MIDLAND Internist Dr. Padmaja Patel treats many patients suffering from anxiety and sleeplessness, which she said is expected in a society that is becoming busier, and where the informational overflow of TV is the medicine of choice.

Patel has found an escape from that world in books, meditation and yoga, but not just any yoga - she just got back from Kauai, Hawaii, with her family where she practiced 8 forms of yoga under the guidance of Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami.

And she's bringing a piece of the island to West Texas.

The Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami will have a lecture free and open to the public from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12 at the Wagner Brown Auditorium at Midland College, and he will offer tools for people to take home with them.

Veylanswami is the publisher of Hinduism Today, and guides monks and devotees in their spiritual life all over the world.

He began studying Vedanta, which is a spiritual tradition that is concerned with the self-realization by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality, in 1960. He soon developed a deep interest in monastic life, and by 1965 he'd moved full time to a monastery and had taken his sadhaka vows at age 22.

"There are other very profound practices (of yoga) he teaches that can lead to enlightenment," Patel said.

Every year Patel said she takes her family to a monastery that rests on a mountain in the gardens of Kauai to learn the art of difficult and profound practices.

"It's beautiful - one of the most natural and well-preserved islands of Hawaii," she said. After her first visit she wanted to move there, but she always returns with peace and a deeper grasp on the meaning and purpose of life.

Patel and her husband periodically invite spiritual teachers to give lectures to the West Texas area, but she said she's never had one of this magnitude.

"We don't have people of this caliber come to this town," Patel said.

She said a lot of people have become more interested in yoga and meditation in West Texas, and it is becoming a trend because of what it brings to people's lives.

The satguru offers practical solutions on how we can transform our daily life, she said.

"There is so much peace, and it offers stress relief, meaning and purpose in life," she said.

 MIDLAND Internist Dr. Padmaja Patel treats many patients suffering from anxiety and sleeplessness, which she said is expected in a society that is becoming busier, and where the informational overflow of TV is the medicine of choice.

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Do you think modern American society lives  a more stressful life than years before?
>> Yes, people work too much.
>> Yes, people never take time for themselves.
>> Yes, and if people do unwind they watch TV or drink instead of meditating. 
>> No, people have always been stressed and nothing has changed.
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