When people walk in through the magnificent gates of the Osho International Meditation Resort they are struck by the ageless faces of people walking around. The grace in their walk, the shine of happiness in their eyes is unbelievable. They invariably ask, “We don’t we see any old people here. Is this place for the younger population only?” I say with a twinkle, “Old people do come but they are recycled and become young. This is the effect of meditation.”
This age is crazy about staying young forever. People are spending a fortune on anti-wrinkle creams and surgical face lifts even though many of them have no scientific backing for their claims. The face may look younger but the spirit stays stale. They don’t know that they get a much better result by Osho active meditations. It is said that age is an issue of mind over matter; if you don’t mind your age, it doesn’t matter. But the new generation definitely minds ageing and even dread it more than death. However, treating the skin is a very superficial way of arresting ageing, and what is useful is trying to understand why does the body age at all?
There is a protein called telomerase which repairs the caps at the ends of chromosomes. Telomerase was discovered by Carol W. Greider and Elizabeth Blackburn in 1984 for which they received a Nobel in medicine. One class of theories of aging is based on the concept that damage, either due to normal toxic by-products of metabolism or inefficient repair/defensive systems, accumulates throughout the entire lifespan and causes aging. A Vedic meditation instructor, Charles Knoles, has experimented in Japan with meditation. He measured levels of the enzyme telomerase in a group attending a meditation retreat for three months and has found that meditators showed a huge increase in reparative telomerase at the end of their retreat, a physical proof of reverse aging. These studies have found that meditation actually causes your DNA to heal itself, repairing your cells at a genetic level, which is quite amazing. If we make inner cleansing as a part of our living, the accumulation around cells will be dropped and the cells will be rejuvenated.
Meditators and yogis are rumoured to be healthy and fit for a longer time than the non-meditators. Now we have found a scientific explanation of this phenomenon which was considered a miracle a while ago.
Osho was asked about the agelessness of people around him. He answered: “Here the old are just as innocent as the children, or even more so — because your inner being is ageless. Once you come in touch with it, it is timeless, it never grows old or young or anything. It is just the same from eternity to eternity.
Once you start coming closer and closer to your eternity, a certain agelessness starts radiating from your eyes, from your faces. I can see it happening: you are becoming younger every day. As you go deeper a great silence descends over you. A little deeper, and fountains of peace start bringing your whole inner space to a coolness you have never known before.”
Amrit Sadhana is editor of Osho Times International. She facilitates meditation workshops based on Osho insights around the country and abroad.
