For Joshua Pollock, his music and heartfulness meditation meld perfectly. “Music involves intellect and feelings from your heart. Heartfulness meditation is about meditating on your heart,” says Joshua, a heartfulness trainer and practitioner.
He was recently in Bengaluru to launch The Heartfulness Way , which he has co-authored with his mentor Kamlesh D Patel.
The western classical violinist met Patel in Chennai while working as an instructor in AR Rahman’s KM Conservatory from 2008 to 2010.
Elaborating on the meditation technique, he says, “People wonder if the impulses are coming from the mind or the heart and which one to listen to. Meditation help you clearly perceive the inner guidance.”
Joshua calls himself a seeker who tried out different meditation practices back home in America, to no avail.
“I was not a good meditator. I almost gave up until I met a man on my way to a grocery store in the US. He was a heartfulness practitioner and that's how I started,” recalls Joshua.
Heartfulness or Sahaj Marg (The Natural Path) is a form of Raja Yoga, a heart-based meditation system. According to Joshua, an important feature of Heartfulness is pranahuti or yogic transmission. “Start with a trainer and receive yogic transmission and experience it for yourself. It is absolutely free of charge because every trainer is a volunteer. There are about 10,000 trainers worldwide and a vast majority are from India.”
With the book, Joshua wants to make people aware about its existence by disseminating information.
“It used to be a prevalent method of spiritual training that got lost with time. There are so many veils that need to be lifted.”
Now based in Delhi, Joshua fondly remembers his association with AR Rahman, with whom he worked on films such as Ghajini , Delhi-6 , Raavan, and Blue .
“It was a good experience working with Rahman. He would record at night, so one would get a call around midnight to come to the studio. I wouldn't even know which film the piece is going to be used in. People would tell me that they heard it in that film.”
He says, he enjoyed Ghajini's music the most but had the most number of solos in Delhi-6 . Joshua learned about Rahman’s stardom only after he came to India to join the school. “I hadn’t heard of him before.”
As for the school, the musician says he had a blast with students there. He adds: “There are so many amazing violinists around but the difference between his practice and theirs is in the approach.”
Though his focus has shifted to the book over the last two years, music remains an integral part of his life. “You can’t take it away, except that now I am travelling with my book to different parts of India followed by the US and Europe. I have been playing the violin since the age of four. I recently did a small fusion concert with Carnatic musicians Lalitha and Nandini.”
