Rebuild My Life at 40 with Conscious Breathing

My mother, she would never get out of the home. She started traveling 30 kilometers a day so that she can be of some backup to my father as well. I had to sacrifice my childhood, I had to sacrifice my teenage. I've seen my mother falling everywhere in depression because she couldn't see her daughter. 20th of December was the date I've joined CBH, and today happens to be 20th of September. 9 months, you know what it means. 9 months is what it took me to be born again. After joining CBH, I did 6 half marathons. This year alone, I did 6 half marathons. My first 40 years of life, it has been something, but I know the next 40 are going to be the best in my life. These two things have helped me. I was hardly touching a 10-kilometer. The only secret why I was able to handle 6 half marathons despite having a knee injury— I cannot thank this community enough. I don't know how much opportunity I got to thank you all enough. Just last week, I filed my income tax. I paid more than 1.3 crore in income tax itself. This is priceless for me. This is what I said, this is called— this is exactly what is called as life.

Before I begin with, people walk in and walk out of our lives, but some people, they just don't walk in, but they leave with an impact, with a powerful story, and that is something that we always carry with ourselves. Today we will be witnessing inspiring stories who are not only going to create that faith, but it's also going to elevate our confidence. So today we have one such speaker whom I would say is a dynamic personality of CBH community. To begin with, I think the journey towards life begins by taking the first step. But a journey towards a meaningful life begins by taking meaningful steps. So having said that, I would like to invite on stage Mr. Shravan. Please put your hands together.

I request all of you to please stand up and invite our speaker. Please stand up and invite our speaker, Mr. Shravan. All the best, Shravan. Hello CBH! Hello CBH! That's enough for me for now. Okay, so with that icebreaker aside, the slide says something: Building Super Shravan. Why? What? Why should there be a SuperShovan? Am I not super already? Am I not super already? Then what is this building SuperShovan? Let me explain that. And before I explain that, this is going to be one of the boring slides, but please bear with me, okay? 1997, a government company has been shut down. Thousands, including my father, they had to face the financial ruins. Again, long story short, my father became an auto driver. An auto driver. He kept his education aside, he kept his respect aside, he kept his ego aside. All he wanted was our betterment, our education, English medium. He wanted his kids to go to English medium. Me and my sister, Looking at that, my mother, she would never get out of the home. She started traveling 30 kilometers a day so that she can be of some backup to my father as well. That lit a fire in me. That did not really kill me, but that lit a fire in me. It was hardly, I believe, in my 7th standard. Till that point of time, I was scoring 40%, 50%. Long story short, by end of 10th, I was the first in my school. Okay? Why? Because I was studying 16 to 19 hours a day. I had no other dream but to become a software engineer in America. Wanted to earn in crores, I wanted to take good care of my family, my parents, everybody who is belonging to me. That's all I wanted to be. Again, especially speaking about kids in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, South India, what do we know? Engineering, IIT, MSET, this is what our parents told us because that's what, that was the only means of education in those days, right? Again, long story short, I had to sacrifice my childhood, I had to sacrifice my teenage, whatever you speak of. Speaking about one more incident in 2005, I was, I was on a dream run. Nothing less than 90% in my life. You go to Hyderabad colleges, Narenamma College, how much, how many do you know? Kids? Good Law, All India Engineering College, you go to any college, I will be topper there in terms of paper presentations. You can go check the records over there, right? I gave my GRE, I gave the MSET, I gave everything. I'm topper everywhere, okay? 3 months, 2006, I was supposed to fly to go to my master's in the US. 2005 December, my sister got married to an NRI. All of us were happy, but I started seeing some change in my mother as well. She was pretty depressed. For 22 years, my sister and I were along with my family. We have— we are not really like hostel students. We've been homegrown. The education has all been home. I've seen my mother falling everywhere in depression because she couldn't see her daughter. How many mothers like that, right? I know, I know. Mothers, they can't leave their kids. That's all. I think that's the only universe for them, right? So I saw my mother getting into depression. She's like, I couldn't take it. I've decided no more MS. I'll stay in India. I'll make it big here. Did I make it big? Did I make it big? Yes, I did make it big. Maybe for me it's big, but just last week I filed my income tax. I paid more than 1.3 crore in income tax itself. Right? With— so hopefully that means something best, okay? I hope I deserve this line to quote myself that, okay, I am being in India, earning in India with just one source of income, I made my income tax itself as 1.3 crores, okay? Again, I am not saying these numbers to let go of my friendships of whatever I have with you. I just want you to— any kids here, anybody who thinks that Can you make it big in India? You can make it big in India. You don't have— look at Budrisar. There are tons of examples in front of us, right? So before we get there, all I wanted to do was be there for my family, right? Money was just a tool for me. In fact, for a lot of us, right, money is just a tool. Of course, some of us, because of some situations, we associate too much with money. But I understood it over a period of course. I understood it, and money is just a tool. But By end of 30s, I see myself sacrificing anything. Why? Because success needs sacrifice. And this sacrifice has to be paid in advance. You don't get success after— it's not that, okay, first I'll get the success and then I'll do the sacrifice. No, it doesn't work like that. Right? Most of you, I know you would understand it, but by 37, I got struck with Corona when I was 37, right? And all these sacrifices which I was making, I don't know what happened to me, but I couldn't bear this pressure. In spite of understanding this noble concept of sacrificing ourselves for betterment of our family, I thought I was just killing myself to save my family. That was the meaning which I was associating with the events of life that were happening in my life. 2023 happens to be the, the most abyss year of my entire life. That is when I have decided, that is when I have decided that I have to train myself in my personality development as well. That is exactly when I have decided, because I was best in everything. I was the best son, I was the best student, employment, I was best employee, whatnot, right? But instead of doing all these things, by end of 2023, I— because of me, my family suffered so much that my mother left me. She couldn't take the amount of suffering I was giving to her. That was me, a person who gave up doing all the things for her mother ended up hurting his own mother. That's the bottom line. At the end of 2023, that is what has happened, right? So I, I've clearly understood myself that this is not what I want to be. From being best in everything, at the end of 2023, all I was was being the best complainer in the world. I am, I am the best complainer in the world at 2023, right? So I started my personality development. I started taking up different courses, sign up for the course, sign up for this course, sign up for that course, sign up for this course. Probably I would have spent 5 lakhs only on the personality development programs until I reached this program, until I met Badri sir. CBH, Conscious Breathing Hub. And you know, I did not even join, I did not join Conscious Breathing Hub to overcome this emotional sufferings which I wasn't sure that I was going through. I've joined CBH because I was, I told you about Corona, right? I got affected with Corona, my lungs were not doing so good. I just thought maybe running will set me up. So I started running. I hate running, by the way. I don't enjoy a bit of running, okay? I just don't like running. Never in my life I ran, but at 37 I started running. I did 10 kilometers and I used to think that I am great. 10 kilometers, 37 minutes, I did it. So that is how I was, but I thought Sir was speaking about— there was a 99 rupees ad, I think 99 rupees workshop. Most of us have seen the ads. Sir said, "You breathe well, your breathing will get better." Again, running has something to do with breathing as well. So I thought, why not sign up for CBH? I've signed up for CBH, I signed up for the 99 rupees workshop, I've signed up for Silo membership, I've signed up for Diamond membership on exactly— so this snapshot, I just realized yesterday that 20th of December was the date I've joined CBH and today happens to be 20th of September. 9 months, you know what it means. What is 9 months all about? Exactly, exactly. 9 months is what it took me to be born again. I've been doing practicing, I've been doing practicing, I've been practicing, I've been listening, listening, listening. But now I realize there is hope for me. I'm not done yet. That best line which you were seeing in the previous slide, best complainer in the world? No. I will start reassociating all the meanings of what I thought so far. I'm going to repair myself. I'm going to heal my family as well. Okay? And this is what the result is. See? Look at that. Do you see life in this slide? There is not even a single text in this slide, but how many of you can see this? Arohan, that was my first retreat ever I have actually attended in my entire life. Look at that. I had my best Holi in my life. I've had some eye-opening revelations in my life, and from then on I started having some fun in my life as well. Till that point of time, till 2023, I was working for 15 hours a day. Why? Best employer. Best employment, best salary, best life. I want best life and it involves some balance. I still remember asking Sir in Arohan, he was making us similar exercise that was about balance of life and Sir came to ask him, Sir, is balance necessary? I still remember this question. Then Sir What kind of guy is this? He's asking why is balance necessary. And then I realized balance doesn't mean you have to achieve balance in single day. You can be everything that you want but not every day. It takes time. Give it some time. Over a period of time you will understand that there is life meant to live for you as well. And the result, I cannot thank this community enough. I don't know how much opportunity I got to thank you all enough. Every single encouragement that you give me on the post that I put out there in the CBH portal. Every time when you guys see me, it's funny when I get called as Shravan Sir. I have no idea why I get called as Shravan Sir. I am not a sir. I just want to be one amongst you. I just want to be a co-person who can contribute some back to the community as well, right? That's what I wanted to be. But the reason why I put up this slide is Till I joined CBH, I've just did 4 10 kilometers in my life. After joining CBH, I did 6 half marathons. This year alone, I did 6 half marathons. I've got opportunity to host 2 potlucks in Hyderabad. All the potluck pics that you have seen, that I was thankful enough to be organizing those 2 potlucks, and I met so many lovely friends out there because of the potlucks which the opportunity which Sir gave me and my family. Again, this is another big Mahabharata. We'll talk about it, but let me tell you, for 2 years, for 1, 1.5 years, me and my wife, we did not speak. And please, what happens in this room stays in this room. Please promise me. I'm saying this These are not the details anybody knows. No family member of mine knows, outside my family. So please, not just me, I think you are going to listen to much more empowering stories which are going to be very personal. You can, you want to use the, use the story, but please don't quote our names. That's the only respect which I have. That's the only request which I have. But I can tell you, After joining CBH, after understanding myself consciously, after realizing what I am speaking out of this 2-inch tongue, I realized it's more worth to be quiet than speak some bullshit. I'm sorry for my language, but it had to be used because I'm Shovan. But yeah, I mean, 2025 happens to be the best life in my year yet. I know my first 40 years of life, it has been something, but I know the next 40 are going to be the best in my life. And I'm sure the reason why I've joined as a lifetime membership in Diamond membership is you are going to see all those things, right? So to start with, like I said, after joining CBH, sir taught me about nasal breathing techniques. And today morning, 6 o'clock, we did this, right? What is this? Bastrika. You know how important it is? In a runner's world, there is something called VO2 max. How many of you know it? VO2 max? Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. And do you know what all they do to improve their VO2 max? There are a ton of things. They go to lab, they get tested, they pay thousands and thousands of rupees just to understand their VO2 max and then to increase. Bhastrika, which we do in the morning, that alone will help you increase your VO2 max. It's all about your lung capacity, how much oxygen you can hold. And that helped me along with the nasal breathing technique which sir has taught me. These two things have helped me. I was hardly touching a 10-kilometer. The only secret why I was able to handle 6 half marathons despite having a knee injury— I was just playing with my daughter, I had to fall, and because of overruns and everything, my knee was injured little bit. But despite with the injury, I was able to achieve this purely because of the secrets which sir taught me, right? So these things are invaluable for me, and I have no idea how much respect I got just because I finished half marathon. People hardly know about my numbers. People hardly know what happens to me back home. People hardly know about the whole— the house that I own. But just because of these facts alone, just because I know so many people out here, people welcoming me with a smiling face, people wanting to talk to me with a wholehearted nature, this is priceless for me. This is what I said, this is called— this is exactly what is called as life. Do you agree? Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. So again, just because we asked about the joint health, sir has introduced special course on joints itself. Just because of our request. This was not published as part of Diamond Course, right? And morning in the daily Diamond Huddle, we do this, right? Every day morning we just wake up and start stretching ourselves, and there are different things which sir makes us to do. You know why we do it daily and what happens we do it daily? So this is the thing which we do frequently, right? Frequently, frequently. Whatever we do frequently becomes our frequency. You accept, right? Now our chakras open up. How many chakras do we have? Exactly, all the 7 chakras open up just because of what we do in the daily Diamond Huddle. The one-off action which we do, the stretching, it is so important, especially for me being a runner. I go to gym as well. The body is so tight, body is so full of injuries. Just because we stretch, just because we stretch, you are ready for your next one. You are ready for your next workout session. And after, I still remember, after the entire session was over, I just typed in, sir, thank you, great workout session. Immediately, sir, this is not workout, this is work in. You are working in. What we do outside is workout. This is work in. Workout plus work-in is exactly what you need. Workouts alone don't help. Workouts when you combine with work-ins, what we do along with Badru sir in the daily Diamond Handle sessions, I think even evening sessions are also happening, those are the exact things which makes us complete. They help us give this mind and body connection, which is exactly what you need. No matter how much you put out physically, it's of no use unless your mind and body is connected. That's all I wanted to convey here. The slide is not moving. I think this slide is so good that it doesn't want to move. Yeah, this is me finishing. Okay, it's gone now. Did I go back too much? Sorry. Yeah. Right. So there are tons of learnings for me from what I've learned in 9 months. But this is one thing which I wanted to put out which had a major impact in my life. Sir spoke about Vairagya and Abhyasa. You remember? Yes, you remember? Today morning, it's not ironical that Daaji also spoke about this. Sir's session also conveyed this, but they were speaking in terms of Karma Yoga. They were using some other words. At the end of the day, this is what it comes down to—Vairagya. Again, there are different levels of Vairagya. We don't want to get into too many things. The reason why I would like to say this is previously I was mad about my numbers, be it in terms of finishing a half marathon in this much amount of time, be it in terms of hitting this much salary, be it in terms of the number of properties that I wanted to own, the number of gold I wanted to own, etc., etc., all different kind, the titles that I wanted to own, but that is being an ignorant kid. That is just being ignorant. Running behind the numbers, title, awards, okay, they help. But when you realize, because of Vairagya, Vairagya again, it doesn't mean that you have to leave everybody, get isolated and go somewhere and do something. No, it's all about realizing that you are the prize. I understood this. I understood this. I am the prize. Right? When I realize that I am the prize, do you know how How powerful we become? Can you realize how tiny we think in terms of numbers or awards or titles? It's not even possible. I don't even know what I'm going to achieve if I really apply these principles. These are the very basics of yoga. Vairagya and abhyasa. Abhyasa means what? Practice. Don't worry about the result. Result will come. And again, today's enlightening word from Karma Yoga. You do it in the name of the God. You do and leave it. God will take care. God will give you more than what you could even imagine, right? You do it, but you worry more about how to do it. That makes sense. You don't have to— so this is what used to happen to me. Tomorrow is my race day. I don't get sleep today. Why? Did I not practice? I practice, but I'm bothered about will I get the time or not? Will I be able to finish my run or not? That used to be my thought process before, but when I understood this, I'm least bothered about the numbers. I just want to sleep. I did all the process, I did all the practice, I just want to sleep. And the result is in front of you.

Uh, exactly.

So irrespective of what I wrote in this, the Veda Nishtha wisdom sessions, they, they don't just give me wisdom, they give me a kind of Freedom. Freedom from all the attachments I have, freedom from all the despair that I go through, freedom from all the expectations that I have out of this external world. That is freedom for me. When you have freedom, again, like I said, it's a beautiful thing. With freedom, if you can— I don't know how much you will be able to do with freedom, especially if you are not bothered about whether it will work out or not, whether this will be a good decision or not. So that is exactly what I wanted to convey with this. Again, this is, this is pretty personal for me and Badri Sir, thanks a lot for Conscious Children's Club. I am least worried about what happens to me but I am most worried about what happens to my children and my son, he is engaged from morning 7 to evening 8. Morning 7 he steps inside the school bus, he comes to home around 3:30, 3:40. He goes to cricket practice at 4 o'clock, he comes back by 6:30, then he has ODA class at 7 o'clock, 7 till 8 o'clock, where even IITians teach their 4th or 5th level grade, okay? And I'm proud to say he is a gold medalist in Mathematics Olympiad. He happens to be Hyderabad school topper in terms of cricket. He is the best all-rounder. In fact, just last year he received the runners-up award. You know where I'm getting there? He is going to suffer the same fate which I am going to suffer if I am not going to prepare him about being conscious. I have been the best in my life and I have seen the consequences if I don't know what I am doing, if I don't know where I am going. I see my son going through the same phase. Maybe if not today, some other time he will start breaking out. He will start exploding if I don't manage his consciousness. And this is a blessing. This is like Conscious Children's Club, what we do. Okay, I have kids. I have 2 kids. I'm sure some of us have kids here. We all say, hey, focus, focus, focus. But do we ever tell them how to focus? I never said. Sir said. Brahmari techniques, ton of Conscious Breathing techniques, Sir said. And you know, My son, sometimes he has sleep problems as well. He is hardly 10 and a half, but because of whatever he goes through, he has sleep problems. And when I told him, beta, just count your number of breaths that you are breathing, just count the numbers, he had a wonderful sleep that day. The very next morning, he just hugged me saying that, Papa, thank you so much, I love you Papa because you've helped me treat my sleep problems. A 10 and a half year old having a sleep problem, and then his father helping him just because of what I learned from Badri Sir. What they are learning in the Conscious Children's Club. I hear lot of people speaking about Gen Z, they are going that way, they are going this way. I don't know, I am not even a social media person. I have hardly WhatsApp, that too I use morning half an hour, evening half an hour and then I don't even know what's happening out there in the Gen Z world. But when I listen about what is happening in the current trend, the things that are happening in the schools and the colleges, I'm afraid. I'm afraid. So how will you protect them? Will you just stay behind them every time? No. You cannot attach a lie detector to them. No, you can't control what their actions are. But I am sure by being part of Conscious Children's Club, they will make conscious decisions and I am sure they are going to help themselves. Just imagine one kid making one good decision is going to help this world come out of tons of problems. I'm not bothered about what happens to everybody. I am first bothered about what happens to my kids. I am responsible for my kids, at least to some extent. And this particular program, Conscious Breathing Hub, which I just joined just because to improve my running. I had no idea about these many different derivatives in the Conscious Breathing Hub. And I'm so thankful that I made this decision. After joining CBH, I am not joining any other course. I don't have time. And forget about other courses. I don't have time to consume 10% of what Badri Sir has to offer. The number of programs which Badri Sir is offering, I don't have time to consume at least one program properly, right? Again, I told you, right? Me and my wife, we hardly spoke for almost for 2 years. Why? Because Nobody taught me, or there is no institute out there which teaches how to handle marriage. I got married at 27, childhood marriage. I'm just kidding. Why I got married at 27? Because my relatives said, you start searching now, you will get after 2 to 3 years. And I got married in 2 to 3 months. So, the reason why I am saying is this is common. This is— I know how much we deny this is common and if we are not equipped with how to handle these situations, just because of the influences that we see outside our home, we end up that is normal and we take it for granted. No, no, we are Indians. We have our own culture. We like it or not, at the end of the day, We have to come back to our culture and I'm glad, I'm glad that, you know, as part of Conscious Breathing Hub, Sir is actually at least bringing in the experts, you know, who can help you sort out such kind of aspects. So please help yourself and safeguard our culture. I'm in no position to say what is right, what is wrong, but help yourself at least. At least irrespective of speaking about others, I need to help myself and I hope I did that. We are having a great time, right? So, okay, so what you are seeing on the right-hand side, we spoke about Mahabharata today morning, right? I fight thousands of Mahabharatas inside my mind. My mind, my brain, that is a battleship, that is a battleground where Innumerable wars are fought every single day for every trivial stupid thing. For every trivial stupid thing, I prepare so much that what if, what if, what if, what if. Analysis paralysis. Perfection syndrome. These are good. These are good to help you up to some extent. Too much is too bad. These were my weapons. What you are seeing, are they bad? No, they are not bad, but they are not good enough. They are not good enough to be happy. They are not good enough to be peaceful. They are not good enough to be a conscious or a kind person. Before joining CBH, those were my weapons to fight my war. Do I don't raise a war? I do raise wars, but these are my weapons now. Ahimsa. Ahimsa. And I am not speaking about Not hurting others. I'm speaking about let's not hurt ourselves. We want to say something, fine. Somebody says something which we don't like and we end up scolding them. What happens after half an hour? We feel bad. What happens after 1 hour? We feel terrible. Am I— do I really have to say that word? Do I really have to behave like that? Right? Those are not what I wanted. At least that's not what— that's not how my parents brought me up. Right? Again, so, why not? We already spoke about it. I just explained what I understood about Ahimsa from Conscious Breathing Hub. This word 'let go,' let go. I was so bad that if somebody is crossing road, on the road in a wrong side, I go and put my car there and I block him. That's the kind of nature which I used to have. It's a wrong thing, fine. Is it my what? Do I really have to waste my energy in such things? Fine, whatever he is doing is wrong, but who am I supposed to go and stop that? If I am doing it, I should be somebody who is responsible for doing it in a bigger level. Then it makes sense. I mean, the point I am saying is I started letting go not because I wanted to spare somebody, I wanted to spare myself. I want to manage my energy better. I want to manage my time better. This is the realization which I had and my life has been peaceful just because of following these things. So, again, at the end of the day— Yeah, looks like I just wanted to keep going and going. They are saying I'm done, people are getting bored, so stop it, stop it, stop it. So, yes, I'm going to stop it. But before I stop it, all I wanted to say is, use everything. You are weak, use it. You are black, use it. You are angry, use it. You are lost, use it. You are good, use it. We are part of CBH, let's use CBH. Thank you. Please give a standing ovation. Please, please, please go on stage. Please give a standing ovation to all of you, please. Super, super inspiring. Let's welcome. Thank you, thank you so much. Keep going, keep going. Thank you so much, Raman, for implementing everything and for being the one of the best students. Thanks to you, sir. And dedicated student and consistent students. Thank you, thank you so much. Without your consistency, it wouldn't have happened. And thank you for implementing. Yes, sir, I agree. But I would like to say that I'm a small baby now, a 9-month. I just, I feel like I just got out of the womb. I have a lot to learn. I'm not so consistent, but still I believe I'm applying something which I'm learning, whatever the small things which I'm learning. And I, from wholehearted, I bless you and I beg you to please continue this. Sure. Please don't give us up. Please don't give up on us.