Why should one be on the spiritual path?

 

Spirituality for me is very basic to life. We are made of both matter and spirit. While the building blocks of our body are proteins, carbohydrates, etc., our consciousness or spirit is made of compassion, joy, energy, enthusiasm, peace, happiness and all such beautiful qualities. Anything that uplifts the spirit, anything that brings more happiness, love, creativity, compassion, and enthusiasm in life is spirituality. 

For thousands of years, spirituality has been the guiding force behind humanity. Now is the time when we need to move from religion to spirituality. Religion is like the peel and spirituality the fruit inside. Wars have been fought and nations divided in the name of religion but spirituality has united humanity irrespective of religion, race, caste, creed, gender, colour and age. The rituals that you go through from birth to death are all religion. 

Spirituality is personal. Unfortunately, the world over, we have thrown out the essence and are holding on to the dry fruit peel. Spirituality gives you the much-needed self-esteem, confidence and fearlessness. Some religions don’t believe in God — like Buddhism and Jainism. 

Religion, mainly talks about rituals, symbols, a style of life, whereas spirituality attends to the core values of empowering oneself, and realizing that there are many faculties and dimensions lying dormant within us. For example, all of us have ten fingers, but not everyone knows how to play the sitar. With a little training, the fingers can play music. In the same way, with a little training of our minds, talent can be exhibited, confidence levels can rise, honesty, integrity – qualities that we expect from others will start showing up within us. 

Spirituality is getting in touch with yourself, the core of your being. The goal of the spiritual path is to understand the spiritual dimension of life and live all the values that the spirit represents — peace, love, joy, beauty, unlimited knowledge, and the capacity to understand both mind and matter. At any moment, in any place, you can just sit and let go, knowing that inside you there is a pure, clear space that’s vast and deep. 

That inner space is what you are. Feeling this inner space is knowing your spiritual dimension. Spiritual blossoming simply means blossoming in life in all dimensions — being happy, at ease with yourself and with everybody around you. Worrying doesn’t make any difference, but working does, and spirituality gives one the strength to work.

Realise that we are here to give and not to take

At a deeper level, we come to realize that while we may feel we have nothing material to give, we are here to offer ourselves – our presence, our love, our service. There’s nothing we’re meant to take from this world. 

This shift marks the turning point from a material to a spiritual life. Realizing you are here to give, and not to take, uplifts the spirit.

Recognizing your own limitations makes you humble, while knowing your purpose (to give selflessly), lifts your spirit. This eventually leads to a stillness where duality dissolves, and only oneness remains. And this oneness transcends time. 

Much of our restlessness stems from being bound by time. We want everything immediately. But why must it happen on our timeline? Let life unfold at its own pace. Shifting your vision by seeing beyond the limits of time brings peace, stillness, and fulfillment. This is the wisdom passed down through generations. But in truth, it is all one. 

The rishis, the sages from ancient times, are not just figures of the past. Their presence is timeless and always accessible. The Guru is ever-present. All the rishis have affirmed this.

On the surface, you may see different personalities and qualities. But within, it’s the same light and spirit shining through the ages. Realizing you are a part of that eternal light is a celebration in itself.

Making short term and long term plans

 

At any given point of time, our mind is oscillating between the past and the future. Either it is angry or sad about the past or anxious about the future. Whatever actions you do in this state of mind, you regret after sometime.  

Does it mean that you should not plan your future? No. You should plan your short and long term goals. Then, and only then, life gets a channel, a direction to flow. When the mind is totally in the present, the right planning happens.  

Not only should you plan your goals, but plan the means and methods to work towards them. Where would you like to see yourself after three years? After 20 years? After 40 years? Don't be feverish about the result. Give your 100%.  

If you are feverish about the results, it will lead you to disappointment. Do not make a list of all the things you want to achieve. Select few things that really matter.  

Once a teacher brought a glass jar to the class and a bag with some big stones, some small stones and some sand. He asked the students to put all the contents from the bag into the glass jar. Some students put the sand first, then small stones and there was no place for big stones.  

The teacher later explained that had they put the bigger stones first, then the smaller stones, there was always space around the stones for all the sand in the bag. This example teaches us an important lesson in prioritizing things.  

If we put the things that will give us maximum fulfillment in the long term, smaller things will automatically fall into place. Among all the planets in the solar system, the earth is privileged to host life in its many forms, and among all the species, humans are most privileged, for they can host knowledge.  

Again and again, remember that you are peace, you are love, you are joy.

If you take care of your mind, all else will be taken care of

 

Look at your own life in the light of time. Millions of years have passed and millions will come. What is your life? 60, 70 or 100 years? Span of life is insignificant. It is not even a drop in the ocean.  

In terms of space, you simply don't exist. This understanding dissolves the ego. Ego is ignorance of your reality, ignorance of your existence.

Now, just to know this, do we have to do something else? Just open your eyes: Who am I? How am I on this planet? What is my lifetime? Awareness dawns in the mind and you will stop worrying about little things like, this person said this thing to me and that person broke away with me and this happened with that person and I am going to say this.  

All smallness will simply drop away, and you will be able to live every moment of your life. Your life reels around your context. You should be happy in life. All other business involves ups and downs which is very natural.  

If there is a body, then it will get cold, cough, fever or something else and it will go away. But take care to see that happiness is always established in you. That is known as purashaarth. Our love, faith and belief should be deep-rooted, then everything else moves on its own.  

How many events take place in life? Are you able to maintain your equanimity always? Not everything in the world is sweet. If you are grounded with faith, like the husk with grain, you will progress.  

Take this decision: Whatever happens I will be there. I will be grounded. God’s protection is there on me. Whatever happens, I will never go down. I always have God’s hand with me.  

Keep your mind in peace in all situations. The rest will be taken care of. You have to take at least one step forward, which is to be in peace and equanimity. Nothing happened. Nothing of my work happened. If you are able to laugh in such a situation, then understand that you have protection with you.  

The world is filled with love. Everybody has love inside them. You have to see that in your mind. Your head will be in the mud in a few years, don't put mud in your head while you are still alive. If you review the context of your life, the quality of your life will improve.

On Shivaratri

 

Peace is your nature, yet you remain restless. 

Freedom is your nature, yet you remain in bondage. 

Happiness is your nature, yet you become miserable for some reason or another. 

Contentment is your nature, yet you continue to reel in desires. 

Benevolence is your nature, yet you do not reach out. 

Moving towards your nature is sadhana. 

Sadhana is becoming what you truly are! Your true nature is Shiva. And Shiva is peace, infinity, beauty and the non-dual One. Ratri means “to take refuge.” Shivaratri is taking refuge in Shiva.

The actions that can take you to infinity

 

What can you do for eternity? You definitely cannot do anything that is big or great because that requires effort and effort tires you. So, doing something great is a temporary state. If you can think of one thing that is far beneath your capacity and agree to do it for eternity, that becomes puja. 

The willingness to consciously do trivial things for eternity unites you with eternity. This is an antidote to ego. Ego is always ambitious and strives to do the toughest job, like climbing Mount Everest. Simple acts like watching a butterfly, watering the garden, observing the sky can bring deep relaxation, and relaxation connects you with your source. This does not mean that you should do trivial things all your life, but consciously agreeing to do trivial acts for eternity opens a new dimension and brings immense peace and restfulness. 

To find rest in activity, choose an activity that is far below your capacity and agree to do it for eternity. Doing a job far below your capacity and being satisfied, will then make it possible to do a job much beyond your capacity. 

Know that all actions are born out of infinity and that which is born out of infinity can take you to infinity.

What is the nature of consciousness?

Consciousness moving on the surface of the body is stimulus, which causes pleasure. When consciousness shrinks then pain and suffering arise. Suffering is the shrinking or contraction of consciousness. When consciousness moves through the body in limited channels, pleasure is experienced. Repeated enjoyment of stimuli causes inertia and dullness. Often cooks do not enjoy their own food. The same piece of music heard over and over again loses its charm. People in the sex industry do not enjoy sex.

If stimuli are observed, then consciousness expands and becomes peace. With awareness the stimuli lose their significance, whether they exist or not makes no difference. When the sun is shining, it makes no difference if the candle is lit or not. To realise that all pleasures are just stimuli and that you are more than the stimuli brings freedom. Pain is nothing but consciousness wanting to expand and to become free. Freedom is liberation from the craving of stimuli. Pain is not a permanent state.

Like the insomniac who has forgotten how to sleep, most of us have forgotten how to be at peace and in bliss. Just as the natural tendency of water is to flow downward, and the natural tendency of air is not to be under pressure, the natural tendency of consciousness is to expand and be at peace.

Three kinds of understanding

 

Your mind does not belong to you. Don’t blame it. Let the big Self, embrace it. Effort is the key in the relative, effortlessness is the key to the absolute.

There are three kinds of understanding, intellectual understanding, experiential understanding and existential realisation. Intellectual understanding says “yes”, it agrees. Experiential understanding feels, it's obvious. Existential realisation is irrefutable, it becomes your very nature. 

If you have only an intellectual understanding, you will think you know everything. Most theologians are in this category. You can know intellectually that you are hollow and empty but sitting and feeling you are hollow and empty is totally different. All that you hear will simply remain a jumble of words if there is no experiential understanding, which is more on the feeling level. When you have an experience, you want to understand more about it and so you become a seeker. 

Existential realisation contains within it both experiential and intellectual understanding and yet it is beyond both of these. How do you achieve existential realisation? There is no way to achieve it. When the fruit becomes ripe, it falls.

What is peace? It is an undivided mind.

Why human birth is a privilege

 

Among all the planets in the solar system, the Earth is privileged to host life in so many forms and among all the species, humans are the most privileged for they can host the knowledge. Among all the knowledgeable ones, you are the most privileged, guess why? The underprivileged are those who do not realize that they are privileged. 

They also host, but they host all the negativities. Again and again, remember that you are peace, you are love, you are joy and that you are hosting the creator. Like birds returning to their nests again and again, come back to your source, only there can you realise that you host the divine. 

Finding comfort in conflict

 

When you are in a harmonious environment your mind picks up any excuse to be in conflict. Often, small things are enough to create a big turmoil. When your survival is at stake, you do not complain that nobody loves you. But when you are safe and feel secure, you start demanding attention. Many people create conflict in order to get attention. 

Ask yourself this question. Do you seek harmony in every situation or do you seek to widen the differences and prove your righteousness? 

The seed of negativity and the tendency for conflict in you can only be annihilated by sadhana, i.e. spiritual practices. Only speak knowledge. Do not repeat anything bad that someone tells you about someone else. When someone comes to tell you negative things, discourage them. Do not believe it. If someone blames you directly, do not believe it. Just know that they are taking away your bad karma and let it go. 

If you are one of the master’s close ones, you will take all the blame of the world with a smile. When you blame someone, you take on their bad karma, when you praise someone, you take on their good karma. Surrender both good and bad karma to the Divine – and be free. Conflict is the nature of the world, comfort is the nature of the Self. 

Amidst conflict, find the comfort. When you are tired of conflicts and the games of the world, get into the comforts of the Self. When you are bored with comfort, get into the games of the world. If you are one of the Master’s close ones, you do both simultaneously. People who love peace do not want to fight, and those who fight do not have peace. What is needed is to be peaceful within and then fight. 

Just trying to end a conflict only prolongs it. Instead, face the conflict while seeking the comfort of the Self. This is the whole message of the Bhagvad Gita. Krishna tells Arjuna to be centered in peace and to fight at the same time. 

God is alive in the world and has been putting up with all conflicts throughout the ages. If God can put up with all these conflicts, you can too. And the moment you agree to be with a conflict, it no longer appears as a conflict to you. The nature of this world is that once you resolve one conflict, another arises. For example, Russia is solved and then Bosnia is in trouble. Or you get a cold, then you get better, then your back hurts, then it gets better. And when your body is fine, then the mind goes. Things in this world run this way, don’t they? 

Without any intention, misunderstandings simply happen and conflicts arise. It’s not up to you to resolve them. Just be with them and be alive.

Creating a happy world through peace

 

In a world marked by conflicts and a ballooning mental health crisis, one pressing question beckons: Is there a way out of this?

The post-pandemic world continues to fluctuate between extremes of aggression and societal violence on one end and depression and suicidal tendencies on the other. Mental health and loneliness have become silent epidemics with estimated one in every three individuals in the world suffering from anxiety or depression.

With nearly two mass shootings per day and classroom violence becoming commonplace in the U.S., it makes one wonder if we are regressing to a barbaric age. In today’s virtual world where more and more people seem to be operating in silos, there is an increasing feeling of mistrust and isolation.

How did we even get here? Let’s look at life through the lens of these three fundamental aspects: passion, dispassion and compassion.

Passion is essential to achieve anything worthwhile. Without it, one could feel lost, unenthusiastic or even depressed. On the other hand, unbridled passion can lead to anxiety, fear of uncertainty and even insomnia.

While passion propels one into action, dispassion allows one to relax. Certain amount of dispassion is essential in order to feel sane, safe and to have a sound sleep. It broadens one’s vision and allows one to look at life from a bigger context, acknowledging the fact that people and situations are constantly changing. When one embraces this sense of impermanence, the world appears like a transit lounge. Both, modern scientists and ancient sages concur that the world is illusory in nature. This awareness makes individuals pause and reconsider the priorities of their life.

The third aspect is compassion which defines humanness. In absence of which, life appears dry and meaningless. While compassion towards others is essential, compassion towards one’s own self is equally important. It also creates an environment where people feel heard and included thus mitigating the adverse impact of loneliness.

When these aspects go out of balance, it induces stress and societal discord. This is the primary cause of today’s mental health crisis. Unfortunately, neither at home nor in school have we ever learned how to manage stress and emotions. Popular interventions such as therapy and medication are cosmetic at best as they don’t seem to offer a long-lasting solution. This calls for a fundamental rethink.

Breathwork and meditation hold the key to eliminating stress and restoring balance in all aspects of life. 42 years ago, when I first started to travel across various countries, yoga and meditation were colored with prejudice. While the stigma around these practices is waning, there is still a long way to go.

Our breath has many secrets that have not been explored fully. Each emotion corresponds to a distinct breathing pattern. If emotions can impact how we breathe, the reverse is also true. From ancient times, people have been using breath as a way to relax and strengthen their minds. A strong mind can carry a weak body. However, a weak mind cannot even support a strong body.

Meditation helps individuals experience a rare state of outer dynamism and inner calm. It is no longer a luxury, but a modern-day necessity. Meditation and breathwork are not just cures but also preventive measures for maintaining mental and emotional well-being. Even if one person in a family is disturbed, it affects the entire family. Inner peace is key to the peace in family, society and eventually in the entire nation.

Wars originate as a conflict in the mind of an individual. Perceived threat from others, breakdown of communication and lack of trust fuel discord, resulting in loss of sensitivity and sensibility. Thus, it is all the more necessary for people in positions of power to have inner calm and peace. This enables them to think better and act more effectively for the greater good of our planet.

In global discussions, peace and security are always mentioned in the same breath. However very little attention is given to peace education. It will serve the planet in the long run if governments could spend a fraction of their security budget on peace education and mental health towards creating a happy world.

A violence-free society, quiver-free breath, stress-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every individual. My vision is to see a happier society. Some may say it’s utopia but I’m confident that together we can make it a reality.

Mind is like space

 

The mind is like space. Thoughts come and go. Emotions come and go. When you go beyond them, there’s only space. That’s our true nature. 

When we identify ourselves too much with thoughts, with feelings and emotions, that’s when we feel stuck, we feel small. But the real, magnanimous You, is that space inside where you feel totally at peace. 

Those moments when you are totally at peace, or fully in love, you feel an expansion right? You feel boundless, you feel limitless. That is our true nature. That is what beauty is! We are all one in that. There is no two!

Let time celebrate your presence

 

“Sound stretched is Music…

Movement stretched is dance…

Mind stretched is meditation…

LIFE stretched is celebration”

A poor man celebrates the New Year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment. You don’t need money to celebrate life. If you just have the trust and faith that you will be provided what you need tomorrow, you start celebrating every moment. That’s the real sign of prosperity.

If you don’t know you are loved by the Divine, you will not be able to celebrate life. You will live in insecurity. With insecurity, greed comes. With greed, selfishness becomes strong. And with that comes anger.  With anger comes lust.  And with that comes all sorts of sadness, miseries one behind the other, like a chain.

Turn back and remember the whole year that has gone by. Do not run away from anything. Do not reject anything. Do not go away from anything.

At the same time, let your attention be on the self. This is a delicate balance. That balance is yoga. That balance is spirituality. Some people think being silent is spirituality. Some people think only celebration is spirituality. Spirituality is a harmonious blend of outer silence and inner celebration, and also inner silence and outer celebration!

The celebration that comes out of silence is real celebration. Celebration is the nature of the spirit. Any celebration has to be spiritual. A celebration without spirituality has no depth. Silence gives depth to celebration.

Every excuse to celebrate is good. In celebration, you are not just having a party, you remind yourself of the wisdom. If sacredness is attached to a celebration, that celebration is total, complete. It’s not just body and mind but also the spirit that celebrates.

The year 2022 was fortunate because you were living at that time! Let time celebrate your presence. You keep smiling as ever. When you let time celebrate you, you are a witness amid celebration. The heart always longs for the old, the mind for the new. Life is a combination of both.

Allow the space for creativity to dawn. The year that has gone has taught us many lessons; what we should do and what we should not do. Every pain that we went through in 2022 brought us some depth, and all the joy and pleasure gave us a new vision of life and hope the future.

“The year gone by saw plenty of rainy days. In 2023, let there be sunshine—both in our lives and in society. Let us all have a determination to create a violence-free, stress-free society. May your life be filled with peace, joy and happiness!

Experience the joy and peace of Gratitude

 

We all have experienced the joy and peace of gratitude. Life flows smoother and your outlook is brighter when you feel grateful. Gratitude comes when you feel full. When you don’t feel any sense of lack, then you feel gratitude. You cannot be grateful and feel lack—the two cannot co-exist at the same time. Certainly, you’ve experienced both, but only at different times. When you feel grateful, you also feel full. When you feel any lack, grumbling begins in some corner.

With knowledge, you experience gratitude and become grateful. And when you are grateful, the law of nature ensures that the gratefulness increases and that you are given more. If you are grateful, more positive things will flow to you. If you are grumbling, the grumbling and negativity will increase.

For those who do not have the knowledge, there is no way out of their grumblings, because grumbling becomes their nature. And once they start grumbling, demand arises, and when the demand arises, everything is taken away from them. Even what little joy, peace, or love they have in this world will be lost.

This is all in accordance with the law of nature. Whatever seed(s) you sow, such fruit you will personally bear. If you sow the seed of lack, only lack will grow. Conversely, if you sow the seed of plenty and the seed of gratitude in your life, these elements will blossom in your world.

Open your eyes and see what surrounds you. When you recognise through this knowledge what you have been given, then you become grateful. And in that gratefulness, everything grows. This is the reason why grandmothers in India have a habit of saying, “Everything is full.” If something is less than full, or empty, they never say, “This is empty, we don’t have this.” Instead, they say, “We have a lot of this.” It is an attitude of “plentitude” in the mind. When you feel that you have plenty in the consciousness, the ‘plenty-ness’ grows.

Peace is the nature of our spirit

 

There are usually two sides to a civil conflict and no matter who strikes first, eventually both sides are wounded. Conflict arises in the first place because both sides stick to their stand, yet to resolve the issue, both need to be made to rise above and look at the larger picture. Breakdown of communication is a major cause in escalating the dispute and thus, dialogue is an important tool in resolving it.

When I visited Latin America in June 2015, we sent a message to meet with the leaders of the Colombian rebel group FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). They responded positively and we had a very fruitful meeting in Cuba. The armed conflict between the Colombian government and FARC has been going on for five decades, claiming more than 220,000 lives and displacing over 7 million people. Though they engage in violent acts on the outside, yet inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. When the victim is healed, the culprit disappears. I told them that I understood their plight but non-violence was the only way towards social justice. They adopted the Gandhian way immediately and soon declared a unilateral ceasefire. The government also reciprocated with a ceasefire a few days later.

People who take to violent means due to a sense of injustice, can be engaged in dialogue if approached the right way. From their perspective, they are fighting for a cause out of righteousness. In a way, their passion, commitment and the spirit of sacrifice is commendable. When outer dynamism, which they have in abundance, is complemented with inner peace, they can prove to be a boon to the society. Many of our free tribal schools in terrorist-affected regions are being run by former extremists. In fact, in the beginning, they threatened our volunteers to close them down. But when they saw that these efforts were benefiting their own communities, they became volunteers themselves.

Yet terrorism arising out of religious fanaticism is very different. It is blinded by a doctrine that is not open to any discussion or dialogue. For them, people who disagree with their scripture or think differently have no right to even exist. On my visit to Iraq in November 2014, I offered to have a dialogue with the Islamic State group; they responded with a death threat! If even a small part of the world lives in such darkness, the world cannot be a safe place. So far, the horrible atrocities that they were committing were limited to the region under their influence but the mass exodus of millions of refugees that they have now caused affects the whole world.

If the neighbor’s house is on fire, it is only a matter of time before the fire reaches your own doorstep. To prevent the spread of this fanatical mindset, religious leaders can play a big role in imparting a multi-religious education and an education in peace. There is a need to bring a shift from the idea of “sole ownership of heaven” to an ideology of “many paths to One Goal”. Honoring diversity as an essential characteristic of our planet can help us move from merely being tolerant of our differences to celebrating them.

Turbulence is a part of this world whereas making peace is the nature of our spirit. If with a strong resolve and skill, we are able to remain centered in peace, it does not remain limited to just us, it begins to calm down the turbulence around us as well. Let us resolve to be established in peace inside and be dynamic in action to bring it to the world outside.

What is the need for peace

 

A journalist asked me, why peace? If there is no peace, there is no prosperity.

What is the purpose of prosperity? To have peace! What is the use of having a nice bed if you’re unable to sleep? When you’re mentally disturbed does food taste good? If there’s no peace inside, you don’t enjoy anything in the world. My dream is to see a society free from violence.

A violence free society, a disease free body, confusion free mind, inhibition free intellect, trauma free memory and sorrow free soul is the birth right of every individual. The Art of Living is committed to achieve this. To make everyone’s life a celebration.

Path to peace

 

Peace is not something that can be bought from the marketplace or achieved solely by high-level policies.

It has to be nurtured within.

Inner peace is the basis for building peace in families, communities and the planet.

#Istandforpeace

Understanding Ahimsa

 

There is a beautiful sutra mentioned in Patanjali Yoga Sutras that says, Jatidesha kalasamayanavachchinnaha sarvabhouma mahavratam meaning ‘the great vows are universal and are not limited by life, state, country, time or circumstances’.

These words are applicable everywhere, all the time and to everyone. The sutra mentioned above is universal. An animal does not go into violence for no reason. Wild animals hunt only when they are hungry and when they want to eat. Humans hunt out of pleasure. Human beings have no qualms about killing in the name of God. Mindless violence is prevalent in the world in the name of country, in the name of religion, in the name of race. This is total lack of viveka or wisdom. A violent person cannot listen to anybody.

Why does violence arise? Frustration is the answer. The mind gets frustrated and frustration builds up. The question ‘why, why, why?’ transforms into violence and becomes contagious, so to speak. A crowd commits violence. Individually, a person may not be able to do that violent act, but when that person is in the crowd he joins hands. Viveka is when a person takes to non-violence saying, “I will not kill any animal or any life on this planet consciously or unconsciously.” Already without your knowledge you are destroying many creatures. You walk and many ants are dying under your feet. You are not killing anyone. It is just happening. But an intention to destroy something, an intention to do violence can destroy your very basis, your very root. Dropping this intention for violence is ahimsa.

What is the effect of ahimsa? Patanjali Maharishi gives a beautiful explanation in Sutra 35: Ahimsapratishtayam tatsannidhau vairatyagaha, which means “When a person is established in non-violence, then violence is dropped in his or her presence.”

If you are established in non-violence, in your very presence, violence will be dropped by other creatures. For example, someone comes to attack you. As soon as they come near you, because your vibrations are totally non-violent, they drop down. They stop being violent. Lord Mahavira emphasizes on ahimsa. It is said that whenever he walked, twenty kilometers around him, people would stop being violent. The story goes even to that extent and says even the thorns would not prick anybody but would instead become soft.

Ahimsa gives rise to tolerance. Have you ever felt like hitting somebody? Why is that violence arising in your mind? What is the source of the violence? As you watch the source of violence, you will see that violence disappears, dissolves and peace dawns. Yoga brings that inner peace which in turn establishes non-violence. Practice of non-violence is two-way traffic. Ahimsa or non-violence brings about the union of the mind or peace of mind and when you are peaceful or calm within, you naturally become non-violent.

What is the point of war?

 

No war has done any good to anybody. 

We have not achieved anything. It’s only destroyed so many lives. 

We need to bring sense to people who are for war. We need to tell them that the whole world is standing for peace, and you should join us! 

Let’s take responsibility for our beautiful planet. This, Earth, is the only planet we have. We need to save the minds and lives of people.

Chakras and human emotions

 

There are 72,000 nadis (channels of life-force energy) in the body, and there are various nerve centers where these channels meet. The human body has 109 such centers, also called chakras. When energy flows through these nerve centers upwards or downwards, there are different emotions, feelings or sensations that one experiences. The 7 major:

at muladhara, it’s either enthusiasm or dullness;

at swadhishthana, procreation or creation;

at manipura, jealousy, generosity, joy or greed;

at anahata, love, fear or hatred;

at vishuddhi, gratitude or sorrow;

at ajna, anger or awareness; and

at sahasrara, there’s bliss.

Normally, life energy is flowing through these chakras, but if we feel disturbed or under pressure, there’s an obstruction in the flow of energy.

Place your attention on the energy in these chakras, and you will see that the negative energy in the chakras gradually dissolves. For example, if you feel jealous and then meditate with attention on your navel, the jealousy will automatically subside.

Bring your attention to these centers, observe them and the world of worries and thoughts that trouble your mind will disappear. There will be peace.