Bengaluru / New York: In a landmark moment for global wellbeing, spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar on World Meditation Day led what is being described as the world’s largest collective meditation, bringing together more than 12.1 million participants from 150 countries.
The historic event was held against the backdrop of rising global stress, conflict and mental health challenges, underscoring a growing international search for inner resilience and social harmony. World Meditation Day, formally adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2024 as an annual observance, aims to highlight the role of meditation in promoting mental wellbeing and peaceful societies.
This year’s global meditation was anchored at the United Nations Trusteeship Council in New York, where diplomats, permanent representatives and senior UN officials participated in a live guided session led by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. From the UN headquarters, the meditation simultaneously spread across continents, connecting people in cities, villages and institutions across India, Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia.
Participants represented a wide cross-section of society, including students, professionals, farmers, volunteers and prison inmates from over 60 countries. Organisers said the uniqueness of the event lay not in spectacle, but in the scale of shared silence and collective stillness, uniting diverse populations through a common inner experience.
The global initiative was further strengthened by the announcement of a first-of-its-kind international study on meditation and wellbeing. Launched jointly by Gallup and The Art of Living ahead of World Meditation Day, the collaboration will see new meditation-related questions incorporated into the Gallup World Poll. This will enable large-scale, comparative, data-driven insights into the relationship between meditation, emotional health, life satisfaction and social wellbeing across nations.
According to Gallup’s recent findings, negative emotions such as stress, worry and anxiety remain persistently high worldwide, reinforcing the need for scalable and preventive approaches to mental health. The upcoming study, whose results are expected in December 2026, is anticipated to inform public policy, education systems and workplace wellbeing programmes globally.
India’s spiritual and cultural legacy formed the core of the initiative, presenting meditation as a practical and evidence-based tool for addressing modern psychological and societal pressures. Speaking at the UN event, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar remarked that meditation is “no longer a luxury, but a necessity” in today’s world.
On December 19, Permanent Representatives from India, Sri Lanka, Andorra, Mexico and Nepal, along with delegates from other member states and UN agencies, came together to mark the occasion. The gathering featured reflections on the relevance of ancient contemplative practices in addressing contemporary social, political and mental health challenges, placing a tradition rooted in India’s civilisational heritage firmly within the framework of global diplomacy.
