Devotees at the Osho Dhara camp at Ratanlal Jain Smriti Bhavan in Ranchi on Friday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Ranchi, June 27: Stress is a part of several lives today. Some people took a break from their chores by taking the spiritual path.

A nine-day camp by Osho Dhara Amrit Dhyan Samadhi began in the city today.

Around 50 people, including 10 students, are attending the camp. The group includes people from Ranchi and also devotees from Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh. While some are attending the camp for 3 days, others will take lessons up to July 5.

Today the camp’s first level, anand pragya, began where people were seen meditating under the guidance of Acharya Osho Prabhakar assisted by Acharya Osho Mohan and Swami Dhyan Raman, who operated the music.

Other higher levels of meditation — yog pragya and samadhi pragya — will be taught in the following classes.

In the first level, devotees would be taught to release stress, anxiety and tension and restore mental peace. Elaborating on the lesson, Acharya Osho Prabhakar said: “We have people of all religions attending camps and we are helping them to overcome anger and negativity and work on all kinds of strained relationships. Through meditation people can reform their minds and find mental peace.”

He further added that in the yog pragya stage, the level of consciousness rises while in the third stage the pineal gland is activated to invoke cosmic energies. At the end of the camp (June 27), the head of Osho Dhara, Osho Siddhartha will come to Ranchi to help devotees connect on the spiritual level through diksha.

Kalyan Kumar Chatterjee, the chief conservator of forests who was part of the camp, said: “I have often attended satsang sessions but this is for the first time that I’m attending such a long camp. Right from the first day I’m experiencing immense satisfaction and tranquillity. We are not even allowed to keep mobile phones here and these nine days are entirely devoted to one’s self development.”

Acharya Osho Mohan, the district co-ordinator of Osho Dhara, Ranchi, said: “We don’t have rules for the devotees in the camp. We believe in sahaj yog or meditation without being ritualistic. No membership or diksha or any such requirements are fixed. A small amount is charged for food and accommodation. There are no other formalities. In the evenings we have an open satsang session where all are welcome.”