PANCHAGIRI HILLS, southern India — The members of Utah’s trade delegation followed scientist Divya Kanchibhotla past an outdoor class to a meeting and meditation room on the Art of Living International Center campus.
“Gurudev’s philosophy is that inner transformation leads to outer transformation,” Kanchibhotla told the small group on a pleasant mid-November afternoon, referring to Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, a spiritual leader behind the organization.
Art of Living volunteers worked behind her to get the meeting room open. The group eventually gathered in the room, each delegate carrying a chair for themselves from a pile on the side and sipping from the small bottles of water provided by a volunteer.
“Since you came all the way here, I thought I would lead you into a small meditation,” Kanchibhotla said.
Even though the delegates, a mix of lawmakers, policy experts and business leaders, only had a few hours on the Art of Living campus, almost all of them said they left the monastery more relaxed and carefree.
After trying out a 10-minute breathing technique led by a knowledgeable guide, their forehead lines eased and natural smiles took over.
This moment of relaxation for members of the Utah delegation, who were visiting India as part of a trade mission organized by World Trade Center Utah. The delegation visited sever cities over two weeks. Bangalore was their final stop before making the long return flight to Utah. The fact that this trip coincided with a ramp-up in the redistricting battle back home stretched their working hours into the night.
“Jason, I think we may have to organize meditation days at the Capitol during session,” state Rep. Matt MacPherson, R-West Valley City, joked to his colleague, state Rep. Jason Thompson, R-River Heights, after the meditation.
The delegates experienced a taste of the Art of Living practices, with one person from the group — Nate Friedman, an associate dean at the University of Utah — taking special interest.
The University of of Utah sent Friedman on this trade mission to explore partnerships in India. If this initial exploration leads to an academic partnership, it would be the Art of Living’s first joint academic pursuit.
Noting the architecture of the large lotus-shaped meditation center, called the Murugan Mandala Vatika, and the sounds of young men chanting, the associate dean said, “It’s hard to feel the rest of the world weighing down on you when you’re here.”
A brief respite
Kanchibhotla told the delegates about the organization’s work in reviving rivers and educating young girls and rural communities.
The delegates, on a tight schedule with ministry meetings ahead of them, didn’t get a chance to tour the research center, which Kanchibhotla helped establish.
This center has conducted more than 200 studies on the techniques taught and practiced at the ashram, the executive director of the Art of Living’s Institute for Advanced Research said.
Kanchibhotla wore a magenta pink saree with a yellow blouse, the gleaming strands in the drapes complementing her gold jewelry.
She spoke about “prana,” the Sanskrit term for the vital life force energy, akin to “chi” in traditional Chinese philosophy, and how to elevate it for heightened physical resilience and mental clarity.
Sometimes it happens naturally, like during a hike or a day at the beach, she said, when we feel a pleasant shift. Traditional Vedic techniques can also incorporate this heightened rhythm in daily life.
Kanchibhotla listed four things that influence the level of prana someone feels. This includes food — which for the followers of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar typically leans towards vegetarian — physical fitness, breathwork and meditation.
“You know that flow state that they talk about, where alpha waves are more predominant,” she noted. “Maybe some of you wear an Apple Watch, where it says, ‘You’re in a restorative state of mind,’ where you are calm, composed, not agitated — that gives you energy.”
Kanchibhotla let each word hang as she led the meditation in the barely furnished room, adorned with a picture of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar behind her.
Her instructions were simple: the right thumb on the right nostril, the middle and index fingers on the left nostril. Inhale through one nostril, close it, and exhale through the other. She reassured her audience that the mind is allowed to wander, but the focus should be on the breath.
“My brain shut off during that moment,” Friedman said an hour later, during the lunch break at the ashram’s small restaurant, Panchamrut, which serves satvik style slow-cooking. They offer only vegetarian food and the recipes don’t contain onion or garlic.
The lunch menu included thalis, or round individual platters, that contain lentils, vegetable dishes, soup, rice, flatbreads and desserts.
Amid the chatter of what to order, Friedman told the Deseret News he “felt different coming out of (the meditation) than I did going in.” For him, it served as a reminder of the interconnectedness of our physical and mental well-being.
A unique approach
The University of Utah has a global presence, including a campus in South Korea. Creating joint programming with institutions in India, home to a population of 1.4 billion, also aligns with that vision, Friedman said.
Aside from student exchange programs, the American university is also exploring opportunities to integrate some of these teachings into its curriculum.
“We are a top research institution in the U.S. and we have faculty members and students who would be interested in learning about these things,” he said about the ancient practices that influence medicine, farming, sustainability and research at the Art of Living campuses.
“From a research perspective,” Friedman said, “I do think there are some interesting opportunities at the hospital, for instance, where researchers can come to learn.”
Earlier in the day, the delegation toured other parts of the ashram, including the gushala, home to 1,600 cows, and the horse stable.
Although this 250-acre campus is only about 22 miles away from the major metropolitan city of Bangalore, India’s very own Silicon Valley, its rich biodiversity and lush fields make it feel much more distant from the sights and sounds of never-ending traffic and horns bouncing between the skyscrapers.
The ashram prides itself on transforming barren land into a thriving ecosystem of tall tropical trees of sandalwood and avocado, more than 140 species of birds and 102 kinds of butterflies as well as other creatures, all of whom depend on the center’s water treatment systems for clean water.
The delegates passed by the daily schedule for a school for young boys to study and preserve ancient Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and Agamas and become priests. It’s a traditional teaching system with strict codes of conduct and spiritual practices ingrained in day-to-day life. Starting at 5 a.m. and winding down by 9:30 p.m., these students attend classes, practice yoga and breathwork, pray, study scripture and volunteer.
A teacher lectured to students in the background. She spoke Kannada, a south Indian language, which one of the delegates was able to decipher. Guruprasad Sowle, the founder and president of the Indus International Research Foundation, offered a short translation of the day’s lesson. “She’s saying when there is commitment, you can get out of your comfort zone easily.”
Tawnee McCay, the wife of Utah state Sen. Daniel McCay, R-Riverton, walked up to the deities next to boys sitting on the ground in the middle of their class. She offered a prayer with her palms joined together and received a blessing from the elderly priest.
“I love learning about other people’s cultures and religions,” she told the Deseret News during the tour. “I’ve found that if people have some type of religion in their life, they tend to be better citizens and community members and parents.”
The Art of Living’s hospital was less sterile than many Western medical centers and instead embraced yellow walls, open spaces, natural light and plants, making it feel more like a retreat.
Aside from the architecture, this hospital practices alternative medicine, like prescribing Ayurvedic herb oil blends for various ailments, and offering 95 different types of Panchakarma cleansing programs. Some of the cleanses can be grueling on the body, especially when it’s ingesting cups of ghee, or clarified butter.
“Ayurveda — it’s not an easy treatment. … But it helps find the root cause and it doesn’t give any side effects. That’s one of the beautiful things,” one of the guest services staffers giving the tour said.
The wellness journey at their clinic begins with one of their experts examining the patient to diagnose physical, mental or emotional imbalances.
“It’s definitely different from what we do,” Friedman mused during lunch.
“This is the perspective of holistic wellness — it’s not something we always do well in the United States and seeing the hospital and how they approach medicine is certainly interesting.”
BYU’s relationship with MIT Peace University
On the trade mission’s second stop in Pune, the automotive manufacturing capital and education hub, the delegates briefly toured the Maharashtra Institute of Technology World Peace University.
Vishwanath Karad, the founder of MIT WPU school, has a connection to Brigham Young University, where he gave a commencement address and received an honorary doctorate in education and international leadership in April 2024.
At the commencement ceremony, BYU President C. Shane Reese introduced him as a friend of the Beehive State, BYU and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Karad thanked BYU for joining other universities to donate “a larger-than-life-size bronze statue” of him, installed at the World Peace Dome, which he called a “symbol of unity, spiritual reflection and global peace.”
It is also where a statue of the Latter-day Saint prophet Joseph Smith stands alongside 53 other bronze sculptures.
Karad compared the teachings of the Latter-day Saint church with his own religion.
“The principles and values practiced by the Latter-day Saint people are so similar to the principles and values and laws practiced by the Vaishnav-Warkari or Warkari cult of Hinduism, the very tradition in which I was born and reared,” Karad said, drawing a link between the pathways to “love, peace, harmony, devotion.”
“I personally believe that the Prophet Joseph Smith epitomized everything that is noble in human beings. He faced great odds and torment in his life so that an era of love, compassion, understanding, and brotherhood could be established in a terribly violent society. The Prophet Joseph Smith said that the best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to seek from books but to go to God in prayer. This is similar to what Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh community from India, asserted when he said that knowledge can be obtained not just through reading books but by being in the presence of God Himself.”
— Vishwanath D. Karad at Brigham Young University's commencement address in April 2024.
In 2022, Karad hosted then-Elder D. Todd Christofferson and a church delegation for the unveiling of Joseph Smith’s statue.
BYU and the Church of Jesus Christ previously hosted Karad in 2015. The MIT Peace University founder spoke at the Parliament of the World’s Religions, a major interfaith event that took place in Salt Lake City that year.
Karad was impressed with BYU’s honor code, value-based education and a curriculum that blends the scientific and spiritual.
He made calls to “transform the university centers of the world, the temples and the churches into knowledge centers that share divine knowledge and wisdom.”
BYU and MIT WPU have discussed the idea of exchange programs and other partnerships in the last several meetings. MIT WPU continued to express interest during the latest sit-down with the Utah trade delegation during their visit.
Deans from MIT WPU’s various colleges sat with the Utah lawmakers and other delegates to strengthen the school’s existing relationship with the Mountain West.
Vibrant Gaikwad, the dean of academics at the university, said that this school trains future politicians by sending them into the field. Most recently, MIT WPU students traveled to Bihar to witness the ongoing election. The curriculum also offers students a chance to take classes relating to yoga or meditation.
This privately owned institution’s culture and curriculum are centered around the vision of “a holistic, peace-loving global society,” as Karad said.
MacPherson contrasted this Indian university’s goal with the unrest on higher education campuses in the U.S., noting the public assassination of Charlie Kirk during an event on campus at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
“There is a tremendous need for this combination of spirituality and science and peace in the whole world,” the state legislator added. “I’m very happy that we’re here to be a part of this.”
Thompson also said he supports this “holistic approach to education” amid the increasing divisiveness in the U.S., where higher education institutions have become a hotbed of antisemitic violence.
MacPherson and Thompson sit on the Education Appropriations Committee in the lower chamber of Utah’s House of Representatives, aiding in the management of the state’s $9 billion budget for 800,000 students.
“We don’t all have to be alike but we can all work together, right?” Thompson said. He added he sees these philosophies of peace of interest in Utah, “where there’s very high political pressure … and an appetite for change.”