“The Pessimist Sees Difficulty In Every Opportunity. The Optimist Sees Opportunity In Every Difficulty.”

The retired civil services officer (1985 cadre), a mechanical engineer and Masters in Business Administration, has served in different capacities in State and Centre with 35 years of unimpeachable service. Mr Bhatia’s stints in holding different portfolios are well known in public domain but his transformation from a self-seeker to a liberated man free from worldly cravings brings to fore an astonishing story that only a select few are aware of.

In his close-knit circles, Mr Bhatia is fondly called a Yogi. However, what metamorphosed an unbending, workaholic IAS officer into a compulsive meditator is best expounded by Mr Bhatia himself in a very free-flowing audio-visual narrative that also highlights his efforts to propagate and underscore the importance of meditation in personal and professional life.

The Bhatias have been practicing meditation for almost 20 years now but the denouement has come through various stages after starting at the age of 39-40.  Mrs Anuradha Bhatia is herself an IRS officer and now an acknowledged preceptor of  Heartfulness Meditation

Mr Bhatia traces the times when their lives were overtaken with “personal egos, competition and aggressive pursuits. There was no thought for any meditation, let alone peace. It was as if there was an existential crisis where we seemed to have no clarity on the very purpose of life. The trigger came when we were shattered by the loss of two dear relatives. I began to wonder what the essence of life was. I started reading books on Regression Analysis and Life after Death. However, the 30-40 odd books that I read, didn’t address my concerns much.”

“After starting with Transcendental Meditation, I did a eleven-day course in Vipassana. It was a “feel good” experience so I not only continued, I introduced to my staffers at the electricity board in Maharashtra. Although it helped, I still had no clarity on the purpose of life. My pursuit took me to Yoga which I learnt and practiced but this too gave me only health. The search for the larger perspective I had set out for was still elusive so I took to Brahmvidya and Gyaanyog. Despite  this course of experimentation, I was getting frustrated since what I was looking for remained incomprehensible.”

“It was during an election duty in Baghpat when I visited several ashrams and temples  that I came to know from a young collector posted there about a meditation centre. He referred the superintendent of police Mr Mishra to me. The SP introduced me to some meditation sittings that involved yogic transmission. These were meant to cleanse your inner self. It was a rejuvenating experience that took me from spirit to spirituality. I realized my concentration and creativity had gone up several notches. But what was welcome was the wisdom and sense of intuition that came along. It changed my social life completely. From a seeker and a party person, I changed to a man who understood the sanctity of a giver.”