Bonjour, comment ca va? (Hello, how are you?) It is so nice to be here with you all. I am coming here after nine years; I see many old faces, still with the same smile.
Today evening let us discuss something very dear to us. To discuss something really close to our heart; we need to be in an informal, cordial atmosphere; a formal atmosphere is not congenial.
We exchange many pleasantries in our daily lives. Someone brings you a glass of water, you say, ‘Thank you so much, merci beaucoup’, that beaucoup (very much) has no meaning; isn’t it? Most of our greetings, not all, often come from our lips, not the heart!
When you come out of the airplane, the airhostesses greet you saying, ‘Have a nice day!’ They don’t mean it. But when the same words come from someone close to you, it carries certain vibrations with it. There is a difference between your grandmother or your grandfather wishing you, ‘Have a nice day’, as compared with the same words coming from an airhostess.
Getting upset is normal, but to carry those emotions for months or years together is not normal.
We convey very little through words, we convey more through our vibrations, and each one of us carries a lot of vibrations. It is vibrations that make us become friends or enemies, and it is vibrations that make things happen or not!
We all want to have positive vibrations, but somehow we get caught up in the mind; we get caught up in the past. Then what happens? Our vibrations become negative and stressful. Anger, love, all these emotions are conveyed by our vibrations.
If we live our life at a superficial level, sooner or later, it will lead us into a depression. This is what is happening in society today; 40 percent of the European population is undergoing a depression. This is because neither at home, nor at school, did anyone teach us how to cleanse our vibrations, and how to make them positive.
We are all human beings and emotions play a very important part of our life. If there is no emotion, there is no life. So, how to make our emotions positive, or what is the right emotion? In ancient India, there is a saying that any negative emotion should stay for only as long as a line stays on the surface of water.
I am not saying that you should not get angry, upset or feel jealous; it is okay! You can shout, get angry, be upset, but that should not stay for more than a few minutes; only then it is healthy. Getting upset is normal, but to carry those emotions for months or years together is not normal. You should be like children; have you noticed when children are crying, it takes children just a few minutes to smile back. But as adults, if you have cried, it takes us maybe, one month or two months to bring the smile back; actually, we don’t even know how long!
How is it possible, how can we bring the smile back as quickly as children?
I will tell you a secret! Have you noticed how you feel when someone gives you a lot of compliments, or when you are happy? There is something in you that expands, right? And when you are given an insult, how do you feel? Something in you crashes. This something in you that expands and contracts with every external stimulus, is consciousness. The consciousness or the mind in you has the ability to expand and contract. If you know this, and if you understand and experience this, then nobody can take the smile away from you. In big words, they call this self-realization, but I tell you, it is very simple!
Breathing techniques, meditation, all these are aimed to make our vibrations positive.
Breathing techniques, meditation, all these are aimed to make our vibrations positive.
Have you seen how children see things? When they look at you, their mind is 100 percent there. But if you look at somebody, your mind is thinking about something else. When we kindle the life force in us, we become like children again.
Every child is a yogi; every child does all the yoga aasanas (postures); we have all done it as babies. If you observe a baby from the age of three months up to three years, you won’t need a yoga teacher. Anywhere, any baby, whether it is in Argentina, Mongolia, Japan, China, every child does all the yoga postures, and they breathe differently. The way a child breathes is different from the way an adult breathes; this is because a child is free from stress.
Neither in school, nor at home does anyone teach us how to cleanse our vibrations, how to cleanse our mind, how to be peaceful. Don’t you think this education is necessary?
If you go to the Amazon forest where the tribal people live in Africa, you will find that they never brush their teeth, because they have never learnt it; so many of them have very few teeth. We were all taught to brush our teeth; this is dental hygiene; it is part of our culture. Similarly, we need to learn mental hygiene, i.e., meditation. We must teach our population how to get rid of all the anger, greed, jealousy, and hatred from our mind. It is through breathing, meditation that we can keep ourselves lively, loving, caring, compassionate, and intelligent. What do meditation and the spiritual practices do? They bring out the four ‘I’s - innovation, intuition, inspiration and intelligence.
One thing about doubt; as human beings we always assume and we always get doubts. It is good to get doubts. As I am speaking, you are hearing, and in the mind you say, ‘No, I disagree, how can that be?' Or you say, 'Yes, I agree'. A dialogue is happening inside, and that is the intellect.
You need to understand something about the nature of doubt. Doubt is always about something that is positive; you doubt someone’s honesty, you never doubt their dishonesty.
Have you realized this? We don’t doubt dishonesty? If someone tells you, ‘I love you very much’, you ask them, ‘Really?’ But if someone says, ‘I hate you’, you never say ‘Really?’ Our doubt is always about something positive.
If someone asks you, ‘Are you happy?’ You would say, ‘Well, I don’t know.’ You doubt happiness. If someone asks, ‘Are you depressed?’ You are very sure about you depression. Even if the doctor says, ‘You are not depressed’, you will say, ‘No, no, the doctor does not know, I am depressed!’ We doubt our happiness, but we never doubt our depression.
That which reverses this tendency of holding on to the negative, to becoming positive, is yoga and spirituality.
When we get stuck with something in life, often we remain stuck in a position; it is the intellect that gets stuck, and this is called prejudice. Similarly, the memory tends to hold on to the negative. If you are given ten compliments and one insult, what do you hold on to? You forget all the ten compliments and hold on to one negative thing. You need to reverse this; that which reverses this tendency of holding on to the negative, to becoming positive, is yoga and spirituality.
So, the memory tends to hold on to something negative. But that is not the case with children; they live in the present moment. We can reorient our mind; reorient our brains, to be in the present moment. We can become very creative, and very happy. A violence-free society, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and sorrow-free soul is the birth right of every individual.
(You must be thinking why is Gurudev not looking this side? (Pointing towards people sitting in the balcony) Right? How many of you thought like that? See, we get the thought vibes. This mind of ours is a fantastic instrument. We are connected with everybody; all of us are connected; we are all part of one organism, one human mind. There is a big mind which puts together all these small minds, one big mind; it is amazing!)
