Making sense of life through karma and reincarnation

[Talk at Moksha Yoga Studio, Chicago, USA]

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Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
I am grateful to be here, am I audible behind, is this working, okay I can speak a little loudly otherwise, okay it is much better now, so I am grateful to be here amongst all of you today at Moksha Yoga and I thank Darren for helping us, for inviting us here and so I will be speaking on the topic of karma reincarnation and what did they mean for us, how to demystify them. I will start with some personal experiences of this topic which I had at different times, then I will talk about how I was introduced to my spiritual journey through some interesting scientific evidence and then I will talk a little bit about how I have experienced a few more of the insights of yoga tradition while sharing this in different parts of the world. So, as some of you may have noticed I use crutches for walking, so when I was just about one year old, I was just like a normal boy walking and one day I was walking, I just collapsed, my parents were alarmed, they took me to doctor and they found that I had got polio and polio is a disease which can be avoided by vaccination and my parents had actually given me the vaccination but somehow the doctor who had been in charge, I was living in a small place in India, the doctor was in charge of the clinic over there, he had not kept the vaccine very well, so the vaccine was damaged and so the vaccine ended up giving me the polio, instead of protecting me from the polio, it became the cause of the polio.
So, as I grew up, I started thinking what was it that caused this, that was it my parents they would have gone to some other doctor, they chose to go to this particular doctor, was it doctors that he was careless because of which this happened. Then, because I was not physically very active, so I started reading a lot of books, I became intellectually quite active and then some of my relatives would come to my parents and they would talk and they would say that his physical, I was just a small child, I was listening to what they were saying, they would say that the divine has compensated for his physical inability with intellectual ability, so this was okay, I was just hearing this, trying to process this, what was all this about. So, for all of us in our life, we see that there are certain events which lead to certain consequences.
So, A leads to B. Our whole of life is based on a presumption that there is a cause-effect connection in the world. A couple of years ago, when I was invited to Cambridge to give a talk on science and spirituality, I passed by the tree where Newton is said to have seen the fruit falling, the place where he saw that and there when he saw the fruit falling, imagine if instead of Newton, a monkey had been sitting there. What would the monkey have done? Yeah, just grab the fruit, eat it and gone away.
Now, instead of Newton, many other humans might also have done the same thing. Does Newton ask the question, what made this fruit fall? And it was his brilliance that he came up with the theory of gravity based on such a simple observation and yet his question itself implies a presumption. When he is asked, what made this fruit fall? There’s a presumption that things don’t happen by chance, that there is some order in the universe and we try to understand what that order is.
In fact, science itself would not be possible without this foundational assumption that nature works according to some order. Even the greatest of atheists, they accept as an article of faith that nature works according to some order and they accept that this order is intrinsic in nature. Where does this order come from? That is the question that science, especially when we consider material science, often just avoids that question.
There’s no answer. This order has to be there and we try to discern the order. Now, this is not just in science, it is also in our day-to-day life.
If, say, you are staying with a friend and your friend comes home with a scar on their hand, the first thing you will ask, what happened? What happened means, what caused the scar? So, when something unusual has happened, then we ask, what is the cause? If one morning a person calls their physician and says, I’ve got a stomach upset, the first thing the physician will ask is, what do you think the physician will ask? What did you eat last night? So, when there’s an effect, we assume there must be a cause and the cause-effect connection is the basis of our functioning in life. If there were no cause-effect connection or if we cannot figure out a cause-effect connection, things can become very bewildering. So, if you hear the door opening behind and you look and there’s nobody at the door, what happened? Has somebody got a remote by which they are opening the door? We make sense of the world in terms of finding causes for effects or understanding this cause-effect correlation and this cause-effect correlation is in the yoga tradition of India called as karma.
Karma refers to the system by which causes and effects are related. However, there is more subtlety, more sophistication in karma when it operates on conscious beings as when it operates on insensitive things. Suppose I take this cell phone and I drop it.
I won’t drop it. But suppose I drop it, then the cell phone has no free will whether to fall or not. It is going to fall.
Einstein is attributed to have said that gravity can explain the falling of objects. But gravity can’t explain people’s falling in love. It can’t explain people’s falling in love.
Why not? Because people have their own free will. They are not just mechanical products who act according to mechanical laws. But still, even in our day-to-day conduct, interaction with each other, if somebody who is normally cool and composed, one day suddenly they are very irritable, we ask what happened? There is a particular way they are behaving.
If there is something which is out of the order, we ask what happened? Why are you behaving like this? So basically, the cause-effect correlation is foundational to our understanding of the world. Unfortunately, there are many times when our normal understanding of cause-effect does not work. And this happens not only in our day-to-day life, this happens also in science.
So for example, at the start of the 20th century, around 1896, Lord Kelvin, who was one of the most celebrated physicists at his time, said that the biggest problem for physicists of the next century is going to be unemployment. Why? Because we have mapped out the whole world. Everything is undisturbed and for future generations of physicists, there is nothing to do except to fill in some details.
And Newton’s laws of physics, which made the foundation of what was called as classical physics, they explained things with remarkable consistency. But still, there is just some small clouds on the horizon. Blackbody radiation was one thing which was not explainable.
And as science went to the fringes, then that led to two dramatic new directions in physics. To explain the functioning of subatomic phenomena, quantum physics came up. To explain the behaviour of galactic objects, cosmic objects moving at speed near the speed of light, the relativity physics came up.
So at this point, these two, objects which are very small and objects which are very large, were not explainable by the laws of physics as explained through Newton’s laws. So scientists did not give up their faith that the universe works according to laws. They looked for some deeper theory.
So Newton’s theory worked at a normal, you could say anthropic, human level. But at microscopic and macroscopic levels, when this theory didn’t work, they came up, they didn’t give up, oh, it’s disorderly. They looked deeper to say, is there some other theory which will explain this? And the same principle applies in our day to day life also.
Normally, causes produce effects. And effects come from certain causes. So if a student fails in an exam, the parents will ask, what happened? Did you study? So that’s a normal effect.
So we work according to this cause-effect connection, assuming that. But sometimes, this cause-effect connection is no longer seen, as happens when we commonly say that bad things happen to good people. How many of you have had this experience? You worked very hard for something, did your best, and still didn’t get the result.
How many of you have had this experience? Yes, you work extremely hard. I remember I went, I had participated in a location competition when I was in my teens. I worked very hard.
And I prepared and I spoke. And then, after that, the judge, he said, you spoke, we didn’t consider you also for the prize. Why not? We didn’t understand what you said.
So I thought that they would be impressed by my high vocabulary, high concepts. But they just couldn’t comprehend what I was saying. So this is oversimplified example.
But the principle I’m giving is, we may work hard, but get no result. At the same time, we can also look around, or look broader. And sometimes, we do a little work, and still we get a lot of result.
Sometimes, we study something in a subject, and that’s what comes in the exam. And we just click. So, sometimes, this cause-effect correlation doesn’t work.
That means there is cause, but still the result doesn’t come. Or sometimes, the cause is not there, but still the effect comes about. To take a simpler example, normally, when we eat food, we get energy by that.
But sometimes, we eat, and we get no energy. Now, why is that? There might be some digestive system getting disrupted, because of which the food does not get converted into energy. So normally, the eating, as the cause, the effect is, we get energy.
But when that doesn’t happen, we don’t think it’s chaotic. There must be something else going on. So we go to a doctor.
Is there something wrong with my body? And we try to understand. Similarly, when we see this cause-effect connection doesn’t seem to be working, that I try to be good, but still bad things happen to us. And conversely, sometimes, people do bad things, and still they seem to be getting good in their life.
So when this cause-effect connection is no longer seen to work, at that time, we need a deeper theory. Just like scientists look for a theory beyond classical physics, and that’s how they came to quantum physics and relativity physics. Similarly, we need a deeper theory to explain why things happen the way they do.
And that deeper theory, which can better explain the illusive cause-effect connection, is the theory of reincarnation. Reincarnation, the word means, karna means flesh, like we have in carnivorous animals. Re means to, again, reincarnation means to come again in flesh.
It means to get a new body. So reincarnation refers to something existing within us, which comes back again, and which acquires a body. So, what if, the idea here is that there is something indestructible within us, and that is what goes from one body to another.
That is called, in the yoga tradition, the atma, or the soul. So, the yoga tradition explains that our existence is three-dimensional. It’s the body, the mind, and the soul.
And this is akin to a computer system, in which we have the hardware, the software, and the user. The hardware is like the body, the software is like the mind, and the user is the soul. So, the actions that we do, in this life, the soul moves from one body to another body, like a user moving from one computer to another computer.
The user moves from one computer to another computer, at that time, the user is the scene. So, when some bad things happen to us, then there seems to be no serious cause over there. We have not done anything.
That simply means that we are getting some reaction from a previous life. And if we are doing good, and the result is coming, that result will come later. And this distance between the action and the reaction, between the cause and the effect, this is determined by higher forces.
We can call them as destiny. Now, we see, even in our day-to-day experience, that causes, they produce effects, but there may be a variable time duration between them. If we take an agrarian analogy, if somebody sows grains, then normally how long does it take for grains to get harvested? How long, roughly? Yeah, it’s a season, a few months, but if somebody sows some fruit trees, how long will it take? A year.
The cause is there, I sowed the seeds, the effect is there, got the harvest. But depending on which seed is sown, the harvest may take time. Similarly, each action that we do is like a seed that is sown, and that seed will harvest.
But some may harvest immediately, some may harvest after some time, some may harvest after some lifetimes also. This principle, if we consider that there is action-reaction correlation, but it extends before this body and beyond this body, then that can better explain why the cause-effect correlation that we normally see in life, we sometimes can’t see it. Normally there is cause-effect correlation, but sometimes it just is not there.
So why? Because some causes are from a previous life and some effects are going to come in a future life. Now this whole idea of reincarnation, okay, it’s an interesting theory, but what is the basis for it? Should we just have to believe it? Let’s do a simple thought experiment to understand this three-level model of the self. So wherever you’re sitting, you can sit in a relaxed way and close your eyes.
Now after closing your eyes, you can take three deep breaths with me. One, two, three. Now with your eyes closed, try to look at what you see in front of you.
Because your eyes are closed, you won’t be able to see physically whatever is ahead of you, but there is something like an inner screen inside you on which you may see various images. You may see this room, you may see your home, you may see your car, your friend, you may see some food, you may see a stream of various images appearing and disappearing on that inner screen. Or you may just see a static, haze, dull pattern of colours on the inner screen.
Now whatever you may see on the inner screen, while looking at it, see if you can take a step back and look at who is looking at this inner screen. While you are looking at the inner screen, try to take a step back and look at who is looking. Try once again, take a step back and try to look at the seer of the inner screen.
No matter how many steps you take back, the inner seer steps back with you. What you are looking for is what you are looking with. You are that inner seer.
You are the soul. The inner screen is your mind. You can take one deep breath and then you can open your eyes.
Thank you. So right now when you look at me, your inner screen is acting like a window and what you are seeing outside is appearing on that inner screen. And that’s how you are able to see me.
But sometimes this inner screen starts acting like a TV. And you may remember, oh this person said this to me, how dare they say like this, I am going to get back at them. And immediately a revenge fantasy starts off.
So on that inner screen which becomes a TV, a movie starts off over there. And then that’s when we get upset minded. Then somebody is talking to you, earth to you, earth to you, where are you? Then we come back.
So basically these three levels, whenever any perception happens, when you see me or I see you, at that time the inner seer, the inner screen and the outer scene, all three need to be in one line. The inner seer, the inner screen and the outer scene. All three, when they are in one line, then perception happens.
When we are upset minded, the inner screen shows something else. And then we can’t see even if the visual data is coming in our eyes. So when we look for causes and effects, at that time we are looking at the physical level of reality.
But the physical level is only one level of reality. So the inner screen is like the software. We consider a computer, inner screen is like the software, the outer world is like the hardware and the physical reality.
The inner seer is the spiritual reality. So when we, say earlier I said we have one computer and then we go to another computer. As soon as we log on to the new computer, say with our Gmail ID, then our preferences, our previous search history, everything gets carried over with it.
And this gets carried over. Then, say, if we have searched something repeatedly, then that is what will come up automatically. So here, say in America, the movie industry is known as Hollywood.
In India, it’s known as Bollywood. It’s a place called Mumbai. It’s called Bollywood.
So say, if somebody has searched repeatedly for Bollywood, the type B Bollywood, once, twice, thrice, four times, then next time whenever they type B, what will the computer do? It will do an auto-complete. It will give Bollywood over there. Now suppose somebody comes to a spiritual person and they hear about the Bhagavad Gita.
And they go, what is this Bhagavad Gita? I want to know about it. And they go and Google. And as soon as they type B, what will happen? Bollywood will come.
Why? They wanted to type Bhagavad Gita. But because so all of us have our tendencies. Now some of those tendencies may be acquired by the kind of friend circle we have.
But there are many tendencies that we are born with. When I was working on reincarnation, the concept of identical twins. Now because the twins are always identical, yes they are.
We have two twins over here. They are twins. If you look at them, they look not just similar but identical.
That’s what twins are. But still in biology, identical twins has a more specific meaning. Identical twins refers to that when perception happens, at that time if one zygote is formed and that one zygote splits into two.
And then two twins are born. Then they are genetically not just similar, they are genetically identical. Now if they are genetically identical, then all their, if we were simply physical creatures, then all the characteristics of genetically identical twins should be identical.
Because they have also grown up in the same family. So have the same upbringing. They possibly go to the same school.
But even genetically identical twins are not identical. They have similarities but they also have dissimilarities. I was thinking on this topic and at that time a man got up and he said, actually I have a genetically identical twin.
And till now nobody could explain to me why we are so different. He said, I am an introvert, he is an extrovert. He says, I love reading, he loves music.
I like horses, he likes cars. He says, externally we are as similar as we can, as identical as we can get. Internally we are extremely dissimilar.
So where are these dissimilarities coming from? They are not coming from the body. Because the body is genetically identical. They are coming from the mind.
The mind is like the inner screen, it is like the software. So we all are souls who are on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution. And in this multi-life journey of spiritual evolution, the present body that we have is one lap, one stage.
And by past karma, two souls may be born as twins. So that’s how they get identical bodies. But still each of them is a soul who has gone through their own journey before this life.
And that is why even identical twins are not identical. They are physically identical but not behaviourally identical, not psychologically identical. Because there is something coming from a previous life, which determines their interests, their inclinations, their instincts, their impulses.
Why are we the way we are? One reason is, it comes from our past life. Sometimes some people may say that, some people have a mysterious interest in a particular field. Some people just grow up and the first time they see a musical instrument, they pick up and start playing it.
And they just, they are expert at playing it. And nobody taught them. Just got it.
Now we may say they got it by genetics. But sometimes their parents may not be interested in music at all. Their grandparents may not be interested in music at all.
But still they got it somehow. So behaviourally is one way we can understand that there is something more to us beyond our body. And that shapes who we are.
One significant research in this field, Dr. Leon Samuelson from the Virginia Medical School. And he did extensive research spending 40 years travelling across all the inhabited continents, doing extensive research in cases of past life memories. So there are cases where, where is our instrument? It disappeared.
Yes, it’s gone into dreamland. So sometimes some small children, they just one day, they tell, mommy, mommy, where is my other mommy? What? Parents just don’t understand. And sometimes the kid may say, I was big then, I’m small now.
What do you mean? So there are cases of spontaneous past life memories, which children all over the world have talked about. There are also cases of hypnotically induced past life memories. You can go to a past life regression expert and they can put you in hypnosis and take you back.
But in this case, Stevenson deliberately chose not to study these cases. Because he was a scientist and he felt that in hypnosis, people may be susceptible to some things. So the hypnotist says, think backwards, when you were 5, when you were 3, when you were 1, when you were 1 month old, think what were you doing before that? Suddenly they may say, hey, I’m a 75 year old man, and I’m living in mediaeval Europe.
Now sometimes this may be true, sometimes it may not be true. We don’t know. But with respect to spontaneous past life memories, children without any stimulation from external sources, just start speaking.
And when he did the study, he found four levels of patterns. First is recollections, second is recognitions, third is behaviours, and fourth is birthmarks and birth defects. So recollections means child may say that, oh, I lived there and I was doing this and I was doing that.
And then tell his story over there. So let me explain these through some examples. So I have a book, Demystifying Incarnation.
In that I have mentioned several cases, one I’ll talk about. There’s this case in Turkey, in Adan, a city, a case of this person called Nesib Undutas Kiran. So when Nesib was around 4 years old, he would start telling his parents, I’m Nesib.
They’d say, yeah, you’re Nesib. No, I’m Nesib. Yeah, you’re Nesib.
But he said, where is Nesib? And I live in another city. He said, what? No, you live here. Then the small boy started saying, actually, I stay over there and I’ve got a wife and I’ve got children.
Small, 5 year old, 6 year old boy. And then he said, I’m staying in Mersin. Now, it was a few hundred kilometres away.
And his parents neglected him. Then, if you don’t take me there, I will go there myself. Till the parents didn’t pay much attention.
Then he went to his grandfather, who stayed in a village near Mersin. And his grandfather had recently remarried. So his mother went to meet her father.
And his grandfather’s new wife happened to be from Mersin. And as soon as he saw her, he recognised her and called her by the way, you are this person. How do you know? And he started discussing a lot about Mersin.
And his grandfather got intrigued, took him there. And when he went there, he had never been to Mersin before, but he led the vehicle all the way to the house. And at that place, there was a widow, there was a woman who was staying and she was the widow of a man named Nesip.
And he recognised her, told her about her children. He told her many, many details. And not only did he do that, now this woman, Nesip’s wife from a previous life, after his death, she had remarried.
So when Nesip saw his wife’s photo with another man, he got so angry, he picked up the photo and wanted to tear it apart. He said, you are my wife, not anyone else’s wife. And not only that, he had children from his previous life.
He had his children. Now these children were older than this wife. So he started fondling their hair and treating them as if they were his children, although they were taller than him.
And then he told that this Nesip had been a short-tempered person. And in anger, he tried to attack her. So she had dodged the blow, but the knife had scarred her on the thigh, in her right thigh.
So now she has got a scar on her right thigh. So then Dr. Stevenson asked one of his female assistants to take this woman to another private room and then he examined her. And he found that she had a scar exactly where Nesip had described.
And she told that this was a scar which my ex-husband, when he had attacked me, it happened at that time. So now, Turkey was and is still a conservative country in many ways. A boy who has never met a woman, how can he know what is a mark on a private part of her body? And not only that, Nesip had been born with seven birthmarks.
And whenever he would talk about his past life, he would point to those marks and say, I was stabbed here. Now what happened, Nesip was a short-tempered person and one time he had got drunk and he had got into a quarrel with another person, who was also drunk. And while they were fighting, this other person had stabbed Nesip.
So Nesip was stabbed in seven different places. That’s how he had died. So now, those seven points where Nesip had been fatally wounded, their location precisely correlated with the location of the birthmarks on Nesip’s body in this life.
So now, in order to find out, Stevenson wrote many books. The last book he wrote was a huge tome, several thousand pages, where he called it, where reincarnation and biology intersect. So, he basically focused on the correlation between the fatal wounds from a previous life and the birthmarks or birth defects in this life.
So, to find out how precise is the correlation, he divided the human body into X, Y coordinates. And then he correlated, this is at this point and where is it on the body in this sphere. And now, for even one birthmark to correlate, the probability would be 1 by 120.
And if seven birthmarks are correlating, that means the probability is 1 by 120 raised to the power of 7. So, it’s an astronomically low probability. Significantly, birthmarks and birth defects occur. Currently, science has too many explanations for them.
One is that they are genetically caused. Some families genetically itself, they may have some mark on their cheek or something on the neck or something like that. And they occur during pregnancy.
If the mother is malnourished or the mother takes some alcohol or smokes or takes some substances which cause a scar on the skin of the embryo, then birthmarks can happen. But in nearly 50% cases, neither of these factors are there. Neither birthmarks, neither genetic issues nor any issue during pregnancy.
And still birthmarks or birth defects come up. So, why do they come up? As no adequate explanation purely at the biological level. There was a Washington Post editor, Tom Schroeder.
He was a sceptic. And he decided, when he heard about Stevenson cases, he decided to travel with Stevenson and actually observe firsthand how he investigates. And then he wrote a book called Old Souls.
And he found that when he went to Lebanon, India with Stevenson and observed Stevenson’s investigative methods, Stevenson would never prompt anyone. Stevenson would always say that, and subsequent past life researchers follow that policy, they will never pay anyone for giving any testimony. Because if they pay, that will become an incentive for the subjects to sensationalise their claims.
There are almost 3 dozen girls who claim to be reincarnations of Marilyn Monroe. Now, here there is an obvious transparent motive. You are going to get fame by claiming to be a reincarnation of somebody famous.
So, Stevenson, as a matter of policy, refused to investigate any claims of reincarnation involving celebrities. So, he was sceptical. His approach was of scepticism.
And there are cases where there were remarkable recollections, remarkable recognitions, remarkable behaviours, remarkable birthmarks. Like I talked in the case of Nesip. He remembered precisely, I lived in this place, he recognised the wife and children from the previous life.
He behaved jealously towards his wife, affectionately towards his children. And there were birthmarks. And there are scores of cases like these, which have no alternative explanation.
If we want scientific indicators, that is also available. Now, what does it all imply for us? That if reincarnation is for real, if karma extends beyond this life, both before and after, then how does it matter for all of us? It matters in three primary ways. First is, it explains why sometimes things don’t produce the predictable results.
If I do A, why don’t I get B as a result? So, if we consider this, that there might be something more going on, then we are basically left with a chaotic universe. I do something and anything may happen in return. And how do I move forward in life? So, one of the biggest causes of problems in today’s world is mental health problems.
And while mental health problems can have many specific causes, what happens when we have mental health problem? I talked earlier about the inner screen, the mind. So, the two major mental health problems that people face today is depression and anxiety. When depression occurs, basically the inner screen that is there, it becomes like a TV that starts replaying all the bad things that have happened to us.
Oh, this person did like this. Oh, this happened there. That happened there.
That happened there. And as we start watching this replay of all the bad things that have happened to us, we start getting more and more disheartened. And we start thinking, so many bad things have happened to me, this is going to happen to me in future also.
And then we just lose energy to do anything. And conversely, when there is anxiety, what happens? The inner screen starts becoming again like a TV screen. But there it starts showing horror movies.
And in this horror movie, we are not the spectators, we are the victims. Just get paranoid. I go to office and I see a strange look in my boss’ eyes.
Oh, why is my boss looking like this? Maybe my boss is going to fire me. Oh no, if I get fired, what will happen to me? How will I pay the mortgage for my house? If I can’t pay the mortgage, then I’ll be evicted. If I’m evicted, I’ll have to look for some other house.
If I don’t get a house, then I’ll be on the streets. Oh no, it’s so cold, how will I be on the streets? I will be feeling cold right now because of the AC. But I imagine I’ll be on the streets and I’ll be cold.
So what happens? The mind just goes into future. Worry is like interest that we pay on loans we haven’t yet taken. It’s like the interest we pay on loans we haven’t yet taken.
So when we understand this bigger picture that sometimes what we have done may not be the cause of the result, something bigger may be going on, then we don’t catastrophise problems. One thing has gone wrong. Now yes, this went wrong in my life, that went wrong in my life, that went wrong in my life.
Many things have gone wrong in our life. But surely many things have gone right in our life also. If many things had not gone right, we would not even be alive right now.
How many people, most of us are in the age range of 30, 40, 50, whatever. But how many people die before they even come to this age? The fact that we are still alive means something has gone right in our life. That’s why we are still alive.
So when this mind starts showing us the horror movie, why does it show the horror movie? Because we can’t see the bigger picture. One thing goes wrong and we tend to catastrophise it. But if we understand the worldview of karma and reincarnation, then we won’t catastrophise the problem.
We will contextualise it. Contextualise it means that yes, I did this, this happened, I did not really do much wrong, but somehow this big problem came up. There must be some past karmic imbalance that needs to be corrected.
Just let me tolerate it. Let me live through it. Tolerance can actually be a great strength.
Tolerance means keeping small things small so that we can focus on them. Sometimes a leech may bite us. I told this incident in the past.
Then one American friend, he had exactly similar experience. So basically if we go for camping somewhere and suddenly we feel a biting sensation on our leg. We look down and see a leech is biting us.
Their grip is so strong that if we try to pull the leech out, they will pull out the whole thing. But if we just let the leech do its work, what do you mean by do its work? It is sucking my blood. Yes, it is sucking our blood, but the leech does not have the capacity to suck blood unlimitedly.
It has its tubules and once its tubules are filled, it will itself let go. And if we just flick it, it will fall off. So it is scary when we can feel its tubules going inside our body and sucking the blood out.
But trying to pull it out will make things much worse. So sadly for us, sometimes our past karma comes upon us like a leech biting us. And when that leech is biting us, if we somehow in a knee-jerk reaction, we try to get rid of that problem.
That is like trying to pull the leech out. It simply makes things worse. But if we just tolerate, tolerate, then what happens? That problem will go away.
One big advantage of a spiritual worldview is that we understand that we are bigger than our problems. We are bigger than our problems. Because no matter how big a problem is, the problem is temporary.
Whereas we are long-lasting living beings. So that gives us the capacity to tolerate it. And not just tolerance, but tolerance can be done much better in our lives to a spiritual level of consciousness.
So practises like yoga, meditation, study of sacred books, study of spiritual wisdom texts, all of them help us to rise to a spiritual level of reality. There we can experience relief, we can experience security, we can experience strength. So how do we rise to a spiritual level of reality? Imagine if there is a two-story building.
And if we normally live at the ground level, but there is a whole first level that we don’t know about at all. Actually one of my friends had a similar experience. So I’ll just tell two stories and then I’ll conclude.
So last year when I came to America, I was in Florida. At that time the Hurricane Irma hit Florida. So I knew it was coming.
So I left and I came to New York. I gave some talks over there. One of my friends was staying in Florida on a retreat.
He cut himself off from the world completely, just focussing on writing. But one morning he just came to his window and looked out and he saw stormy clouds in the sky and he saw everything was inundated with water. With concern, he went and turned on his internet.
He had shut it off also. Turned on to check what was happening and there was no internet. He tried to call someone.
The phone was not working. He again went to the window and he saw the water level was rising. What do I do now? So I began panicking.
And then as he was looking, all the power went off. He was plunged in darkness. It was daytime but it was very cloudy.
Inside it was very dark. He was looking around what to do, becoming more and more panicky. He turned on his mobile flashlight and was looking around.
And suddenly he saw that behind a closet there seemed to be something like a door. So he pulled the closet and he saw there was a door. He opened it and there was a narrow staircase that took up to an attic.
And he went there and he stayed in the attic. Till then he had not even noticed there was an attic in that room, in that house. So the water level rose, rose.
It covered, it inundated, flooded the first level. But at the second level he was safe. And then it stayed for almost 24 hours.
Then it started receding. And then the power came back, the internet came back and he was rescued. So suddenly he considered that our existence is two level, physical and spiritual.
Physical is the ground level of existence, spiritual is the first level of existence. So normally we live at the physical level only. But when some problems come and we find that I just can’t deal with this problem.
The flood is rising, what can you do? When nothing seems to be working, if at that time we are fortunate, then we discover a staircase. We discover that there is another level to the house in which we are staying. So at that time when at a physical level problems come up, if we are fortunate, we discover that our existence has an entirely different dimension.
There is a spiritual side to us. And that spiritual side is where we can experience spirituality. Stairs which take us to the spiritual side is, it can be yoga, it can be meditation.
We come from the bhakti yoga tradition where we chant mantras. So we are finite consciousness and infinite consciousness. The chanting of mantras is a way that raises us from the material level to the spiritual level.
It is not just like a staircase, it is like an elevator which takes us up. So the more we experience reality, the more we realise and relish security within ourselves. We realise and relish satisfaction.
And we become convinced through our own experience that I am bigger than my body. There is more to me than what biology has determined. That my destiny is bigger than my physical reality.
And that can give us a security that can take us beyond whatever challenges life may send our way. Sometimes we want to find out why this is happening like this. So one level I said is tolerance.
Just tolerate it, it is temporary, it will go away. Like the leech bite. But now what I am talking about is transcendence.
Transcendence means rise above the problem. You can rise above the problem by practising spirituality. By understanding spiritual knowledge and practising that spiritual knowledge through an appropriate spiritual process.
So we chant a particular mantra called the Hare Krishna mantra. And our consciousness enters into the mantra. And the mantra is like an elevator.
As we step into it, it raises us up. And as we keep repeating the mantra, we feel our consciousness rising upwards. Be our past karma, whatever be the kind of thing that happened to us.
Through tolerance and through transcendence, we can overcome whatever negativity comes in our life. And we can relish spiritual evolution. Evolution is what we are all going through.
Culminates in our being transported permanently to the spiritual level of reality. Where life and love reside eternally. Where we can experience everlasting peace and everlasting joy.
That is life’s ultimate purpose and that is life’s supreme perfection. So I will summarise what I spoke today. I spoke on demystifying karma intervention.
Started by talking about in science as well as in day to day life, we presume the existence of cause-effect correlation. Science cannot progress unless we assume that there are some laws in nature. Laws essentially mean cause-effect correlation.
When Newton’s laws did not work, then scientists started looking for some deeper explanation. They did not give up their faith that there is a cause-effect correlation, but looked for deeper. That’s how they came up with quantum physics and relativity.
In our day to day life also, we see a cause-effect correlation. I eat food, I get strength. But when this normal cause-effect correlation doesn’t work, then we don’t think things are chaotic.
There must be something else going on. We go to the doctor, his digestive system is upset, there is something else wrong. So similarly, in pain, the normal cause-effect correlation doesn’t seem to work in our life.
We do good, but we don’t get good results. We get bad results. Why is that happening? That means there is some deeper theory that is required.
And that deeper theory is that the cause-effect correlation extends before this life and beyond this life. So we are souls on a multi-life journey of spiritual evolution. And to understand this, we did a thought experiment, talking about how we can see the inner screen but not the inner seer.
So the inner screen is the mind, the outer scene is the physical level of reality, the inner seer is the soul. It’s like the hardware, software and user. That’s the body, mind and soul.
We all get some tendencies which are from birth. It’s like, I go onto a new computer, but as soon as I log into it, whatever search trends and preferences I got from my previous computer, they will come on this computer also. So like that, we all have some congenital tendencies.
And these are not explainable only by genetics alone. Talking about genetically identical twins are still not identical behaviourally or psychologically. That’s because they are two distinct souls who are shared as I got, but they are distinct in their own right.
Another way I talked about a scientific point of reincarnation was through the past life memories, spontaneous past life memories among children. Look at four pointers. Does anyone remember those four evidences? What were? Recollections.
They remember the past. Then? Recognitions. Yes, thank you.
Then? Behaviours. And? Birth marks and birth defects. Thank you.
How does it matter? How does it matter that bad things happen to us? Our mind tends to think that, oh, this bad thing has happened. Everything bad is going to happen to me in my life. And we tend to catastrophise the problem.
So the two major mental health problems are depression and anxiety. And basically the mind’s inner screen, when it starts going to the past and playing all the bad things of the past, that’s what causes depression. When it goes to the future and starts painting all horrendous scenarios of the future, that causes anxiety.
But if we understand this one bad thing has happened, yes, it’s just some karmic imbalance being evened out. Let me just tolerate it. Like a leech which is biting, there’s no need for me to overreact.
It’ll bite, suck the blood, it’ll go away. Similarly, some bad things may happen. We all go through bad phases in life.
These phases, they’ll stay for some time, they’ll go away. So tolerance is one strength that we can develop. Keep small things small and focus on big things.
The second is transcendence. Like this friend of mine who went trapped in a flood, found and went to the second level in the building. Similarly, we, when problems come in our life, rise from physical level to the spiritual level by appropriate spiritual practises.
Then we can experience security and stability within ourselves. The purpose of spiritual evolution is to reach the spiritual level of reality and experience life and love eternal therein. Thank you very much.
So are there any questions or comments? What is the difference between recollections and recognitions? Recollections are what the child does in their own family. I was this person here, I was that person there, that person there. But recognitions means that the child is taken to the place where the claim of previous life’s memory is there.
And when the child is taken over there, the child recognises places, people, objects. And many of these meetings have been planned where the past life researcher comes and does it in a strictly monitored environment. They arrange and everything is recorded either on tape or on video.
So that basically recognitions means the child is not just remembering but actually recognises people at that particular place. Is it a mechanism of time? Yes. So how is this information carried over? Yes, we could say the causal body, the karana sharir as it is called.
That is karana sharir. Sharir is the body. Causal is in Sanskrit called as karana.
So karana sharir is called the causal body or it can also be called as the subtle body. In Sanskrit we call that the mind. So the soul goes from one body to another with the mind.
And the impressions are carried in the mind. Now for most people the impressions stay at the back of their consciousness. That’s why most of us may not remember our past lives.
Each new life is a new opportunity for the soul to move forward. That’s why if it’s a fresh beginning and if we started remembering our past lives we had gone through, it would be like there will be a perpetual replay going on in our mind. It would cause a cognitive overload and we would not be able to function.
So normally most of us are not able to remember our past lives. And that’s just necessary because we cannot process infinite amount of information. Right now also how much do we remember from what happened to us 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago.
But those impressions are there. And sometimes in some people they pop up. So why do they pop up? Again this is karma.
It’s like in our day to day life we observe that some people have outstanding memories. They may have read one passage in one book 10 years ago and they can quote that passage. Some people have outstanding memories.
Some people have outstandingly poor memories. Just read something one minute ago, what did I read? I can’t remember. So why this variability? This is by karma.
So similarly by some peculiar karma, unusual karma, some people can recollect their past lives. But the impressions are stored in all of us and those impressions, even if they do not come up for us as conscious recollections, they come up as subconscious tendencies. Like I said by some people children musical, some children mathematical.
Right from birth they have that inclination that comes from there. So remembering the past life, it stays in the mind itself. But the mind is like a, we could say an ocean of information.
Like I have my computer. On my computer I may have hundreds of GB of data. But only a small amount of data will appear in my computer screen.
One page from one document. So like that the mind, the causal body, it contains, we could say a huge amount of impressions over there. But only a few of them pop up in our mind.
But what is in the background also shapes. Whatever apps are there in my computer, whatever software, it shapes the way the computer functions. Similarly, all the subconscious impressions that are there, which we have accumulated for many lifetimes, they shape the way we function in this lifetime.
Any other questions or comments? Yes. So we may hear about people’s reincarnation. And still it’s so easy to forget and live as if we were at that level itself.
Yeah, this is something very interesting. Most of these books that I studied, they talk about significant and sometimes sensational cases of past life memories. But I did some research further to find out, did these kids who remember their past life grow up to become spiritual? Very few of them did.
In fact, one of the most interesting thing I found was of a person named William Barnes. William Barnes claimed to be the reincarnation of one of the key designers of the Titanic, whose name was Thomas Andrews. And when the Titanic sank, Black, who had been the main financer and organiser, he blamed Andrews.
That he did not design the ship properly. And that’s why it sank. Now William Barnes gave a detailed account of how the ship sank.
And he gave one of the most satisfactory explanations of why the Titanic sank so fast. The ship’s hull was made largely of metal. And that’s why it was touted as a ship that even God can’t see.
Now William Barnes said that as Thomas Andrews, one day he had been examining the ship before it went off on its maiden voyage. And he used a hammer to hit the hull. And in the hull, a loud noise started resonating all over the ship.
And he got alarmed. He said that we need to thicken the hull further. An impact on the hull is causing resonance.
And if this resonance becomes too forceful, it will cause multiple breakages in the ship. But then Black said that already this voyage is planned. We can’t delay it.
We can’t do any more work on it. Just let’s go. So eventually when it collided with the iceberg, what happened was that the Titanic cracked at multiple places.
To not just one hole. And that’s why it sank before adequate amount of help could come to it. So anyway, point is that William Barnes is convinced and many people who have heard his testimony are also convinced that he was Thomas Andrews.
He has given a good amount of objective evidence. But William Barnes, he has no spiritual interest. His mission of my life is to clear the good name of Thomas Andrews that was spoiled by Black.
So what has happened over here? That one’s spiritual consciousness depends not on one’s recollections but on one’s intentions. I may recollect a previous life but that may not make me spiritual. That may still make me simply correct some wrongs from a previous life.
What we need for spiritual growth is our intention. And how does intention come? It comes primarily by associating with spiritually minded people. Our spiritual inclinations, our spiritual interests, our desires are not just linear.
They are also triangular. Linear means, say, you go to a hotel and we see a delicious looking burger over there. So I want to eat it.
So I see the object and I get it. But, say, the first time I had gone to Australia several years ago. So my host there told me that we want to give you a baklava.
At that time I had never heard of baklava. So I said, maybe later. Then I was taking food with another friend.
And this friend said, please go. And then he was eating baklava and he was eating it. And he was in ecstasy.
I looked at him and said, give me one also. So just hearing or seeing about the baklava did not give me the desire. But when I saw somebody else eating it, then I got the desire.
So the desire is not just linear, it is also triangular. Similarly, our spiritual meditation, we may see a picture of somebody doing yoga or somebody doing meditation. That may or may not trigger our interest.
We hear about some spiritual book of wisdom. That may or may not trigger our interest. Quote reading it.
But if we come and associate with spiritually minded people. Oh, this person, they are also nice people. They are also like me.
But they are also spiritually inclined. What is the spiritual business? I want to know about it. So our spiritual work depends internally on our intention and externally on our association.
So even if we don’t have any recollections, if we just try to have spiritual association, we will grow spiritually. Thank you. Yes, please.
Speaking over here, would you say that our past desires and karmas determine our gender, race as well as our nationality in the next? Do our past karma determine our gender, race, nationality? Yes, definitely. The body that we acquire is like a dress for the soul. It is a reference for the soul.
If I am staying as a tenant in a particular house and my tenancy period expires, I am going to buy a house. Now, which house I get? Two things. One is my interests, my life and second is my budget.
Similarly, when the soul transits from one life to another life, it is like the soul is going from one bodily residence to a new bodily residence. So, which bodily residence will I get? That is determined by the soul’s desires. What does the soul want? And secondly, by its karma.
What does it deserve? How much can it afford? So, when we do, if we consider our, like we have bank balance, where if we invest, it grows, where we spend, it decreases. So, like that we have a karmic balance, which we take from one life to another. So, when we do good actions, that karmic balance grows up.
When we do bad actions, the karmic balance goes down. And this, this balance of karma that we have, of good actions and bad actions, which are accumulated together, that determines what kind of body we will get. And body, which gender’s body it will be, which race, which nationality, which dynasty.
Does reincarnation go on infinitely or is it a finite number? It is not infinite. But how it will go on, it depends on us. It is our desires that power the wheel of reincarnation.
Sometimes you may have seen this image of a big giant wheel, in which the wheel is moving down, round and round. So, like that we go through various species in the cycle of reincarnation, various bodies. What happens to this is our desire.
So, the kind of desires we have, the kind of experiences we want to enjoy, they determine where we go and what we do in this life. And they determine where we go and what we do in the next life also. So, as long as we love the temporary things of this world, till then we will take birth again to enjoy the temporary things.
But how do we learn to love the eternal? And if our love for the eternal becomes greater than the love for the temporary, then we go out of the cycle and we attain the eternal. Now, what exactly is that eternal? That is revealed to different degrees in different traditions. The Bhagavad Gita tradition describes that eternal is all attractive supreme being.
He has infinite presence and infinite light which pervades and permeates all of the world. But along with that light, that absolute is also a person. And that person is all loving and all lovable.
So, the process of Bhakti Yoga is the Yoga of Love. So, in the Yoga of Love, we train ourselves to direct our love towards the eternal. And as we keep practising Bhakti, then our love for the eternal starts increasing more and more.
And if in this life itself we can practise Bhakti and make our love for the eternal greater than the love for the temporary things of this world, then this life itself can be the end of our reincarnation cycle. And we can go beyond reincarnation to eternal life. It’s like somebody may have a tenant in one house, their period expires, they go to another house, they go to another house.
But if somebody saves enough to buy their own house, then they stay there and they don’t have to come out. So like that, if we grow spiritually in terms of developing our love for the spiritual, for the eternal, then we acquire enough credits by which we rise to the spiritual level of reality. And that’s how the cycle of reincarnation ends.
Thank you. Yes? If we take a path of transcendence, does it reduce our karmic reactions or does it give us strength to face our karmic reactions? Both. Actually, our past karma comes to us at four levels.
One is the very body that we have got. Some of us may have a sickly body, some of us may have a healthy body. Some of us may be born in a wealthy family, some of us may not be born in such a wealthy family.
So it’s like all of us have got a particular car. And this car is not going to change. This body is the body that I’ll have throughout my life.
I can change it a little bit through exercise, through fitness or through health or whatever. But in a major way, I can’t change it. So that is one instalment of karma that is going to be unchanging no matter what happens.
But what I do with the body? I got a vehicle. I can use that vehicle and drive recklessly and hurt myself or land myself in jail. Or I can drive irresponsibly and get to a safe destination.
So what we do with our body is up to us. Now, what we do in our life depends on two things. One is our knowledge and second is our determination.
So when we have no knowledge of life’s spiritual dimension, then we’ll just live materialistically. So spiritual growth, our spiritual journey begins with acquiring spiritual knowledge. And then sometimes even if we know something is the right thing to do, but still we get impelled by our desires to act wrongly.
So spiritual growth changes that. So why are we impelled to act wrongly? Like I said, there’s Bollywood popping up even if I type Bhagavad Gita. That’s the impressions from the past.
So when we start going spiritually, then these unwanted impressions, which push us in particular directions, they become weaker. And our willpower becomes stronger. By which, at an internal level, our tendency to do actions which will aggravate our karmic situation increases.
Then at an external level, certain bad things will happen to us. But those bad things can themselves be minimised. That means, the purpose of karma is not retribution.
The purpose of karma is reformation. The point is not that you did this, so you have to get this. The point is for us.
So suppose somebody has done some crime and they are put in jail. They may get a sentence of 10 years. But if they behave very well in the jail, the sentence may be reduced to just 5 years.
Sometimes, if they behave very well, then the sentence may be cleared also completely. So like that, one of the great modern saints of the Bhakti tradition, Srila Prabhupada, he would explain that, suppose we might, by our past karma, meant to go through an accident where our neck might be cut. But we might end up with, we are cutting some vegetable and our finger gets cut.
So that cutting happens, but it’s a relatively minor cut. So the karmic reaction that is going to come, that will come but it will get significantly minimised. And lastly, even the reaction that comes, if our capacity to tolerate increases, then we can end it over there.
Yes, okay, this reaction comes. If in panic, in anger, I have a knee jerk reaction to it, I aggravate the situation. So our inner capacity to tolerate also increases.
And that’s how, through knowledge, through inner transformation, through minimisation of the reaction, and through increased tolerance to the reaction, we create, spiritual knowledge helps us, spiritual practise helps us, helps us to create a bright future for ourselves. Any last questions? Yes, please. So how is mindfulness related to path and reincarnation? Our mind and its tendencies are what we have acquired from our previous lives.
So some of us may be short-tempered, some of us may be pessimistic, some of us may be optimistic, some of us may be even-tempered. Now this can be a result of our upbringing, it can be a result of our association, but some of it is also a result of our past life’s karma. That is the kind of impressions that are there in our mind.
Now the impressions, we could say they create certain inclinations. See this floor, if this floor were inclined in a particular way, if it’s inclined this way, if water falls on the floor, then naturally the water will move in that direction. Now if I have got some electronic items there, I don’t want water to go there.
But still, if the water falls, it will move in that direction. So similarly, we all have certain inclinations. We could say our mental floor is inclined based on the impressions there.
And as soon as we have some idle time and we are not doing something, immediately our thoughts start flowing in that direction. So if I happen to be a worrier, then normally now psychologists have found, when do we worry the most? Do all of us have a daily worry time? Evening 7 to 7.30, I am going to worry. It’s not like that.
We don’t have a worry time. At one level, we could say worrying is like a background noise that is always there. But it doesn’t trouble us so much.
It is when we have nothing to do. Maybe our whole day is over, now we are relaxed, we want to be in leisure. Or we are doing some activity that does not require engagement of our mind.
We are doing some physical activity where mind is idle. So when we have free time, our mind works overtime. It works overtime.
It says this problem, that problem, this person did like this, they did like that. So basically, the flickering nature of the mind is because of the past impressions within it. And where it will flicker, in what direction, that is determined by the particular kind of impressions that might be there.
So for some people it might be worry, some people it might be resentment, some people it could be revenge. Now, this is determined by our past karma. But the key thing is, once we understand that our existence is three level, that I am not my body and I am not even my mind.
I am different from it. Once we understand this, that knowledge itself empowers us. If I imagine, let’s say, I talk about inner screen.
Now this inner screen, you could imagine that there are many windows open on it. Say I am working on writing some article. And suddenly, some pop-up comes up.
Software update available. Do you want to update? Now, yes, no, remind me later. I will look at it.
I will say, okay, I am doing something important. Remind me later. But sometimes, if some pop-ups come up, which are such that changes by default are on yes.
And within 30 seconds, we don’t click it on no, it will just go on. Or if you sometimes visit some pirating website or something like that, then a pop-up comes up and you can’t see any cross anywhere. Where do I cross it? Just there.
Just there on the screen. So basically, on our inner screen, what pops up is determined by our past karma. Past karma means it can be previous life or even this life.
But we can choose whether to focus on it or not. That means if I am doing a particular work and suddenly something pops up, I may want to minimise it. I can just drag it aside.
Okay, pop-up there. Spiritual understanding helps us to become an observer of our emotions. Observer of our thoughts.
And then when we observe, then we can process them. Okay, do I need to act on this right now? Or I don’t need to act. So the Bhagavad Gita says that become a detached observer.
So in English, there are two words. There is uninterested and there is disinterested. Uninterested means one who has no interest in the subject only.
But disinterested means one who has vested interests. One who is neutral, impartial. So we need to become a disinterested observer of our inner screen.
So there is some sports like cricket or baseball. And in cricket, the players appeal. How’s that? Is that player out? Is the batsman out? Now in the left leaning, the umpire has to evaluate the appeal.
The umpire needs to be disinterested, not uninterested. If the players appeal, how’s that? And the umpire says, I was not watching the match. What? What are you doing over there? You have to watch the match.
But just because the players are appealing, that does not mean the umpire has to say, they’re out. The umpire has to process. Is this appeal valid? Not valid.
No, not out there. So similarly, when we gain spiritual knowledge, and not just theoretically, but if we do spiritual practises, that helps us understand that we are different from our mind. And then when certain things pop up in the mind, then we can evaluate them.
We become like umpire. Okay, I’m feeling angry. So anger has popped up.
Or negativity has popped up. So do I need to act on it or no? We can evaluate that. Now for some things, it’ll be easy to do it.
For some stimuli, it’s very difficult. Like sometimes comes the yes option, it’s within five seconds you have to click no. Otherwise it just goes off and starts installing whatever is there.
So basically for all of us, stimulus and response. So these two things are there. Say right now you’re sitting, and suddenly the temperature goes down.
So when the stimulus of the temperature goes down, then maybe we wear other cloth. That’s the response. So now, the stronger an impression, that means the stronger the habit or the conditioning, that means lesser is the distance between the stimulus and the response.
When somebody, say, has never drunk alcohol, and then they pass by a bar. Not that I’m drinking. The stimulus is there.
But there’s no response. I’m not interested. Somebody is a habitual alcoholic, and they pass by the bar.
As soon as they pass by the bar, they don’t pass by the bar, they pass into the bar. Why? Stimulus, response, together. I think Mark Twain said that, giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.
I have done it over a hundred times. So what happens, when we’re habituated to something, the stimulus and the response get tied together. And it’s almost instinctive.
It’s instantaneous, rather. The stimulus comes and the response happens. But as we become more and more spiritual, we can create a greater and greater distance between the stimulus and the response.
So like, I see a strange look in my boss’ eyes. And immediately, my mind starts showing me a horror movie. I get worried, I get panicky.
But then, as I become more spiritual, I understand that his inner screen is different from me. Okay, this is what has happened. Okay, what exactly is the problem? What exactly is the problem? I use an acronym called FEAR.
F-E-A-R to deal with the unwanted stimuli that come in the mind. F is FOCUS. FOCUS means when, say, fear comes in, we start getting worried.
What exactly is the problem? FOCUS. Oh no, my boss, look at my boss. What exactly is the problem? Okay, the problem is my boss may fire me.
Okay, what exactly is the problem? Okay, the problem is that, now I’ve got this job, I’ve got to do this assignment. If I don’t do it, my boss may fire me. Okay, the problem is, I need to do this assignment well.
So, FOCUS, FOCUS. If we just ask, what exactly is the problem? Ask it again and again, we can get the inner screen to focus. Then E is ENGAGE.
ENGAGE means, what can I do about it right now? And this may go wrong, that may go wrong. What can I do about it right now? Okay, I’ve got to do this assignment, let me do it. Then ENGAGE.
As soon as we do these two things, FOCUS and ENGAGE, that brings the inner screen back to the present. We are looking at the situation as it is, and we are doing something about it. A large amount of the negativity within the mind, will go down just by these two things.
FOCUS and ENGAGE. But third A is ARISE. ARISE means, with spiritual knowledge, I raise my consciousness upwards.
Like I told a story of this, my friend who went to a higher level, ARISE. So, we try to remind ourselves of our spirituality, we try to practise some deep breathing, practise some yoga, chant some mantras, by which we raise our consciousness upwards. And that gives us security, that gives us strength.
And then R is RELEASE. RELEASE means that in our life, some things are in our control, and some things are not in our control. And there is actually a great power in letting go of the things that are not in our control.
We may think that releasing is actually a sign of weakness. Oh, no. But when things are not in our control, when we let go of those things, then we can catch hold of our thoughts and focus them on what is in our control.
And this releasing becomes easier when we understand that there is a higher plan and a higher purpose to life. Like I talked earlier about we being finite consciousness and there is an infinite consciousness beyond. So, that infinite consciousness has a plan for all of us.
Normally, material consciousness has two options. Either things are in my control or things are out of my control. But when we have spiritual consciousness, then we understand that things that are out of my control are not out of control.
There is a plan. And what that plan is, how it will work out, that I may not know right now. But release.
If I just let go, then that helps us to calm down, to focus. Maybe I’ll just tell one story about this. I was planning to tell it in the class.
I said I’ll tell two stories. This was, I had, when I came to America last year, I was at an airport. I was at Denver.
Actually, I was going from Denver to another city. So, at that time, suddenly there was a loud alarm. And then, before I understood what was happening, there were six security personnel pointing their guns at me.
I said, what happened? They said that my crutches, when they were going through the security system, they signalled a high explosive limit. So, they said, we’ll have to frisk you in a special chamber and we’ll have to frisk all your luggage. I said, okay.
I said, the crutches don’t have anything in it. He said, no. Then they started looking.
One of them said that we’ll have to break the crutches. Because we have to see what is inside. I said, if you break the crutches, how will I walk? Maybe one of them had a quarrel at home or something.
He said, that’s not my problem. So, I just became, initially I was just annoyed, but I started getting alarmed. And then, I study the Bhagavad Gita regularly, I read the Bhagavad Gita regularly.
So, I like to recite the Gita’s verses. So, somehow at that time, as I was becoming panicky, suddenly the thought came in my mind that there’s a verse in the Gita which says that there is this ईश्वर सर्वभुथाना व्रत्ते चेयर्जिनतिष्टते ब्रामयन सर्वभुथाने यंत्रारूडानिमायया that we are all wandering, but there is a Supreme who is guiding our wanderings. And we are on a bodily machine, which is directed ultimately by that Supreme.
So, as I started reciting that verse, suddenly that thought came in me that I have travelled through so many countries, so many cities, in each of those journeys, so many things could have gone wrong. But, I have survived through it all. If I go backwards, I am a soul, I have gone through so many lifetimes, so many things could have gone wrong.
But still, things have worked out. So, now also things will work out. So, I just prayed, and let thy will be done.
I just let go. As soon as I did this, I just started feeling calm. And, at that time, another security person came.
He said, what’s going on? This person explained, he said, I’ll take care of this. And then he took my crutches, and he said, actually, your crutches are openable. Can you open them? I said, sure.
Anything is better than breaking the crutches. And they opened the crutches. Then, before coming to America, I had gone to a sacred place called Vrindavan, for taking blessings, before coming on this tour.
So, there, there’s a sacred river, which unfortunately has become very polluted. So, when I was walking on the banks of that river, the tips, the rubber padding that was there below my crutches, that had come off. And, the soil from the bank had got accumulated inside the pipe of the crutches.
And, because that was polluted, so that had high metal content in it. And, that was a little explosive. So, they opened it.
They said, what is this? I said, what does it look like? He said, it’s dirt. Yeah, obviously, what else came from there? I said, what is it doing over there? He said, it’s just pulling out the dirt. And, he looked at it, looked at it.
He said, this is dirt only. They brought that device, put it in. Simple dirt.
They said, you go home and clean your crutches. You can go now. So, I didn’t even know that there was any dirt inside it.
So, it got accumulated. So, at that particular time, when I was just panicky, he said, release. So, let go.
And, we do that. So, focus, engage, arise and release. If we do these four things, many of our mental health issues, we can substantially decrease the agitation and increase our focus on yoga.
Thank you very much for your attention and participation. I hope that you have already begun the yoga journey. And, you can expand your ambit of yoga and find more and more of spiritual experience and spiritual elevation in your lives.
Thank you very much. Thank you. So, two of the best places you can focus on your practise