Soul Boom - Gurudev: Does World Peace Start in the Heart? w/ Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar joins Rainn Wilson to explore the essence of spirituality and its role in transforming personal and global peace. They discuss the distinction between religion and spirituality, the power of meditation, and how breathing techniques can help relieve anxiety and reconnect us with our inner joy. Gurudev shares profound insights into victimhood, conflict resolution, and the importance of living in the present moment. Together, they explore how spirituality can be a guiding force in solving some of the world's greatest challenges. Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a humanitarian, spiritual leader and an ambassador of peace and human values. Through his life and work, Gurudev has inspired millions around the world with a vision of a stress-free, violence-free world. He has designed programs that provide techniques and tools to live a deeper, more joyous life and has established nonprofit organizations that recognize the human identity beyond the boundaries of gender, race, nationality, and religion. More Gurudev: https://www.instagram.com/gurudev Learn S.K.Y. Breath Meditation: https://www.artofliving.org Thank you to our sponsors! Factor (50% OFF!): www.factormeals.com/soulboom50 Pique Tea (15% OFF!): https://piquelife.com/SOUL HOKA: https://bit.ly/HokaSoulBoom Waking Up app (1st month FREE!): https://wakingup.com/soulboom Fetzer Institute: https://fetzer.org/ Sign up for our newsletter! https://soulboom.substack.com SUBSCRIBE to Soul Boom!! https://bit.ly/Subscribe2SoulBoom Watch our Clips: https://bit.ly/SoulBoomCLIPS Watch WISDOM DUMP: https://bit.ly/WISDOMDUMP Follow us! Instagram: http://instagram.com/soulboom TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@soulboom Sponsor Soul Boom: [e-mail] Work with Soul Boom: [e-mail] Send Fan Creations, Questions, Comments: [e-mail] Produced by: Kartik Chainani Executive Produced by: Ford Bowers, Samah Tokmachi Spring Green Films Production Supervisor: Mike O'Brien Voicing Change Media Theme Music by: Marcos Moscat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, Soul Boom Generation, I've got a really exciting announcement for you. We've got a substack. If you love the Soul Boom podcast and book and ideas, then you're going to want to get our weekly newsletter Substack sent to your inbox. It's magnificent. There's going to be fantastic guest authors. Some are written by me. A lot of them delve into the ideas around the podcasts that we're doing that week. So sign up. Please subscribe. Go to soulboom.substack.com. Thank you. You're listening to So, Boo! Here again, I make one big distinction between religion and spirituality. You can follow your religion, whatever your faith is there.

But spirituality is something different. It's experiential. Do you feel peaceful? Do you feel love? Do you feel connected to everybody? Do you feel that oneness within you? Do you have that unshakable smile or joy within you? I often say, religion.

is like the banana skin and spirituality is the banana. Hey there, it's me, Rain Wilson, and I want to dig into the human experience. I want to have conversations about a spiritual revolution. Let's get deep with our favorite thinkers, friends, and entertainers about life, meaning, and idiocy. Welcome to the Soul Boom podcast. Guru Dev, welcome to Soul Boom.

Thank you so much for making time to meet with us. Thank you, Rain. I have so many questions to ask you. So I told you before we started, my mother was a yoga teacher for many, many years. She started in the mid-80s. And in the United States, there wasn't a lot of yoga going on in the mid-80s, maybe in certain sections, parts of Southern California or maybe New York City or something like that. But she was in suburban Boston.

You are right. I have had this experience. When I came here, first time in 1986, people thought yoga is for someone who, who would put all ashes on their body and stand on one leg somewhere in Ganges Bank. Right. That sort of...

There was a lot of prejudice about yoga. I mean, thanks to your mother, she has... You know, they were the initial, you know, group of very few people who'd understand the value of yoga and meditation. They uplifted it.

My most important yoga question for you is, what's your favorite posture, your asana. No, yoga is not just posturing. But what's your favorite? You know, all postures, there is no favorite or not favorite. I have a favorite.

It's corpse pose. No, the posture should be comfortable. Right. And it should connect you with infinity. That is the right posture. And any posture that makes you feel a sense of emptiness within you. expansion within you.

That's the right posture. That's when you don't feel the body, but you only feel you are the spirit. That's great. That's a favorite poster. But also, corpse pose, you can fall asleep a little bit. Yeah, yeah, of course.

I invented an asana. Can I teach it to you? Corse pose. Traffic cop. Now I tell you, how long can you hold the traffic cup? me probably 90 seconds then you don't feel comfortable

it's not it's not inspiring the infinite cosmos within me so I think we should scrap it I love the Bhagavad Gita and I'm a member of the Baha'i faith and we incorporate the study of the Gita into our

practice and work as well you know that's what is needed today we need to globalize wisdom I mean, every child should study a little bit about all the great faiths in the world and great scriptures, even just a little bit. Then that keep their mind very open. Then you don't become fanatics or fundamentalist ideology.

You don't go in that. You don't say, only my God is bigger than any other God. I have the key to heaven, nobody else. That type of, you know, idea. causes a lot of issues in the world, as we have seen. And you have said, I read a quote of yours where you said, certainly in food, when you travel the world, you try, you sample all different kinds of foods.

And if you are looking for a doctor, you're looking for the very best doctor and the very best wisdom. Right. Why not find the juiciest, most relevant, most profound truths from all the world's faiths and incorporate them? But in my book, I have a chapter called, Hey, Kids, let's invent a new religion.

which is essentially doing that, taking truths from all of the world's faiths, because I believe that I'll speak for modern American Western culture, because that's all I know. We have lost so much by abandoning spiritual truths and wisdom that have been in humanity's history and writings from the, you know, the ancient Vedas. that are over 3,000, 4,000 years old. And we've lost a great deal. And you can feel it in the air in contemporary America. Yeah, but one thing, you know, in America,

there's such an open mind for spirituality, especially here in California. People take logic, you know, they take to sense. See, how when something is good, people welcome that. that's one thing but many other parts of the world also need to do this today you know where they have

very close mindset and you know they think it's a sin even to look into other you know books here again I make one big distinction between religion and spirituality

you can follow your religion whatever your faith is there but spirituality is something different It's experiential. It's more experiential. Do you feel peaceful? Do you feel love?

Do you feel connected to everybody? Do you feel that oneness within you? Do you have that unshakable smile or joy within you? These are some measures that we can put across, whether you're growing spiritually or not. You can be religious. I often say religion is like the banana skin and spirituality. is the banana.

Oh, that's great. So people... I'm going to steal that. People throw the skin, hold the skin, and they throw the banana out. It's no problem. That's fantastic. You talked about that constant joy, the constant smile. And I've seen so many videos of you and heard interviews with you and podcasts and lectures,

and you have such a radiant smile. How does one achieve... a radiant, to live their life with a radiant smile in the way that you do? No, you don't need to achieve it, you had it, and I have not lost it, that's all I would say. Every child born on this planet is born with bubbling enthusiasm, happiness. But somewhere, somewhere, you know, somehow we lose touch with ourselves. lose touch with that inner core of our being and all these practices are

get back to yourself and once you are in the inner space of total freedom then you feel connected to everybody you know I've traveled around the world so many times I've never felt out of place and I never felt this is not my country there's not my people never

and people also have had the same experience You know, because you only reflect, you know, others reflect what you are and you reflect what others are. I've traveled from Mongolia to Argentina. Everywhere people feel totally at home with me and me too. So that one human connectivity can happen when we realize we are part of one universal spirit. But I love this idea that in some ways the spiritual journey towards peace, towards happiness, towards joy, connectivity is about shedding barriers that have gotten in the way that we had when we were three or four years old.

I think the barriers develop a little later. You put children in a room and, you know, they mix with everybody. You know, every baby, every child is a yoga teacher. noticed that. How so? Yeah. If you observe a baby from the age of three months to three years, they would do all by postures. Ah, not traffic cop. Maybe that also. So you will find them doing all the postures. Yeah. They're breathing, their rhythm of the breath is much different from an adult. You know, they breathe more from their belly. And if they cry, they cry and they get angry, they get angry intensely.

Yeah. But it just disappears as fast as they got into it. You must just notice this. It's a beautiful scene to see a baby is crying and there is the tear drops are not yet dried and they started smiling. Aha. How can we do that? But living in the present moment, when our mind is free from stress, inhibition, and narrow-mindedness, and when we are relaxed, totally, we do have it. And are there tools to help one achieve this?

Oh, yeah. Meditation, breathing techniques, all this will help. You know, people today don't have much time. In ancient days, they would sit for hours. together and meditate and achieve what they want to. But today we want to have on everything quick, right? We don't have much time. But in short time, how using our own breath and using our own mind and wisdom, we can bring that quietness within us.

That's what we are planning. We are doing. So many people around the world have been so grossly wronged, especially poor folk, folk of color. There's so much economic injustice. There's, of course, war around the world. You know, we did this work. And for 30,000 kids who are from Syria, they were in Jordan and Lebanon.

In a refugee camp. Refugee camps, Jordan and Lebanon. They were not ready to go to school because they were scared. They could not sleep. They kept higher in the bomb. They would wake up. You know, they fall asleep and they wake up within a lot. hours time, they had so much trauma and just feeding them pills doesn't really work, you see.

It may work for some time, but on a long run it doesn't really help them. So we went in and we adopted them and we started giving them the breathing technique and exercise. You should listen to their experience. Wow. It is so, so, so heartwarming. That's beautiful. That's great. I know you've worked in so many conflicts around the world and Kashmir, other places, Sri Lanka. Right now, we have the same situation in Gaza and Palestine. And it seems unsolvable. Both sides are victims and have been grossly victimized.

Both sides are perpetrators and have grossly been culprits, as you say. I love that word. culprits. It feels like... Victims. Both sides are victims. Both sides are victims and both sides are culprits and both sides have been wronged. Both sides are traumatized and one will say well you did this to me here and like yeah but you did this to me here yeah but you did this to me here and that's because

you did this and it's a it's a never-ending Gordian knot. Can you, can you and how would you apply these spiritual principles of peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, and healing in a situation like Gaza. I wouldn't say right now there is one way that, okay, this can be resolved. I would wait and I would do all that is possible. And I would say everyone should come together now here, unite and see how we can resolve this issue, whether it's Ukraine and Russia or Gaza, in Palestine and Israel. Now, Iran has jumped into this.

So this needs a bigger approach and dialogue. Start with dialogue. Dialogue and healing, healing the past wounds. You know, in India, we had this Ayodhya dispute. You must have heard about it. It's a 500-year-old. temple, mosque dispute in India, had those and Muslims.

So many wars were fought on that. So many millions of lives were lost. So many governments had toppled on this issue. You know, the way we adopted is dialogue. We brought the Supreme Court of India, appointed me for mediation there, though I'm not a lawyer, said. But then we all, you know, we brought people together,

spoke to them. And, you know, finally, conclusion came and that got resolved. Like that, I think we need to sit across the table. People should not take sides. If one takes a side, they cannot become bridges. We need bridge people who can be the bridge between the community. The gap has become so wide.

I think you can play, we can all play a role. And, you know, be in touch with both sides. take sides and see what we can do to resolve the human tragedy. I think it's not impossible. If you see back in the history, France and England were... Yeah. Centuries. Centuries of archery.

And fighting on different continents all over the world. And Germany and other parts of Europe, Poland and Germany was such a big problem. When all these things could be resolved, we should first have a hope, this can be resolved. Like we did it after 500 years, a grand temple of Rome was constructed there. And a place for masjid was also made ready for the Muslims. So make every side happy, you see? So all this can happen with the right intention and with the right attitude, people coming together. There is an aspect in you that is not changing.

And everything else is changing. Even the changes you recognize because there is an aspect which is not changing. You need even to recognize a change, you need a reference point. Right. And the reference point is where we have to log on to. And that's it. The job is done there. Who am I?

I'm just the space. I'm just the energy. I'm just the vibrations. that switch in the mind. Now, when you are in turmoil, any amount of you telling yourself, get out of it, this is not you, and all that doesn't work.

What works at the time is attention on your breath. Because every emotion has got a specific rhythm to it in the breath. This you learn in the theatrical houses, colleges. Okay. Theatrical school where they teach you when you have to get angry, you have to breathe fast. Right. And you have to feel love.

You have to breathe slow and all that. So this is a secret of breath that we have not been taught or we don't pay attention to it. So by manipulating the rhythm of your own breath, you can get out of your bad mood. And you don't have to continue feeling, oh, I'm so sad. I feel like this. I feel lonely. I feel not so good. Hey, come on.

Wake up. You are the master of your life. You know, you can just have a say over your own moods. And breath will help you to have a say on your own mood. It seems like the universal condition these days, especially with young people, is anxiety. And loneliness. And loneliness.

Let's get to loneliness in a second. start with anxiety, which is something that I relate to. It's something that I have suffered from and dealt with. I've been overwhelmed by it. I've had to learn how to deal with it on a daily basis. What is anxiety? And how can the breath and the consciousness be used to relieve oneself of anxiety? Anxiety is the intense sensation somewhere between. in throat and chest and navel this region, thorax region, that's when the anxiety. That is triggered by fear, fear of the future

and lack of understanding of one's past and lack of vision of the future. There are four ways to see. You know, anxiety has not come to you for the first time. You have had it before. And you look back and see, you will feel very foolish being so anxious. at that time.

Right. Right? Yeah, we can do that all the time. We can look back and be like, God, I was so anxious about, you know, whether this person was going to call me back or not. And then it turns out they were sick. And then they called me back and it was all fine.

But I spent so much time and energy and worry about this thing. Oh, that's so silly. We're able to let that go. So if you look at your own thing, then that is a big lesson for you to be not so anxious. You feel so much used to the situation you are in. Number one. Second is you have to see that everything changes.

This will change. This will change. It's not going to be with me forever. Third is invoke the valor inside of you. You see? Yeah, I will be able to handle this. So what? Valor, yeah.

Invoking the valor inside. Invoking the valor inside of you. That's beautiful. That will help you sail over. I mean, anxiety will just evaporate. How does one find the valor inside of, I imagine people watching right now and maybe they have some mental health issues and dealing with anxiety and they're like, I just don't have any valor. That's not who I am. I'm really struggling right now.

All those who get angry can get valor also. Anger is also, you know, a reflection of valor. Or a gateway to valor. Gateway to one. And then the fourth, okay, if you cannot do this, then the fourth point I would say is, know that there is a bigger spirit, the universal consciousness.

You may call God, you may call Atman, you may call Paramatman, spirit, the divinity, there is a bigger force that's managing the whole universe. And that is with you and that's going to guide you. that faith either through valor or through faith

you can just get over it I love that that's beautiful valor or faith give up give up you know we say when we can't handle something I give up you are giving it up

you know give it up so that whatever is up is going to take care of us so learn to give up happily not being frustrated. I read in another interview with you,

you talking about finding strength in surrender, finding true strength not in willpower, but in surrender. And I relate to that from knowing a little bit about the 12-step program of recovery, where, you know, if you're an alcoholic, you'd say, you say, I'm powerless over alcohol.

I give up, I hope, here's the white flag. You win alcohol. I surrender, you know, you lay back. But actually in the doing of that, you find incredible strength where you don't rely on it anymore. You find new ways to kind of give you strength and purpose and focus and to center your life. And it's a strange conundrum. Can that be applied in other ways in a person's life? Yes, yes, that is giving up.

You know, when you feel all the doors are closed, you put your 100% effort and nothing works. and it's painting, then you say, oh my God, you take care of this. I know you will take care of it. Let's go to loneliness now. This is such a modern disease, you know, in Japan and in the United Kingdom, they've created departments of loneliness, heads of, you know, parliamentary kind of level guides of loneliness. There's classes on loneliness at USC right down the street.

It's an epidemic. of loneliness, the surgeon general has come out and said there's an epidemic of loneliness. When you look at the statistics, my 19-year-old son is with us here today, and the amount of time that teenagers used to spend with each other in the same room used to be a lot. It used to be two, three, four days a week. And now it's like one or two days a month that they're together. Our screens keep us divided, just constantly. Screen, you said it. Yes, yes.

This makes us feel like we're connected, but in actuality, it can divide us. But it's such a heartbreaking. You know, not necessarily the screens divide you. I would not agree that screens would divide you. But what really we miss is the screens don't bring up the vibrations. See, we're all vibrations. We all emit vibrations.

Now I'm getting the vibrations of rain here and the siggy and your son. I mean, we all emit vibrations. And when we connect ourselves with everybody else's vibration, then we feel sort of togetherness and feel loved. When we don't give chance to be with people in real time, don't feel their vibrations. Then what happens?

Our subtle body starts shrinking. When you say subtle body, what is it? We have, you know, we have three bodies. Oh, goodness. Okay. There's a little bit of esoteric. I have one big, beautiful body. It's a little esoteric. Okay, let's go there.

This is physical body we all know. Physical body is what we are using in waking state of consciousness. All right. With more active. But when you are in dreaming state, your subtle body of mind, emotions, that starts working. Your subtle body is about one feet all around, big part. Usually people think mind is inside the body.

I would say the other way around. Our body is inside the mind. Oh, I like that. Our body is like the wake of a candle, and the mind is like the glow around it. You're good. You should do this professionally. You're good.

You know this when the mind or the mind, the subtle body shrinks, that's when you feel sad. When a subtle body is robust, let's go with the simple experience of anybody. When you're happy, what is the sensation you get being happy? A glow. Someone says, oh, rain, you are excellent. You are the best. The word, what happens to you?

It's something in you expand. Yeah, expands, yeah. You know. Yeah. So the subtle body, when it expands, we feel happy, joyful. But when someone gives you an insult, what happens? You feel crushed. Right.

Physical body is not getting crushed. But the subtle body of mind, emotions, that gets crushed. So when this subtle body shrinks further, you feel sad. When it shrinks further, you feel depressed. Then you feel suicidal tendency. an extension of it. It is just like, see, I have this scarf if it is too tight on my neck. What is my tendency? I just want to pull it out, throw it out, right? So when the subtle body shrinks too much, then you get suicidal tendency. When through the breathing,

through meditation and subtle body is energized. It's like almost like a gymnasium for subtle body. It becomes stronger. Then nothing can disturb you, touch you, or take the peace away from you. Now, you said there's three parts of the body. The third part is your causal body. The ancient scriptures in India have always spoken about the three bodies. The causal body is when we are in touch with, when we are in deep sleep. See, in dream state, we do all the experience, right?

We see, we smell, we touch. Yeah. All that we do in waking state, we do. in the dreaming state without using any of our senses. The causal body is what we get in touch with when we are in deep sleep. Suppose in one night you had only dreams. When you wake up, you feel more tired and exhausted. You might have noticed.

Yes. The deep sleep, our causal body is infinite. It's huge. When we are in touch with that, then we get energized. a body, mind, spirit, everything gets energy. That's why deep sleep is essential. And deep sleep is you experience being not conscious. Meditation is a conscious deep rest,

wherein you experience the same rest you experience in deep sleep, at the same time you are alert awake. Do you pray? Where does prayer, fit in to these tools that you use in terms of breath work and meditation work? See, let's see what is prayer. Prayer has two aspects. It happens to you in two situations.

Okay. One is when you are helpless. So you want help. Please help me. Please save me. I take refuge in you. That's one thing. The second instance of,

prayer is when you got something. I'm so grateful. I was not worthy of it. I got much more than what I needed. So I thank you. One is asking, another is thanking. These two aspects of prayer happens inside of you.

Not just repeating some prayers without emotions in it. It doesn't hurt much. It has to come from our emotions. I would say prayer is is a dance of emotion. That's beautiful. The author, Anne Lamont, who was on Soul Boom,

she has a book called Help, Thanks, Wow, which are the three types. She used it as three types of prayer. So help, like, help me, and thanks, like you say, oh, I'm so grateful, but also, wow, expressing wonder, delight, curiosity at the way things are, the beauty magnificence. I would say that

dwarf as part of meditation. Ah, okay. Prayer is like asking God something, but meditation is telling God, I'm here to listen to what is that you want to tell me. So prayer leads you to meditation.

It should lead you to meditation. In any of these situations, see, when you are thankful, then you go into sleep into meditation. So you surpass the world. words and get into the deeper silence. And that's why silence is given so much importance, almost in all the faiths of the world. Because silence is the mother of divinity, mother of creativity, mother of all humanness. Let's have some silence in this podcast. I want to set the record,

I want to set the world's record for the most silence in a podcast ever, beginning. now. I think my producer is pulling his hair out. I want to get to your piece work, but before I do, I noticed that you had a book, Hinduism and Islam, the common thread. There's such division and fear and hate and a long and complicated history between Muslims and in Hindu and the Indian subcontinent and in that region of Central Asia. What is the common? What is the common? thread between Hinduism and Islam? Well, I have listed many of this through the practices. I have done a similar thing about Christianity and Hinduism.

And I also done a book on the Dalits and the heritage of Dalits. The Dalits are the lowest caste. Lowest caste. And how most of the scriptures are the contribution of people from that caste, Dalit caste, which people think are lowest, but they are really. high in there you know so the main

purpose of this is to bring hearts and minds of people together if you want to see commonness you can see it everywhere if you want to see differences you can see

I usually say there was only one Jesus Christ and there are 72 sects of Christianity there was only one prophet mama there are 134 sects of Islam there was only one Lord Buddha

there are 32 sects of Buddhism. And in Hinduism, you can't even count. So many. So the world is bestowed with so much diversity. That's why I say God loves fun. And God loves diversity. God loves fun? And God loves diversity.

No need to fear God. God loves fun. That's why he made such a funny universe. And, you know, God loves diversity. That's why he's not kept, just made one potatoes and say, okay, eat all your life,

you're nothing else. So many phona, flora, and do many type of people, I feel this diversity should be a point of celebration, not a point of contention. Unfortunately, when people take it, make everybody the same or equal,

they, you know, they put everyone else into trouble. I read a quote from you around this and I wanted to share my experience. I meditate. I wouldn't say daily, but maybe four or five days a week. And the thing I find most beautiful about it, the most enlightening about meditation is I can sometimes achieve a very subtle state where I'm in the ocean and I recognize that I am not my thoughts and I am not my feelings. I am not my identity. I'm not a 58-year-old white man from suburban Los Angeles. And I have thoughts bouncing around like popcorn and I have feelings churning around like water in a washing machine.

But then when I am allowed to, through my meditation practice and breath, recognize, oh, those are a part of me, but they are not me. But yet in our daily lives, we latch on, don't we and feel that our identity is our thoughts? Our identity is what we're thinking next and what we're feeling next. Can you tell us ways to release that trap of that grasping to thoughts and feelings and identity? Yeah, it's just like, you know, mistaking your shoes for your feet. Okay, yeah, yeah. You should know when you can remove your shoes. You know, you can't go to a shower with your shoes on, right?

So you should know that this is different. Okay, thoughts are there. So many thoughts have come and gone. What would be good is to look back in your own life. Look at all the thought patterns that has been evolving or coming inside of you. How many times you are worried, how many times you are in a low mood, how many times you are upset, but you are still alive. You go overcome all that.

So seeing life from a bigger context helped you to see, okay, I don't mind. These thoughts come and go. Again here, meditation gives you that glimpse to begin with, the glimpse of what it is to be the sky without clouds. The sky without clouds. Wonderful. Clear sky. The clouds being the thoughts.

Absolutely. What is the art of living? Art of living is to make life a celebration. Wow. That's cool. Seeing life from a bigger context of time and space, bringing in that aspect of love and compassion which you have inherent.

inside more to light. And there are, again, meditation and breathing techniques? Yeah, we have developed several courses about 57 different programs from kindergarten to, you know, college level and to professionals. You know, today in the industry there is always

higher and fire and there is so much anxiety. To manage the anxiety, they do need this. know, meditation and breathing exercise. The sky, our Sudarshan Kria, has been very, very effective in this sense. And also in the prisons. Prisons. Prisons. People act at the spot of a moment doing something.

I mean, then they keep regretting. They go to the prison, the correctional house. Actually, the correctional house doesn't really correct them. They come back being much bigger criminals. I mean, they get a, it's like an idea exchange for them there inside of. Yeah. So, but when they go into meditation there, when they understand about their breath, you know, we usually touch on seven layers of our existence.

Little bit about our body, body, as you said, traffic pause, yoga. So something about yoga, a little bit about body. Yeah. And breath, breath is the link between our body and emotions. When you can't directly handle your mind, when you have depression, when you have rage, anger, and all these feelings. You know, grandmas used to say, go to the corner and count 10, right? It doesn't work anymore.

So we need to do something to get rid of that. And I found the breathing is a very, very important. important link. We learn nothing about breath in school or college or even at home. And it's the stuff of life. You're absolutely right. And if you talked about the baby crying and the tears drying and all of a sudden the baby bubbling with laughter and that's through the breath. And so often I find myself like holding my breath and only just breathing the minimum in my car or texting or being busy, just the absolute minimum. And I, I fall so easily out of touch with my own breath.

The breath has a lot of secret to tell us. And if we go a little bit deeper into it, you know, it can improve our intuitive ability. It can help us to energize ourselves. It improves our immune system. And most of all, you know, today the biggest challenge we have is attention deficiency syndrome. You are talking to somebody and they're not even listening.

Right? The attention span has reduced so much. I'm sorry, what were you saying? Exactly this one. You know, everybody encountered this sort of thing that they are talking to somebody and the person is not there at all. So breath control and breath exercises help you to come in the present moment,

be more in the present, more alert. and how many people watching right now noticed your breath and noticed the fact that you are holding your breath and now you're in touch with your breath just in hearing this beautiful conversation. So the second layer of our existence of breath. Then mind.

Okay. You know, if you observe your mind, it's either regretting the past or anxious about the future. And when mind swings like this between past and future all the time, it creates more toxins in the system. And our mind gets,

It's hardened and more hardened and more hardened. It's stuck. Stuck. Yeah. And our perception, our observation, our expression, everything goes for a toss. So we learn a little bit about the mind. And then intellect, you know.

Intellect is all about how we perceive and how we connect it with the logic. Many times we have a lot of prejudice in the mind. Prejudice about gender, prejudiced about race, religion, culture. Name it. And age groups. You know, if someone of your same age group, if they talk to you, you may accept better. Then an elderly person.

You know, your son may accept something much better with his balls. Then it's coming from a parent. So we have many type of prejudice in the intellect. So we need to get past that. That is something is a part of this program. And then memory, if you look at your memory, we often cling on to that which is negative. If you're given 10 compliment and one insult,

you're holding on to that one insult and go round and run. So true. Guilty. Holding on to the negative things, that need to be shifted. Resentments. Resentments. anger anger all the emotions negative emotions we don't know how to get over them breath is a very big you know technique I mean a handle for us to do that then intellect memory and then ego the seventh layer I would say is there is something

deep inside of you that doesn't change our body changes our mind changes our thoughts changes emotion changes circumstances But the reference point of the changes that is deep within us, the consciousness, we know nothing about it. We don't learn anything about it. When you latch on to that space within you, you find so much strength from within you. You get emotionally, in a short, I would say, a violence-free society, disease-free body, quiver-free breath,

confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every individual. And this we can achieve through spiritual practices. As you were speaking, I was thinking about the subtle differences between brain and mind and consciousness

and then Atman or the soul and its link those are all connected but somewhat different how would you describe that gradation

between those your brain is like the TV screen your mind is like the electricity in it and the soul is the radio waves how is the soul like radio waves

how is the soul like radio waves Yeah, unless there is transmission, nothing comes into the TV, right? So it's about adjusting your dial until the static becomes clear. Yeah, if your TV is off, still, the waves are still here. Now, television you put off, but all the channels, all that has been, you know, broadcasted, that vibrations are still here. Television, I don't know anything about television. Because you're in it all the time, right?

All the time. I'm inside it. I'm like Mike TV from Willie Wonka. My son answered my question. Mind and soul, the difference between mind and soul is that of between the waves and the ocean. I would call the mind as the waves and consciousness as the ocean. Mind is just a tiny aspect of consciousness. This audience is.

not familiar with you at all. How did you become a guru? How does one become a guru? Can I become a guru? Is there like a certification, a documentation? No, you see, everyone plays the role of a guru in some form or another. Okay. Like your mother is your first guru.

Nice. And then every teacher you come across. It's playing the role of a guru. And a guru in the spiritual sense means one who cares for the evolution of the student one who doesn't want anything for oneself because one doesn't need anything there is no wants

and you'd like to guide everyone towards unconditional love and the space that who we really are. Wonderful. A guru it's not the teachings or words are, it's just the presence, you know. And that happens.

How did you begin this journey? Well, from my childhood I was in spirituality. It was like fished water to me. Then I started sharing what I knew, and then people started coming, and then, you know, then automatically your role becomes that of a guide. Is your work that you do now part of a specific? lineage, like a guru lineage? This is a Vedanta lineage, of course, Vedanta, you know, the yoga and Vedanta tradition. But I am not of some particular sect or seat for which I am a pontiff.

No, not like that. You worked under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in the 70s. He's the founder of Transcendental Meditation. What can you tell us about him? He's. pretty well known and highly regarded in the United States. What did you learn? Yeah, in my teenage, you know, I was with him because I was traveling around. He used to have Vedah and science conferences. He was very passionate about science

and the ancient knowledge of Vedic. Since I had studied the Vedic literature from my childhood, so he had invited me to be part of that conferences. And that's how I started. Then I spent some time. with all the scientists and Nobel laureates and traveling around those days and giving talks on Vedic literature.

That's how it began. You know, in my young days, I spend with all elderly people. Now in my older days, I'm spending with young people. That's wonderful. We were just in India, my wife and I, and we got to meet His Holiness of Dalai Lama and Dharamshallah. and there are so many Tibetan monks as well studying the intersection of Tibetan Buddhism and science. And they've gotten grants and they're going to university and studying brain scans of meditation

and trying to integrate Tibetan wisdom with modern science around the brain, around consciousness, and around happiness. Did you learn anything when you were studying this intersection of, Vedic ideas and science. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Maharshi, Mahesh Shogi was a very great admirer of science and spirituality

and he's a great person. It's a very wonderful person. So I had a chance to be with him when I was growing in my teenage. And then I also had time with Mata, Amma,

Anandamaiima. Just another lady whom you must have heard about Anandamay. Oh yeah, okay. And my teacher, he was with Mahatma Gandhi for 40 years. He lived for

120 years. Wait, where? 120 years, yeah. Wow. And his Sudakas Chaturvedi. He was the teacher of Mahatma Gandhi and he taught him Bhagwad Gita and he

came to India from South Africa. So, as I said, my young days were spent with all elderly people. Let's talk about your piece work. I saw the very short but incredibly compelling documentary, and we'll put a link on our YouTube channel, about the work you did with the FARC in Colombia. Can you tell us a little bit about what was the spark that you were able to add to the ongoing discussions of a 40 or 50 long year conflict

that helped open people's hearts just a little bit. I felt like you just, you tip the balance, just a little bit, a few grains of sand where people were able to open their hearts enough to be able to imagine peace. It was a really beautiful story that unfolded that you played a small, but significant role in. You know, it's a 52-year-old conflict. We all know about it, Fark.

There were 20 million people who are internally displaced. And we have been doing a lot of trauma relief work. Our volunteers have been working in Columbia. And recognizing this work that we have done, the Colombian government gave me their highest civilian award. So I went for the award ceremony. After the award ceremony, there is a formal handshake with the president.

It was supposed to be for five minutes, but it lasted about 50 minutes. Their president Santos was very concerned about the state of affairs because the peace process had broken down. They were not amicable for U.S. mediation. And then Europe tried, Norway tried, everything had failed. so he said the only option I see is a military option now but I feel so pain that 40,000 lives will be lost if this continues like this.

So I told President Santos why not I go and try something there. So he said I don't think there is much hope but any help is welcome you please you can do it. So the next day I flew from there to Havana And I wanted to meet with these people. There were 15 commanders of fact there. In the beginning, they saw my dress, my attire.

You know, you usually judge by how you appear. I think you look great. They saw me in my dress and said, no, no, we don't want to do anything with any spiritual teacher and religion. We have our, you know, dust capital. We have Karl Marx is our guide. So we have our... There's a resemblance.

You have the same beard. I'm just saying, okay, go ahead. So then I went. That evening I had it. So they refused to meet with me. We don't meet any spiritual people. Religious spiritual, we stay away from them. That evening I had a talk in the University of Havana in Cuba.

So they had sent a few people to check on me. Check out what they. This guy is doing how it is. So I led them through a meditation. I spoke what I speak all the time. Then they wanted to come and see me. Then they agreed to come. They came to the hotel.

They came to the hotel with the idea, with the view that they want me to tell the government to stop terrorism against them. Right. Because they knew you had Santos' ear. Oh, we'll convince him to go back. Right. and said, look, injustice has been done.

They were all victims. Like they were playing like they were victims. And then they also knew I'm from India and the international communities. I had recently given talk also in Europe and parliament conducting programs there. So they wanted to gather some support from the international community

and through me to, And that's give a convey message to Santos. So they came, they were very angry and upset. They say, I told them, yeah, I understand. You're also victims. You're not having fun, having a guerrilla war. In your prime youth, I said, yeah, we have lost so many people. Thousands of youths have lost for this.

I said, no, I know. You are here for a cause. You want social justice. That's it, isn't it? But the path you have chosen, I will not subscribe to it. I said I won't agree with you. You have chosen the path of violence. You eschew violence.

And then for social cause, social justice, I am with you. We do so many service projects around the world. We are running schools for 100,000 children, free schools, a thousand schools we are running. I am with you. I am with you to help the poorest of people. But bombing the television towers, you know, relay towers and bombing, cutting the telecommunication off and cutting the water supply to the city,

displacing people. Car bombs and all this. This is not going to help. Then three days we, to make this a whole thing short, we were talking and then they meditated with me. and then finally they came on their own for a press conference. They called for it

and said, today we are going to adopt the Gandhian principle of non-violence. Amazing. He said this spiritual aspect was missing in our movement. And they became like children and they had tears in their eyes.

He said, please don't forget us. We are part of your family and we will do violence. We'll follow the gun. and the principle of non-violence. And the government and the press

did not want to believe this. They thought this is some, their gimmick to gain more time. So I told them, please give them a benefit of doubt. Give them a month's time. What happened the very next day or two days later, there was another bomb?

So the government said, look, what you did, what you said, you did, it's not going to work, it's all humbug. Now I said, see, these people could not send the message to their cadders. Yes. They are in the jungle. Right. So please give them one month time.

Yeah. So I spoke, I said this to the secretary of president. And then, you know, in a month's time, the peace talk resumed. They started to agree on all the principles, most of the principles. And then the story went like that. And then, ha. Then we had the forgiveness exercise.

The culprits of their, the victims of their guerrilla warfare, several people from Havana, we flew them into, several from, we flew them into Havana, from, you know, from Columbia. Mm-hmm.

Victims from both sides, victims of the gorillas, the farcs and the government? The gorillas and the victims. Okay, okay. There were several army officers' wives and, you know, bureaucrats wife, whom they had shot. They brought their family in front of them. And you know, they kneeled down in front of them and asked them, will you forgive us for what we did? I know there were tears in everybody's eyes. And then I said we should bring the pastor.

So they are Catholics. We brought a Catholic pastor to the program and they bless both of them. Then we had several of this forgiveness exercise throughout Colombia. The culprits and victims came together and they asked for forgiveness with each other. That was the most moving experience. You mentioned hope and a hope for peace by looking in the past. with those specific examples. And I think what I'm seeing with a lot of young people

is there is generally a hopelessness that humanity cannot change, that we cannot transform. And this hopelessness bleeds into so many different arenas, such as mental health. You've spoken before about how you start with peace in the self, and then it's peace in the family, and then peace in the cul-de-sac,

and then it's peace in the school, and peace in your town and then in your county and then peace in the state and how, but that gradually unfolding peace starts inside. Yeah. How can, and what can you say to young people that are hopeless right now? How and where can they put their focus

to believe that change is possible and that peace and transformation of the seven, eight billion people in the world, is something that can be achieved. That's exactly what the programs, I would say, the meditation and all these courses are mental. Bring hope to the despair. And see, in the world, the mental health issue

is because we have not taught anything about mental hygiene. Like dental hygiene, I would say there is a mental hygiene. That should be taught as a practice. Mental flossing. Yeah. Like flossing. You know how to be in the present moment. Come and see life from a bigger context.

When our vision are very narrow, then we definitely will be feeling desperate, hopeless and all that. When you broaden your vision, see life from a very bigger perspective, give a bigger context to life. And your energy is built up more positive. Then hope is a byproduct of it. You cannot instill hope.

You should only increase. your energy level. Ah, that's a great way of... And that's what is the purpose of all spirituality, is pump you with positive energy wherein you are scintillating with hope for others and joy for yourself.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you, Guru Dev. Thank you so much. Thank you, Rayne. Appreciate your time. The Soul Boom Podcast. Subscribe now on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, podcasts and wherever else you get your stupid podcasts.