was from the society and friends in those days who tried to save me. They were wondering why would I want a guru? Why would I chase a guru? What is going on in my life? They thought I was running from life. They didn’t know what I was experiencing. Now over time, the Art of living has become popular and now they themselves want to do the course.
How do you envision your next few years?
In terms of life, as long as I exist, this human body exists, it's working, I want to dedicate this life to making a difference in society. I have been with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji for the past 30 years and I have so much faith in him. Initially, I couldn’t understand his vision but as time passed as he kept revealing his vision, his purpose of being here on this planet. I feel it’s a huge purpose and his only mission is to bring a smile to every face. I feel honored that I get a chance to be a part of this vision. I think there is nothing greater than that and I think my life would be well used if I could spend every moment of my life to help accomplish it. I am a very tiny part of Gurudev’s big vision and in whichever whatever way and capacity I can do it I would feel blessed.
What was it like to travel with Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji not only in the smallest villages but in the top cities of the world?
Traveling with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji from the smallest villages to the top cities of the world doesn’t make much of a difference because when you look at the world through his vision, people are people, mountains are mountains, water is water, and everything is beautiful and has its own unique qualities. You find beauty everywhere, you find uniqueness everywhere. When you look at life through Gurudev’s vision you see the uniqueness in all the differences yet, you see the commonality and you see everything as one. You see it strung together. So, it's just so beautiful and there isn’t a sense of separateness, it creates a sense of unison.
What would you say to women of today that are juggling between jobs kids and home?
I think women of today are doing such an enormous job of juggling everything, home, family, children, work, relatives, and social all within 24 hours. I think meditation would be the key and would be so helpful just to whine down, spend a little me time, and tap into that potential, inner strength, and do everything. Just a few minutes of silence will help them tap into that source of inner strength, help keep their minds calm and make better decisions. Meditation will help them in being active and calm at the same time, be loving and proactive at the same time and all these qualities will come up. Going out and working doesn’t mean that women should become like men. They can retain that softness no matter how stressful the situation, no matter whatever they are achieving outside. Meditation can help women to exude both.
What do you admire about Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji the most?
I cannot answer this but what do I admire most about Gurudev Sri Sri Ravishankar Ji, all of HIM. It’s not I admire his qualities that he’s so loving, kind, it’s just HIM, his magnanimity. When I look at him and see how multidimensional he is, huge he is, his infinite capacity, and at the same time how he lives so simply in a human body, it is impossible to describe him and understand it. Every time I look at him, I just wonder, I see something new in him and I learn something new about him.
I feel by meditating I’ll be outcasted by my friends what do I do?
When I first became a teacher it was very different back then. Today, the whole world meditates and they don’t even ask you if you meditate. They ask you what kind of meditation you do. Yoga and meditation have taken over the world. Today with the world going through so many challenges, meditation brings solace to everyone and people are understanding this, opting to meditate. People are looking for meditation and this is very evident from the number of people who come to take our courses and across age groups all over the world. People are craving for some peace and want to make sense out of what’s happening in the world today. So meditation makes such a huge difference.