What is the secret behind Vidyut Jamwal’s viral open-eyed meditation?

A video of Vidyut Jamwal is going viral where during a promotional event of Street Fighter, he was seen standing still for almost 15 minutes on stage, lost in meditation. His eyes were opened, hands rested and some camera footages also spotted tears running down his eyes. What more, some reports also suggest that he held his breath for 15 minutes apart from not even blinking once during the duration of the meditation. This has led netizens to speculate about the secret behind this record-breaking meditation. And Vidyut credits it to a technique called Patanjali Yoga Sutras.

What is the Patanjali Yoga Sutra that Vidyut Jamwal uses?

When one talks about meditation, one automatically has a vision of a person sitting cross legged, hands by their side or near their chest and eyes closed. But in reality it may not always be the case. The eyes need not be closed in order to meditate. The objective behind meditation has always been how one can regulate attention, which may or may not involve closing of the eye lids. In fact, a person practicing trataka can fix their gaze at an object, traditionally a candle flame, and try to reduce the number of blinks. Research has proven that this method helps in sustained visual concentration even when the eyes are not closed.

The overarching technique of Patanjali Yoga Sutras discuss Pranayama in sutras 2.49 to 2.51. While Sutra 2.49 talks about how pranayama regulates breathing , Sutra 2.50 talks about the phases of breathing. This proves that Vidyut actually used the process of breath control with open eyes rather than labeling it as meditation.

Soon after the meditation Vidyut himself accepted the use of Patanjali Yoga Sutras but never clarified which process he used. He mentioned that he not only practices the methods himself but also teaches young people. The idea comes from an individual attempt to slow things down rather than falling prey to the fast-paced competitive life and losing contentment. Moreover, while some footages claim that he held his breath for a long time, nothing of such sort was accepted nor there are continuous footages to establish the same.

The Dhalsim connect

The meditation performed suited well with his character Dhalsim in Street Fighter. Dhalsim is a learned man with yogic fighting capabilities and this bit of live yoga on stage definitely caught everyone’s attention. But what is important is to notice Vidyut’s years of hard work, dedication, discipline, concentration, and knowledge of kalaripayattu to not just build himself on a personal level, but use the same to decorate his roles with a personal touch.

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