Essential Teachings for Life

Yoga embraces the entire life of an individual. The goal of Yoga is to feel a beautiful harmony, in every way, with everything we encounter. Sri Swami Satchidananda teaches that the true yogi is physically healthy, mentally happy and peaceful and thus becomes truly useful. All the teachings and
practices of Yoga help us to regain the health and happiness that is our essential nature.

Real Yoga means to rise above the dualities in life—desires and aversions—so we may maintain our equanimity. All the Yoga practices, and essentially all spiritual practices, help us to keep the mind clean, calm and serene. These practices help us to gain self-mastery so we may attain success in life and realization of the true Self.

Transcript

What are the main beliefs or within parenthesis or truths?

That you base your life on?

What are the main beliefs that you base your life on?

It's so beautiful.

Main belief is that I want to be always super happy.

Because that's what I feel.

The experience of God.

When you experience God,

You are supremely happy.

In that respect,

Everybody is looking for that happiness.

Where a person is a believer or a non-believer,

Is a religious or not,

A theist or a theist.

Not only people,

Even animals,

Plants,

Everything in the world,

Everything that's created,

That is visible and invisible.

They all look for this one thing,

Happiness.

I want to be happy.

No matter who it is,

What it is.

You put a plant in a dark corner,

It doesn't seem to be happy there.

It strains its neck towards the window to get a little light.

Give a shock to a metal,

It doesn't feel comfortable.

Because everything has life.

They all want to be happy.

Among human beings,

We do everything just to be happy.

Ask somebody who goes and breaks up a bank,

Wanting to rob a bank,

I say,

Why are you doing?

Oh,

I want to get some money.

What for?

To be happy.

Ask the FBI,

Why are you looking for that culprit?

You want to make money and be happy.

The thief as well as the police,

Both want to be happy.

Everybody,

Why do you want to make money?

To be happy.

It looks like a,

I think Ramakrishna Paramahamsa gave another example,

A woodcutter.

Somebody went to him,

I say,

Why are you cutting wood from day,

Morning till night?

Getting so tired,

Why do you want to cut?

If I don't cut wood and sell it,

I can't find food.

So I am cutting wood to find food.

Oh,

Okay,

Alright.

By the evening when he saw him at home,

He was having a nice big meal.

I say,

You seem to be eating so much,

Why?

If I don't eat,

How can I cut food?

But behind both,

He wants to be happy.

So that is what the main belief.

If you ask me to give a name to God,

I would say Mr.

Happy.

Or Ms.

Happy.

I don't want to miss the happy thing.

And that is the reason why,

Coming back to Father Kevin,

All the Hindu monks have their name ending as Ananda.

Why?

Ananda means happiness,

Supreme happiness,

Bliss.

How do you get that bliss?

By renouncing everything.

So what is your belief?

I want to be always happy.

That's my belief.

And how will you get it?

By renouncing everything.

Tyagaat shanti ranantaram.

Peace and joy is my belief.

And to get that,

Renounce your selfishness,

Your attachment.

So the goal and the way,

Both are built in.

So when you renounce your selfishness,

You become a beautiful instrument to serve everybody.

Do you believe in God or ultimate reality?

What is it like?

I think I have already answered it.

Yes,

Ultimate reality is a condition where you are in supreme bliss.

It is ultimate reality.

You may call it God or Samadhi or Satori,

It doesn't matter.

Because God is an experience,

Remember that.

God is not a person.

If you put God as a person,

Then God is limited.

God cannot be omnipresent.

Anything that is infinite,

Omnipresent,

Cannot have a form.

But of course,

For our convenience sake,

We see that formless one through a form.

That doesn't mean God has got limited to a form.

You use a form to know the formless.

So as formless,

God is an experience.

And that experience,

When you have that experience,

You are peaceful,

You are joyful.

That is the ultimate reality.

What is the purpose of life?

Sacrifice is the law of life.

Life is to serve each other.

Everybody is created in this universe not for themselves,

But to serve others.

That's what we see in the very nature.

Everything,

Grass,

Fruit trees,

Sun,

Moon,

Stone,

Metal,

They are all there to serve others.

Human beings are not exceptions to that.

To serve others.

You are not here just for your sake,

You are here for others' sake.

That is the purpose of human life.

What is the highest ideal that a person can reach?

Like enlightenment,

Heaven,

Etc.

The highest ideal,

I would like to use my famous triplet,

To be peaceful always,

Not deceaseful.

To be peaceful and to be useful.

That's my highest ideal.

Always,

Or in simple language,

I thought this is simple,

But still if you want to simplify,

Always healthy,

Never to look for a doctor and pills,

And to be always peaceful,

Happy,

Healthy,

Happy and useful.

Though I recommend many of my good friends to become doctors,

They know that they help others to live a life that they don't have to look for a doctor.

There was a country,

There is a country,

Even now I think,

I don't know if it is in China or somewhere.

The doctors are paid as long as the citizens are healthy.

The moment somebody falls sick,

They stop payment to the doctor.

That means the function of the doctor is to make you,

See you,

Live healthy,

Free from disease.

So that is what you call healthy,

Happy and useful life.

Enlightenment,

When you have the healthy,

Happy and useful life,

The enlightenment comes.

What makes you heavy?

Too much of gathering and calling,

Mine,

Mine.

Accumulating things make you heavy.

When you accumulate too much fat,

You become heavy.

When you accumulate too much things,

You become heavy.

When you give away everything,

When you drop all the pounds and dollars,

You become light.

That's what enlightenment.

Losing pounds will make you light.

Though it sounds like the physical side,

In the spiritual side also,

The spirit is always light.

Experiencing the spirit in you,

As you,

Is what you call enlightenment.

You are experiencing the light in you.

When I say in you,

Then it becomes you are different and the light is in you.

You are that light.

Experiencing that is what you call enlightenment.

You are the spirit,

Self-realization.

Who am I?

I am that pure spirit.

I am the image of God,

According to Bible.

Anything else is ignorance.

So enlightenment means knowing your true nature.

Experiencing that always.

And by experiencing that true nature in you,

As you,

You are able to see everybody and everything made of the same spirit.

First you know the spirit,

Yourself as the spirit,

Then you are able to see the same spirit everywhere.

Mohini beautifully brought that point.

You see others according to your image.

A drunkard saw that fellow as another drunkard.

A saint saw that fellow as somebody sitting or lying down in Samadhi.

So if you want to see God in everything and everybody,

You should have that God's eye.

Divya Sakshu.

That means your perception begins with God.

As God,

You see God in everybody.

If you don't experience that God in you,

You will never see God anywhere else.

Because you have no eye to see.

With physical eye,

You see physical body.

With intellectual eye,

You see the intellectual side of the person.

It's normal,

No?

If you come across a nice musician,

He will immediately ask you,

Oh,

Are you a musician?

He would want to see everybody as a musician.

He will talk that language.

A carpenter would say,

Are you a good carpenter?

Because he sees others from his eye.

Likewise,

A saint will see everybody as saint.

God will see as God.

So that is the foremost duty,

To know our true nature.

Know thyself.

First know thyself,

Then see thyself in your neighbour,

And then love your neighbour as you would love yourself.

The highest ideal that person can reach,

Heaven,

Is mentioned heaven.

To me,

Heaven is where you are.

If you can see heaven,

You can see heaven even in hell.

It is in your perception.

If you don't have that heavenly experience in you,

Even heaven will be a hell to you.

So heaven is what you see,

What you feel,

What you experience.

How is this ideal attained?

Oh,

Why?

In one,

Answering in one question,

I seem to have answered many other questions also.

That's very good.

How is this ideal attained?

Sacrifice your littleness,

Your limited,

Finite self.

The minute you sacrifice this,

You realise the supreme self in you.

That's why I said sacrifice is the law of life.

Stop this I,

Me,

Mine.

Then many a times we think sacrifice means sacrificing things.

Oh,

I have given up my home,

I have given up my money.

That's not sacrifice.

Sometimes we come across people who sacrifice their big palatial home in the city,

Come all the way to Rishikesh and say,

Swamiji,

I have renounced everything,

I want to be a Swami.

Oh,

Is that so?

Wonderful.

Okay,

Stay for a while,

Let us see.

In two days he will be waiting at the post office,

Waiting for a letter from the home.

Or sometimes he goes into a cave,

Sits there,

And if anybody comes and picks up his begging bowl,

Oh,

That's given to me by my Guru.

He sacrificed the whole palace,

Here he is attached to his begging bowl.

So it's not running away from the world or throwing things away would make you a monk,

A renunciate,

A person who sacrificed everything.

Sacrifice your attachment.

The I,

Me,

Mine.

The minute that happens,

You become enlightened.

Not even a little thing to say this is mine.

The poor man after several years of life begging and requesting,

He got a beautiful boy,

By God's grace.

Who is that poor man?

Abraham.

But just because you are so mad after a boy,

I give you this boy.

Keep him for a while,

But you remember it's my boy.

After the age,

Certain age,

Give it back to me.

It was that condition.

Like Markandeya,

In the Hindu stories you have Markandeya.

Somebody wanted a son,

Prayed,

And God appeared and said,

Okay,

I can give you a son.

But what type of son you need?

A good boy,

Very devoted to God,

Who will live only for 16 years,

Or a rebellious,

Boisterous fellow who will live for 100 years.

Which boy you want?

And suddenly he said,

I don't need to have a problem for 100 years.

Let me be happy with 16 years.

So he got a boy for 16 years.

And that time came,

Exactly after the 16th year,

Death came.

Because he was an intelligent boy,

He went and hugged the Shiva linga.

Sir,

I take refuge in you.

Protect me from this death.

So God appeared and removed the death and made him to live forever at that age.

Exactly like that in Abraham.

After that year,

Come on,

Bring it to me.

He has sacrificed everything except the attachment towards this little boy.

He forgot that he was given to him,

Not originally his child.

But God insisted,

No?

Even that little attachment towards your own beautiful son,

Who is not really your son,

Has to be given up.

Give it to me.

And when he was ready to give it,

God appeared,

Okay,

I'm not interested in your son.

I just wanted to see how much of an attachment you have on that boy.

Now you don't have an attachment,

Fine.

You don't have to do anything.

You don't have to sacrifice him.

See,

That is the secret.

A monastery,

An ashram,

Or a spiritual sacred place,

Means that is where they learn to sacrifice.

Every religion has this as an important part,

Sacrifice,

A sacrificial altar.

Because without that sacrifice,

There's no real peace,

Real happiness.

There's no enlightenment.

I forgot to say my pun.

Some of you might have expected that and disappointed.

I used to say that God named him Isaac because the eye has to be sacrificed.

Once the eye gets sacrificed,

The person who sacrifices the eye becomes a Brahm.

A Brahm.

It's an Indian name.

Brahm means supreme God.

They just deviated a little called Abraham.

A Brahm.

A Brahm.

Super.

Brahm.

What is the biggest obstacle to obtaining this ideal?

Attachment.

I,

Me,

Mine is the biggest obstacle.

Mine is the most dangerous obstacle because if you put it around you,

It explodes.

Mine.

So don't throw mine around you and make it into a war field filled with mines.

Renounce the mine.

So the obstacle is I,

Me,

Mine.

Aham and Mama.

What do you think of death?

What is it?

What continues after death?

Death is only to the body.

Death means you just discard the body.

The Bhagavad Gita beautifully presents the truth.

Death is nothing but you are discarding your old shirt.

Birth means buying a new shirt.

You get into a new shirt.

So death is only to the body.

That's why every religion,

Directly or indirectly,

Knowingly or unknowingly,

They say that.

Earth to earth,

Fire to fire,

Water to water.

Why the body is made of five elements?

So brick to brick,

Mortar to mortar,

Cement to cement,

Metal to metal.

You break the house but the owner went away.

Thiruvallabh says,

Like the little bird cracks open the shell and flies out.

You fly out of this little shell.

You call that death.

Strictly speaking,

Death is nothing but a change of form.

Material dies to become a robe.

Wood dies to become furniture.

Clare dies to become brick.

Brick dies to become building,

Wall.

So transformation of one form into another form.

The previous form is changed to a new form.

So the previous form is dead,

The new form is born.

That's all about death.

Literally,

There is nothing that is destroyed.

That's why there is a saying in English,

Nothing is lost when a candle burns.

The candle burns and melts,

Completely disappears after some time.

But nothing is lost.

Why?

Because the wax became vapor,

Went away.

You don't see the candle but in the form of vapor,

Somewhere.

So that is death.

And the spirit or the life force or the energy that is within the body,

Making the body move,

Goes away.

Like a switch turned off and the fan stops.

So the spirit is the one that uses the body to function.

Like even electricity.

If you want your electricity to function,

You have to have gadgets.

Without gadgets,

What good of you are having wire all over the house.

You have wired the house,

You have electricity in the house,

But you don't have light,

No fan,

No television,

No radio.

Why?

Because gadgets are not there.

So body is a gadget,

Life is the energy behind,

Electricity behind.

Why is there suffering?

Why is there evil?

What is its cause?

There is no suffering,

No evil.

If there is a cause for suffering and evil,

It is our ignorance.

Out of the ignorance,

We call it suffering.

We call it evil.

But in reality,

They are helpers.

Pain,

Yes.

My Master Swami Shivanshi used to say,

Pain is my friend.

If the pain is not there,

You will not know where the problem is.

And again,

Suffering cleans you.

It's a process of cleaning.

The dirty linen goes through suffering to get cleaned.

Would you call it suffering undesirable?

No.

It has to go through it to get cleaned.

So those who are interested in getting cleaned will even look for suffering.

We call it tapasya,

To burn,

To purify.

Evil,

There is no such thing as evil.

I know some religions are built upon that.

If you leave the life in the wrong direction,

It becomes evil.

Leave the life.

Leave the wrong direction,

L-I-V-E becomes E-V-I-L.

True.

A hair as long as,

I'm not talking to you about father.

As long as it is here,

You get all the nice scented shampoos,

All kinds of beautiful oil,

Curls,

And this and that.

You adore it.

It is something precious.

But when one falls into your eating plate,

It becomes evil.

So what is evil?

Right thing in a wrong place is an evil.

Things become evil if you don't know how to use it.

A knife that would cut a fruit is good.

A knife that would cut a throat is evil.

So,

Evil is what we make.

We put a label when we don't know how to use things.

It's a deadly poison.

Even hearing that brings you fear.

Cobra poison,

Deadly cobra poison.

Killer whale.

Who kills the whale?

Whale killers,

Not killer whales.

The same deadly poison,

If you know how to use it,

You can save lives.

Doctors use it as medicine.

If you don't know,

Even nectar can kill you.

So,

Our not knowing is the worst evil if there is an evil.

Ignorance is the evil.

God has never created.

All merciful God.

How can God create an evil?

Purifying processes,

Testing processes.

God created Adam and then He created Eve.

Why?

God wanted to test Adam.

To Adam probably Eve is an evil.

She is the one who tempted him to do that.

But God created Eve to test him so that he will know his capacity,

His understanding.

A dull student in the school will see the examiner.

He is an evil.

He would want to copy the book,

But the evil man is constantly watching him.

So that is the way we make evil.

Do all religions lead to the same place?

Not only religions.

All your actions ultimately will lead you to the same place.

The purpose of the world is to go towards that goal.

Knowingly or unknowingly.

Even if you don't want to become a religious person,

You will be forced to become a religious person one day or other when you suffer enough.

It is the suffering in the life that makes you remember God,

Remember the experience of that.

After all,

What is religion?

Religion means to get back to the source.

So all the paths,

You may call it religion or not,

To me everything is religion.

Because everything that helps you to get back.

Normally we label religions as religions because we see certain,

We have some conception.

Father was talking about conceptions.

The moment you have conceptions,

You have conceived your ideas.

And the moment you conceive,

Then you have to go through labor pain.

Conception means labor is there,

Is pain.

You have to get above these conceptions.

Normally we think religion means,

Okay,

Go to a church or a temple and do this,

Do that,

Tapasya,

Practice meditation,

Contemplation.

If you don't do that,

You are not religious.

No,

Not necessarily.

It reminds me of that beautiful young lady in Russia who looked at me and said,

I'm a non-believer and don't talk God to me.

So I asked her,

I said,

What do you mean by non-believer?

Could you tell me what is it that you do not believe in?

You say non-believer,

Tell me what is it that you do not believe?

She didn't expect that question.

She was searching for an answer.

So I said,

I tell you,

Maybe you don't believe in going to a church,

You don't believe in reading Bible,

No,

No.

You don't believe in any of the rituals,

No.

I gave a few items so that she can be comfortable and say,

No,

No,

No.

Then afterwards I asked her,

Don't you believe in love?

Don't you have a boy?

Love,

Yes,

Sure,

I believe in love.

Don't you believe in friendship?

Yeah,

I have friends.

I have a relationship.

And I even threw another question,

Don't you believe in comradeship?

Communist member,

No?

She was given to us as a translator.

When I was talking to some of the Russian Orthodox monks,

She was given by the Communist Party.

So naturally,

Don't you believe in comradeship?

Yes.

She stood up a little.

Okay.

Loving everybody,

Being friends with everybody,

Looking for camaraderie is what you call religion.

If you don't have any of these things and call yourself a religious person,

You are not a religious person.

All the religious practices are there to help you to find this universal brotherhood,

Unconditional love,

And you seem to have it.

And you seem to believe in that.

So you are the real religious person.

That's what.

So in that sense,

Even if you don't believe in,

Now I come to the other,

Even if you don't believe in any of these things,

You need a dirty life.

Unless you come and ask me,

Is there a better way to live,

I won't bother to tell you anything.

Why?

Your dirty life itself will make you come to me one day.

Because they won't make you happy always.

That's the world for.

The purpose of the world is to give you knocks and bums.

Every time you make a mistake,

It will give you a big knock.

Then you wake up,

Oh yes,

I think this is not the way.

I have tried all these kinds of things.

I am sick and tired of all these.

You see,

The moment you begin to say,

I am sick and tired,

You are not going to run after the world anymore then.

Then what else you should be doing?

You will be seeking for a permanent happiness.

That's why I say you become a seeker first,

Then become a seeker later.

Sick and tired,

And seek and be happy.

The world helps you to get sick and tired.

Even if you don't want,

Don't worry about God,

Religion,

Don't want enlightenment,

The world is not going to spare you.

It's certainly going to make you do that one day or another.

It's only a matter of time.

If you coordinate and cooperate,

It will be a little faster.

Mother Nature is going to wash you thoroughly,

Whether you like it or not.

She will put you in the tub,

Smear the soap.

You jump out,

She won't allow you.

She will wash you thoroughly.

That's why I say it's a frying pot.

The world is a frying pot as long as you have that moisture.

She will keep you in that oil,

Hot oil,

With the holy ladle.

I'm talking about the fritters.

You put the fritter,

In the beginning the fritter is all moist,

Lot of wet moisture there.

So you don't like to go into the hot oil.

You make a big fuss,

You want to jump out.

And then the mother superior puts the holy ladle and keeps,

You baby be there.

If you jump out,

Nobody will eat you.

Where will you jump out?

Into the fire.

So you better be there.

Very soon the noise stops.

It changes color and that's what you call the sannyas color,

Father.

When you throw a fritter and fry it,

It becomes sannyas.

It takes sannyas color,

This orange color.

All these people are fried up.

That's why every monastery has a fryer also.

Hot potato,

Yeah.

So the entire world is a hot pot.

Everybody is being fried.

And we should not be afraid of getting fried.

When everything is fried well,

When all the moisture goes away,

Then you are happy in the same oil.

Hot oil still,

But you don't even want to jump out,

You don't make noise.

You begin to float around there.

So those who are well fried will find a heaven in the same world and they'll be moving around comfortably without making any big noise.

They'll be totally silent.

It becomes a monastery for them.

So that's why we say all the paths lead to the same truth.

All the roads.

I was asked once in Vatican,

One of the cardinals,

How come you say truth is one,

Paths are many?

I didn't answer him directly.

I said,

Father,

Living in Rome,

You should not be saying that.

So what do you mean by that?

Haven't you heard all the roads lead to Rome?

When Rome has so many roads,

Why can't our home have a few extra roads?

So all the religions lead to the same place.

Oh,

I have to go a little faster now.

Personal now.

If you could change anything in life,

What would you change?

Myself.

If you did it over,

What would you do differently?

Do the same thing until I change.

I will not give up.

Over and over and over and over again and again and again until I change.

When I have changed myself,

Then I have changed the world.

You're not here to reform the world,

But to reform oneself.

If you were on your deathbed,

What advice would you give to your son or daughter?

See you later.

Because you are also going to come there where I am going.

Don't think I am the only one dying.

You will also follow me.

See there.

Okay.

I can say a lot,

But that's enough.

Maybe I'll say one thing more.

Once a sadhu,

A spiritual seeker,

Was just wandering.

He was tired and he found a small veranda outside the house.

Only the roof,

But open veranda.

So he just went there and he was tired and lying down.

At that time there was an old lady inside and a young,

The grandson probably,

A little boy.

About the age of my little kids,

Bharati,

Somebody like that.

And they were talking.

At that time there was a funeral procession.

A dead body is going to its south.

It's always on the south side you have the crematorium.

So the grandma called that child,

Son,

Go find out who is that and where is he going.

The son came out.

This man woke up.

The son is going to find out where the body is going.

Everybody knows it goes to crematorium.

Within ten minutes he came back,

Grandma,

Grandma,

He is going to heaven.

How did he know that?

He became inquisitive.

But before he even knocked at the door to ask the question,

Another body was going.

He said,

Can you go and see this one,

Where is he going?

After ten minutes the boy came.

Grandma,

He is going to hell.

And this poor sadhu couldn't resist anymore.

He butted into the house and said,

You have a great boy.

How does he know where the soul goes?

To the hell and heaven?

Could you please tell me how he found out?

Why don't you ask yourself?

Swami,

Don't you know that?

It's very simple.

Please boy,

Tell me.

I don't know any of this.

Well,

You know the first person,

I went,

Normally I go,

Walk with them and listen what the people who are following the body talk about.

And the first case,

They were,

Oh,

What a nice man.

He was very useful,

Very helpful,

Loving person,

Wonderful person.

I don't think we will be able to see a person like him anymore.

We lost a good friend.

Everybody was very,

Very sympathetic and appreciative of his life.

So where else will he go?

What about the second case?

That was terrible.

You know what?

Now we can all sleep comfortably.

Oh,

What a big relief.

You know,

One day I just got $10 from this guy and he was pressuring me to get that money with interest for another $10 within a month.

What a stingy man.

He used to fight with everybody.

Now the whole village can sleep comfortably.

Tell me,

Swadhu,

You tell me,

Where will he go?

So,

Probably if I have time enough to advise my son or daughter,

I can say,

Imagine that you are dying now and find out what others will talk about you.

And don't let them talk about you saying,

Oh,

What a big relief.

Live a useful life,

A loving life.

If you could meet anyone throughout history,

Who would you meet and what would you ask them?

Fortunately or unfortunately,

I have met many people.

But certainly now I am more comfortable in meeting little babies.

And I don't have to ask anything from them.

I will just crawl and play with them.

I would like to meet babies.

What was the most significant thing that has ever happened to you within parenthesis that affected your life the most?

What did it teach you?

Sure,

That's a big question.

It's very hard to say.

Everything is significant and nothing is significant.

Because somehow I felt there was some unseen force holding my hand and taking me.

And that hand took me to places,

Giving me various experiences.

I was not even planning to do anything or go anything or see anything.

I was a sort of easy,

Lazy person.

So experiences came naturally.

If at all I could say one significant,

If you want to call it significant,

And if I have to say a significant thing,

Meeting my master,

Shivananda.

That more or less gave me a final okay.

So the real significant thing in life is to meet a true spiritual guide just to tell you where to go.

Some people think personal relationships interfere with spiritual growth.

What do you think?

Yes,

It's true.

Personal relationships will interfere.

Because it is personal.

It limits you.

Impersonal relationships,

Okay.

Universal relationships,

Okay.

But very personal means then you are splitting your life.

You begin to see the people who have personal relationships as different from the others.

That creates division in life.

That is one of the reasons why a monk doesn't have any personal relationship.

Nothing personal.

Even within his own person,

He doesn't have a personal,

He is not a person at all.

He becomes totally universal.

The Hindu scripture says,

Even with God,

Do not have personal relationship.

That means you are limiting.

Ishan odayinam asayarimin.

So any kind of personal relationship limits you.

Spiritual means you see the whole.

Not a little.

But if you see the whole and experience the whole,

And then even if you seem to have some personal relationship like,

It doesn't affect you,

That's only superficial.

Namesake.

Momentary,

Temporary,

For a certain reason.

That's all.

You are personally living in a place.

See,

People,

They all say that I am,

I belong to Yogaville.

Okay,

I have to have a personal address so that the mailman can bring my mail.

But I don't have to get stuck with that personal address.

Wherever you go,

That becomes your home.

But the mailman doesn't know that.

So for his sake,

You have to have a permanent own address.

And that's what you call personal relationship.

You should not get caught in that.

What is important to you?

I was about to say nothing.

The most important thing is your peace and that of others.

Have peace and help others to find the peace.

What makes you happy,

Sad,

Angry?

Nothing makes me happy.

If things make me happy,

When I lose them,

I'll become unhappy.

So I am happy,

Always.

I don't need anything to make me happy.

If things make me happy,

Then the same things will make me sad.

And then I'll find an excuse,

A scapegoat for losing that,

I'll be angry.

So one follows the other.

Be happy yourself.

Don't let things make you happy.

What do you feel is still something life.

.

.

What do you feel is still something life has to teach you?

I don't know,

But there must be something more.

That's why I'm still alive.

If I finished learning,

I would have gone long before from the college.

So the mere fact that I'm still here in the college means I still have to learn something,

But still I don't know what it is.

When it comes,

I will learn.

Maybe something.

I don't even worry about the future.

What is the most important thing that you learned in or about life?

Most important thing.

Lead a total,

Dedicated life.

Raise above these little limitations.

Because you are a minute particle in the entire cosmos.

You are a part of the whole.

You are not just an individual separate.

What is the three biggest problems in life?

Three biggest problems.

Finding an answer to this question.

Is the biggest problem now.

I found one problem.

How to find an answer.

That seems to be the only one right now.

Why are you doing what you are doing?

I don't know.

I am not doing.

I have been made to do.

So you better ask the guy who makes me do.

I don't question.

My abbot would know.

You don't go and ask,

Why are you making me do this?

And he'll say,

This is not the place for you.

Get out.

Is there a basic difference between maleness and femaleness besides the body?

Wonderful question.

Nothing.

I always say,

Only the physical features make the big difference.

Male,

Female.

They have the same blood,

Same flesh.

The formation differs.

Same mind,

Same taste,

Same temperament.

Same spirit.

Everything same.

So this male-female question is nothing but talk of bundle of flesh.

That's all.

Other than that,

There is no male and female.

What is your core practice?

Core practice.

Leave everything in the hands of the beaver.

Leave it to beaver.

I mean,

Not the beaver,

Beer.

Not beer,

Beer.

Not the becomeer,

Beer.

Leave it to beer.

That's the core practice.

No problem.

Just leave it.

What made you approach life in this way?

What made me approach life in this way?

Mother nature.

The very life which guides me throughout.

Gently moves me along.

So it's not that I decided to be like this or to do this.

I'm not simply answering in a philosophical way.

I'm just answering from my heart.

I have no goal in life.

I don't have to approach anywhere,

Do anything.

Every minute I feel the unseen hand.

Wherever he puts,

I'm there.

Whatever he makes me do,

I do.

That keeps me always free from any kind of stress.

Always happy,

Peaceful.

All these guys may say even that title founder,

Director,

Swami Satchitananda,

All these dir,

Founder,

Director,

It's all their labels.

They have to have something.

I don't know what it is for.

I just move as the divine wind moves me.

I'm nothing but a dried leaf fallen from the tree.

Every time wind blows,

It goes this way or that way.

And I don't even question,

Why are you making me do this or pushing me here and there?

Total surrender.

And so far I have no problem with that at all.

I'm very comfortable.

People come,

People go,

Organizations come,

Organizations go.

They just come and go.

Anything that comes will go.

Last night we gave a farewell party to somebody,

A welcome party to somebody.

Same party.

Cut the same cake for both.

Life is like that.

Accept it.

Acceptance.

I think I have answered all your questions.

Okay.

Well,

Thank you.

Thank you for your patience.

Many of this might be the same old story.

Thank you.

Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Shanti Om Oh,

Chant the o,

Chant the o,

Chant the o.

May the entire creation be filled with peace and joy,

Love and light.

Om Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

Om Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

Om Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti.

Reviews

Uplifting and speechless ❤️

Spoke to my heart.❤️

I liked the group setting, and although I disagree with some of your ideals (I believe everyone wants to help everyone else so they get helped themselves when people in turn have the same philosophy) I think you’re a smart and wisened person. Thank you.

I really enjoyed this.

So wonderful. Thank you

Absolutely insightful and inspiring. Om shanti om. Lokah samastah sukhino bhavantu

So insightful. Took notes during to be able to reflect upon. Namaste

I enjoyed this talk a lot! Very interesting and insightful. Thank you 🙏🏻

I thank you for sharing this talk. My guru studied under Swami Satchidanandra & was a pleasure to hear his words with his humor. 🙏 Namaste

Wonderful, wise, and winsome

So sweet...answers to questions, full of wisdom, humility, love and humour. I loved it. Thank you so much!🙏🙏🙏

Very insightful.

Very interesting and wonderful 🙏🏼😌

So clear and inspiring. 🙏🏻🌺

Brilliant. Very informative and interesting with funny play of words thrown in. Perfect

Healing inspiration for the mind and body