 And I also saw you pull up on your motorcycle. I was watching Will Smith's interview and I was just like, wow, this is cool. Most people understand spirituality as some kind of a disability. It's not a disability. It is the greatest empowerment. How do you see dance fitting in this spiritual space? I think it's a fundamental responsibility because when you have the power to influence other people's lives, you must ensure that the influence is very positive. We come from a culture where all our gods dance. It's the exuberance of life. Finding expression is dance. Well, thank you so much for your time and pleasure to be able to speak with you. I've been spiritual for as long as I can remember and it is just all so interesting to be able to speak to a spiritual guru like yourself. I found you like maybe a year and a half, two years ago. I never was lost. I never was lost. How can you find me? I stumbled across you on YouTube and I always thought you had a great personality. And that's something that's important for a young developing spiritual person to be able to connect and communicate with an elder. So I have a lot of respect for you and I just wanted to start by first saying that before I have some questions for you, how's your tour been going? A tour went great. Thirty-six days we were on the road on a motorcycle. It was a fantastic journey. It's been a long time since I rode like this. Nearly ten thousand miles, nine thousand four, seventy-seven miles on the road in thirty-six days. So it's been a very long time since I rode like this and above all meeting all the Native American nations, traveling to them, meeting them. Well, it was a bit restricted because of the virus situation, but otherwise still we got to meet many people. And we are in the process of, you know, the most important thing is I want to make sure they're visible in the world. Unfortunately, they've become invisible. It was a major culture at one time, but you know, kind of disappeared. We want to put them back on the map kind of. Yeah, that's amazing. So what kind of motorcycle do you have? This time around I rode a K-1600 GT, it's a BMW. Oh, okay. It's a 1600 touring bike, but it's a sport touring bike. So it's quite nimble. It's not like the big Harleys or Indians, you know, it's not one heap of metal. It's properly designed like a sports bike, but it's a touring bike. So how did you find exploring the Native American culture? Because, you know, in my culture, you know, we always have a thing where it says, you know, you're Indian. See, some part of you, you're Indian. So, you know, that culture is, like you said, not so prevalent where, you know, there's so much information about the different cultures and the different, the variations of Native Americans. So how did you find that experience? See, for most people in the world, their idea of… their image of a Native American person is essentially from a Wild West movie. A bunch of young people on barebacked horses riding, hollering all the time and shooting at anybody who comes their way. That's a kind of unfortunate image that is there in most of the world, because they have seen these people only in the Wild West movies. But it was also eye-opening for me to realize that there were over five hundred nations at one time in North America, just in the United States, five hundred nations. And many of them had well-developed cities and by choice they lived as hunters, gatherers. But there were cities, placed like Cahokia on the Mississippi banks, east of Mississippi, thousand years ago they had a population of forty-thousand people. So, forty-thousand people doesn't happen in one place unless there is substantial organization, administration, a whole system, all right? So, they did all that to give you a perspective that thousand years ago in London city there were only fifteen-thousand people. In Cahokia there were forty-thousand people, that is the level of thing that was there. And each one of these nations or tribes have their own language, their own culture, their own spiritual process, their own type of rituals, everything. So, unfortunately this is not known to people because these are oral cultures and it goes from generation to generation and there's been such a massive dislocation in the last eight, ten generations maybe. In the last two hundred years there's been such a massive dislocation of their culture. So, most of it is gone because it's not written down, it's not preserved as it is done in every other culture. This is purely an oral culture. If an elder dies and if the young people don't pick it up, it's like forty-thousand, it is forty-thousand years of history. Somewhere between twenty to forty-thousand years ago they have been here since then there is archaeological proof for that. So, this longer history is just lost. If one generation either dies of disease or war or something else happens or, you know, whichever way it happens, which happened in the last two hundred years and a whole lot of it unfortunately has been lost but still there are people who are committed to keeping this alive and going. So, my effort is to make them visible. People should know there are people like this. Right. Well, that's amazing. There has been a phenomenal response across the world, particularly in India people have not even heard about these people and now there is such a big awareness and we are continuing to release more and more content about that. That's so cool. That's so cool. Yeah, like I was telling you, you know, from where I'm from in my culture, we always have had a type of respect and admiration even though a lot of these customs and cultures are hidden. You know, we feel very much so a part of it in a very interesting way, you know, throughout my history. So I thought that that was really interesting and I also saw you pull up on your motorcycle. I was watching Will Smith's interview and I was like, wow, this is cool. You know, a yogi, a guru that I don't know. Maybe people imagine that, you know, you don't have certain freedoms in life because being a yogi and a spiritual person is… is… I don't want to say it's a job because it's obviously a person. No, most people understand spirituality as some kind of a disability. It's… it's not a disability, it is the greatest empowerment that you can have in your life. If it's a disability, I think it should be banned. Anything that disables a human being should be taken away, why are we talking against drugs, alcohol, all this? Not because we are against pleasure, we are against disability, in some way it will bring disability because human empowerment is in our abilities, enhancing our abilities, not in disabling ourselves. So spirituality is a way of disabling yourself, we must ban the damn thing. Yeah, you know, it's interesting that you say that because, you know, a lot of people here, they view karma, you know, as a… as kind of a type of punishment system. And I want to know, you know, what is really the nature of karma if you can express it? It's uncanny that you're asking this because coming February, Random House is publishing a book by me on karma. It's a… the title is Karma. Wow, congratulations. It is a yogi's guide to freedom. What is karma? See, to put it… I will try to make it very concise, there could be… when you kind of make it that brief, there could be loop holes, if you see the loophole, ask a question, otherwise it's fine. What's that? So the simple thing is this, see, right now you are who you are, including the shape, size, color of your body, everything is because of a certain memory carried within you. Right now, suppose you are me, you start eating dogs food or cows food, the body won't get confused. Because there is evolutionary memory in this, you give it whatever you want, it only becomes a human being. Isn't it? So this is only because of information, memory that is there across the system. Now, if you eat my food, if you eat my food, you will get enslaved to me, that's a different matter. Okay? I'm a good cook, I'm just threatening you. What you eat? So if you eat my kind of food, you will not become an Indian, you will still remain an African-American person because there is genetic memory in you, all right? Similarly, there is genetic memory, there is karmic memory, there is conscious and unconscious memories, there's articulate and inarticulate levels of memories. Like this, there are various levels of memory stored within us. Right now, what you call as myself, even the way you sit and stand is because of memory. People think all these things won't work. See, when they're eighteen, they think they don't want to have anything to do with their parents. You watch them and they're forty-five-fifty, they… you will walk like your father, you will sit and stand like your father, you even begin to speak like him, you know? Because the genetic memory is inside playing its own… this thing. So this… all this memory makes you who you are. So now the question is, will you use all this memory as a stepping stone for a new possibility or will you get trapped in this memory? If you get trapped in this memory, then we say ayokarma. If you… if you stand upon this memory and reach out for a new possibility, then we call this liberation or a liberating process. So this choice everybody has, it is just that most people get trapped in their memory because they get identified with their memories. You know, right now your identity or anybody's identity is with their memory. Right now, I can say I'm an Indian from where it's in my memory. If you wipe out my memory, I don't know whether I'm an Indian or what, isn't it? So everything is in memory. If you identify with your memory, then you get trapped in that memory. If you're not identified with it, if you're conscious and you handle your memory consciously, then karma is a tremendous possibility. It is a stepping stone for higher possibilities in life. Because only because of this vast amount of memory that we have gathered, right from being an amoeba till being this complex, you know, sophisticated life that we are right now, the memory is all there within the system. All this memory is a tremendous possibility if we stand upon it like a stepping stone. But if you get trapped in it, then it'll put through cycles of the same thing. So in India always it's like this, you know, like in the Indian villages, if you meet somebody, they won't ask you, how are you doing? Good morning, all this. They will just ask Saap Tingla, this means have you eaten? Because their understanding is, if you have eaten, you should not have any other problem. Because the rest of the problems are you are making. So if somebody has eaten well and sitting there with a sad face, then we say aiyo karma. That means their memories are tormenting them, you know? Whether conscious memory or unconscious memory or memories that you can figure out what they are or, you know, memories that you don't know where they come from, but some memory is tormenting you right now. Then we say aiyo karma because karma has become a trap. What should have been a stepping stone has become a trap. What should have been an empowerment has become, you know, kind of taking away all the possibilities in your life. Wow, that is a really, really great example. Because I was doing some research and I found that karma meant something different in your culture. And thank you for explaining that. I think that a lot of people feel that, you know, the old saying, you know, you reap what you sow. And it's kind of that same concept, but you definitely dived in to make clarity for me. Because on my journey, on my spiritual journey, I found that when I have experienced things, that I actually remember experiencing it. And it's almost like I told you so, or you knew that already, kind of feeling after I, you know, whether it be a performance or a moment in a performance or a dancing, because dancing is something very special to me and spiritual for me. And I wanted to know, how do you see dance fitting in this spiritual space? Well, I'm not, I'm sorry, I've not really seen you dancing, but people told me you're a great dancer. You've got to check me out, man. I will, I will check you out. I heard that tomorrow you're releasing some new album or something, I will check that out when you release it. I've got the connection. Yeah, and it is, it is a really, really cool, one of my biggest beliefs. And let me say that, no, you shouldn't say that yourself. I will watch it and tell you how cool it is. Okay, well, yeah, I recently got to travel to Michael Jackson's estate here in, in the valley, they call it the Havenhurst Jackson estate. And I thought it was so amazing because the first concert that I ever went to as a child was a Michael Jackson concert. And I also got to shake his hand. And he has influenced my life. Are you supposed to shake a leg with him? Not a hand. You know what? He was shooting the video out of get the chance to shake a leg. But it was a very profound experience for me because I remembered, I remembered how much he's influenced my purpose in being a musician. A lot of, a lot of people make music to sell records. And I've done that. You know, I started at the precious age of 15. That's when I put out my first album. I'll be 36 in actually like two weeks. So my purpose and my meaning for sharing and connecting with people all over the planet has continued to grow and change. And it was so cool for my album, The Connection, to be able to go to the Havenhurst estate and speak about his influence. So the album is a really meaningful album. And that's what I want to continue to do as an artist is just continue to give people the tool to be positive and feel good with music. And one of the questions that I have was a lot of composing music, singing, dancing and performing on stage. Is a spiritual thing? How can I tap into deeper dimensions of that in my life? Now you've piled up two questions, one on top of another man. Okay, the one. I'm sorry. You do the one first. I'm sorry I got excited. Now, see Michael Jackson had the power to inspire a whole generation of people. What he did was so unique and eye-catching anywhere in the world. I'm telling you, in the remotest part of India, in some village where there is no nothing, they know Michael Jackson. I mean, that's a level of inspiration. He brought in a whole lot of youth dancing like him in India, in imitation of him. So that was a powerful possibility, but I'm sorry if I say something that hurts anybody. But I feel his life could have been, you know, he could have made this into really transforming the world in some way. But unfortunately, I feel no proper guidance around him, no proper advisors. And all commercial people, I think it went waste because just five days ago, I was at the Elvis Presley's museum in Memphis. As a part of the journey, when we were coming back, we stopped at Memphis. Also went to Martin Luther King's, you know, that place where the assassination happened. So when I was at Elvis's place also, that's what I thought. He also for two decades, he dominated the music scene, inspired a whole generation of people. But his own life became a total mess because there is no proper guidance. There is no balance. There is genius, but there is no balance. So this is a sad story that's happened to a whole lot of great talent in the world, particularly in America, because people grow up on all the wrong things at a very early age. When I say wrong things, there is chemical influence, there is alcohol, there is all kinds of distractions that we must understand this always, that our intelligence, our competence, our genius, all these things are important. But for all of them to find expression in the world, the most fundamental thing is balance. Now you're a dancer, you ask what is the significance of dance. You can be as good a dancer as you are, but if there is no stable platform, you're not going to dance, isn't it? This is all life is. Whatever our dance is, whether we're going to dance on stage or in the office or wherever, in whichever form our dance finds expression in the world, the most important thing is a stable platform within ourselves, a balance. If this balance is missing, all talent, all competence, all genius, all, you know, whatever exuberant things you have will go waste. So both these personalities, one that you mentioned, Michael Jackson and also Elvis Presley, are a classic example of this lack of balance when there is such a massive talent that you are capable of influencing an entire generation, not in one country, across the world. When you have that, this could have been used to really create a new generation of people, new sort of planet actually. You can, you can do this, you had the power to do that. It is just the lack of balance. So I'm saying, oh, Marion, you better dance your way, as well as you can, whatever it is, maybe it is not like everybody can be a Michael Jackson or we don't have to imitate that, but a new possibility in that sphere because music and dance has such a significant influence on the youth, but bringing balance to yourself and bringing balance to everybody who gets in touch with you, these millions of youth who get in touch with you, I think is a fundamental responsibility because when you have the power to influence other people's lives, you must ensure that the influence is very positive and it is towards their well-being, never against their well-being. So having said that about you asked about dance, what's the significance of dance? Woo, come on now. Come on now. That's, that's the truth. I'm sorry, but I had to just balance. This is so important. This is so important. So in terms of dance, see, I must tell you this, we come from a culture where all our gods dance. Everywhere else, God is a serious guy, very serious guy, but in India if he doesn't dance, we won't treat him as a god. All Indian gods, male and female, always dance, because if they can't dance, he can't be god. Because dance essentially means that life is happening. See, dancing in a particular style is a different matter. If you do not know this, my daughter is a full, you know, full-time classical dancer, Indian classical dancer, I took her off education and put her into this because it meant so much to us that, you know, what is dance is not just entertainment. So if you're doing a particular style of dance, it's one thing. Otherwise, even a child will get up and dance. When it feels exuberant, it's the exuberance of life, finding expression is dance. When body cannot keep quiet, it wants to do something exuberant, it will dance. Well, you guys have might have evolved your own kind of styles and I don't know, you slide on the, do you do all that like Michael Jackson was doing. Those are all, you know, what do you say, many methods of doing it, but essentially it's the exuberance of the physical self that the best way the body can express itself is dance. The highest way the body can express itself is dance actually because that is the highest level of exuberance it finds. So for this also you know, balance is most important. If you want to dance well, the most important thing is balance, but most people dance only when they're drunk. We have a night long festival once a year, nearly a million people last time, 870,000 people attended this event and it is telecast nationwide in over a hundred channels in India and all this, but full night from evening six to morning six, no alcohol, no drug, none of these things are, you know, anywhere come near us, but entire night the whole crowd will sing and dance, okay? Wow, I have to see it. Something you must come and see. Yes, I'll ask them to send you some videos. Yes, I have to, I have to experience this. Wow, that's, that's amazing. See, without the exuberance of when your emotion becomes exuberant, maybe you will sing. I am not saying a practice singer or a professional singer. When emotion becomes exuberant, people want to sing, even those who don't know anything to sing, they will also do something. You know, at least they will hum. When the physical self becomes very exuberant, it naturally dances. That's how it should be. Well, styles of dancing and other things are a different matter. There are culture in it, there is various aspects to it, but essentially, dance is an outpouring of one's life's exuberance. Life energy is exuberant. So we don't consider somebody divine or godly, unless their life energies are exuberant and overflowing. Wow, that is so cool. Wow, thank you for that. That's, that's amazing. So I want to, um, I want to ask about meditation. Um, I find that meditation has really helped me explore life and quiet, you know, the noise and, um, also om being the first two letters of my name, feeling connected to the om. It's really, uh, it's really brought me a lot of peace. I understand that this is an ancient practice. And a lot of people think that they don't have enough time to meditate, you know, because they have busy schedules, but I have a busy schedule. So always find time to, uh, meditate. What is the importance of, um, create creative people bringing, um, meditativeness into their daily lives in your words? See, the English word meditation causes lots of confusion because different people do different things and say it's meditation. If, uh, if it's in Indian languages, for every aspect, there is a specific word describing that. Okay? So we don't have that in English language. So let's put it this way. Essentially, if you become meditative, see, this is what happens in various practices we teach. If you sit here, your body's here, your mind is there, you are little away from it. That means there is a little space between you and the body. There is a little space between you and the mind. There are only two kinds of sufferings and disturbances in human life, physical suffering and mental suffering. Do you know any other kind of suffering? No. No. These are only two things. So if there is a little space between you and your body and you and your mind, once there is a space, this is the end of suffering. So once there is no fear of suffering, only when there is no fear of suffering, will you walk your life full stride? Otherwise, every step is a half a step, because what will happen, what will happen is always holding human beings back. If you have an assurance whatever happens, this is how I will be. If you have this assurance, you would walk your life full stride. So if you want to explore anything fully in depth, if you want to touch profound dimensions of your life and in turn profound dimensions of activity or impactful activity that you create, see, because in our life there are only two things. When it comes to our experience, profoundness of experience is what we are looking for. When it comes to activity, the impactfulness of our activity is all we are looking for. There is really nothing else. You can say it in so many different ways, but this is all it is. Profoundness of experience, impactfulness of activity, that's all there is to our lives. So if activity has to be impactful, it's very important, our experience has to be profound. Otherwise it'll be just little, you know, seasonal impacts may be there, flaky stuff, it'll come and go, that's not the point. If you really want to have impact over people, the most important thing is your experience of life must be profound, at least in that one dimension it must be profound. Only then you can really cause impact. So investing in that direction, is it waste of time? It's a silly idea to think it's a waste of time. Everybody must invest time to make the experience of life very profound. If you want to make it profound in an unbridled way, the fear of suffering should go. Fear of suffering will go only when you have a little distance between you and body, between you and mind. For this there is a simple process for yourself and all your people, you can promote this, it's free of cost, it's available to everybody. It's called Isha Kriya, ISHA Kriya. It's available, Isha Kriya. I'm about to write this down, go ahead. Yeah, it's available for everyone right now, millions of people around the world are practicing it. It's a simple process that everybody can do. ISHA Isha, Kriya, K-R-I-Y-A. Okay. Yes. There's a simple thing that you can do to bring little distance between yourself and your instruments of work on this planet. The only way you can do anything in this world is because you have a body and you have a mind. If you lose any one of them, you can't do it, all right? People are trying to lose it every Saturday evening, they think they're living, but actually they're trying to lose their body and their mind. Yes. The reason why they're trying to lose it is, five days of the week they've suffered their mind. Two days they want to drown it in alcohol and preserve it for future. Wow. If you were not suffering your mind, you wouldn't want to intoxicate it, right? Right. Yeah, that's true. If you were really enjoying the nature of your mind, would you want to slow it down? Would you want to turn it off? Everybody is talking about turning off the mind. Why is it such a torture? Because you've not learned to use it. Because the nature of the mind is like this. If I ask you, do you want a sharp mind or a blunt mind? What is your choice? Sharp. Sharp. So if you… if I give you a very sharp knife and if you do not know how to hold it, if you hold the blade side of it, the harder you hold it, the more you will hurt, right? So because you don't know how to handle it, you want to slow it down, you want to put it off, somebody wants to completely destroy it, because you did not learn how to handle it. Because to bring a human being to this level of cerebral capability, it took millions of years of evolution and now human beings are suffering their evolution, unfortunately. They want to live like grasshoppers. Wow. Wow. so I'm definitely gonna check out this and let me make sure I'm saying it right. Okay. Yeah thank you for that. Because you're Om-Marian, there is also Aam-Meri. It is not to be said as Om. It is Aam. It is just three sounds if you see these are not such things that you just make up if you open your mouth and exhale You will do ah If you partially close your mouth and exhale you'll do oh If you close your mouth and exhale you will do mmm If you combine these three in equal proportions you will do So this is not something that we made up this is the basis of physical existence in this solar system Now we've been saying this forever for thousands of years, but people were debating it now You know students from the University of Sheffield measured the reverberations around the Sun and they found the Sun is constantly Throwing out reverberations, which is arm Wow Wow That's amazing wow Wow, thank you so much for this. I just have a few more questions and I'm One of my question was How do you think that the young people can focus on their growth and well-being Rather than you know these momentary Topics like You know Birkin bags or buying material things How can People focus young people focus on their well-being See when we say young people we're trying to address them as a separate unit in the Cultural value of a particular society it will not work like that Suddenly you cannot say young people must fix themselves when the older generation is not fix themselves. All right See whatever See it is like this there. I'm just saying this is an example. This is not my opinion For example, some time ago in this country there was prohibition All right, nobody drinks alcohol that was the intention for whatever reasons they had done that Now people started drinking and making the legal staff moon shining and bootlegging You know, I'm from we are in Tennessee. This was the center of those things quite a bit at one time So then people started drinking they made it legal. They made it legal not because it's a good thing They made it legal because any way the government could not control the production and sale of alcohol So they thought it's better to tax it and make money at least. All right, so they made it legal. Now everybody started smoking weed Now they made it legal not because they think it's a good thing Simply because they're not able to control it in every backyard. They're growing it and they're using it So what is the point better make money out of it at least? So, how long do you think it will take for us to make cocaine legal meth legal? It'll all happen Wow Yes, if it becomes widespread everybody's using it if it becomes like that Government may to make it legal because people in the government also may be using it. They've admitted sometimes So essentially if you at that time it was let's say in two generations ago After your 18th birthday you had your first drink. Yeah So if your father had it at 18, you thought you can have it at 15 your son thinks he can have it at 12. Wow All right. I'm saying because this is the nature of the next generation They always want to be one step ahead if you if your father was meditating He started at 18 you would look at him and see and say at 15, maybe you want to meditate Yeah, your son wants to meditate when he's 12 Maybe your grandson wants to meditate when he's a child because I see in India Children are sitting like this and merited it's amazing. They're sitting like that for long periods of time I'm talking about four or five year old kids because they see their parents doing this So culture just cannot be focused on one one segment of the population When you think the the older generation can do all this younger generation will be one step ahead of you They will not be behind you for sure. Yeah So it is it is not right to say younger generation must be fixed Younger generation is just following in the footsteps of the older generation But definitely they would like to overtake them, you know, they like to pass them They don't want to be behind them in their shadows So they are going ahead of them if you drank at 18. I drank at 12. What is the big problem? You were proudly smoking and blowing it in everybody's face in 70s and 80s Now if your son comes smoking home at the age of 12, you you shocked, right? Right So I'm saying the cultural change needs to happen in a different way. Well, that is not an overnight thing It's a life, you know, it's a generational work We have to do for example people campaigned against smoking continuously for 20 years Today you see in United States, nobody's blowing smoke in your face anymore Otherwise could you walk into any restaurant or any place without being smoke filled but still in many parts of the world It's still the same thing. Everybody's smoking all the time anywhere and everywhere. All right So it took a 20-year campaign to do that Well, that campaign had legal social and other You know elements to it, but I am talking about a constant campaign Needed in a society as what is it that will enable us? What is it that enhances our life and what is it that diminishes our life? Let me tell you this right now in India also this whole thing is picking up and they know I was in Bangalore these days. I'm being invited for these Under-25 conferences because they think I'm under 25 They think I'm under 25 just these guys like this, you know I mean with the skin is glowing, you know so so I Was there and you know like about 15,000 people are there all young people and I can hear I can feel the smell of marijuana out there and They asked me so the guru you have so much influence in the government. Why don't you make marijuana legal? for us, I Said why not why just marijuana? Let's go all the way. Let's make cocaine legal. Let's make math legal Let's let's make LSD legal whatever you name it. Let's make everything legal one shot Why go one at a time because if we make marijuana legal marijuana people are happy LSD people will be unhappy. They'll say, why don't you make ours legal? Let's make everything legal So what is the intention you guys are all in the university you want to go to the university smoked up Is it I asked they said why not I said we'll do one thing. I will take you on us Small plane ride not a big commercial airline small plane Single engine plane, but the pilot comes and he's all smoked up. You want to fly with him Like this they can't decide Then I say, okay, you're not getting it. You need a major surgery But the surgeon comes smoked up. You want the surgery. They said, oh, no So you clearly understand in some way your faculties are impaired. All right You clearly understand that So what makes you think you can smoke up and go to the university? Should you be at your best or should you be at any less? So I want you to understand when you smoke up You are not high. You're low. So from now on don't use this word high. You say I smoke and I'm low Let's see how long you want to be low See you're using all the wrong words You get drunk and you say you're high you're drugged up and you say you're high You're not high you're low because all your faculties have come down. Isn't it? Wow Wow That's the wrong interpretation in the society. You think this is the way to be high No, this is the way you become low The moment you say do you want to be low? You can can you go and tell your friend? Come. Let's go get low He'll say no You say let's get high. He's hearing yes So how to get high you cannot get high without enhancing human faculties By depreciating human faculties you do not get high. Absolutely. Isn't it? Wow Yeah Yeah, okay. You got a you got a bigger knot than me on my on your head, man Ha Throwing your dreadlocks around on the stage or what? Oh, of course I'm like, hey Yes, in the okay. Yeah, so, um Um, so what what can young people in the music industry do to create the kind of music in the kind of life? That is uh, I'm sorry. I asked that question I wanted to ask how to inspire you to focus Okay, this is a question that I have so because the The country is so divided uh now more than ever and people are finding ways to Uh constantly segregate and divide themselves Some artists like uh bob marley and mj talked about the universal love and their music and their message And you know that music is is truly uh timeless Can music really uh be a driving force to bring about this universal love during these crazy times and Um, what what do you think about that because that's definitely my intention is to You know remind people throughout this life experience that I feel That you know isn't um smooth selling, you know, you have to come into the knowledge of uh Of of uh knowing what you want and I feel like everyone is striving for some type of happiness But they don't know how to maintain it. Um, how do you think that artists can connect to this purpose? There are various aspects to this one thing is initially who asked this question about how a musician can Bring about this change. See it's not necessarily don't even have a concept of a universal love or something because If everybody on the streets start loving you if the bugs in the tree start loving you you'll have a little bit of problem All right What we want is that you are able to accept and respect every other life And even inanimate things to have that regard and respect for everything because the soil that you walk upon the water That you drink the air that you breathe the food that you eat. This is what you are All right, you've not seen any other force creating you these are the things which are making you happen So similarly every other life to accept them the way they are And to have respect in regard for who they are and whatever they are They have different purposes different sort of people you can't go and do love it away with everybody All right, but you can accept and respect them for who they are That is most important So in terms of music, I must tell you my experience of music I grew up in sixties early seventies where it's all rock and roll and like this My parents were steeped in classical music Indian classical music is something I ask Tina or we know to send something to you to listen so that you know, you just get an idea what I'm talking about They are steeped in it, but you know, we are rock and roll. Why I am saying this is See the western music the way it is now you are in what some rhythm what I like blues, but I you they said something about your music. What is this rmb Rnb. Yeah rhythm and blues is it? I'm a bb king fan. Okay Okay And magic slim I gotta do some magic slim So right now this rhythm the when we were growing up the rock and roll Though it is quite violent in its expression It gets your body moving, you know, you can't help it your body Rocks with it So there are there is a certain type of music which moves your body which does certain things to you Which brings out certain passions in certain ways of expression I'm not trying to uh, you know, I'm not somebody who judges anything in terms of moral values I'm just saying this is what it does But it once happened I was riding, you know, it was The university in Mysore city. I was just riding on my motorcycle and going Suddenly I heard some very powerful strange kind of sound that I'd never heard It kind of got me in the gut literally in the gut, you know, it just pulled me there I went there was a small amphitheater This amphitheater is a place where, you know, all the steps up and down We ride our motorcycles up and down these steps. That's why we go there But today some small concert is happening just about 200 people or something like that is there And I see some instrument a strange instrument that I've never seen some guys playing And it just got me like that. I sat on my motorcycle and listened to tears welling up in my eyes Then I later on I checked out. This is a instrument called Rudra Veena You know, you can look it up. It plays very slowly. It's not any rhythm or anything like if he You know, if he strums it once he will wait for seconds Dong and they'll wait wait wait before the next one and the next one like this it is Very slow. It just got me by the gut till then I never was willing to listen to classical music But after this not by choice by compulsion I listened to classical music now. We you know, I am I am the source of conducting various classical music festivals in uh, India Because the impact it has on you is such that it makes you go still It doesn't make you move you still you you see if you sit there with your eyes Your clothes with your eyes closed and listen it just makes your body still it will not let you move So you can create music Towards a meditative purpose I will ask them to send you a series of music you listen to it And see how you can adapt it to your style of whatever the basis of that, you know It's not that you have to play that kind of music But you can use that basis to bring that when people listen to you Yes, they need to dance. Yes, they need to enjoy that at the same time. They should also learn Because all movement comes from from our stillness all sound comes from silence Without silence, there is no sound without stillness. There is no movement If people do not know the power of stillness They will always be compulsive So all these things which taking youth down right now is their compulsiveness And their compulsiveness is encouraged and celebrated by a whole lot of people They think being compulsive is passionate. It's not passion. It is just compulsive So the entire process of you know, like you come from a community which has been in slavery at one time What does slavery mean somebody compels you to do something that you don't like to do So whether the compulsion happened from outside or from within Me being happier unhappy is decided by somebody else within me. Is this not slavery? Because what happens within me if you can decide this is slavery, isn't it? When people decide what should happen around us that itself is horrible slavery When what happens within you is determined by just about anything around you This is the worst kind of slavery. If you do not liberate populations from this slavery Or in other words, if people do not understand human experience blossoms from within us Not from around us Unless they experience this being joyful by our own nature Being blissful by our own nature will not happen Unless that happens the fear of suffering is what controls and rules the society That is why everything else in the world the biggest investment in the world is the gun and the bomb and the works Because fear is the basis of human control right now Not our joy, not our sense, not our intelligence, not our love, but fear is the basis If this has to go the most important thing is our experience should not be determined by anything else What happens have within me must happen because of me not because of something else Thank you so much South group and I really really appreciate you speaking with you. Um, I'm actually, um Writing a book now as well. Um, and it is my experience Um, you know in the in the music industry and also the spiritual journey that I've embarked on and, um It would just be an honor, you know, those bits that you spoke about in reference to dance and, um What that means, you know to the body and freeing itself if if I could get like, you know, a four word or a quote from you That would be I'll do that I'll do that for you and also I'll ask them to send you the karma book because the first question you asked is about karma Yes Yes, thank you so much. I will definitely see the what is that tomorrow's launching is it? What do you call that? The connection The music The music you releasing it tomorrow. Okay. Yes Yes, where does it go? It goes on youtube it goes with Yeah, so, um, it's gonna We're premiering, uh The thing that I was telling about going to the estate uh tomorrow and we're also releasing the album So it'll be everywhere. Um pretty much probably like late tonight. So yeah, it will be it will be out tomorrow I shot some videos. Um, I directed some videos Um, yeah when when you get a moment, I'll see you some stuff, uh, you know that you can you can check out But I definitely do that. I would I would like to see that Yeah, I would I would uh, I started in a group and then I became a solo artist and um Yeah, I would like to just share some things with you. Um And and keep in contact with you and you know, maybe You know, when I get a moment to come fly out there and check out that uh that uh ceremony You must come to you must come to tennessee. We have a wonderful place out here Okay, you're in uh cumberland plateau It's a fourth. It's a four thousand acre property beautiful forested land. Oh, wow Very nice. You must come. I'm here till end of december Okay. Yeah, I'm I'm definitely gonna um, you know, I have one more question. Just one more question What do you what do you think about uh, psilocybin and um the mushroom? I'm sorry. What do I think about the mushroom? Oh in tennessee, uh people especially women are reputed to use mushroom to uh, you know, and uh, Their spouse's life at least the jokes At least the jokes at least the jokes go like that There are lots of mushroom here you can come Okay, but we won't we won't give it to you Oh Thank you so much. I really it's such a pleasure and I hope to speak with you again. Thank you so Yes, we'll catch up. Please come by before end of december if you come I'll see you here. Okay. Thank you so much It is a pleasure. I can't wait to meet you. Yeah, all the best for you tomorrow's release Thank you so much and all the best for it for the book as well Thank you