Teaching human values to her husband’s killers

Forgiving her husband’s murderers. Reeta Singh has done the unthinkable: going back to them and teaching meditation and human values. Even the Naxalites were astonished at Reeta’s courage.

 
 

Around 50-60 Naxalities, both men and
women, killed my husband right in front
of me.
But once I did the (YLTP) Course, I
never looked back. Neither did I feel that
my husband is no longer with me.

 
 

“At around seven in the evening on 11 December, 2005, around 50-60 Naxalites, both men and women, killed my husband right in front of me. I don’t remember very well - what happened after that, but my husband’s murder left a deep scar in my heart,” shares Reeta Singh, a young lady from the Indian state of Bihar.

She lived in a state of horror for the next one year. At her sister’s insistence, Rita underwent the Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP) starting on 17 December 2006. This marked the beginning of her journey with The Art of Living.

‘I uttered my name after a year’

“I don’t know what happened on the first day of the YLTP course. But on 18 December 2006, after I did my first Sudarshan Kriya, I uttered my name after a year. Up until then, I was a dead body, who was unable to walk, talk or express any emotion. During the course, my teachers say that I was in such a bad space that even they cried looking at me. But once I did the course, I never looked back. Neither did I feel that my husband is no longer with me.”

Earlier, she was an extremely aggressive person suffering from various ailments, “When my husband was alive, he spent most of his time taking me to the doctor. I was addicted to sleeping pills, yet I wouldn’t get any sleep and was in a lot of pain. But ever since my first kriya, I haven’t felt the need to take any medication because now, I can sleep anywhere and in any condition,” beams Reeta, dressed in a white kurta-pajama with salt and pepper hair and free-flowing energy that’s almost contagious.

Teaching meditation to her husband’s murderers

 
 

Soon after, Reeta became an Art
of Living teacher and taught the
Sudarshan Kriya to those who
had brutally murdered her
husband.
“I went there out of my own
free will because I wanted those
who had ruined my life to have
the same knowledge and
opportunity to change their
lives,” explains Reeta.

 
 

Soon after, she became a teacher and took courses in prisons, but her real test came when she taught the kriya to those who had brutally murdered her husband. Shares Reeta, “I went there out of my own free will because I wanted those who had ruined my life to have the same knowledge and opportunity to change their lives.

I met them the day before I was to take the course and when I saw them, I didn’t feel I was looking at the enemy, but my own brothers and sisters. Even they accepted that they’d killed my husband and asked me how could I conduct the course for them after what they did to me? My answer was: ‘You accept what you did to me is wrong, yet I’m here to give you something valuable, which is for your benefit’.”

‘I don’t feel any sadness & fear’

Till today, those four courses that she conducted are very memorable to her because they did the course with a lot of discipline and bhakti (devotion), and were filled with regret and remorse. But Reeta asked them to let the guilt go and start working with love and affection instead of arms and violence.

“Today, I am no longer scared of anything because I feel that a protective shield is looking after me - with Gurudev (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar) on my right and my husband on my left,” smiles Reeta, while getting ready for a meeting with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar at the Art of Living International Center, Bangalore, India, leaving us with, “You know why I don’t feel any sadness or fear? It’s because I have tremendous contentment and it’s all because of Guruji.”

If you want to reach out to Reeta, or help in furthering the transformation through the YLTP work, write to yltp@artofliving.org.

* Naxalites - Maoist Communist group in India