From a Ruffian to an Angel

I used to be a basket ball player, when I was a boy. I played for a local club, which was one of the best in armature sports. I enjoyed the game so much that I trained very hard and became one of the best players in my age group in Chennai and Tamilnadu. I've been a main player for Loyola College for three years and represented the Madras University basketball team.

A slum dwelling boy “Thanigaivel” used to come to the ground where we used to practice basketball. Everyone in the school he studied despised him. He had beaten up his teachers, on the complaint of his school mates and several students. Teachers and students were threatened and waiting for an opportunity, to jibe him, punish and teach him a lesson.

Thanigaivel was a boy with tremendous potential! When everyone around were despising him, I saw in him the potential to be a great leader. The potential he had was powerful, naive, crude yet the boy was innocent.

When I interacted with him, I found him to be a lovely material. I introduced the practices of Yoga to him in 1997. I also gave him lots of attention and time, visited his hut, spoke to his parents and started giving him more sessions.

He calmed down a lot after practicing yoga. Thanigaivel just loved being with me and talking to me. I had gained his confidence. I asked him “What is it that you want, why do you beat people? He said “I want everyone to listen to me Anna”.

I explained to him that he had to possess something very special for people to follow. That when you have qualities then people will obviously begin to respect you. That fear cannot really bring respect, but only hatred. Given his background and experience, he resisted subtle, spiritual inputs to begin with, but the systematic logical teachings and the relaxation practices, the stimulating and strengthening asanas had a welcome change in Thanigaivel! He started regularly practicing yoga and had calmed down completely. 

But teachers at school had decided to give him one more year in +1, I had asked Thanigaivel to go to every teacher in the school and apologize for his behavior, ask for pardon and seek their blessings. Being a renewed person, Thanigaivel took great effort to reconcile with each and every teacher, he had misbehaved with. Thanigaivel sincerely apologized to each and every teacher and this change in him worked a miracle.  All the teachers came together and decided to forgive Thanigaivel and allow him to try the +1 exam on his own strength.

Yoga had developed a lot of concentration, patience, understanding and other faculties required by a student in Thanigaivel. He had also understood that a good qualification also meant good marks and a good degree. He surprised everyone with a 70% in his +1 and was encouraged to do well in his +2 also. The boy who was a ruffian, like a hit boy, a delinquent had turned into an enthusiastic and interested student, through the positive influence of Yoga and the loving care of a mentor! I suggested to him to take to boxing as a sport which he did with total enthusiasm, for he got a ring in which he could punch into someones nose officially. He became a champion boxer in his light weight category in some time.

On completion of his +2 successfully, he got a sports quota admission, with 100% sponsorship to admission fee for his under-graduation. He surprised all his teachers with a very good percentage in his UG degree. He placed well in South India level boxing and got himself a berth in a post graduate degree. M.A Social work, which also was on sports quota with total fee waiver.

Today Thanigaivel is a very big name in youth sports circles. Every year thousands of children and youth are recruited by him to get sponsored training in sports and Thanigaivel ensures that they also get their quota of trans-formative yoga.

From 1^st to 7^th June Thanigaivel brought 70 youngsters from Chennai all the way to Rikhia, where they had a wonderful opportunity to  participate in a national level yoga training program – Bal Yoga Shivir. These youngsters are boys picked up from the slums in Chennai. About 100 of them were given a training in basic skills of football and Satyananda Yoga.

One youth Thanigaivelan, a rough and impertinent youth, was touched by the healing influence of Yoga and today thousands of youth in Chennai and several places in Tamilnadu will go through the trans-formative power of yoga in their lives. Today Thanigaivel is indeed an angel to all of them.

Allow yoga to come into your life! Enjoy your full potential, have fun, succeed!