Trauma Relief Course for Blast Victims in Mumbai

The train blasts on July 11, 2006, in Mumbai left behind terrifying memories and traumatic experiences for the survivors.      

Ten days later, on July 21, The Art of Living realizing the need, conducted a Trauma Relief Course in Mumbai. Over 170 people participated in the course that included family members of blast victims, caregivers and others.

“For the first time since the blasts, I slept peacefully,” says 44-year-old Dinesh Tirodkar, who was traveling in the first class compartment of the ill-fated Borivali train on July 11. “Screams of the dying and injured, the stench of blood and the vision of the dead have kept me awake every single night since the blasts,” he shares. After attending the first day of the Trauma Relief Course, Tirodkar was able to take a step towards leading a normal life again.

The course taught the unique and powerful Sudarshan Kriya and counseled them to help them overcome their trauma.

For victims like the Tirodkars, the relief is enormous. “I didn’t know how to get him out of the pain. I was worried about how he would resume a normal life,” says his wife, Pushpa. But now he has been healed through techniques and processes taught on The Art of Lviing Trauma Relief Course.

“Breath has the power to reach out to the innermost emotions and the debris that the mind collects. Without analyzing the garbage, the Kriya gets rid of it,” says Dinesh Godhke, director of WAYE, the youth NGO of The Art of Living, and who has conducted Trauma Relief Courses worldwide. “The spirit is untouched by events and people. Once participants are given a taste of that aspect of the Self, then trauma eases off and people can blossom as human beings,” he says.

For social worker Sharda Avondekar, the processes on the course removed all her pent up emotions. “I wasn’t able to cry openly before this,” she says. Avondekar had spent many hours at Bhagwati hospital waiting to claim a colleague’s body. “I was numbed by the sight of the dead youth,” she says. “But after the course, I’m feeling much better,” she says. Like Tirodkar says, “I finally think I’m getting back to being who I really am.”