 You know people use negative energies to affect other people's lives. Wearing a simple mala gives a certain level of protection for that person. The main purpose is to make you available to grace. See, every substance has a certain reverberance to it, everything in the universe. Now we are trying to identify things which will push us in a particular direction. It's not just about Rudraks, plants, flowers, animals, everything you've been identified as to what will take you in a spiritual direction and what will not. You have heard that this flower is the favorite of Shiva, this flower is the favorite of Vishnu because they're just identifying a certain reverberation which would come close to what we are referring to as Shiva or Vishnu or whatever else and saying this flower gets you closest to that. So you who touching it, you receiving it has a certain impact. So everything was identified like this. Rudraks is one of those items which has a very unique type of reverberation. Now why Rudraks is worn on the body is one thing is it cleanses the aura. You know what's aura? A-U-R-A, there's a certain field of light and energy around everybody, around every object. Every physical object has its own aura, even inanimate objects. These days it is being photographed and recorded in so many different ways. It cleanses your aura. Aura can be from a pitch black aura to a pure white aura. You know you are… if you have seen maybe not so much in America but if you have seen any of the Spanish pictures or Indian pictures, you will see if they saw any saint or sage always there will be a white halo around their head. It is not that these people walked around with light bulbs behind their heads. It is just that the artist is trying to impress upon you that this is a pure being. He had a pure white aura, that's what is being conveyed. So from a pitch black aura to a pure white aura you can have. If you meet somebody who is into occult processes, who do things with energy, if you meet such a person, most of them are just fakes who just use kitchen… what chicken entails to scare you but there are genuine people in that field. In India there are lots of people. So very sophisticated occult. If you meet them they are powerful in a very different way. Totally pitch black aura. They are very, very powerful but in a completely different way. So from a pitch black aura to a pure white aura in between there are a million shades. This can purify your aura. This does not mean if you wear a Rudraksh tomorrow morning you will have a halo glowing behind your head. Not like that but you're aspiring to purify yourself. When you're aspiring to purify yourself every little help, every little aid you get you want to make use of it. Another reason why it's owned by Indian sadhus and mendicants is they're constantly traveling. One who is constantly eating and sleeping in different places, his body goes through a certain level of destabilization. In the sense many of you might have noticed this. You went to a new place even if you're very exhausted. Somehow in a certain place your body won't settle down and sleep. Have you noticed this ever? If you're a traveling person you would have noticed it in some places. Your body just won't settle down. You're fully exhausted but you cannot sleep. This is because in your own house, in your own bedroom, today there is something called as, what the forensic people are using this, what thermal imaging is it? See if you sit here now, 24 hours later somebody will come with a machine and find out where Gayathri was sitting. There's, there is a memory in the place which they're able to detect this person was sitting only here, not there. Well, if you bring your dog it knows she was sitting here. Isn't it? So something is left there, isn't it so? Something is obviously left there. That is why a dog or a machine or something can detect it. So you are sleeping in the same bed every day. Here certain aspect of your energy is left here. Here you're very comfortable. If you go to another place where the energies are very different, your body may not settle. Sometimes it could be damaging to the system. So a person who is constantly traveling wears a Rudraksh so that he has a cocoon of his own energy that the outside energies does not disturb him. He has a, we call this a kavacha, you know what's a kavacha? Kavacha. It's more like a cocoon. It's a cocoon of your own energy. Wherever you go, you have your private bedroom going with you. It travels with you wherever you go. Especially in travel, your aura gets frayed. This is the reason why you feel so exhausted with travel. Actually you sit and do nothing. Somebody is driving, you just sit. After ten hours you find you're so tired. You did nothing because your energy gets frayed. Your body is moving at a faster speed than it is designed to move. So the first thing that is damaged is your aura. If you go faster, faster, faster, faster, faster, let's say you travel six hundred miles per hour in an open space without a windshield, you will see your skin will peel off, isn't it? After that your flesh will fly off. After that your bones will fly off. Yes or no? The first thing that begins to be damaged is your aura. So with movement, with faster and faster movement, aura gets frayed. So if you wear Rudraks, it gives you a certain cocoon. It gives you a certain stability to your aura. The travel movement can be taken well. This also is a kind of protection. You know people use negative energies to affect other people's lives. You're aware of this? What do you call that here? Yes, billy sunyam, the black magic or whatever you call it. There are various kinds of arts. One Veda, out of the four Vedas, one Veda is dedicated towards this. The Atarvana Veda is all about how to manipulate energies to your benefit and somebody's detriment. If you wear Rudraks, it also protects you against that kind of negative situations. Many times these things could happen to people even though they are not directed towards them. Right now let's say somebody is doing some black magic to me, but I am not receptive to it. You're sitting here, you may get it. It is not necessary it must be aimed at you. If you're susceptible at a certain moment, you will get it. So many, many times people may go through bad patches and things like that. Don't describe this, I don't want to create fear in your mind. But many times we have seen people being influenced by certain things, not knowing what's happening, blaming all kinds of things, not knowing what exactly is happening with themselves. Wearing a simple mala gives a certain level of protection for that person. One more reason why people wear this is even in the wild, if you were thirsty and you're walking in a jungle, you found little water, you drink it, you could be poisoned. You could paralyze yourself or you could kill yourself, because even in nature, water could be poisoned with certain gases. You know, certain lakes and other things have bad, whatever, they have a history of, you know, people, tribals and others have feared that there are ghosts existing, that is simply because the water is poisoned with certain gases and whatever else and people consume and instantly they go through pain and suffering and because of that it got some other kind of names going with that. If you just hold your Rudraks, above the water, it will tell you whether to drink or not. If any food appears in front of you, if you hold it, even if there is a tiny bit of poison in it, instantly it will go anti-clockwise. Let me see, check this water. You'll never know. You put a tiny drop of poison into this, which you cannot detect by smell or taste, that kind of poison. You hold this and see, immediately it will go anti-clockwise. So that's another reason and there are various other aspects to it. It brings down the blood pressure in your system, your nerves will become, all these kind of things. Today doctors are prescribing Rudraks in India. For hypertension, cardiac ailments, doctors are actually prescribing Rudraks. So this is just where this… your blood pressure will go down because it has a certain reverberation which calms the whole system. The main purpose is to make you available to grace because ultimately it doesn't matter what circus you do, what yoga you do, what else you do, ultimately it's only by becoming available to grace you become a possibility. This is why a devotee attains quicker than anybody because he just offers himself like that. If that sense of offering and things are not brought in, yoga will become circus without grace. Whatever you do, whether it is spiritual process, health, wealth, success, there will be no success in any area of life if in some way you do not become available to grace. That's for sure. Either you become consciously available or unconsciously in your own way you became available. Okay, every human being, every creature is becoming available in some way but if you're consciously making that a part of your life, then everything works, you know, it's a well lubricated life, everything works easy and smooth. So Rudraksha is just creating that possibility, enhancing it a little bit. Not that without Rudraksha will not be available to grace. You will be. It is just that you want to use every support that is available to you.