 The most intimate of the physicality in the existence is your body. And this body is just a piece of earth. You're just a small outcrop of this earth. Right now you're an outcrop who prances around. After sometime, you will become a small mound. You may believe many fancy things about yourself, but that's not the reality. Somehow this fundamental thing that we are just a small outcrop of the soil on which you're sitting right now is forgotten generally till we abide. If you want to live sensibly, you should have contact with the earth that you live on. Today because we have lost this contact in certain ways, it gets disorganized. This disorganization can lead to disease and weakness and ultimately destabilization of the system itself. I must tell you this experience. We had a yogic hospital in our yoga center in India. We called it yogic hospital. We did not want it to grow too much because we don't want to turn into a hospital full time. We are a spiritual center. So we're keeping it low key. Once when I came here, I spoke and a few doctors, American doctors who were interested, they traveled to India. They came and stayed there for three days and after three days, one of the volunteers came and told me all the medical doctors are up in arms. They want to leave. I said, what happened? They said it's best that you meet them. They're just off. Then I said, okay, and I went to meet them. Then I said, what's the problem? They said, you said there is a hospital. Where is a hospital? There is no hospital here. I said right now there are about sixty and odd patients. I said, where is it? Their idea for hospital is that there must be beds. You must treat sick well and everybody should be... If you treat them so well, they will not want to become healthy. Where are the patients? I said, they're all in the garden. I put them to work. We give them the treatment and therapies and medication, but rest of the time I put them to work. Whatever they can do, they must do. Above all, they must sit and work barefoot and bare hands in... with the soil. Just being in touch with the planet because you're just a drop of this planet. You're forgetting that. What you call as my body is just a piece of the planet, isn't it? If you lose connection with the source, will you not get disorganized? Fitness and well-being does not mean walking on a treadmill, having bulging muscles like that. No. To strengthen the integrative elements in our system is very important. So is there some way to do it? Yes, there are specific methods with which we can do. One simple way right now is work with the earth and water and plants and stay outdoors. That itself will do something. So fundamentally, if there is a certain... certain assurance of nourishment happening to the body in terms of food and there's clean air to breathe and being in touch with the earth can complete the health process altogether. So if you can't be in tune with that, if you're a very affluent and fashionable, you can have a mud bath. That's another way. So today you take vacations, go to the spa, have mud bath in a very expensive atmosphere. But every day if you stick your hands into the earth for at least for a few minutes a day, you would see the body would be in a much better condition because whenever it's in contact with the earth, the body reorganizes itself. The more you're in touch with it, it's better. You can't... all of you can't turn into farmers now and maybe you're living on the 12th floor and you can't be a gardener either. So at least being in touch with the earth, palms and soles are very sensitive to this. If your hands and your bare feet in contact with the earth, it'll make a difference. Or at least you do your... I don't recommend this, but if you're doing your afternoon sister, do it under a tree. With your spine in contact with the earth, things will happen very well. Or to be in a natural pool of water, which is in the earth, like a lake or a river or an ocean, we'll do tremendous things to the system. You know the grounding, you know? The electricity groundings we do, is it called grounding here? What do you call it? It's called earthing or grounding, you know? It's called earthing actually. So when you earth the electrical connections, one thing is to keep it wet. Because if it is wet, it gets conducted better. So this is why in all the Indian temples, why do you think people are making their bodies wet and lying down on the floor in prostration is just this, not just earthing, that special earth where which is energized earth around. So you want the entire body to be in touch with the thing. So men go bare-bodied, at least their upper body is bare, women go with wet clothes so that that contact is there. This contact with nature, whether it's earth or air or water is most important. If that is not there, the body will slowly lose its integrity. It'll lose its stability. It loses many abilities that it is capable of. It may still survive, it may not die tomorrow morning, but it loses its variety of capabilities that it has come with. The many possibilities, the array of possibilities that human system carries is lost as you lose contact with the natural element. Especially before you go for dinner or for lunch, especially before that, at least for half an hour, walk without footwear, not on this granite, either in the grass or in the mud outside. You will see body being in touch with the earth, when you eat the food that you eat, the way it integrates it is very different. Digestion will anyway happen, but how much you can integrate into the system depends on how much you're in tune with the earth. So even half an hour, if you walk without shoes or footwear and the body remains in touch with the earth, you will see the elements will function with little more integrity than the way it is right now. Walking and playing barefoot is really coming into vogue. The yogic systems have always recommended this and now science is getting there too. Especially for children, not only does this give them better balance, it also helps develop their cerebral capabilities. The nerves of the feet are sensitive and as they come in contact with the ground, the child develops a better understanding of their environment and also experiences better awareness of the body. Walking barefoot has been linked to better agility, stronger leg muscles and lower risk of injury. Being in touch with the earth has many other aspects to it. In the ashram, I always told people, no matter what work you're doing, at least for one hour a day, you must stick your fingers into the earth. You do something with the garden somewhere, your hands should get muddy. This will build a natural physical memory in you, a bodily memory in you that you are mortal. Every day, if you're sticking your hands into the earth, you will constantly, your body will know that it's not permanent because a body has a memory of its own. It's body's memory far more significant than the mental memory. Right now, the memory that your body carries is ruling you far more than the memories of your mind. Physiologically, on the cellular level, on the elemental level, you're constantly being reminded that you're mortal if you're close to the earth. See, the reminder of your mortality is the most key element in your spiritual process. Why would you long to know something beyond the body? Only because you know it will end one day, isn't it? Suppose this body was immortal, who the hell is going to sit and meditate? Who the hell wants to know anything beyond this? If this was immortal by itself, isn't it? Because somewhere, even if you're not consciously aware, somewhere deep down, you know your expiry date is on. The expiry date is on, you're trying to stretch it a bit, but you know you have an expiry date. It is because of that the longing to know, isn't it? So the fundamentals of spiritual process is your mortality. If you're reminded of your mortality, naturally you will want to know. There are various practices in India as to how to connect to the earth experientially, many, many practices. Just sitting down cross-legged on the floor, the body in some way experientially is reminded. There is a reminder for the body that this is just this. The moment it is in touch with the earth, it knows it is this. Those of you who have very unstable bodies, that is you tend to fall sick very easily and you know constantly, those kind of things, if you just get off your cot and sleep on the floor, you will see it will make a big difference. Just that much. Just maybe eighteen inches away you are, just get eighteen inches closer. You will see it will make a big difference in terms of reorganizing the system. I would say eighty percent of your health depends on this, how much you're in tune with the earth. Eighty percent. Eighty percent of your chronic ailments can just vanish simply because you kind of found a little rapport with the earth on which you're walking or sitting right now. One simple practice that all of you can start is the Bhuta Shuddhi, if you have the time and the necessary focus to do it. Bhuta Shuddhi means, you know, Bhuta means Panchabhutas or the five elements. Shuddhi means to cleanse that. Whether it is the physical body or the larger body of the creation itself, essential is made of five elements of earth, water, fire, air, space. What you call as myself is just a message of these five elements. If you know how to organize these five elements properly, if you know how to keep these five elements within yourself, then there is nothing more to life in terms of health, well-being, perception, knowing, everything, enlightenment. Everything is handled if only you know how to keep these five elements properly. These elemental play happens in a different way when it's in touch with the earth. Every time I hear this, particularly when I'm in United States, I still can't come to terms with it. People calling earth as dirt, maybe it's just another word, but in our mind dirt means what? What is dirt for you? Huh? Trash, isn't it? Dirt is trash, isn't it? Yes or no? Even in America dirt is trash? No? What is it? Something that you don't want. Yes. It's trash. That's what is trash, something that you don't want. But soil, here we call it thai man, mother earth. Why is it we are not reverential to all those things which make our life, sustain our life, moment to moment? You just treat them differently. Suddenly they behave differently within you. If you did not drink water for three days, even if God comes you'll only ask for water. If you hold your nose for three minutes, you don't want God, you want a breath. Fresh air, isn't it? One simple thing that everybody can do is the air that they breathe, the water that they drink, the food that they eat and the earth that they walk upon and the space which holds us. Five times a day let's say if you are too preoccupied, at least three times a day, consciously just bring a certain sense of reverence. This is a very common thing which are being told, matru prema, pitru prema, this one, that one. Prithvi prema. That is love for the planet on which you're walking because that's not different from you.