 Going around the United States just got back today, nearly 9,500 miles on the motorcycle. And I thought I was living life. It would be so interesting to hear from you, you know, what you have made out of this lockdown. The most important thing right now is stay alive. And sure, everybody around you stays alive. But when you look at things like black lives matter, I just want to have your take on what is happening. What you need is an overwhelming sense of humanity. Have we locked it up inside or have we kept it active? Namaskaram KG, what knocking off all the wickets man? What are you doing? Spare the Chennai Super Kings, huh? Doing great man, congratulations for being the highest wicket taker. Congratulations, great job. Nice shades. I've been on a journey for last 36 days on a motorcycle. Just got here about three hours ago. I heard. I've been Chris Cross, I mean, going around the United States just got back today. And how was it? Oh, it's been fantastic. I mean, we've captured a lot of video. We're doing some work with the Native Americans and stuff, but it's been spectacular. Actually, Casey told me about that. What exactly is that though? Just if you don't mind giving me just you don't have to talk too long about it. This was titled as Exploring Spiritual America. So we connected with all the Native American nations. Actually, most people would not know that there are over 500 Native American nations of the past. Yes. Well, they have all become reservations today, but still they exist. They maintain a certain status and they have their own spiritual process, their culture. Each one of them has their own separate language. Like in Africa, each tribe has its own thing. I don't know to what extent it is preserved in Africa today, but these people are striving to preserve it. So my effort was one thing to bring the spiritual dimension of their life back into thing because one very, very relevant factor in their spirituality is, see these are people who did not live on the land. They lived as the land. They are the land. Like that they lived. For them, ecology is not a textbook. It lives in their hearts. So I thought bringing that forth for today's generation and tomorrow's generation, it's very important. Apart from that, for most people in the world, Native American person means they know Native American people only from the Wild West movies where they're always screaming on the horses and shooting at somebody. So that is not what they are. They were revolts societies. They had cities of their own. There were cities where there were up to 40,000 population at one time. I'm saying that is the level of organization and civilization that had happened. There was proper education. There was even higher education for men and women in some of the tribes. Each one of them has a different language. It's an elaborate process. The entire continent is full of such people and they've lived here for over 40,000 years. The recorded aspect, the archaeological things is up to 40,000 years definitely they were here. They could have been here even before that. So the idea is to make them visible in the world and the idea is to bring out the positive dimensions of their life because they've been I mean they've been relegated to another status where they're invisible. So as nations bringing them back, well, they're part of the United States Constitution and framework now but culturally, spiritually, they are nations by themselves. So that was the effort. So we thought we'll do it in 21 days on a motorcycle but because we met so many people on the way and covered nearly 9,500 miles on the motorcycle, it took 36 days. Just today morning we got back. And I thought I was living life. But yeah, you mentioned a great point. I mean reviving or bringing awareness to their culture, I think is probably a good thing. And also bringing awareness to other people that can recognize their culture. I mean they probably do recognize it but I mean, you're right. When I was young, I probably watching TV and I see them in those, you know, in those movies, the Wild Wild West movies. And I guess it's about learning about each other as human beings. So I think that's a great, great initiative. I think Africa also has a similar situation. I don't know to what extent it's preserved today. But I mean it had a similar situation where tribes had their own cultures, languages, everything. I've been in northern part of Africa to some extent traveling. I met those Masai people. They're just incredible people and we met the Zulus and stuff. I don't know if you come from some background like that, if you can tell us something. Of course, I'm from the vendor. I'm vendor myself but my family is very culturally mixed. I would say in South Africa, we speak our native languages. South Africa has 11 languages. And people in South Africa are quite rooted in their culture. But I mean, if you have any ideas and you want to come on board, and it's all about learning, right? Everyone can learn from each other. I mean, being at the IPL as well, I learned quite a few things about Hinduism. I've learned about Muslims because we are in an environment where we're just around different people who come from different backgrounds. So vendor tribe has a language of its own? Yes, it does. It's called vendor. So yeah, it's called vendor. So on the cricket field, you can curse people in your language. Nobody understands. We've now been in a bit of trouble for cursing people in English. Don't do that in your language, you must do. Exactly, exactly. But I'm so glad to really speak to you. I think it's quite cool. My friend and I during the lockdown, we were like, hey, let's do something. We're not playing any sport. There's no work. Let's get together. Let's get creative. So we started a podcast. And then I remember I asked you a question just before I was going to tour India. But then I had a tear in my grade one tear in my groin and my abductor. But now I'm all good. And so I was like, yeah, why don't we speak? To this man, because I think he's got wonderful perception. And it would be so interesting to hear from you. What you have made out of this lockdown. And things are crazy. People have lost jobs. People have lost family members. Economies are breaking down. People are in their homes. They can't get out. But now things are sort of returning to the normal way of how it used to be. But how do people cope with what is happening around them? You almost have to look a bit deeper. But actually how? What do you think? One thing is, yes, people are trying to get back to how it used to be. But please don't call it normal. Yeah, it's not normal. That's not really normal. If you look back how it used to be a hundred years ago, if you look back how it used to be 500 years ago, a thousand years ago, how it used to be in 2019 is definitely not normal. At least every creature on this planet does not think we are normal. They think we are the virus on this planet. Yes. You know, I'm saying if any other creature, any other species had done what human beings have done to this planet, I'm sure we would have found a chemical bomb, a nuclear bomb, all kinds of stuff. Maybe we would have poisoned them something and we would have made sure the entire species obliterated, right? But right now it's us who is doing this. This is a good time for us to sit back and look, what are we doing? What is really normal for us? What is normal for a human being? Is something I think the whole world needs to look at it. It's unfortunate over a million lives have been lost. Yes, it is true. Many, many people have lost their loud ones. More than anything, not only losing the loud ones, they've not been able to tend to them in the final stages. They've not even been able to attend funerals. Governments are burying or accumulating people, which is a terrible thing. And of course the economic loss, the loss of jobs, loss of, you know, closure of businesses, all this happening. You must understand I've also lost my job completely because in the last, you know, whatever we had planned for these two years, 2020 and 2021, I'm telling you, because our programs were all planned 18, 20 months ahead. Everything is just wiped out. Yeah. So we have paid, including South African trip, you know, I was supposed to come there in the month of June. All haul rents, advances being paid. Right now we are struggling to get back the money from the halls because two years, whatever we had planned, everything is gone. All right. So this is true for whole lot of people, but it's for us either when outside situations do not go the way we expected them to go. This is the time for human beings to dig deep inside and see in what way we can break our limitations and do something absolutely new, something innovative, something. This is the time to explore human genius. When everything is going good, you don't have to. You can just go like a standard person. All right, whatever you call is normal. I don't like to be normal because normal people don't do anything significant. Yes. So this is the time for everybody to dig into their genius. This is the time for everybody to turn inward and question what is my life about. What is this all about? Because we are just here for a brief amount of time. In this time it's very important, at least we are crystal clear, what is it that we want to do with this life? Where do we want to invest this life? This must be clear to every human being. Unfortunately, I would say 90% of the people have no clarity about where they want to invest their life. Simply by chance they've gotten into something. Because they have a qualification, they're doing something. Because they were in a place, they've gotten into something, you know? Outside influences are determining what we're doing. This is not the nature of the human being. It's human consciousness which must determine how the outside situation should be. But right now we are allowing outside situations to determine how the human consciousness should be. This is a tragic situation for humanity. Because it's only a human that we call as a being, all right? We don't call your African lions as lion beings. We don't call elephants as elephant beings. You can't call even a rhinoceros a being, all right? Yes. You call only a human a being because this one is supposed to know how to be. If you know how to be, what is the problem? If you really know how to be right now, what is the problem? If you know how to be, you will keep yourself in the best possible way right now. Whatever the situation, it doesn't matter what is the situation. Whatever the situation, you will keep yourself in the best way. Right now this virus has come compared to what generations of people have gone through. Let's say you look back on the last three generations. Let's say in the last hundred years, what people have gone through. They've gone through World War I, they've gone to World War II, they've gone to gone through Spanish influenza where millions of people died. I don't know what's the number, but a very big number died. And they didn't have medicines, they didn't have the facilities that we have. Nobody could speak to each other on social media. Look at this, you are in… what Dubai or Sarja, where are you? Dubai right now, yeah. You are in Dubai and I'm speaking to you here from Tennessee. Was this possible for your grandfather or my grandfather? Could they talk to each other? There's no way. So with all this technology, with all this facility, with everything that we have, our survival is better organized than ever before. We should not be complaining. This is a time to dig in and see what… how life evolves for us and we must see what best we can do. My only concern is people should not starve in this time. For that, we've been making efforts around our areas. We've been feeding people, sixteen to eighteen thousand people continuously. We've been cooking and feeding. Many other organizations, the governments, everybody is doing their bit. In today's world where food is so well organized, nobody should starve to death. That much we must take care. If nourishment is taken care of, you shouldn't be really cribbing about so many things. Other things are there. What we have today, suppose we lose, suppose we have a car and we lose it. We're crying about it. Well, your grandfather did not have a car and he was fine, isn't it, walking? Hello? So what is the big deal we're making about all this? It's not necessary to make such a misery out of life. Right now, most people have more time than they ever had for themselves, their family and everything. That also they're complaining. People are going into mental illness pandemic. Now people are predicting suicide pandemic. Well, if the virus doesn't get you, you'll get yourself, is it? What is the logic behind that? The most important thing right now is stay alive. And sure, everybody around you stays alive. See, right now in the India Yoga Center, we have nearly four thousand people, not a single infection. Here we have a little over a hundred people, not a single infection. We traveled sixteen of us, seventeen of us, we traveled across America where there's heavy infected areas, but not a single infection. So this is all it takes, a little responsible, conscious action. That's all it takes from the human being, because that is what is expected of a human being, that he is supposed to know how to be. If you know how to be, this virus is not a challenge. Yes. I think that's very interesting, you know. What I took from that is digging into your genius. And when you are thrown with adversity, you know, how you respond to it is very, actually is very similar to sport, because you do go through a lot of ups and a lot of downs. But when you are down as a sportsman, particularly, that's when you actually learn the most about your game. And when it's going well, as you've stated, that's when you don't really need to do anything different. So that's something that people can really take on board. That's really lovely. I like that phrase, dig into your genius. That's really phenomenal. And also counting your blessings, and not complaining about things that are kind of trivial. Having food, a basic need like food is the most important thing, and the best thing. I must tell you this, in southern India, even today, if you go into the rural India, maybe it is true in Africa also. In southern India, when somebody wants to greet you in the villages, I'm saying, they will ask you, what it means is, have you eaten? Oh, right. Because in their mind, if you've eaten, there can be no other problem. What other problem do you have? Have you eaten? That's the greeting. Nobody will ask you, how are you? Nobody will say good morning. The morning is already good. The only problem is you, isn't it? If you've eaten, you shouldn't have any problems. That's what I'm saying. If you're nourished, beyond that, rest is all extra. As a generation of people, we have more things than any generation ever had. We have more conveniences. We have more comforts. We have more technologies. We have more access to everything, like never before in the history of humanity, never, never anybody had these things, isn't it? But we are complaining, like never before. Global now, the complaints are not local anymore. Everything is global because they're on the Facebook. And Twitter, and Instagram, yeah, yeah, Instagram. Speaking about global stuff, and social media especially, I actually came across you on social media, I think a lot of people would have. When I was about 20, 21, I was searching on YouTube, looking at spiritual videos, and obviously you came up. That's how I got to know you, and I would watch videos here and there. So it's actually quite cool that I'm saying to you now. But when you look at things like Black Lives Matter, and in South Africa, there's also campaigns like Farmers' Lives Matter, and other people say, all lives matter. As a sportsman, I get asked that question a lot of times. And it doesn't have to, for me, it's not about cricket. It's not about politics. It's not about business. All lives matter. As you've stated, it's about human beings, right? But I just want to have your take on what is happening on that front in humanity, around the world, when it comes to life mattering. Yesterday evening, I was in Memphis, I was at the Martin Luther King Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial, where in that hotel, Lorraine, where he was shot. So when you go into this museum, it's not that it's new to us, we know this, it's hot-rending just seeing those images. Not just about his death, but what he was fighting for, what was happening in the country, it tears you apart. It may be half a century ago or a century ago, but when you look at it, just the images are under statistics are unbelievable. Twelve point five million African people were captured and brought as slaves. So when you look at these images, it's hot-rending. But if you invest in the wounds of the past, you will also become wounded. When you're wounded, when you're in pain, when you're in anger, when you're in resentment, you cannot think straight, you will get poisoned. And with this poison, nobody else dies but you. Resentment, anger, hatred are poisons that you drink, but you expect somebody else to die. Life doesn't work like that, it kills you in so many ways. So the thing is, whether we want to invest in our dead fathers, it's not that we don't respect them, it's not that we did not value them, it's not that we have no regard for them. But still we cannot invest in the dead, we have to invest in the living and the next generation and the unborn child, we must invest in him and her. That's what is important. So bitterness is not going to help us. But at the same time, you cannot forget what's happened. There is no way to forget that. Everybody should remember, from both ends everybody concerned must remember what we have done to other people as human beings. And for those it's happened also, they must remember not to grow in resentment and anger, but to ensure that such things don't happen to anybody else. Because I want you to understand, the people who did the most horrible things on this planet, when they were doing it, they thought they're doing the right thing. Yes. They thought they were doing the right thing, that is the worst part of humanity, that you can twist your intelligence whichever way you want and you can do the most horrendous things to another human being and think you're doing the right thing. So this is the problem with belief systems, with philosophies, with ideologies, because they will twist your mind to believe this is the right thing that you're doing. Because many religions in the world clearly say that it is perfectly okay to take a slave. Oh really? Yes, yes. The scriptures in the world say this, not one, many. So people have always been quoting that, this is all right, this is what is said in our book, this is what we do. But if you allowed your humanity to overflow, you knew that it's not good. If you just what you are doing to the other person, if you are giving him hundred lashes, if you just took one lash on your back, you would know this is not the thing to do, isn't it? If you put your child there and gave ten lashes, you would know this is not the thing to do. But instead of awakening your humanity, everybody is busy cooking up belief systems, philosophies, ideologies, how much bloodshed has happened, because we believe something, because we are adhered to an ideology or to a philosophy, how much has happened around the world? Some have been recorded. Most has not been recorded, believe me. Recording has happened only in the last hundred, hundred and fifty years to some extent. Before that people did all these things without any problems, and they did not feel bad about it because it was endorsed by their scripture or their philosophy or their ideology or whatever their morality they had. You don't need morality, you don't need ethics, you don't need anything. What you need is an overwhelming sense of humanity. That all of us have. Have we locked it up inside or have we kept it active? That's all the question is.