'Meditated since Beatles went to India': Ray Dalio says PM Modi and him 'always talk about meditation'  

Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio has revealed PM Modi and him always talk about meditation, among other topics such as capital market, when they meet. In an exclusive conversation with Business Today TV Managing Editor Siddharth Zarabi at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Dalio gave a peek into the yogic side of his life, saying he had been meditating ever since the English rock band Beatles visited India in 1969. 

Dalio shared that he was planning to visit India in March this year and hopeful of meeting the Indian prime minister. 

"I'd congratulate him [PM Modi] and I would continue to, hopefully, work to help open the capital markets to other investors. Because, I think that that would be [not] only great for India, it would [also] be great for the world. Bringing the capital markets and the innovation in a way that would be very good, so we will probably talk a bit about that. And we'd also talk about meditation. We always talk about meditation. I've meditated since 1969 when the Beatles went to India and then they came back." 

The British band had travelled to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh in 1968 to join his programme on transcendental meditation.

The market guru also attributed the success he had seen in his life to meditation. "I do transcendental meditation, and I think it's been the single most important influence in whatever success I had. Because it gave me the equanimity,  in other words the centeredness, and the imagination. It's a great gift. And it's something that he's [PM Modi] experienced as a great gift," Dalio said.

Dalio went on to explain how he meditates: "The way it works is that there's a mantra. So, a sound that you repeat over in your mind. We could use 'Om' as an example. It's almost a classic. You sit quietly and you repeat that over in your mind and when you do that regularly your thoughts go away. Your attention is on that mantra and then the mantra disappears, and you go into a subconscious state. You're not conscious, you're not unconscious. You're in this kind of subconscious state, which is very peaceful." 

He said meditation helps you "look down at whatever your circumstances are with a calmness and an equanimity to be able to make the decisions in a better way."

Dalio also expressed his views on the Indian capital market. He said he was optimistic the about the long-term prospects.

 "To me, the [Indian] markets look expensive, and I believe in cycles. People get overextended, markets get overextended, a lot of buying and so on. They progress in cycles. So, my own view would be that the long term [for Indian market] is very optimistic, very good picture. But, it's relatively expensive. I'd have exposure but I wouldn't be overextended," he said.

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