Entrepreneur Shreans Daga overcame his physical and mental struggles through meditation and breathwork. Today, as a spiritual teacher and transformation coach he helps others heal themselves. He specialises in transcendental breathwork and shares success stories of people from his programmes who have overcome ailments like diabetes and even cancer. In a conversation with The Free Press Journal, Shreans gets candid about mental health, spirituality, and more.

Excerpts from the interview:

You have balanced your life as an entrepreneur and a spiritual enthusiast. What led you to this part?

In 1993, when I was 19 years old and in my second year at Sydenham College, my father suddenly passed away. He was 46. The next three years I slipped into depression. I was going through grief and anxiety; insecurities about what will happen to me and my family. After three years, I was diagnosed with chest tuberculosis (TB). It was a wake-up call. I had to do something in my life differently otherwise I would also die soon. Coincidentally, I was introduced to a spiritual teacher, Patriji, who told me if I wanted to heal the root cause I had to meditate. At that time, I was willing to try anything so I started meditation with him. During my first meditation, I felt like I had forgotten the last three years. He then told me that if I meditate for 40 days daily, I can heal myself without any medicines.

Did you take that advice?

Yes, because my first experience was so profound I took the challenge. I was not doing anything because I was completely withdrawn from my social life, so I had all the time.

What was the result of that? Did it cure you?

After 30 days I was due for my chest X-ray and when I got the result, the doctor said there was no sign of TB, it was gone. He revealed this was the first case in his professional life that he wasn’t even seeing a small patch. For me, that was a big revelation. I had healed myself, not only physically, but in that one month I had emotionally transformed as well.

Did you go off allopathic medications?

I took it for one day and stopped after I met Patriji.

Was he trying to tell you that your TB was caused because of deep emotional trauma?

He said my TB was like a fire alarm, but my real fire was the grief I was going through. I was trying to switch off the fire alarm by taking medicines. Thus, eventually, it would come up as another disease unless I heal the root cause.

You’ve said the mind is the biggest pharmacy. Do you think serious ailments like cancer can be cured with breathwork and meditation

Our autonomous nervous system is the biggest pharmacy of chemicals. So whatever chemicals are needed for our body to heal, our autonomous nervous system produces. We don’t need to depend on external medicines. Not that I am against medicines. It is good for any acute ailments. However, we need to cure lifestyle diseases with lifestyle changes. We need to work on our thoughts, and emotions, and heal the root cause.

Can you tell us about any particular client who healed themselves

There is a lady named Lavisha from Ahmednagar who had stage-four cancer. The doctor had given her a maximum of two months to live. That is when she came to our workshop saying she had nothing to lose. She started meditation along with breathwork and is okay now. It’s been two years.