God Is Your Biggest Currency

What if they both become the same? God is the biggest currency. If you have God with you, you have everything else.
Some people think money is God, money is everything for them. We are made up of both - matter and spirit. While our body requires amino acid, carbohydrates, proteins and all that; our consciousness, our mind is made up of happiness, love, caring, awareness, intelligence etc. You cannot ask, do you want this or that, you need both, right? When you watch TV, do you see or hear first? It has to be simultaneous. Similarly, you need some wealth to live in this world, to maintain yourself in the world, but money is not everything. If you have ideals, goals, you will see that money comes by itself -- that is pursuing God. Suppose you want to do some big service activity, when you move in that direction, you will find that you get help from every corner. Help will come from the most unexpected corners.

You cannot bring them up in isolation, some day they will be exposed to the world and then it would be shocking for them. All we need to do is balance the negativity in the world with positive things. Talk to them about compassion, about heroic people. It is possible for us to balance all the negative horrible things with good and beautiful things.

People resist change because they are afraid that they would lose something precious, or the change could bring about a disaster for them. But if you communicate to them that the change would make them better, they would definitely take it. Nobody dislikes climbing up the ladder. People do want something positive, more happiness or whatever. What we need to do is to communicate better with them, speak in their language, and explain that the change will make things better. It will take some time, it cannot happen overnight, it takes some persuasion but it does happen.

I feel we need to drive change from both ends -- we need the top down and bottom up approach. If you ask the people at senior levels, they will say, "What can I do? If we try to do something, people resist. What to do?"
Suppose the head of a religion wants to bring about a change, but he faces enormous resistance from the bottom. You need to work on both, have a top-down and bottom-up approach.

We need to secularize religion, socialize business and spiritualize politics. When I say spiritualize politics, I mean that every politician should see his job as a service activity and not as a job per se. E.g., during the time of Mahatma Gandhi, he and all the other people took to politics as a service to society.
When I say secularize religion, I mean that every religious head should pray for the whole population and not people of his community only, which means he should respect all the other religions. And socialize business means that every business entity should also play a part in developing society.

Sure, we can do something about it. Do you know, depression is the biggest challenge for The World Health Organization (WHO) and possibly the world, in the next 5 years.

Nearly 40% of the school teachers in Europe are depressed, and if teachers are depressed what are they passing on to the kids? It is scary, right; they can only pass on what they have! When we were children, our teachers were so enthusiastic; they pumped enthusiasm in to the kids. They gave us ideas, ideals, more values, and they showed us how to excel in our field. Today when you see teachers who are supposed to be the guiding light of society being depressed, it is very depressing. We cannot feed half the population with prosaic. After a while even that stops working. Here is where you have to teach them life skills, the skill to handle their mind and their negative emotions. And the secret is right under their nose! Using their own breath, they can calm the mind and change how they feel.

You do not have to be a victim of your feelings; you can be the master of your feelings. It is just a matter of education. Yoga is one way; of course, many think yoga is just doing a few exercises, standing on the shoulders or standing on the head, it is not so! Yoga is the rhythm of the breath, and the sensation in the body, and how you feel about yourself. All this comes under the purview of yoga, meditation, life skills and living well programs, and this can help people.

A few centuries ago, not everyone used toothpaste. Dental hygiene was not a common thing. Today, in every corner of the world, people brush their teeth first thing in the morning and the last thing in the night. Similarly, I would say mental hygiene is essential. Learning how to be in the present, keeping your mind fresh and free of all the impressions of the past, anger, jealousy, greed, and seeing life from a broader perspective.

Turn back and see, all the events - pleasant and unpleasant are all gone; there are only traces of memories left in our brain, that’s all. If youth to have an awakened mind or the wakefulness in the mind, it will make a lot of difference.

Thank you! I am so glad! Around 35 years ago, when we started yoga, it was taboo, not a mainstream thing at all. People would think that to do yoga, you have to stand on one leg, or put ashes all over your body. That was the sort of impression about yoga. Today, I am so glad that the United Nations has recognized its value, and 178 countries came forward to approve of the International Yoga Day! Although we have a long way to go, at least yoga has taken the center stage now to combat stress, violence and social ills.

If the intentions are correct but actions are flawed, they must have come under compulsion from someone else. You always act on your intention. If you are unable to act on your intention, it means you are under some pressure from some corner.

And yes, small steps and small actions that you take will help. When your intentions are good, you keep moving in that direction. I usually say intention and attention brings manifestation.