 Auei mi MPI. At the World Bank, we have many colleagues who have followed you closely. This was first for me in interviewing a mystic and having a conversation with a mystic, so I am here to learn and understand more about your philosophy and how your work is helping to achieve a better world. betu world. It's great to see so many colleagues here today. In the World Bank, of course, our mission is to help reduce or eliminate poverty in the world and to improve the living standards of the people of the world. And we live in a planet where there is still much to do and I know your work is also working to that goal as well. I want today to start with where we converge, where we see the world in the same way. And as I've read and listened to your talking and thanks to the internet I was able to watch you on YouTube, you tell us that humanity has the necessary capability and resources to address every problem or almost every problem in the planet. But the only missing element is our willingness and I think that you work to kindle this willingness within the millions of people who follow you and they work to extend their hearts, their heads and their minds to the betterment of humanity. Here at the World Bank, and I know there are colleagues here from the IMF as well, we also work to this goal. And I think by definition because we work in development, we're all optimists. So I'd like to start by asking how we can work to make the world a better place. You're in a room full of economists who look at poverty through the lens of numbers, statistics. I always say we can only make a decision if we have a spreadsheet. But can you tell us how you define poverty and what you mean by raising human consciousness and how this can contribute to ending world poverty? Good morning to everyone. I think it's best that we, this much abused word consciousness, we better define that in some sense. So when we look at our experience of life, when we look at individual experience, everything that human beings experience here is coming from what they see, what they hear, what they smell, taste and touch. Or in other words, through the five sense organs. Five sense organs in the very nature of things can perceive only that which is physical. You can see only that which is physical, that which is not physical, you cannot see. Similarly to touch, smell, hear, everything has to be physical. So what is the basis of physicality? Physicality means a defined boundary. If there is no boundary, there is no possibility of physicality. We can call this a physical body because there's a defined boundary. If there was no definition to this, this would not be physical. So everything physical has to have a defined boundary. Entire human experience right now is coming from this defined boundary. Whatever structures you try to create, whatever good intentions you have, once again it ends up as one, one more boundary, one more division, one more segment in the world, one more caste or creed in its own way. Every one of these things, which have become terrible divisions in humanity, I believe they all started with good intention. I don't think they started with a negative intention. But how many divisions have happened? How we have exploited each other? Talking about poverty, do we have the resource? Well, people are… I mean, if you look at the numbers, you said without a spreadsheet you can't make decisions. If you look at the spreadsheet of the differentiation between what is poor, what is rich in this world, it's obscene to say the least. I'm saying… people are saying the amount of money spent on pet food in Europe and America is enough to take care of basic health care for the entire humanity. I mean, it's obscene to say the least. So this has happened not with bad intention. This has all happened with good intention. But because human experience is limited to their physical nature, they're trying to think beyond that. But you cannot think beyond your experience. You can think and again you'll end up in another cubicle, another cubicle. So we're talking about consciousness. When we say consciousness, we are talking about a dimension beyond physical nature. When I say dimension beyond physical nature, what is physical to us is all accumulated. This body is an accumulation of the food that we've eaten. What we call as the mind, the content of the mind is something that we accumulated by our impressions and experiences. What you accumulate can only be limited. You cannot accumulate unlimited. You cannot accumulate that which is boundless. So now we're talking about solutions in a boundless way. When we talk about solving problems seamlessly without thinking who is you and who is me, we need an inner experience which is beyond our physical nature. Only then we will identify beyond this because human mind functions from the identities we have taken. Once we identify ourselves as something, knowingly unknowingly, we are always trying to protect that identity. So to bring a human being to that dimension of experience that he or she can function beyond identifications is what needs to happen. So when we say well-being, from the imperial times, well-being meant taking whatever is there everywhere and bringing it to one place and creating well-beings in certain people. We kind of evolved out of that. Now we are saying well-being means this continent or that continent. Some people you're a world bank, you're thinking of the entire world, but we're still living out a whole lot of things which are part of our well-being. The well-being of every creature on this planet, the well-being of every tree and plant, the well-being of every microorganism is connected with our well-being. This is not ecological awareness. This is consciousness. If your experience of life was beyond the limitations of your physicality, you would just know this by experience. When you know this by experience, you don't have to generate intention. You will just do the right thing. We have to bring the world to that place. That's a long way, but at least we have to bring the leadership in the world to that place. When I say leadership, it is only a question of maybe 5000 people on the planet. You know, when I was at the economic forum, they asked me, said, Guru, if there's one thing we can do for you, which will change the world, what is it? I said, I will name twenty-five people. You give them to me for five days. You will see in three years, you will see a significant change on the planet. They asked who are these people. I named the twenty-five heads of states of the major nations on the planet. Give them to me for five days. You will see everything will change because there is money, there is resource, there is technology. Only the intent is missing, but the intent is missing not because of bad intentions, not because of some evil in their minds. Intent is missing because there is no larger experience within themselves. Thank you. I guess the question I have is that, you know, you work and live in South Asia and I work in South Asia and this is a region where many groups are left behind. Indians are feeling very insulted. You are not referring to it as South India. But that's another conversation about the continent. But my question is that, you know, we firmly believe that you can't have development unless development actually reaches everybody. That it is development for women and girls. It's development for people of tribes and ethnic groups that are often left behind or marginalised. It's for people of all backgrounds regardless of their religion, their caste, their ethnicity and so on. So, and this is a constant challenge in development is how we actually ensure that development reaches all of these groups who have been shut out of economic and social opportunity and who are unable to seize opportunity on the same terms. What's your thinking on this challenge? See, by law everybody is equal, at least in India. No, there are countries where by law you're not equal, especially genders are not equal. In India, by law you're equal, but by practice it's still not. These are a thousand-year-old problems. They don't get solved overnight. A sustained push has to happen. The problem is of many levels. One thing is the democratic process itself addresses people as religious groups, caste groups, because that is the way to get a bunch of oats. So, every election, if you've forgotten your caste or religion, when the election comes they're going to remind you who you are. That's a reality in which you live. In case you forgot what is your caste and religion, when the election comes they're clearly reminding you because people have understood the technology of manipulating democracy, the science of how to manipulate democracy. People have understood this number game, how to add up the numbers. It is no more about a big pitch for to where to take the nation. Everybody's understood the science of winning an election, which I think is very dangerous and which I think is one of the most divisive forces that are happening in in India at least. Otherwise, generally on a day-to-day basis most people don't know what is their caste. Only when they want to get married they check a little bit. Otherwise, generally they don't know what is their caste. It's not... You're not reminded of that on a daily basis, but when the election comes you won't be spared. You will be reminded. So some fundamentals have to change though by law it is all equal. In practice there is a difficulty. Definitely we've moved a long way. We've come a long way in the last 25 years. A big change has happened. Those divisions are much less. There are more girls in school today than ever before. Probably there are more girls in school than boys in most of the villages. It is true where we are running schools in southern India. Generally 60% of the students are girls, 40% are boys because boys like to do other things than studying. They don't always come to the school but the girls come straight to the school. So there is a certain natural studiousness about them or they have figured it out unless they get educated. They're just going to be rubbish around here and there. They clearly understand that boys still don't get it and probably for them somehow they manage something around. So how to level this is once again is a question of the consciousness of the leadership. When I say leadership it's not just a question of prime minister, chief minister like this. A leadership, the tiers of leadership which are down. They're not in the same mindset. The prime minister may be having a certain thought. The next level of the chief minister's thought is totally different. Down the line to the bottom most leadership which is panchaiti is another world by itself. So this this connect is there. I think right now a serious effort is being made to get everybody on the same pitch with the prime minister's vision for the country. A pitch is being made but being a democracy election always around the corner everybody misunderstands this is a political intent. You don't know whether to make out it make out of it as a genuine intent or a political intent to win the next election. I feel in a country like India this may create lots of trouble for me but let me say it in a country like India I think we must skip one election that is not every five years every ten years give them ten years to create something because in a nation like India with the kind of diversity and complexities we have I think any political leader to have any fair shot at creating something he needs at least eight to ten years run but the fear is always if somebody becomes corrupt somebody becomes a despot then you end up for ten years what to do with him so these problems are there but these are intrinsic problems to a democratic society but all said and done in terms of eliminating caste greed religious bias gender bias the movement is tremendous what has happened in the last five years itself is quite tremendous on the ground is a huge change but still if you don't change rapidly enough one generation's life may pass that is the concern In your work you work with leaders and you said if you had the opportunity to take 25 leaders we would probably say 187 leaders I think we have something like that in our membership but it would be helpful to me and others I think to understand when you work with leaders in your work what are you trying to do and how do you do it in your work with them so generally I find and though there is a lot of opinion all over the place when you meet most of the leaders they are well-intentioned but they are caught up in a mire of situations democracy is an obligatory game to climb up there by the time you reach to the top place you are obligated to so many people when you sit there if you don't take care of all these people they all think you betrayed them if you take care of them other people think you corrupt so this is a very funny game that's why I said if he has a long enough term he or she has a long enough term maybe they could maybe if they are well-intentioned they can go without these obligations but my work with people has been I've kept little focus on politicians because their term is four to five years you see in this country I see election is on for it's a four-year term two years election campaign is going on see it's a four-year term for the presidency two years election campaign is going on no some time limit must be put three months is enough let them prove themselves in three months why does it take two years every day you watch the news only election is happening on the news channel in India I thought it's bad it starts six months ahead I'm pitching not more than three months there must be any kind of election work let them focus on administration we elected them to administer not to fight one more election and one more election forever okay so I think somewhere some limits have to be put because we have celebrated I think moving from dictatorship and monarchies we kind of a little too thrilled with democracy we need to understand every system has its flaws and democracy has too many loopholes only thing is at least the mistakes are ours you know it's not somebody else's mistakes we suffer it's our mistakes that we suffer that is the only satisfaction we have but yes we have decided this is the best way to run the world that's fine but I think some limits have to be put you can't run an election for two years election campaign cannot go on for two years there must be a limit four months three months is enough this is costing enormously this is costing enormously for the lives of common people and everybody the entire country is in an election mode for two years nobody is focusing on what they require to do so the leadership as political leadership have generally kept away for variety of reasons except those we find are visionary in nature my work has been largely with business leaders and bureaucratic leaders because these are people who are there for a solid minimum 25 to 30 years these are the people who can make a difference so about eight years ago we made a list of 2000 people in India who are business leaders and bureaucratic leaders who will definitely be there for another 25 years in the country doing things that they're doing they may not be in the news they may not be up there these are not photo op leaders these are real leaders who are doing work on the ground so we made a list of these people and said if we can bring about at least 10% change of heart in them they can change everything in the country so we aimed in four years time we will get this 2000 people but now it's eight years or almost nine years now we have touched about 46% of these leadership they are quietly making a change for sure they are everywhere today in the administration in the bureaucracy in the business field all of them making significant difference in the work that they were how they were working before and how they were working today with what intention my main work has been to shift people from personal ambition to a larger vision personal ambition is a way of tweaking your desire you know people keep tweaking it every every year it gets little more and little more and little more and this is what is destroying the world why are you going in installments why don't you have a desire you know it's not by reducing desire the world will get better you just have to increase your desire why are you stingy with your desire that I have to live well my family have to live well why don't you make a real greedy desire I want everybody in the world to live the way I am so I'm trying to increase their desire from being personal ambition to a larger vision that we want to do this so especially for business leaders see whether you're manufacturing a safety pin or a computer or a spacecraft it doesn't matter fundamental business is human well-being somewhere in these spreadsheets I'm sorry I'm not referring to your spreadsheets this uh you know what you call them the balance sheets of three months balance sheets these quarterly balance sheets have become paramount goals you've forgotten why we're looking at numbers is just to give us a guidance how we're going forward or backward it is not an ultimate God given thing to anybody but now this quarterly balance sheets have become the ultimate goals so generally my work is to move people from this kind of short term things to a larger vision that be really greedy if you if you manufacture safety pin what should be your thing all the seven billion people must use my safety pin the best safety pin okay similarly with everything else I'm saying instead of trying to curtail human aspiration which is never going to work it's never going to work you can try as hard as you want you can teach whatever philosophies you want to people they will all not today be content with what you have tomorrow morning they're on with their own stuff so it is better to make an all-inclusive aspiration rather than trying to curtail aspiration curtailing aspirations have never worked and one of the biggest things that I'm pitching with the political leaders in India and elsewhere also is we need to curtail human population that's our only problem nobody wants to address this we took charge of certain things there used to be epidemics there used to be serious infectious diseases and there used to be a certain number of children dying before they reach four years of age all these things we took charge once we take life into our hands we must understand that birth is also our business once you postpone death you also must postpone birth isn't it? the beginning of 20th century we were 1.6 billion people today we are nearly 7.2 or 7.3 billion people in India in 1947 when we got our independence we were just 330 million people today we are 1.2 billion people so four times in 67 years I think it's irresponsible reproduction yes people are taking pride we are the youngest nation we are youngest nation so I asked a minister was talking about how we are the youngest nation I said what happened to the old people he said what no no we are the youngest nation I said fine what happened to the old people nobody got old that's not a great thing to gloat about in 1947 the life expectancy of an average Indian was 28 years today it's 64 it's a great thing people are living longer but that's becoming our curse because we postpone death we must also postpone birth we need to understand this otherwise whatever you do it's not enough whatever you do is not enough just going on doing more economic development more economic development is not a solution it's going to lead to a disaster see economic development is fine but there is only that much world people are talking about wealth generation there is no wealth generation you can only what take something that is here and put it there what is there you can put it here it's the same planet today the living earth statistics tell us that if the entire world has to have what an average American citizen has if the seven billion people should have this kind of comforts and convenience and lifestyles we need four and a half planets but we have only half a planet left in India for example with I'm addressing this and we are starting moments to save some rivers now a big moment is happening and fortunately the government is responding very positively year on year an average of eight percent drop is happening in the river waters in India so this is approximately sixteen to eighteen years most rivers will be gone they will be just seasonal right now the major rivers people who come from south India they've been fighting with this river between two states like Cauvery touches the ocean only five months in a year seven months it doesn't reach the ocean this is true with most of the major rivers it is not reaching the ocean it's getting all used up right here so you do more development more dance more people more food but there is no more there is only this much but we are nice but we are too many we don't have to kill the people who are here but we can postpone the birth which has to be done and it's not a god given duty for everybody to reproduce there is if humanity is human race is in danger everybody must reproduce but right now there is no such danger every other creature is in danger we should tell the tigers to reproduce elephants to reproduce humans slow down there are many young people watching this I'm sure that's a message that probably has more resonance for them than for me but more seriously we were talking earlier before we came down here about the search that many young people have for identity and meaning in the world and the choices that they make what message do you have for young people and the role that they can play in making the world a better place Siobhan you say youth you're talking about humanity in the making that means you're not fully conceited yet that means you're not set you're still a open possibility so that's a tremendous face of life youth means it comes with enormous energy those of you who are young you don't understand what I'm talking right now because youth means it comes with enormous energy slowly it doesn't matter how well you keep yourself I think I kept myself very well but still you don't have the same energy well I'm doing better than most youth but but still you don't have the same energy after some time so this moment of enormous energy is the time when we can make tremendous things happen but unfortunately your intelligence may get hijacked by the hormones that you can't think straight it just gets entangled into this and that so this energy largely goes waste in anger in compulsions of various kind this and that if if only youth invest a little bit in stabilizing themselves if you bring stability to your way of being this energy can become a tremendous force this energy is a real solution to the world for everything for every problem that you have the energy that the youth carries if it had stability it would become a solution for every problem that we have on the planet because that human energy is needed to make things happen so as a part of this we are going into schools this yoga day as I was telling you 18,632 schools across India we are bringing a simple yogic practice that we are training teachers so that they will sustain it for the children to bring this balance I'll tell you how this balance is when we opened our Isha homeschool of you know a decade ago one day I went in the morning to the assembly where all the tiny tots were sitting all seven-year-olds are sitting they're all like this, like this then I said why these kids have become like this they're like broken tops so I just said twelve minutes a day we just brought some simple sounds seven notes of the Indian classical music every day twelve minutes they do after two months I go we're all sitting like this that's all it takes I'm saying the simple methodology of what brings stability into a human being unfortunately is missing in our education systems our education system as it is I mean to the first question that you asked also our education system is all about how to exploit everything in the universe our idea of science is just this how to use everything in the world including human beings yes how to use an invisible atom how to use an invisible microbe how to get protein out of bacteria why I mean we are looking at the world as a killing field we are looking at the world as a way to squeeze it this is fundamentally because we're in pursuit of happiness this is the biggest problem if you pursue if you pursue happiness you will endlessly run without ever finding it because it's not out there every human experience joy or misery both are generated from within us if you know how to manage this if your mind and your body took instructions from you keeping this healthy and joyful would be a natural consequence now your body is compulsive your mind is in a compulsive mode and now you're in pursuit of happiness this is a mad humanity just ravaging through the world the more empowered humanity becomes the more damage they will cause let us admit this much it's the educated on the planet who caused the maximum damage to this planet isn't it so the uneducated don't cause so much damage so our education has not brought sense to us our education has not brought life sense to us it has only given us empowerment as to how to squeeze life out of every damn thing in the universe so our mode of education has to change fundamentally how to live how to manage this one is not there we know how to manage the entire universe but we don't know how to manage this what is it that human beings are struggling with their thought and their emotion entire life they spend an entire lifetime still not knowing how to manage their own thought and their own emotion something as simple as let's say anger from the caveman till now you're getting angry the same way isn't it there's no high-tech way to get angry maybe today if you get angry you don't pick up a stick you pick up a nuclear weapon but the same anger nothing has changed I'm saying such a simple emotion we can't handle it why because we have not the education systems have not given a moment to the quality of what this is we're trying to teach discipline we're trying to teach morality people know how to subvert those things only if you create an inclusive experience then there is no subversion of that because it is life enhancing in every way every moment whatever every human being is trying is just this in some way to expand their experience of life somebody may think money will do it somebody may think wealth will do it somebody may think knowledge will do it or love will do it basically what you're thinking is to be little larger than who you are right now but if that happens you want to be little larger than that if that happens little larger than that so you're going in installments towards what fundamentally you want to become boundless but you're approaching boundlessness or infinite nature in installments infinity in installments is a hopeless case it's a hopeless case even if you become the king or queen of this planet it's not going to stop you look at the stars already we are isn't it if you conquer five galaxies you think you will stop let's understand the fundamental nature of a human being we don't know how to manage our minds but we want to manage thousand people obviously you will go bonkers so fundamentally if your mind took instructions from you would you keep yourself blissful or miserable it's a question hello blissful isn't it so the fundamental thing is just this nobody ever thought you from your kindergarten to your phd how to manage this so this is what needs to happen to humanity they must know how to keep their body how to keep their mind how to manage this if you know how to keep this joyful when you're joyful let me ask you this question if i meet you when you're very joyful i'm sure you're a wonderful human being yes or no but if i happen to meet you when you're angry when you're frustrated when you're miserable about something you're depressed you could be nasty yes or no this is true with every human being so we have not taken care of the most fundamental thing how a human being should be within himself or herself we are leaving it to ethics morality and fixing the world you fix the world as much as you want if you fix it anymore there'll be no planet left we've fixed it that far already but still we are in pursuit of happiness from pursuit of happiness to expression of joy if you do not shift this is really no solution for anything youth if this is the time to do it the first thing before you step out into the world is that this must be in a wonderful state if this steps out in a wonderful state it will do only wonderful things when you are feeling wonderful are you not wonderful to everything around you that's the only insurance you have i'm sure we have time for a few questions i think we have a question in the front row here i'm just wondering if we gave you the 25 leaders or the 187 leaders to lock up for five days when they came out of that room what are the three things that we would notice about them that would be different you would notice there would be much more joyful you can always trust a joyful person believe me yes because when you're joyful you will not think of doing anything nasty that's true with all of you isn't it that's true with every human being but when you're feeling nasty there's every possibility you will find good reason to do something nasty yes you will find a very good reason to do something nasty and to be balanced to be joyful if these two things happen the third thing will be a consequence that you will use your body and your mind to the best there is substantial medical and scientific evidence to show that if you're in a pleasant state of experience then your intelligence and your physiology functions at its best there is lots of medical evidence today to show that for 24 hours which has not happened to most human beings for 24 hours if you spend without a moment of anxiety or agitation or irritation or stress or anything simply blissed out for 24 hours if you stay like this they say your intellectual capacity would increase almost 100% in 24 hours time so we could do with little more sense on the planet for sure and we could do with little more joy Annette cannot deliver the 187 litres but Annette you could deliver Jim Kim and his management team so that's my proposal for you no she's setting the bar she's setting the bar to an impossible level I'm saying if this 25 people come others will simply follow thank you so much for coming but you are saying if you want if you leave your life based on what accumulate in the past so you can't go beyond right so my question is how can you go beyond so let's understand what is beyond right now right now your entire experience of life is being gathered through the five senses of seeing hearing smelling tasting touching everything that you know all judgements that you make is coming from the information that you've gathered through five senses these five senses gather information in a very fragmented way in the sense if you see this part of my hand you cannot see this part of my hand if I show you this you can't see this this is not just with my hand even with the grain of sand it's true if you perceive one part you can't perceive the other and you know everything only by comparison when I say comparison suppose suppose you were a tall person that is you were six feet tall now you stand like a tall person you walk like a tall person you think like a tall person you feel like a tall person you are a tall person you went to another society where everybody is eight feet tall suddenly you stand like a short person walk like a short person think like a short person feel like a short person and you are a short person so what I am saying is what you perceive in comparison is not perception it's a distortion of reality it is good enough for survival in a particular situation but you don't know anything about anything around you because you perceived everything only as it is relevant to your survival to such an extent you do not even know what what is light and darkness that's insulting, isn't it? you seen a owl the bird the owl if you and an owl sat together and started an argument as to which is light and which is darkness where would it go endless argument I am asking who is right you are the owl who is right Both, ha? if you are saying both either you are in the diplomatic corps or you have a successful marriage you learn to say both both to everything otherwise you won't survive I am asking which is the truth which is light I am asking you don't really know that's a fact of the matter what you see as light somebody else is seeing is darkness what is day for you is night for somebody else, isn't it? and there are more night creatures on this planet just if you hold an election and if you make every if you gave everybody a franchise the night creatures will win hands down because their numbers are huge all right so what I am saying is your sense organs are good enough instruments for survival but once you come as a human being survival is not good enough, isn't it? till it is taken care of it's a big issue once it's taken care of doesn't mean anything because for every other creature there's only one issue for them stomachful life-settle for them but for a human being stomach empty only one problem food stomachful 100 problems yes who has more problems poor or the rich the rich have complex problems poor have only one problem food they truly believe this one thing is taken care of everything is settled only when it is settled they know it is not so because the nature of the human being is like this for every other creature their life ends with fulfillment of survival process for a human being life begins only after survival process is taken care of so what is beyond is in many different ways the simple thing is this these five sense organs because they are survival instruments the moment you were born they came awake you could see you could hear you could smell and all this stuff but anything beyond survival unless you strive it will not come into your life so this striving to know beyond sense perception has not happened to a large segment of humanity because that's been taken out of our education systems there was a time when that was an important part of growing up in the world but today we've completely banished that because our entire education system is somehow machine you into a right shape and size so that you fit into the economic engine it's a very gross way of running the world if you if you're willing to commit 30 hours of focus time we will give you a vehicle through which you touch something which is beyond sense perception thank you so much for a truly inspiring talk I have two quick questions for you the first one is according to you what would be the best school for learning to manage oneself if you had three tips per day or per week you should not go to that school which gives you those three tips if one feels that there should be harmony in the world and a lack of inequality how can we accept that we've strayed so far away and where can we find some deeper answers to why we're here and what we can do to live with more harmony first let me give you a tip the fundamental tip is this you know when can I share something with you when my girl was growing up I made one rule around me nobody should teach her anything because the biggest problem in the world is this the moment you're born every idiot wants to teach you something something that has not worked in their lives I said nobody teach her anything just leave her alone I just made sure she has enough exposure to nature and life around but human beings don't teach her anything any of your tricks she doesn't need so she grew up very joyfully when she was around 13 she had some whatever some little emotional stuff and she came to me and and she asked me you never told me anything you know you're always teaching the world you never told me anything I said see there's only one thing I want to tell you because I knew her current state of that time and I told her just this this one thing you fix it in your head never look up to anybody never look down on anybody this is all no looking up to anything no looking down on anything just look at everything just the way it is that's all it takes to make a beautiful life out of this the problem is you're looking up to something this means authority has become the truth in your life truth will never be the authority in your life if truth is not the authority in your life you will never know what this life is about you may do patchy things here and there the moment you look up to something it is inevitable that you will look down on something else yes or no the moment you look up to something can you avoid looking down on something else in one stroke and this will destroy both heaven and hell for you and you will live on this planet and when you know you have to live on this planet you will live sensibly because you think you're going somewhere else you're doing all the rubbish here because you want to go to some other place and about harmony how many human beings or how many of you can really put your heart on your hand and say that if you sit in one place you're really harmonious within yourself I want you to understand the world that you see is a manifestation of what's happening in individual human beings because it's magnified it looks ugly but it's ugly on small scale too so you know people come to me and tell me sadguru, my husband and my mother-in-law she is beyond everything my boss like this wife, husband, mother-in-law this person, that person so I tell them you come don't worry you come in the yoga centre you stay we will not let your husband wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law nobody just you I'll give you a nice place to stay good food to eat don't have to do anything just be joyful that's all anyway we've prevented all of them from coming you be joyful random checks I will make when I check you must be joyful otherwise I don't believe in feeding misery you know oh you leave them in one place for 24 hours you must see in how many ways they'll twist themselves when you're alone if you're miserable obviously you're in bad company isn't it if there is no harmony in this how do you expect to bring harmony in such a large world if you can't bring harmony to this mind if you can't manage this how do you manage the world efficiently and well till human beings individual human beings work upon themselves there is really no solution there is no such thing as global solution it is individual emancipation which will lead to the world's emancipation when you and me are doing great the world is doing great isn't it world is just a word humanity is just a word you and me are a reality without addressing the reality we are pumping slogans which have no connection with reality we want to fix the world where is the world it's you and me right if you and me are not don't fix ourselves then fixing the world is just a popular slogan at one time I went to all this world peace conferences I got invited here there I thought really something is going to happen then I looked in one of these peace committees where about 43 Nobel laureates were there I just asked them genuine because I looked at them when I looked at their faces I knew these people have not known peace for a moment in their life I just asked them genuinely tell me except when you're sleeping which some of them were doing except when you're sleeping have you known genuinely what is peace within you they were sincere enough they said no we don't know then don't talk about world peace there's no such thing if you and me are peaceful the world will become peaceful if you and me are loving the world will become loving if you and me are blissful the world will become blissful the only problem is human mind but human mind is the most wonderful gift that we have I'm saying the best gift that you got you made a curse out of it because you you've been given a supercomputer but you not bothered to read the user's manual this is your problem yes you have not read the user's manual how to manage this and then this intelligence this is the greatest thing this cerebral capability that the human beings have is the greatest thing that's happened to us it took millions of years of evolution to get to this place but now this is a curse what are you suffering you are suffering your own intelligence please know this yes or no if I take away half your brains most of you would be peaceful yes harmonious in harmony with everything so I'm saying the best thing that you got you made the worst out of it because no user's manual because your education systems or family systems or the national cultures have no sense about how to manage this one we are always thinking how to conquer the world there are so many conquer the world there are two ways you can take the world you can either conquer the world or you can captivate the world if you captivate the world the world will come with you if you conquer the world you have to sit on top of it and struggle for the rest of your life thank you, Sadgur um question you talked about working on yourself and meditation comes into it yet I've seen plenty of meditators that don't seem to act that well so can you talk about that a bit I'm not in any way identified with any political nation on the planet but when I use the names of countries don't think it's from some prejudice when anything comes to America it takes on a different form it just amuses me what forms it takes because the yoga for example what forms it's taken is well yesterday somebody sent me a WhatsApp message about how they're propagating beer yoga okay so yogis who have drinking problem and drinkers who have yogic problem they do beer yoga okay like this there are many so we need to understand this this is not when you say meditation when you say yoga this is not an Indian thing or an Eastern thing as it is being understood this is paying attention to the inner nature of who you are alright fortunately the fundamentals of being human is same fundamentals doesn't matter which continent you have come from in prejudice against one against the other but fundamentally these creatures are made the same way this entire species is made the same way okay on the surface maybe I'm made of chocolate and you are white chocolate whatever okay that's different so we need to understand this for example you use the word meditation you must understand this these words are being thrown around the word meditation in English doesn't really mean anything specific it's too general if somebody sits with their eyes closed you will say they are meditating you know with your eyes closed how many things you can do yes or no so in the yogic parlance you can do japa, thapa dharana, dhyana, samadhi you can fantasize about something or you can just master the art of sleeping you don't know what you're doing so specific aspects are not there general because it's a fashion it is not an endeavor it is more a fashion it's an in thing you will see people are walking with yoga mat in York City this is my yoga day yesterday was my cycling day tomorrow is my swimming day this is not like that union means in some way you learn to obliterate the boundaries of your individuality because your individual existence is a fake existence if you don't understand what I'm saying close your mouth hold your nose like this for two minutes you will understand without the larger atmosphere supporting you you can't exist for a moment yes what you exhale the trees are inhaling every moment of your life but this is not there in your experience actually one-half of your breathing apparatus are hanging out there if you experience this do I have to tell you don't cut the tree do I have to tell you something else like this to plant the tree it wouldn't be necessary if you really experience one-half of my lungs is hanging out there you wouldn't call a tree a wood isn't it if I call you flesh is it an insult or no so calling a living tree as wood this happened to me you know when I was doing literature this we were always studying English poetry and we were introduced to American poetry so the first day this lady teacher comes and she says I'm introducing Robert Frost to you and he's a great poet he starts off I say stop I was only 19 I said stop she said why I said a man who calls a tree a wood I'm not going to listen to that guy she said no no this is a great poet I said I don't care how great he is a man who calls tree a wood I'm not going to listen to that guy I didn't let her teach because this has gotten into our minds we have not experienced life we've concluded about everything we've made conclusions about everything we have not experienced it if you sat here and experienced life very well you would know what the trees excel you're inhaling every moment you can do without any relationship in your life this one relationship you can't break yes or no we have not brought human beings to experience meditation means this yoga means this to bring people to a living experience of life it's not just the trees and the atmosphere as you sit here every subatomic particle is in communication with the rest of the universe otherwise you can't exist here for a moment this entire fake idea of who you are has to go that's meditation so anyway technically what is meditation meditation is a consequence but because these societies have become so goal-oriented they want the mango, they don't want the tree if you want flowers in your garden you don't have to do flower meditation you don't even have to think flower you have to think soil manure water, sunlight none of them look like flowers but if you take care of that flower is a consequence meditation is a consequence but people want the consequence not the process if you cultivate your body your mind, your emotion and your energies to a certain level of maturity you will become meditative that will be your quality, that will be the fragrance that you will carry with you but now you want the fragrance you don't want the process, what will you do you will buy some french perfume thank you very much the bank will be very different if I haven't had this experience so thank you for the time and thank you to the India Crop for facilitating this