Do the past and future actually exist anywhere other than our minds? And if not, then is time just a theoretical concept created by us? 

Events as energy do exist because energy can never be destroyed. But events as physical happenings do not. The same is true of the mind. In the mind, events exist as memories. 

Memory is nothing but a wavelength or a form of energy. So in this sense, all that has happened in the past does exist. 

Multiple religious scriptures describe the existence of life on other planets. Are they referring to aliens? Did they visit the earth?

Anything is possible. We call them aliens because we have no knowledge about them. You can’t deny the existence of aliens because your knowledge is very limited. There are many planes of existence. 

Our brain is just a frequency analyzer. We only know certain things. Our frequency is very limited. But through meditation, you have the capacity to expand your bandwidth. With meditation, you have access to a broader spectrum of frequencies. 

With the advancement in artificial intelligence, do you think machines can become sentient, like humans? 

If they can, then they’re no longer machines. Then you can say “We’ve created life.” The possibility is always there. 

What is the difference between the brain and the mind, and where do our thoughts originate from? Is thought the primal energy in all of creation and in this universe?

The brain is in one place. But the mind is all over you. Your memory is stored in every part of the body. Every cell has memory. 

We are so alive and it is the mind or consciousness that keeps us so very alive. Consciousness has many functions, including memory, intellect, and perceptual abilities. You call that mind or awareness.

The other aspect of it is when the same consciousness plays the role of decision making, judging, and discriminating. There’s one more aspect of the same consciousness; identity. It identifies itself with something. 

These are the four different aspects of consciousness (memory, intellect, perceptual ability, and identity). The brain is the boom box, but the frequencies that get exhibited are in the mind. 

The brain is located in a physical spot but the mind is all over. It would be wrong to think that those radio waves are only in the boom box. They’re all over the room. In that way, our mind is all over the body. 

As an ophthalmologist, I’ve seen blind children being able to read and identify objects and colors after the Intuition Process (an Art of Living course for children). It is just amazing. Is there a scientific explanation for this phenomenon?

I would leave that to scientists to do more research. It only demonstrates that we are not using 100% of our brain capacity in our normal lives. 

If we train our brain to function differently or train those cognitive aspects of ourselves, we can do many things. We can even see blindfolded. 

Just like how everybody has 10 fingers, but not everyone can play music from those fingers. It’s just a matter of training. 

Every scientific path-breaking research came out of a spark of intuition, followed by logic. Does that mean we have to overcome logic and intuition to realize the ultimate reality? 

In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says, “That which is beyond the buddhi (intellect), is reality.” But to get there, buddhi yoga is necessary. You unite with the intellect. You do not discard it. 

You go to the height of logic and transcend that. You need logic. Unfortunately, people have misunderstood this. They have said, “Something beyond logic means you shun logic.” It’s not shunning logic, but rather not getting stuck in logic. 

To eat pudding you need a spoon. But you can’t chew the spoon. You should take the spoon and use it to put the pudding in your mouth. But if you start chewing the spoon, you’ll have no teeth left. 

Logic is essential to develop scientific knowledge. Both for scientific knowledge and spiritual knowledge logic is essential. But you can’t get stuck in logic. 

This is because logic depends on our previous knowledge. What we call logic is the connectivity of known knowledge. And our knowledge is limited. When we accept that our knowledge is limited, then we have to accept that our logic is also limited. Our logic can’t surpass our knowledge. 

We spend one-third of our lives sleeping. Yet it remains a mystery. What exactly happens to our consciousness when we’re sleeping? 

It’s one of the three states of consciousness that human life goes through—waking, dreaming, and sleeping. Maharishi Patanjali says that knowledge of sleep and dreams can help you to transcend them both. 

Sleep is a mystery and we all experience this mystery without realizing that it’s a mystery. 

Millions of people worldwide are having sleep problems, especially after covid. What can we do to improve the quality of our sleep?

When the mind gets stuck with the events that have happened in the past or superimposes what could happen in the future, then sleeping troubles happen. 

If we can broaden our vision about life, and engage in practices like pranayama, Yoga Nidra, meditation, and Sudarshan Kriya, then we can reduce insomnia and sleep disorders. 

Do parallel worlds exist? People with psychosis experience parallel worlds. How can we help them through spirituality?

People with psychosis are like needles stuck between two radio stations. When you tune in to a station, sometimes you get two stations coming together. You’ll hear the news and music coming through the radio at the same time. 

This is what happens in psychosis. Different realms do exist. You can’t deny the existence of many realms. As I said earlier, our brain is just a frequency analyzer. But psychosis is so different from cognition. 

When you cognize different levels of existence it’s as clear as to how we’re sitting and talking. Psychosis is a mix-up of realities. 

Modern science has established that time runs differently at different points of space because the force of gravity is different. One hour near the black hole could be several days on earth. Is this concept of time running differently also mentioned in ancient Vedic scriptures? 

Very interestingly, yes. This exists in multiple Vedic teachings. For example, it is said that what is one year for us is just one day for the devas, etc. A one hundred year human life is tiny compared to the lifespan of Brahma, which equals 310,000,000,000,000 years.

Read part 1 of this article, here.

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