 Namaskaram. Good evening to everyone. I said good evening. I can't see the people. If you light them up also it will be nice. Puducherry has a special status in the nation for variety of reasons. Above all its historical uniqueness has made it into a certain blend of culture which is unique and special and it's good for us to preserve that because we are a nation who have always thrived on diversity. Normally nations are structured on the basis of sameness of language, of religion, of ethnicity but we as a nation have defied this completely. There is no one language, there is no one culture. In the same family they have five different gods going and nobody thought it's an anomaly. So this is a nation which has defied the fundamental definition of nation making. Nations are always made on sameness but we have been a nation for over ten thousand years. Even with over two hundred political entities ruling the geography of this land, still we called ourselves a nation. Not only us, people from outside the country also refer to us as one nation, though there were over two hundred rulers at certain times. So what is the basis of this nation or what is the basis when a nation for that matter? We can look at it this way. There are three fundamental ingredients in making a nation. One is the territory, the geographical piece of land. If we do not have a fixed territory, there can't be a nation. It's unfortunate that we have to divide the planet but that's the fundamental of making a nation. Another is the systems and processes that we follow. How we do our commerce, how we do our administration, how we do our businesses, how we conduct the society, the systems and processes that are employed in a nation. Lastly and above all is the people. Let us look at these three things what we as a nation have done in 1947 when most of the country except you may be here. When most of this country got independence, first thing we did was break the geography, the territory of this nation because after being in some sort of enslavement for nearly 250 or 300 years, we did not understand a few things. It was new. Making a nation was new because we were involved. All the people and the leadership of that time was basically focused on how to break the British nation, how to make the British Empire. Suddenly they handed it over to us and went away. Now we could not change that mode. We were still in the breaking mode. We were not... we did not get into the making mode. We were still in the breaking mode. So we broke the territory of this country into three pieces. I'm not trying to make a political point. I want you to just understand. In the making of a nation, the success of any nation depends not upon its political processes or even its military exploits. Fundamentally the success of a nation is dependent upon the success of its commerce and businesses. This is something if anybody should know, we should have known this business because 250 years ago we were the largest economy on the planet. We were the biggest exporters in the planet. So we should have known that it is the business which makes a nation successful. Successful business means a successful nation. But we broke all our business roots. For thousands of years we were doing business through the roots going in the west towards Arabia, Damascus, Jerusalem, Europe, Central Asia, this side to Southeast Asia and many other countries. Both sides we broke our trade routes. We gave it away to somebody and tried to make a nation. So in many ways we never found traction because the fundamental trade routes which had nurtured us for thousands of years, we broke that without understanding that this is what makes the nation. At least we should have kept a highway. Even if we gave the lamp, at least we should have kept a passage. But we broke that basic passage which gave us access to Europe, Arabia, everywhere. Otherwise by now or many years ago we would have highways and railways running into European capitals. It would be another country altogether. You could go to France by train from Delhi, that's what it would be. Somebody's talking if they can. It's okay, mama, you don't go. Don't scare them like that. So you've become very serious, all of you. This happened. A pirate, you know, pirate. Not today Somalian pirate. The classic pirate walked into an Irish pub. He had his right leg was gone and so he had a wooden stump. His left arm was gone so he had a hook and he had an eye patch on one of his eyes. Classic pirate. So he limped into the bar. The bar man served the drink and then asked, hey, what happened to you, Jack? Last time when you were here you were fine. Now you lost your leg. He said, yeah, we were in the high seas and you know Her Majesty's service cannonball came and took away my leg. But no problem. Our carpenter on the ship fixed me up pretty good. See, I can dance if you want. No problem. Then after a drink he asked, hey, Jack, but what happened to your hand? Where's the hand gone? He said, oh, I was in a sword fight. Some fools don't understand you have to hit the sword. They hit my hand. So I lost my hand, but no problem. My blacksmiths fixed a nice hook for me. Actually, this does more than my hand used to do. But by the way, what happened to your eye? He said, I was trying to guide the ship by looking at the stars and the bird poo fell in my eye. The bartender said, but the bird poo won't take off your eyeball. He said, yeah, but you know, I was new to the hook. So we were new to our freedom without understanding what we are doing. We broke our trade routes completely and tried to make a nation. Still we are struggling how to conduct the business because we lost our traditional way of doing business. Now the only way you can do business is by sea. We know that also, but that was not the strength. The strength was by land. Well, now after 70 years, many things have changed. That's a different matter. But the initial years were just lost not knowing what to do because we were new to the hook. Freedom is a hook. Now we have the territory, it's still a large country. Now the systems and processes, those who want to rule us from outside will make certain systems and processes because they want obedience and dominance. A free nation has to make its own systems and processes. I'm sorry many of you may be IIS and IPS offices including Kiran, but I've been looking at this, we made very little change. Even today, even today, from a little child in this country to another, if a policeman comes they get scared. If a policeman comes you must feel reassured. That's police, no problem. If there is no police you must be scared, but most people still get scared if a policeman comes. That's why I told you don't run like that. This is from another era where a policeman comes means he's out to do something bad to you. No, a policeman comes means he is here to protect the citizens of this nation, isn't it? But still we have not grasped that, it's still not come into our psyche because the systems that were followed in an occupied nation almost ditto, we followed the same systems, still following the same systems. Small, minor changes have been made, but fundamental changes as to how our police force, however administrative forces, how our political system should function is not something that we have paid enough attention to. Today's world of software, so here everybody's talking about systems. If you don't know what kind of system you need for what activity you want to conduct, if you put the wrong system your activity will get crippled. So systems of unoccupying force, if you adopt as it is simply because it's easy, simply because it's easy it's all set, so we just take it. Because of this in many ways we have crippled ourselves. This happened in Times Square, New York City. Two men were dragging one foot and coming. Then they came opposite to each other and one man said, pointed at his leg and said, 1968, Vietnam. The other man said, twenty feet away dog poo, you could be dragging your feet for anything. But as long as we're dragging our feet we can't walk rapidly enough. After seventy years still a large segment of our population is an abysmal level of poverty. Most undernourished nation on the planet, real. We are the most undernourished population on the planet. We are busy producing a large population which is substandard in body and mind. Simply because at a very early age they have not received the basic nourishment that is necessary. This is not a litany of complaints. Just the mechanics of what makes a nation. It is these systems and processes whether they are designed to make the nation grow or they design to curtail the nation. That's the question. I must tell you this. If we, I don't know how it is here in Tamil Nadu and in most of the states it is like this. If we want to build a building on our land okay, you need no objection from sixteen departments. I can't understand why the hell somebody has an objection that I'm investing money and building the country. When I build something I build the nation, isn't it? Why is it sixteen different departments have objection to it? They can give guidelines to me. How to build? What what makes you assume that every citizen is a criminal and you have to police him? We have turned every citizen into criminal that is if you let them free they will do something wrong. Why? We are building a very a very large center in United States. There is a architectural code book. You must know the book if you want to build anything of a reasonable size and your architect must know the book well. You can just say we are building, nobody will come and see no application, no nothing you just build. After you've built you must say it's complete then a man will come. He usually comes in a SUV with lots of equipment. He takes up everything. If everything is correct by the code he will sign occupation certificate and go. If it is not correct you get a SUV ride handcuffed. You go in building goes down. That's all. Why do you need these sixteen damn departments to tell me that they have an objection? If I apply for something four and a half years they don't give a no objection. Nor do they tell me what are they objecting about. This is because systemically we are thinking people must be controlled. Individual people's capabilities intelligence competence must be liberated in this country. Not controlled by anybody. Our education system is like that. Our administrative system is like that. In many ways our political system is like that. It's all about controlling people. This is because we directly inherited a system from an occupying force and being lazy and dragging our feet. We did not do the necessary work, systemic work to see that systems are designed for a new nation which has to be vibrant and successful. Somewhere I see because for an occupying force they want everything at status quo. Nothing should change. It's easy to manage something which is not changing. It's very difficult to manage something which is dynamic. We're still in the same mode. We're in the same gear that we like status quo. Any change means people think something wrong is happening. This has to change if we have to become a true nation. So this hangover from the past is still ruin us. Still state governance political parties of course doing it. Just about anybody doing it but state governments are doing it. They're still calling for a band. You, Mahatma Gandhi wanted to close down the nation because somebody else was holding us. Now we want to close down our own nation. Where does this come from? What makes you decide that you want to close down your own nation? We wanted to close it down to make life difficult for them. What are we closing down for to make life difficult for ourselves? And it's happening. It's working pretty good. So this hangover, this dragging of feet of the past is still coming with us. We need to change these things if a new nation has to happen. Above all the people, it's the people which make the nation. If we look at what we have invested to produce great people, investment is almost micro part of the budget. Yes, there is also infrastructure development and many other things you have to do. I appreciate that. But you don't build a great nation because you have great roads. You build a great nation only when you produce great people. There is no other way. But our investment in the making of human beings is so minimal. What we invest in our education, health and nourishment is so minimal that we are busy producing underdeveloped humanity. If you see these are supposed to be the better states, these, you know, there are some Bimaru states. Down south are supposed to be the better states. In this better state, if you walk into the local village, you will see sixty percent of the male population, their skeletal system has not grown to full size. The condition of the woman is of course worse. They're all become like small like this. Everybody thinks village people are like this only. No, no, thirty-five, forty years ago, if you saw, village people were robust. Now they've all become small. Becoming small is body's way of survival. When the nourishment is not enough, it becomes small to somehow survive. You will see this second generation of Indians who go to United States or somewhere else. Every child, I see, every family I see, the second generation is at least four to six inches taller than their parents. Obviously nourishment, not because of temperate climate, it's because of nourishment. So we have not focused on developing human beings. You can't develop humanity. You can only develop individual human beings. These things about humanity, society, nation, these are all just words. The real thing is there is you and there is me, isn't it? This is the real thing. This is the only thing you can work upon. This is the only thing you can improve. This is the only thing which will produce something. This, this and this individual, there is no such thing as just one big thing, something happening, no. Never it happens like that. So our ability to make a nation, there are many things. First and foremost thing is people should have a strong sense of belonging, identity and pride about the nation. Nation is not a God-given thing, we made it up all right. Yes? It's just an idea. But if we don't own the idea, if we don't feel strongly for the idea, if we don't have passion and pride for the idea, this idea will fail. So I want you to understand, let me get more basic. You think you're married. I know they've told you it happened in heaven but these days I don't think you're believing that. Before marriage you thought maybe it's being done in heaven but after marriage you know it was not done in heaven. Marriage is just an idea. If you put your mind and heart into it, it becomes a wonderful reality, isn't it? If you don't put your mind and heart into it, it'll become a nasty reality. Yes or no? Yes or no? The same goes for the nation. If we put our hearts and minds into it, it becomes a wonderful reality. If we don't put this, it'll become a nasty reality. This is something we did not work upon. When 1947 that major or great event happened, that was the time when the citizens of this nation for whatever they had or did not have, they felt proud. That was the time we should have established a deep sense of pride and belonging about the nation. Today there is debates about whether we should keep this nation or not. People are debating, they think it's very intellectual. They don't understand the pains we have gone through in breaking nations. Still those, that generation which went through the partitions, still many of them are alive, you ask them what happened. The pain of it, the scars of it are still not gone, still both the nations are still bleeding, but now we're again talking about why don't we break it further down? Once again same things will happen. Those days they had only three not three rifles and kitchen knives. With that they killed six seven million people. I'm sorry, six hundred thousand people. Today our capacity to kill has gone up tremendously. Today if you try to split the country, what will happen? You're seeing Syria, you're seeing Iraq, it'll come. Right here if we talk about breaking the nation, it may all look like a fanciful idea to start with, but if you attempt it in practicality, this is what will happen. This is happening because we did not bring that strong sense of pride, that this is my nation and we must make this a great place to live. Today if you distribute or if western nations, if Donald Trump changes his mind and say all Indians welcome, no matter who you are, believe me sixty percent of Indians will swim across the oceans and go away. If you don't give them transport they will swim because if a population doesn't want to stay here, wants to go, but we are holding them back, that's called a prison, isn't it? See you are you have entered here, you're here, you can go when you want to go. So this is a nice place. Suppose you cannot leave, that's called a prison, isn't it? By choice you cannot leave, you have to escape. So somewhere we have not fixed many things, I'm not trying to discount many, many great things we have done as a nation. There are fantastic scientific achievements, there is great commerce building up in the last twenty-five, thirty years, many, many things have happened and all said and done, in spite of all the problems we may have, we have kept ourselves as a functioning nation. I when I went to Lebanon first, first time when I went there I was just surprised when I asked what's your address to somebody, they did not have an address, they have a cell phone number because streets are not marked, houses are not numbered, there is no sitting as a post office, only one post office in entire Lebanon in Beirut. You just have to go there and collect something because nobody can deliver anything to you because you don't have an address. I thought this way we are really great. If you drop a postcard in Puducherry to somewhere in Arunachal Pradesh, it may take three months, but it'll get there. Yes? So we still are a functioning nation, little dragging our feet. In the comity of nations, in the international arena we want to be somewhere means, above all, it is not even in competition with somebody. If we want this generation of people, not future generations, if this generation of people, their life must improve, we must walk rapidly. If we drag our feet, one more generation's life will go by in a very rudimentary way without human beings realizing the possibility of what they could be if they had the opportunity. As I said earlier, this is a nation which has been bound together by something invisible. Not language, not culture, not food, not religion. If you drive fifty kilometers, people speak differently, look different, dress differently, talk differently, everything is different. Every fifty-hundred kilometers you drive, it feels like another country altogether. But still we have been a nation for over ten thousand years because even people from outside the country recognized as a nation because we were a nation of seekers. See, if you believe one thing, I believe something else, you will become one group, I will become another group. But if both of us are seekers, not seeking the same way, you may be seeking in the sky, I may be seeking in the earth, it doesn't matter. But we are seekers. When you are a seeker, you will see that I do not know is the basis of your life. Ignorance is a fantastic thing. It's a very unifying thing. In the yogic culture, we always encourage people to identify with our ignorance what we do not know. If you identify with what you think you know, you will fight with somebody. If you identify with what you do not know, because what you know, it doesn't matter how much you know, it is very small. What we do not know is boundless, isn't it? Our ignorance is boundless. When you are identified with your ignorance, there is a certain sense of unity which nobody could figure why this is a nation. This is… some of the British leaders said, this is not even a nation. This is not a nation. If you just go from here to there, they are totally different people. How can it be one nation? They said, this is not even a nation. We made it into a nation. But this is not true. For thousands of years, people recognized this land as Bharat. It is not because the English came or the Mughals came, we became one nation. We were always one nation. Though we were ruled by many different people, what is it that brought us together is this profound sense of seeking, that seekers of truth, seekers of liberation. Here we are not believers. We have never been believers. We have always been seekers. In this seeking, we are all separate. But because each one of us are separate, there was nothing to divide us. If you gather ten people, I gather ten people, there is a problem. I am just by myself. You are by yourself, there is never a problem. In seeking, you are always alone. You may sit in a Sangha. This nation itself is a Sangha because everybody is a seeker. We never had a belief system. This is a godless nation. I want you to understand this clearly. This is the only country which is still conscious that we make the gods. Everywhere else people believe God made them. I know this is sensitive, but you like it, you don't like it. If human beings were not here on this planet, there would be no god, isn't it? Hello? If human beings were not there, there wouldn't be any temple, there wouldn't be any church, there wouldn't be any mosque, there wouldn't be any prayer. Is that so? Or you think animals would be praying? Some people think so. This happened. A very evangelical Christian bishop went into deep jungles of Africa trying to save souls. Then he was walking in a very remote place. Then he saw a soul, but this was a very fierce soul. This was a full-grown male lion. It was just looking at him with some interest. He had never seen a wild animal like this open right here. Then he trembled not by design, by default. His knees collapsed and he went into a kneeling position. Because anyway when you get into a kneeling position, there was a lifetime of habit of prayer. He closed his eyes and prayed because he couldn't bear the sight of seeing this. Then the lion came close up and he could smell the lion. And he opened his eyes. He was amazed. See, the lion was sitting there and praying. Then he screamed, Alleluia! And he started thanking the Lord. The lion opened his eyes and said, I'm just saying, Grace, what the hell are you doing? So, because we have no explanation for creation. We have no explanation for creation. Such a complex creation. Who made this? When you crawled out of your mother's womb and looked around, you see how an infant is looking at everything. Who? What, what, what, what, you know? Who made all this? What is all this? Who made all this? First thing is you look at your mother, maybe she made it. But while she delivered you, she can't deliver the planet. Then you look at your father, maybe he made it. Then you know he couldn't have made it. Then you look at every other adult and see, somebody could have made it. Nobody looks competent enough to make all this. Then you ask, then people say, there is a big man sitting up there. He does everything. Now, when it comes to up and down, is it true that you're sitting on a round planet? Hello? It's a question for all of you, sir. Is it true you're sitting on a round planet? Hello? You're sitting on a round planet and it is spinning all the time. If you look up, invariably you're looking up in the wrong direction, isn't it? If you're in Australia, how would you look up, I'm asking? Do you know in this cosmos, do you know which is up and which is down? Is it somewhere marked the side up? Has it been marked, I'm asking? We realized this long, long time ago in this culture. So we said, the greatest pursuit you can have in your life is to seek what is the nature of this existence. To seek this, how to seek this, shall I shoot off into the space? You will know nothing. You will know a few more things, but you will not know anything about the nature of the existence. Right now you're sitting here. Can you see me at least even if you're not listening? Can you see me? Hello? Use one hand and point out where am I? Where am I? Ah, you've got it wrong. Do you know I am a mystic? You're getting it all wrong. No, no, this light is falling upon me, reflecting, going through your lenses, inverted image in the retina, you know the whole story. So where do you see me right now? Within yourself. Where do you hear me right now? Within yourself. Where have you seen the whole world? Within yourself. Joy and misery happen within you. Pain and pleasure happen within you. Agony and ecstasy happen within you. God and devil happen within you. Have you ever experienced anything outside of you? Have you? Have you? Can you experience something outside of you right now? If you take your hand and touch the person who is sitting next to you, you think you're experiencing their hand. No. You're only experiencing the sensations in your hand. You cannot experience the other hand. I'm sorry if I'm taking away all the romance out of your life. But that is the reality. You can only experience what happens within you. You cannot experience anything outside of yourself. Only the way it happens within you. So because your entire experience is being generated from within you, we started investing in knowing this one. Because without knowing the fundamentals of how you experience everything, there is no way to look anywhere. Even if you look there, the sky is happening within you, isn't it? So better to turn inward. It is from this dimension that India became a spiritual gateway to the world, that people started turning inward. So everybody else who came from everywhere else for trade and occupation and whatever, in the last ten, fifteen thousand years, they found Indians to be a strange lot of people, even now. They are a strange lot of people because they can fight for the smallest thing. But when really very bad things happen to them, they can just sit like that. Nowhere else this is possible. Just look at this. But smallest things they can fight long time. But when things really go wrong, you will see nothing seems to disturb them, they're just fine. Simply because this culture of looking inward, all human experiences generated from within. At least what's happening from within you must happen the way you want it, isn't it? Are we in talking terms or no? At least what happens from within you, what happens in the cosmos if it doesn't happen your way, it doesn't matter. But at least what happens within you must happen your way, isn't it? If it happened your way, would you keep yourself very vibrant, healthy, joyful, wonderful? Would you do this or no? If this body and this mind happen just the way you want it, would you keep yourself healthy, joyful and in a fantastic way or would you... Hmm? What's your choice for yourself I'm asking? You must choose this right now, I'm going to bless you. If there is a choice between misery and joy, what is your choice? Good. What you want for your neighbor may be debatable. What you want for yourself is hundred percent clear, isn't it? We have jumped into conclusions in recent times. From a land of seeking, we are trying to believe like everybody else because somebody else believes and they manage to dominate us, so we think that is a better way and we try to believe. No, no, this is a land of seeking and ultimately it is this which will enhance a human being, seeking to enhance the very perception of who I am because without enhancing your perception, you cannot enhance your life in any way. You can only socially enhance yourself. You can make little more money than the next person and think I'm better, but this is only in comparison. You're enjoying what somebody doesn't have. I think that is sickness, that's not joy. Yes or no? You're enjoying something that somebody does not have. Is it sickness or joy? It's a sickness, isn't it? Most people are only enjoying what others don't have. They're not enjoying what they have. So if you have this much money in this society, if you're very rich, if you go to another society, you may feel terribly poor because there everybody seems to have much more than you. So what you know in comparison is only socially relevant, not existentially relevant. So this is not a land where we make up things. This is a land where we seek. Smallest aspects of life, we spend a lifetime seeking. This is the nature of science, isn't it? Hello? This is the nature of science as scientist keeps on looking at an invisible atom for his entire lifetime. What the hell is there in a single atom when the whole cosmos is there? But no, he spends his life looking at one single atom for his entire life. Out of that comes something significant, isn't it? People who just rolled their eyeballs all over the place didn't see anything. But one who paid necessary attention to something found something profound in smallest things, isn't it? In the tiniest things, atom is the tiniest thing we can think of right now. In the tiniest things, they found so many things simply because of the intensity of human attention. So this is what turning inward means. This is what spiritual process means, the intensity of involvement with this life because this is the only life you can know. You cannot know that life, you think you know. But you know only this life, if at all if you know, because everything happens within this, you also know that life, the way it happens within you, isn't it? You do not know that life, the way it is happening. You know that life, the way it is happening within you, because you think, oh, she is wonderful. You will have sweet emotions. If you think she is nasty, you will have nasty emotions. Yes or no? This is not because of the way she is or he is. This is simply because of the way I perceive, isn't it? Because the entire human experience is based on what is happening within you, we invest it within. And that's why we even call this nation by that name. We call this Bharat. Bharat means Bhava. Bhava means bhava. Bhava means sensation. Right now, you know that you're here only because your five sensory organs are functioning. You can see, you can hear, you can smell, you can taste and you can touch. Because of sensations, you know that you're here. If you fall asleep, you do not know whether you're here or not, simply because the sensory organs have closed down. So your entire experience of life is sensory, maybe not sensational, but it's sensory. So we call this Bhava. All experience of life is referred to as Bhava. Ra means Raga. It's the tune. Tune is not set by you. Creation has already set the tune. You have to listen. You only hear the automobiles right now. If you listen carefully, listen means not just with your ears, with every pore in your body, with every cell in your body, if you carefully listen, suddenly you know something about life that others do not know. See, for example, this is happening in the country, in the world, in many different ways. This is very starkly visible in sport, for example. Cricket. You have to hit a ball. Everybody hits a ball. There are many people who can hit a ball well, but there is only one tendulkar because he hit the ball, he hit the ball, he hit the ball and he hit the ball. He did nothing else but hit the ball. If there was no cricket team, people would have dismissed as a fool. Yes or no? As an adult, if he just went on spending his life just hitting a ball, your children are playing with the ball day. But he hit the ball so well, now we think he is Bharath Ratna. Countries gem has become. People are saying he is a cricketing god. All he did was hit the ball, isn't it? Nothing else. All his life hit the ball. Just the focus, a simple act of hitting the ball has become a phenomena, isn't it? It can keep a billion people up just hitting the ball. It is not about hitting the ball, it is about the intensity of involvement that is there. Suddenly, between one man and the other, there is a huge distance simply because of intensity of involvement. When I closed my eyes for months on end and sat, everybody wrote me off, you know. I went and sat in a small remote, a small farm in a remote place, closed my eyes and simply sat. Food didn't come very often, so I lost a lot of weight. I was very muscular and strong when I was a student. Then I closed my eyes and sat, food doesn't come by itself, you have to go behind it. So, I lost a lot of weight and simply sat there. Of course, my parents were super disappointed. My teachers, one by one they started coming and said, we thought you will do something, but you… you're gone, you finished. I said, I have never been this great in my life. I mean I've lost weight, maybe I don't have money, but I have never felt life was this fantastic as it is right now. So, what's fantastic about you? Because you're… your friends have become engineers, doctors, IIS officers, what's fantastic about you? I said, I don't care what they have become. I know something fantastic has happened within me. Will this… will the world value this or not? Who cares? In terms of life, I have found something super fantastic and that's all that matters. They thought I've lost my mind also. At one time they really thought I need psychiatric evaluation simply because you are not trying to be better than somebody because the entire world seems to be, but this is the ethos of this nation. We never looked at how somebody else is doing. There are beautiful stories like this. On this side of the river there's one village, on that side of the river another village. They can see the people, they can hear them talking, they see the cooking smoke, but they never went across the river and met those people, said they seem to be living well. We are fine here. Why should we go and see? They never went. There are many, many villages, thousands of villages in India which existed like this for thousand years without ever venturing. People will say, oh, these have… these people have no exploration sense. Well, all the explorers went into India, Africa, Asia, Australia. What have they done? Slaughter in the end. We never had such a need because this was a land of seeking. Seeking and knowing was the highest value. Conquering and establishing something was not the highest value. Establishing the human being was the biggest value, not establishing others' edifices and structures in the society. This people thought is a disadvantage, but at the same time we became the most vibrant economy on the planet. For many centuries, we were the only real economy. Everybody wanted to come to India, not because they were in love with you. I know French love, but they didn't come here because they're in love with you because this was the richest land. That is why everybody wanted to come here. One Vasco da Gama reached here, many drowned in the ocean, but still they wanted to come because this was the richest land on the planet. Like right now everybody wants to go to America because it's the richest nation on the planet. So with… without a sense of conquest, we became a very vibrant economy. This is a very unique achievement which we need to bring back to this world because today our mode of economy itself is a conquest and it's a destruction. I happened to be, you know, a few years ago, one of the years when I was at the economic forum, which was I think 2008, the world's economy had just tanked into a recession. So when I went there, about twelve hundred people, they control almost eighty percent of the world's economy. These are all multi-billionaires. Unless you're a billionaire, you don't even get there. Everybody was depressed. Only India was running a campaign called India Everywhere. When I landed in Jury, all the big hoardings, India Everywhere, all the buses saying India Everywhere, Indians were upbeat because Indians can be upbeat or nothing. We can just get upbeat because somebody's getting married. It's not that some success has come. Just like that, in the town somebody's getting married, so we're all full on. Somebody dies also, we'll beat the drum and we're full on. We're like that. So Indians only are upbeat because they're happy with the boards that have come up everywhere, India Everywhere, India Everywhere. But the rest of the economic leaders in the world are all little depressed. So they asked me to handle a session called recession and depression. I said economic recession is bad enough. You don't have to top it with mental depression. But anyway, the way we have structured the economy in the world is such, today the Living Earth statistics say if all the 7.3 billion people on the planet have to get what an average American citizen has, we need four-and-a-half planets. But we have only half a planet. One-half has been taken. So if everybody has to get that much of physical and material well-being, you need four-and-a-half planets. Of course, we are exploring where are those planets, but there's still millions of light years away. You want to go? You didn't go on the Mangalyaan yet. The next trip you can join, next September. But this is how we have structured economy. So I said, see if you fail, you will be depressed. If you succeed, we will be damned. Better you are depressed. Yes? If really economy succeeds on this planet as we are planning it right now, this is the end of the world. Really. It keeps going into recession to save us. This is like the proverbial story where a man is sitting at the wrong, on the wrong end of the branch and cutting it. When he succeeds, he falls. We have taken to this mode, but we operated this country in a different way. Our success would not make us fall. Our success would not be a detriment to somebody else. We have to bring this back. It's, we are part of the modern economic system now. It's not easy. But still individually, we can all cultivate this, that our success is not just about this and that and what people think about us, but how we are, how we are as a life, how I am within myself. This is my success, isn't it? For this, I don't have to look at somebody who is little worse than me or better than me, wherever I sit or stand, this feels fantastic. This is a successful life, isn't it? But we invested in too many belief systems in recent times. Or we believe like this, some people call themselves thieves, some people call themselves atheists. But both of them believe something that they do not know. They are not yet sincere enough to admit we don't know a damn thing. That's a reality. Yes or no? Hello? Is it okay? The fact is you don't know, isn't it? No, no, God is up there. I'm going, I'm appointment with him. If you have an appointment with him, you should not postpone, isn't it? You must go today. Yes or no? If you are not, if you have an appointment with God, can you postpone it? No, no, no. You must take it today. No, you're not willing to go. Simply talk going on. How do you arrive at these things? When you say an atheist or an atheist, it's just this one person have a positive belief about something that he does not know. Another person has a negative belief about something that he does not know. Both of them neither have the courage nor the commitment to seek what is the nature of my existence. What is the source of who I am? Where do I come from? Where do I go? What is it? What is this life about? If your life is worthwhile, it at least needs that much attention, isn't it? Yes or no? Yes. If maybe others are not paying attention to you, I'm sorry, but at least your attention towards the nature of your existence is needed. Oh, I'm not interested in all this spiritual stuff. This is not something that you think is esoteric. It is, it has a esoteric dimension, but it's like this, whatever gadget you buy, let's say you've got your cell phone obviously, should you read the instruction manual before using it or after three years when you're throwing it away? Hello? Because most people think spirituality is after your seventy and you're no good for anything. Is it not important you need, you read the user's manual in the very beginning? Isn't, isn't that the way to get to use the cell phone better? Do you agree with me that this... No, no, no, I'm not still asked the question. You don't have to say yes because LG is here. Do you agree with me that this human mechanism is the most sophisticated gadget on the planet? Do you agree with me? I'm asking have you read the user's manual? No. So you will somehow blunder through and you think something else from up, but you don't know what's up. Do you really know what's up? Planet is spinning, you know? Every moment it's changing its angle and degree. You definitely looking in the wrong direction, you're not looking up, at least you must go to North Pole and try. This happened. A eight-year-old boy in New York City came home in the afternoon, he had a very progressive mother, obviously she was single. He came home and asked mama, is God a man or a woman? She thought about this because all the politics, gender politics involved and just recently they tried to settle this equation with an election, but he doesn't look like a god. So after much thought, she said both. Then the boy went into deep thought. Then he came back and asked mama, is God black or white? Then she thought about all the racial politics that are happening in the nation. Even our news channels are discussing without knowing what they're talking. After much thinking, you know last election they tried to settle that issue, didn't work. So she said both. Then the boy went into very deep thought. Then he came back and asked mama, is God straight or gay? She thought about all the politics involved with that aspect of life. After much thought, she said both. Immediately the boy jumped in joy, I got it, I got it, it's Michael Jackson. I don't know how you arrived at yours. I'm on time, eight ten. No, eight ten was my time, I'm on time. If you have questions, please. It's one thing I've maintained. I've always never been late to a single event in this thirty-five years nor I have taken extra minutes. Because after all, life is just a certain amount of time, isn't it? Please if you have questions, any kind. The question that I have is we have a lot of people who know the past history that we have for the last ten thousand to fifteen thousand years, but very little of us especially those who follow the Vedic civilization have the time to read Bhagavad Gita, which is a journey to the inner life as well. And you said it very rightly is the system that we have been following. What is your suggestion to some of us to the journey to the inner life or inner thought? Know who I am and how do they go about it? Because many of us are lost. Who are you talking for? It's okay, I'm just okay. It's all right. Thank you. See now, we see if you live a very interesting life, somebody may write a book about you. That book is for somebody else to read it, not for you, isn't it? So when you're here alive, if you want to know the nature of this life, should you turn inward or read a book? What do you think? Because books are written by human beings. Well, people claim they were written by gods, maybe guided by somebody, but still written by human beings. After all, language and alphabet is written by human beings. Let's be straight about this. Maybe inspired, maybe guided, but still written by human beings. If you want, you hold a quiz right now. About the last one hour I spoke, what is it that I spoke about, you will see there will be three hundred different opinions. Yes, it is not by intent, it is just the way human mind is made. So whatever Krishna said, do you believe it's come to you just the same way? No. Everybody has done little. Above all, what Krishna said, you did not hear, right? Only Arjuna heard. Overheard by Sanjay, who is a king servant, he goes and tells the blind man who is still troubling us. I mean to say, this Dhritarashtra syndrome is still going on. My son is best, no matter what. So, it is from this source you have known. After Kurukshetra, Arjuna lived for another 36 years and ruled the country. Never once he spoke, what Krishna told him. Because he understood, he is not competent to interpret what Krishna said. Because he changed the fundamentals of who he is, whatever that was. Whatever that was that Krishna said, changed the fundamentals of who this man is experientially. So he thought he is not competent to share this with anybody. Never once is there anywhere a mention of Arjuna sitting down and giving a talk to anybody. Because he did not. This is a wise man. But the servant who overheard, he came and spoke. When I see a servant, I am not saying it in a derogatory way. What I am saying is, see if your wife sees something on the street and comes and tells you, she will of course had her opinion into it. You can't stop her from that. If your son comes and tells you something, he will add his little bit into it. But a king's servant is trained never to add his opinion into it. He is supposed to just report the fact. Let us assume that's what he did. It is like, see Krishna carefully cultivated an intimacy with Arjuna where they were the best of friends together. They spent long, long time together because probably he is seeing him as a potential. So he is spending so much time with him and held a very deep bond. In spite of that, he could not speak to him all his life. He had to get him to that extreme situation. The most extreme situation that human beings can go through is a war. Isn't? Life or death every moment. In that extreme situation, see it is not happening in in the pristine jungles of India, not happening in a quiet nice ashram. It is happening in the battlefield. Because Krishna saw unless you take him to the brink of life, he will not get it. Most people suddenly become very spiritual and philosophical when somebody around them suddenly dies. Have you noticed this? What is there? This life comes and goes. But rest of the time they're going around as immortals. So he took them to the place where it's death, death, death, hanging all over the place because it's only when you remind a human being of their mortality, do they come to their senses unfortunately? When they forget that they are mortal, they have so much psychological silly dramas going on in their head. When they realize they are mortal, suddenly they become life focused. So he took him to a war zone where now it is going to burst open and it's going to be slaughter. Not necessarily you're going to kill, you can also be killed. So at that moment he transforms his life somehow. It is like two lovers are sitting and talking. Maybe for somebody else who is looking at it looks like a quarrel and he goes and reports a quarrel. I'm saying that's how it is. With all due respect to all the great books in the world, I'm saying there may be many nuggets of wisdom and fantastic things in that. But I want you to give this much. This book was written by the creator himself. This cannot be wrong, isn't it? You just have to learn to read it or you literate is the question. You're only literate to read the other books, other people's books. This fundamental book of life which is right here, everything you want to know about life is here or no because this is life, isn't it? Is it not true? Everything that you need to know about life is here. But have we taken time to read it? Did somebody even inculcate that possibility that you could read it? No, bits and pieces. Somebody is studying bits and pieces of your body under the microscope and every two years they come up with a new solution. If you're coming up with a new solution every two years, obviously you never understood the problem. Yes or no? So if you... there's nothing wrong with the books, but today books have become a problem. Your book versus my book is killing so many people. Too many people have died on this planet because my book is superior to your book. It'll be good to keep the books down for some time, close your eyes. Just know that you're mortal. Today if all of us go to bed by tomorrow morning nearly a quarter million people won't wake up. Natural death in the world. Suppose you wake up tomorrow, you guarantee it? Have you come with a guarantee card? No guarantee card. So suppose you wake up, let's say just do this much, I'm telling you. This is a simple first step to your spiritual process. Tomorrow morning when you come awake, check you're really awake or you're dead. If you're awake, it needs at least a little celebration. You don't have to get up and dance. At least you can smile still on. Quarter million people died. They were like you and me. Poop, they went off. Isn't it? Wherever you look, they're not there. Here I am still alive. One big smile, will you? I'm talking management, you know? Then if quarter million people died, at least three to five million people lost somebody who's dear to them. You check those three, four, five people who matter to you, all of them are alive today. One more big smile. Hello? Will you or not? Alive. If suppose right now we put a gun to your head, will you think it's a relief? No. You'll be terrorized, isn't it? So that's how precious it is to be alive, isn't it so? That's how precious it is for you to be alive. So tomorrow morning, quarter million people died overnight, but you're still alive. Does it not at least deserve a big smile I'm asking you? And all the people who matter to you are all alive today. One more big smile and you looked at your watch. It's 830, still alive. One more big smile. Hello? I want you to understand this. This is not a damn watch ticking away. This is your life ticking away. Yes or no? As you sit here, you're one and a half hours closer to your grave. Yes or no? You think I went here, I went there, I went, did this, I did that. As far as your body is concerned, it is going straight to the grave. If you do yoga, we can slow it down. But we're going. Yes or no? So is it not, if you do not even, you're not even conscious of your aliveness, you're busy with your psychological drama, then how will you know anything about this life? You will know only the rubbish that other people have filled into your head. Pay attention to the life that you are. Life that you are is not the person that you are. The life, the fundamental life that you are, if you pay attention to this, everything that you want to know about life is right here, isn't it? If you are reading a book for inspiration, you want to read how Krishna did things to inspire yourself, please read. If you need inspiration, read it. But if you want to really walk the spiritual path, you have to turn inward, there's no other way. Why should a child die even before it is born in the mother's womb? If so, what is the purpose of life? I don't know from what personal context you're asking this question. There could be lot of emotion attached to this, but we have made too much of ourselves. In this cosmos, what I say right now may not sound nice to you, but it's the truth, you can go home and sleep on it. In this cosmos, this solar system is a speck. Yes or no? In that speck, this planet earth is a micro speck. In that micro speck, Puducherry is a super micro speck. In that you're a big man. This is a problem. This is a problem of perspectives. When you walked, maybe from here to the gate, if you walked 25 ants died, you never thought why this ant should die. But I want you to know we are much smaller than ants. When we look at a larger perspective, isn't it? We're microscopic beings. Yes or no? We're truly microscopic beings. That's how small we are. So in this you're talking about how one child was dead in the mother's womb. I'm wondering why so many children are born and they're alive. I'm not trying to be cruel to you. Right now the problem is this that we are too many, not we are too little. You must understand when it comes to the physical body, it's just a mechanism. You have too much emotion about it. So you're thinking on these lines. Many times when you're manufacturing a mechanism, things can go wrong. Things can go wrong. Somebody can come without a hand, somebody can come with a… you bought your Maruti car, does all of them come the same way? Sometimes one car comes with some defect. Similarly human manufacturing system, things go wrong because you have invested a huge emotion in it. These kind of mechanical words may seem insulting to you. But if you are unwell and you go to the doctor, he will open up this, he will open up that and look at you just like a machine, isn't it? Yes or no? When you're healthy and when you're well, you think you are something big. But you fell ill, you go there, first thing is they strip your clothes off, you thought you're something else. But first thing is they stripped you off, they opened up this, they opened up that, they put their hand here, there everywhere. Just like how your mechanic would explore your car, your doctor will explore your body, yes or no? Yes or no? Because it's just a mechanical thing. Biomechanicals, biomechanical but still mechanical. So mechanical things sometimes go wrong. Perfectly healthy, they'll just fault it. You want to find some mystical reason for it. There is no such thing. It is just a simple thing that certain things don't go well sometimes with a machine. But this machine is invested with another dimension. Because of that we are getting too overly emotional about the machine itself. Just now he mentioned Bhagavad Gita. I am not an expert on this, I have never studied Bhagavad Gita. But I believe what Krishna is saying is, this body is nothing, it will be born, it will die, what are you making such a big fuss about? Do what you have to do, it may die. So what? So you have a background, cultural background where these things have already been told. But don't listen to anything, just look at it and see, is this not a mechanism? Self-maintained, self-growing mechanism. But it is a mechanism. So in the process something goes wrong. It is not such a big tragedy, okay? It is not such a big tragedy. It is a psychological drama that we are making. If today you and me die it's not such a big tragedy because without us the entire creation will go on great. You don't think so? It may go on even better. It may. Yes, when we are here our life is valuable to us, but I want you to understand how you value your life. If you try to catch an ant, does it think I'm just an ant letting me die or does it do everything possible to protect his life? Does he or not? So obviously he also values his life as much as I value my life, isn't it? But we have unnecessarily made up human life into exaggerated sense of who we are. You saw a tsunami happen. These are… See, the tragedy is not a tsunami. Tsunami is a fantastic event. The tragedy is we are in the way, isn't it? See, suppose you had a gallery view, you could stand on this building and watch a hundred-foot wave coming. What a fantastic thing it is. Lifetime opportunity. Only problem is you're in the way, human beings are in the way. That's the only problem. So tragedy is not in the events. Tragedy is just that we are in the way. No, we must learn to ride this life, not be crushed by the process of life. This is what Bharata means. If you found the rhythm, thala, there is a natural tune. If you found the thala or the rhythm, then your life will become a dance. If you don't find the thala, then your life will become a horrible circus. Same moments, but circus. You see it's happening. Same moments, say you're married, husband, wife, two children, sending them to school. Somebody is doing it like a great joy. Another person is pulling their hair out, doing the same thing. Yes or no? Those who found the rhythm, for them, life has become a dance. Those who did not find the rhythm, for them, life has become a circus. Being born, be dying, natural process of life or no? Natural process of life or no? Yes, we don't want our children to die before us, definitely. This happened. Someone built a big house and they invited a yogi to bless the house. The yogi came, they treated him like a king. They welcomed him, they fed him well, they did everything. Then in the end, they fell at his feet and said, give us… give our family a blessing. So he raised his hands and said, first let your father die, then you die and then your children die. They were aghast. Said, wheat seated you like a king to get this kind. What kind of nonsense is this? But the yogi was shocked. What did I say wrong? Is it not good? First if your father dies, then you die and then your children die, is it not the natural order of life? If you die before your father, that is not good. If your children die before you, that is not good. But first your father must die, then you must die, then your children must die. It's a good thing. You want to know what happens after death. Some things you know best only by experience. Even the simplest things in life, the food that you eat, how many billion people on this planet have been married. But you still do not know what it is till you get married, isn't it? You know, you know, but you don't really know. Just like that, I can tell you a thousand things. If I tell you anything which is not yet in your experience, there are only two options for you. You either have to believe me or disbelieve me. This is in my, in my aesthetics, this is a vulgar thing to do that I force you to either believe me or disbelieve me. If you believe me, you will not get any closer to truth. It's just that you will have a fancy story to tell. You won't stop, you are not like Arjuna. If I tell you, this is what happens after death, you will tell everybody, you know what happens after death. This is what happens. You will have a nice story to tell. If you don't believe what I say, you will have a nasty story to tell, you know that Sadhguru, what foolish things he said to me. But whether you believe me or disbelieve me, will you know anything better than what you know right now? Will you? Essentially, I want you to understand you are not asking about post-death what happens. You're essentially asking, what is the nature of my existence? Beyond this body, what will happen to me? Beyond this body, do I exist or not? This is a question. But should you not know that now, beyond this body, do you exist or not right now? Is it not important to know? Is it not important to know? Isn't this the best time to know? This is the time, not later, not after. This is the time. Just takes a little investment of time and energy to turn inward, to know the nature of your life. If you know what is the nature of your life, you know with the body how it is, without the body how it is. Please, you must have a big voice. You can. Yes, but I actually have a very small question. I actually, since a long time, I have been hating the name India. It really doesn't have any sense. It doesn't have any feeling. It doesn't have any beauty. And you have got it so many times, Bharata. I would like you to tell me what, according to you, is the genius of India? What is India? Is it land? Is it people? Is it the diversity? Because just now in the beginning you said something so beautiful that all nations are created on sameness and ours is different. See, I think I've skipped through a few things, but see the name India is given to us. It's an English name. This is the technology of dominance. You must see this, when they imported slaves from Africa, the first thing that did in the port was to change their name. To call you cuckoo, tobo, no, no, pupo, something like this. If I call you Padmanaban, now you stand like this. I call you cuckoo, you know. First thing is to give a first thing is to give a meaningless name which has no… because a human being is from memory, from history, from culture, a name which has no cultural background, a name which has no significance, a name which does not instill pride in you. That kind of a name I will give you because this is the technology of dominance. In this country, maybe two, three, maybe five percent of the people speak English language, but the nation is named in English. It doesn't mean anything to someone who doesn't speak English language, India. Bharat has a power to it because there are two aspects to this. When we utter something, there is a sound. Meaning is just psychological. You making up the meaning, isn't it? Yes or no? Right now I utter something, it's just a sound. If you did not know the language, this is just a sound. Meaning is just made up in your mind. Meaning is secondary. The significance is in the sound. You utter Bharat and see what reverberation it has in you. You say India and see what reverberation it has in you. Say this, take this as your chant for two days. One day you just say India, India, India. Another day you say Bharat, Bharat, Bharat. Just see what it does to your system. Then you decide this was done with a very close observation, a deep understanding of the science of sound and form. When I say the science of sound and form, every sound has a form attached to it. If you feed any sound into an oscilloscope, it gives us a particular pattern which is a form. So every sound has a form in it. Every form has a sound in it. So what kind of sounds have the maximum impact on the human system, this we call them as mantras. Bharat is a mantra. Bharatam is even better, but up not they won't accept it, you have to chop it in the end. Bharat is powerful. It's a reverberation as a sound. Bhakti Prani Maanam Chadevarma Hadharma Panchal Prabhasita Devyaji Sarve Sarva Maha Sarve Sarva