Italian Film Director Bernardo Bertolucci directed a film in Hollywood titled Little Buddha in 1993. The movie intercuts its modern story with a retelling of the life of Prince Siddhartha, who grew up to become the Buddha, and also the present day practice of Buddhism. The main attraction of the movie was familiarizing different practices of meditation to the audience. The movie had huge impact on many people.

Meditation has now become an integral part of the glamour of the movie world. Meditation has found its way starting from martial art to technology oriented movie like the Tomb Rider. The Sci-fi characters of The Last Samurai, Star Trek, and Horizon are seen meditating in the movies.

The actors and actresses of these films are not only meditating on the screen but they are also meditating in their daily lives. Pretty Woman and Chicago heart-throb Richard Gere meditates daily. “It helps me set my motivation for the day,” He says. For his passion on this matter he has advocated for human rights in Tibet and earned good name in the process. The action movie hero Steven Seagal, who specializes in toting powerful guns and blowing stuff up in movies starting from Heart to kill to 2009’s Driven to Kill, meditates regularly for peace in personal life. He says, “I have been doing serious meditation in my own pitiful way for probably twenty-seven years.” Kate Bosworth of Blue Crush and Superman Returns fame shared her experience of meditation as “It’s just a really incredible state of mind. It’s just a beautiful place to try and be at. It’s basically about constantly growing and making yourself a better person and focusing on what you want for yourself and the world and really putting it out there. It’s amazing.” The dashing star of The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean Orlando Bloom thinks meditation helped keep him from the self-destructive path. Bloom stresses that meditation is about studying what is going on in my daily life and using that as fuel to go and live a bigger life.”

Meditation is now a very popular practice among the celebrities of the West. Some renowned personalities of the East played an important role here. Swami Vivekananda went to Chicago, USA in 1893. There, he gave an excellent speech in the World religions conference. Many present in the conference became his instant fan hearing his address in the speech. In his speech he let others know about the eastern technique of meditation. During his stay in America he was taken to visit the golf court there. There he was requested to play golf for sometime. But he never played golf before. Swami Vivekananda then did a short meditation and then hit the ball expertly. The ball rolled into the right hole.

Interestingly, for his extraordinary ability to concentrate, world famous golfer Tiger Woods has earned 110 million dollar playing golf. His family had a long trend of practicing meditation. Woods feels lucky to develop the habit of meditation from his early childhood from his family.

One of the most revered contributors to modern jazz is Herbie Hancock. His meditation practice has been integral to his artistic development. According to him, “Meditation opened me up to being out of my comfort zone — to exploring things and being courageous enough to try new things.”

The Maharishi helped spread TM meditation after inspiring the Beatles in the 1960s. The Beatles were an English rock band who became one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. The Beatles met Maharishi in 1967 in Wales. The four members of the world's best-known band moved to Rishikesh the following year to study TM from him. They wrote many new songs in Rishikesh which later were recorded on the White Album.

Why so? This was because drugs and riches couldn’t give them the happiness and peace they were seeking but meditation gave them their desired fulfillment. In a conference on April 2009, Paul McCartney commented that Transcendental Meditation was a gift the Beatles had received from Maharishi at a time when they were looking for something to stabilize them. Mia Farrow is an American actress, singer, and former fashion model who was another devotee of the Maharishi. This Golden Globe Award Winning celebrity also travelled to Rishikesh, India to study Transcendental Meditation.

The universal love poems of the 13th century Persian Sufi Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi are so much in demand even today that a renowned meditation teacher Dr. Deepak Chopra edited the poems and they were then voiced as songs by famous musicians like Demi Moore, Goldie Hawn, Martin Sheen, Debra Winger and Madonna. The album was titled A Gift of Love and Madonna gave voice in the Bittersweet song of this album.

Tom Knoll is a meditation teacher of the Hollywood. Many Hollywood celebrities starting from Heather Graham to David Lynch, Natalie Mendoza and Kate Fisher took meditation lessons from him. He said that there is no doubt that everyday meditation is becoming popular to the people of the show-biz. They are relying on meditation to meet the challenges of the Celebrity pace of life.

The “Queen of Rock and Roll” Tina Turner is a serious practitioner of meditation. It was Turner’s meditation practice that gave her the strength to leave her abusive marriage and reestablish herself as a media icon.

Leonardo Cohen the Canadian singer-songwriter, with the help of meditation, recovered from a long-term drug problem and dispelled off the gloom that had pervaded his life. He was ordained as a Zen Buddhist monk by an influential Zen teacher. From the time of starring in the thriller movie Gothika, actress Halle Berry practiced meditation to get rid of the nightmarish dreams.

World renowned movie director David Lynch recently announced that if 1 million children of the world could be taught meditation then the entire face of the earth will change. Primarily he has taken the initiative to teach meditation to 1 million children of 5 continents. For this, he has now launched to collect fund through concerts and other mediums.

They were some of the celebrities of the silver screen. Many renowned politician, journalists and writers of the east and the west are now practicing meditation. The former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi meditated regularly. However busy, she never started the day’s work without half an hour yogic meditation. This practice is now upheld by her granddaughter Priyanka Gandhi.

Mao TSe- Tung, Chairman of the Republic of China, often went in solitary. After one such solitary living, he announced the Cultural Revolution in China.

Aung San Suu Kyi. This Noble Prize winner democratic leader is placed under house arrest for the last 20 years for campaigning for the democratization of Burma, which was (and is) under a military dictatorship. She has been in and out of house arrest since then and has been sustained in her long confinement. Commenting on her long isolation, she said “Isolation is not difficult for me. Maybe it’s because of my meditative upbringing.”

The chief architecture of the Indian constitution Baba Ambedkar was another renowned and respected Buddhist meditator. With the blessings of the Media it is now well known to all that Al Gore, the Vice President of America and the current Foreign Minister Hilary Clinton also practices meditation.

The affluent are not out of the list either. The chief of Ford Motors Bill Ford and the CEO of Apple Steve Jobs meditate, too. T

his love for meditation in the western world is really the reflection of the effectiveness of meditation. Meditation is now everywhere – school, hospital, law department, government offices, commercial office and even in prison cells. In Iowa, the students of the Maharishi University run school and colleges are meditating regularly twice a day. In some cases it was made mandatory for the sportsmen to practice meditation. Not only this, but in the airports apart from a prayer room and a cyber café you can now find a meditation room indicated with a special sign.

The informative and attractive articles on meditation that were published from time to time by world famous magazines like the New York Times, Guardian, Time and Newsweek only enhanced people’s interest on meditation even further. In the August 2003 issue of the Times Magazine the article titled, ‘The science of meditation’ clearly wrote that in the US 1 crore people are now meditating regularly. This figure is twice the number from the previous year. Meditation is now a symbol of smartness for the mainstream population of the US. The non-believers in meditation have now become the minority group in the midst of all these popularity of meditation.

Photo Captions:

Meditation has now become an integral part of glamour world. The characters of the Science fiction series Star Trek Entertainment also practice different types of meditation.

Actor Richard Gere. He gets all the motivations of the day from practicing meditation.

It’s just an incredible state of mind – Kate Bosworth.

Steven Segal.

“Meditation is about studying what is going on in my daily life and using that as fuel to go and live a bigger life.” – Orlando Bloom.

Golfer Tiger Woods. Meditation has given him peace, tranquility and concentration.

The four members of the Beatles with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in 1967: Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Gringo Starr.

Jazz Star Herbie Hancock. Meditation has given him the confidence to take new challenges.

Actress Mia Farrow.

Madonna gave voice in the “A Gift of Love” album which was based on the universal love poems of Rumi.

Tina Turner - Meditation gave her the strength to leave her abusive marriage and reestablish herself as a media icon.

Canadian Singer songwriter Leonardo Cohen. Depression was once his all time companion; now walking the paths of meditation, he is showing the escape from sorrow and depression to thousands of people.

Beauty Queen Halley Berry started meditation to get rid of nightmarish dreams.

Film Director David Lynch has taken the initiative to teach meditation to 1 million children of the world.

Priyanka Gandhi.

Aung San Suu Kyi. In her long 20 years of confinement meditation has given her the patience and tranquility.

Chairman of Ford Motors- Bill Ford.

CEO of Apple- Steve Jobbs.

Heather Graham, who is regularly practicing meditation since 1991, as the model of the cover story titled “The Science of Meditation” in the Times.