More than 12.1 million people from 150 countries participated in what was billed as the largest collective meditation in history, led in New York by India’s spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, on World Meditation Day (December 21).

From Indian cities and villages to communities in Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and Australia, participants included students, professionals, farmers, and prison inmates, with organisers highlighting the scale of shared silence and collective stillness.