Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

'Gurudev' Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a spiritual leader, humanitarian, and peace ambassador. In 1981, he founded the Art of Living Foundation, introducing meditation, yoga, and the Sudarshan Kriya breathing technique through programs now offered in more than 180 countries. In 1997, he co-founded the International Association for Human Values to support humanitarian and peacebuilding initiatives. He has participated in conflict-resolution efforts in regions including Colombia, Iraq, Kashmir, and Côte d'Ivoire, while speaking at institutions such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum, and the European Parliament. He is also the author of numerous books on meditation, spirituality, and personal well-being, including An Intimate Note to the Sincere Seeker. ------ Thank you to the sponsors that fuel our podcast and our team: AG1 https://DrinkAG1.com/tetra ------ Athletic Nicotine https://www. AthleticNicotine.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ LMNT Electrolytes https://DrinkLMNT.com/tetra Use code 'TETRA' ------ Lectio 365 https://Lectio365.com ------ Sign up to receive Tetragrammaton Transmissions https://www.tetragrammaton.com/join-newsletter

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:24Speaker 00

  This planet always had some peaceful places, peaceful times.

• 0:32Speaker 00

  It's not that the whole planet was being disturbed at one point of time. Maybe during Covid, even then, there were places where there has been peace. Like there is day somewhere on the earth and night somewhere else. Like that peace and disturbance have been part of this existence from a long time.

• 0:57Speaker 00

  In the recorded history, I hear about just 285 years were without any war or recorded conflicts. But conflicts are also part of life.

• 1:12Rick Rubin?

  Is sitting practice the best thing that we can do is that number one?

• 1:19Speaker 00

  Sitting, meditation is essential. I would say it's essential. Once you are well into practices, if you have practiced meditation for a long period of time, then whether you lie down, you are walking, you are talking, that serenity or meditation goes with you. It stays with you.

• 1:46Rick Rubin?

  So if you practice enough, the feeling permeates you all the time?

• 1:50Speaker 00

  Absolutely. It's just your vibration turns into that space and then you create joy. You don't say, “Oh, this is bringing me joy,” but you are the source of joy.

• 2:04Rick Rubin?

  Do you feel that from the practice you've done and from the state that you're in, that you can see a change in people when you're with them?

• 2:15Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's obvious.

• 2:18Rick Rubin?

  How has your relationship to practice changed over the course of your life?

• 2:23Speaker 00

  Well, from my childhood, I have been in this sort of space, which I have from a very young age.

• 2:33Speaker 00

  So, it's not just some moment that happened that I completely shifted, nothing like that.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  But of course, I took some silence retreats and I myself went into silence for 10 days. And then when I came out of silence, I started teaching, then the breathing technique came. Those things happened, but meditation was like fish to water for me, natural.

• 3:01Rick Rubin?

  Tell me about the benefits of being in silence.

• 3:06Speaker 00

  You know, it consolidates yourself in ways that you can't even explain. You know, you'll be able to hear the noise in your own mind. And then, you know, the mind becomes like a laser beam, very sharp and focused. So, it's very beneficial. I would say silence is the mother of all creativity. See, suppose you want to write a music or write some lyrics, or a poem or anything, you need a quiet place, right? You can't come up with a creative idea in a noisy place.

• 3:47Rick Rubin?

  No.

• 3:47Speaker 00

  See, now you are in a beautiful, quiet place. So that your creativity finds an expression. And so silence is necessary for creative, productive activity.

• 4:03Rick Rubin?

  What would be a suggestion for those who have trouble being in silence and feel they're not comfortable being with themselves?

• 4:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, that would happen. That's why you need a teacher.

• 4:16Rick Rubin?

  Yeah.

• 4:16Speaker 00

  Someone who is experienced, who can just hand-hold you through that journey. See, even to learn swimming, you need a coach. If you know that there is a lifeguard standing on the swimming pool, you would just jump without any fear or anxiety. So, same way, silence for the first time may be rattling. It may be very confusing.

• 4:45Speaker 00

  So if there is a person who has experienced the deep silence and is sitting with you, it becomes so easy for you to get into that silent space.

• 4:56Rick Rubin?

  Beautiful.

• 4:57Speaker 00

  Because we are all just energies and we transfer energy with each other, we exchange. So silence is also one such high-volt energy that can bring about transformation in people's life. Yeah.

• 5:15Speaker 00

  More than word silence can be, it's a lot.

• 5:19Rick Rubin?

  Really?

• 5:19Speaker 00

  Yeah. I don't speak much.

• 5:26Rick Rubin?

  Would you recommend that most people starting off meditate for the same amount of time? Or is it different for different people?

• 5:35Speaker 00

  Yeah, a general thing is about 20 minutes, half an hour. It's good to begin with, yeah. It's not the amount of time, but it's the intensity with the meditation moves in you. That's more important.

• 5:50Rick Rubin?

  Have you noticed the difference in the outcome when someone meditates by themselves versus meditating together in a big group of people?

• 5:59Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, they have qualitative differences there. They both are needed for an individual. Sometimes a group meditation and that can uplift our spirit, our energy, our field. It creates a field of magnetic energy that makes it easy for you to go deep in. And other times, it's good to be by yourself and meditate alone. They both have their own benefits and both are necessary.

• 6:30Rick Rubin?

  Are there many opportunities to meditate with other people?

• 6:34Speaker 00

  Oh yeah. We do create in Art of Living, we have full moon meditations, we have group meditations very often.

• 6:43Rick Rubin?

  Beautiful.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  Almost everywhere. We open our meditation session to everyone to come and join.

• 6:51Rick Rubin?

  Tell me about Vedic astrology.

• 6:56Speaker 00

  Vedic astrology is one of the most ancient astrology. I mean, you know, it's startling to see how to the minute and second, the calculation that was done from thousands of years ago, holds good even for today. If you have seen the Vedic Almanac, they call it the Panchang, exact time of eclipse, exact time of transition of planets, all are calculated and mentioned, are given. And so, the mathematics in that is so exact, and so also the knowledge that comes about,

• 7:39Speaker 00

  predictions and the nature of a person. Astrology gives you a roadmap, it's like a GPS of life. It should not be mistaken as a fatalistic science. It's not fatalistic, it is futuristic. It gives you an opportunity, tells you what all you can do, what all your possibilities, what would be the pitfalls that may be. So, it helps one to manage and steer your life through that.

• 8:16Rick Rubin?

  Do you have any idea how they figured it out?

• 8:20Speaker 00

  You know, this is all part of the Vedic wisdom, the knowledge, which was all downloaded, actually it's not someone who received, who wrote by their intellect, but something that they recognized, that came to them in vision, that came to them as a premonition or... In the modern language, you can say they downloaded it. So, Vedic astrology and also same with Ayurveda. Just imagine, so long back ago, they could see which herb and what are the combinations which would suit for a particular part of your body. What's good for your liver or kidney or spleen or pancreas.

• 9:05Speaker 00

  I mean, this is startling science.

• 9:09Speaker 00

  The research, if you go on research also, it may take you maybe several centuries to find out all this. Wow. Materia medica. And it's all in poems. Most interesting is the only materia medica which is in poetry form is in Ayurveda. So, from the Vedic wisdom, there are four subordinate Vedas. In that comes Ayurveda and Vastu. About architecture, about music. How different sounds can impact your moods. This is on Gandharva Veda. And then on the subordinate limb, and the limbs of Vedas, you have Jyotish, the astrology.

• 9:53Speaker 00

  So in astrology, it's deeply connected with mantras, sounds. And what sound vibration would dilify what negative impact for you? And what are the impact of the macrocosm and the microcosm? So this connection between the microcosm and macrocosm is so well explained in astrology.

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• 12:40Rick Rubin?

  How different does a mantra function if it's sung out loud versus if it's repeated internally?

• 12:51Speaker 00

  Certain mantras are good to repeat inside. It has to be kept within yourself when you get initiation. These mantras are helpful in taking your mind deep into meditation. Otherwise, there's a lot, many other mantras which you're chanting loud and listening to them. They create a feel of vibration. That's good, that's good.

• 13:18Rick Rubin?

  Can you remember the first time you had a feeling of transcendence?

• 13:25Speaker 00

  As I said, you know, it was there for me from very, very childhood. So, I couldn't pinpoint one time, "Oh, I had this wow experience."

• 13:36Rick Rubin?

  How did you come to it in childhood?

• 13:39Speaker 00

  We were here many lifetimes before, you know?

• 13:44Rick Rubin?

  Did you seek it out, or was it given to you?

• 13:50Speaker 00

  As far as I remember, I never sought for anything. And I, you know, I didn't go searching for anything.

• 13:58Rick Rubin?

  Were your family members also practitioners?

• 14:02Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course. My mother is a mother, my parents. It was in the family, the mantras and the puja, they were all doing. They were quite, in that sense, quite steeped in it.

• 14:20Rick Rubin?

  I read that early in life, you spent some time with Maharishi.

• 14:23Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 14:23Rick Rubin?

  Can you tell me about that?

• 14:25Speaker 00

  It was so wonderful that in my young age, in my teenage, I spent my time with all great saints and sejas of India. Now that I'm older, now I'm spending time with young people.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  Yeah. Maharishi was such a wonderful being to be with him. For something, yeah.

• 14:51Rick Rubin?

  How would you say the different saints of that period of time were similar and different from each other?

• 14:59Speaker 00

  You know, there is one common thread between everyone of them. That is wisdom and serenity and love, and that was it. But their expressions were different.

• 15:12Speaker 00

  So many had different type of expression. Maharishi was very scientific outlook and he was very sensitive to the Western society and Western needs. And there are others who are very traditional and different, yeah. But it's more than what one speaks, it's the vibration.

• 15:35Rick Rubin?

  I see.

• 15:36Speaker 00

  It's a vibration. That's, that's something nobody can deny, and it's so beautiful, yeah.

• 15:42Rick Rubin?

  Are the new discoveries different understandings of ancient practices? Or they're actually new methods?

• 15:51Speaker 00

  You know, Lord Krishna says, you know, "The ancient path is like a walkway, is like a trail." You know, trail sometimes gets covered, but then, when you clear the trail, it is both new and old.

• 16:09Rick Rubin?

  I see.

• 16:11Speaker 00

  So, nature reveals itself to, you know, time to time what is needed for that time. And everyone else is just an instrument for nature to play its game.

• 16:22Rick Rubin?

  How important is spending time in nature?

• 16:26Speaker 00

  One has to be within one's own nature, one's true nature. And of course, everything is part of nature only. You must realize that.

• 16:39Rick Rubin?

  I know that when I spend time on the beach, with the ocean, I feel different than the nature of a big city.

• 16:48Speaker 00

  Yeah, that's, that's fine. You may feel that way. But a point comes in life where nothing makes a difference to you, wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Even the most noisy place can sound musical to you. If your mind is in, in the self, if you are centered, noisy place also doesn't matter to you. And if you are disturbed, even this so beautiful, nice place also will be very disturbing and lonely. So it all depends on us, how we feel, how the feelings come around.

• 17:31Rick Rubin?

  Tell me about the art of living training.

• 17:35Speaker 00

  Art of living is just seeing life from a broader perspective in context of time and space.

• 17:46Speaker 00

  And learning about the seven layers, we are a little bit knowledge about seven layers. The body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego, and then the self that is, which is beyond the ego. So, a little bit understanding, a glimpse of these, but bring a huge transformation. And this we do with the little breathing techniques and a little bit of meditation and all that together. And some techniques, you know, of broadening our consciousness, our awareness. And it has helped people all over the world, yeah.

• 18:28Speaker 00

  I, I only see this as a, as a gift that has come to this generation, which does not have so much time or patience to pursue any spiritual practices, you know. These people are in such a hurry, they have to do so many things. They want everything very quick. And this is something in a short period of time opens up those doors and removes the cobwebs around the mind, which causes so much anxiety, tension, sleeplessness and all that. So physically it is helping. We have number of programs. And first, this is a basic program is one thing.

• 19:11Speaker 00

  Because like in our days, we used to spend many years to learn something. A spiritual journey was not one or two days matter. It's for months together you have to do the practices. So today, nobody has neither patience nor the time or resources. So they need things in a short form. So a little bit glimpse into it. What, what would help them to be healthy, happy here is the basic programs we do. And then for advanced seekers, then you have, take them through a four-day, five-day silence retreat.

• 19:54Speaker 00

  And then deeper, you know, on as programs on at various levels, where you get the ability to bless others. You get so centered, and then you become a blesser. You will be able to help people, to heal them from their physical ailments, mental traumas, and bring a smile on others' face. And it's very gratifying for people. And when you are able to be of help to people around you, you feel such a sense of purpose in life and satisfaction. This is what people are looking for, you see? If you ask people, everyone says, "What is the purpose of my life?" Life becomes really meaningless

• 20:39Speaker 00

  if it is only self-centered. But if our life is useful to everybody, you don't even feel the time.

• 20:47Rick Rubin?

  For most people, even the glimpse is enough to change their lives, would you say?

• 20:53Speaker 00

  Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. See, we are teaching this program in the prisons around the world. More than 800,000 prisoners around the world have undergone the program. And you must listen to their experiences, their testimonies. It just moves you. And same with the inner-city gang members and the antisocial people who were, people used to go with their guns and keep shooting. Those sort of people with criminal and tendencies, violent tendencies, there are huge change

• 21:36Speaker 00

  in their whole outlook towards life. These are some of the very important things that indicate to us, "Look, the knowledge can bring transformation." Just a little bit of knowledge is good enough to bring a beautiful change in life.

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• 23:34Rick Rubin?

  Would you say you're the same person you were when you were a child?

• 23:39Speaker 00

  Yeah, keep saying that I am a child who refuses to grow up. Do you know English is more close to Sanskrit than other languages, Hindi or other languages?

• 23:52Rick Rubin?

  I didn't know that.

• 23:53Speaker 00

  Yeah. It will be startling the months, names of the month. That's all in English. They are on Sanskrit actually.

• 24:01Rick Rubin?

  Really?

• 24:02Speaker 00

  You are to you are saying December, you are saying October and then November, December these months we say they are all Sanskrit names. This Ambhar means the tenth sky. Ambhar means sky. Dash means ten. Dashambhar means tenth sky. November means ninth sky. October means eighth sky. September. Sapta Ambhar, seventh sky. So, March was supposed to be the new year, the spring. So, March is new first year. February is the fagend of the year. The last month of the year. So, new year should begin in March actually.

• 24:48Speaker 00

  With the spring solitude.

• 24:51Rick Rubin?

  So, spring is actually when the cycle starts?

• 24:54Speaker 00

  When the cycle starts, exactly. That was like that till 500 years back when a king of England decided to have the new year celebrated in January because he was born in January. And then, see, all the verbs that we have in English like go. It's Sanskrit, Gama. Gaba means go. Kacha is go. Organs of the body, hand, heart, hastha. Nasika, nose. Danta, dental.

• 25:32Speaker 00

  Heart, hirdaya. You see, English is eighty percent in Sanskrit.

• 25:37Rick Rubin?

  Wow, it's an unknown fact. It's very interesting.

• 25:41Speaker 00

  Yeah, like daughter, in Hindi, daughter means beti. But in Sanskrit is duhita. Duhita is close to daughter, not beti. Like sutta, son. Beta is so far away from Sanskrit, beta in Hindi. So, if you compare Hindi and English, English is more close to Sanskrit.

• 26:03Rick Rubin?

  Wow, and Sanskrit's older, yes?

• 26:05Speaker 00

  Older, yeah, much older.

• 26:08Rick Rubin?

  Wow, I wonder how that came to be?

• 26:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, swasa, sister.

• 26:13Speaker 00

  So, I mean, I can go on and on and on. Sanskrit is not foreign to English. Sanskrit is the mother of English language.

• 26:21Rick Rubin?

  Wow.

• 26:23Speaker 00

  So, anyone who is thinking Sanskrit is a foreign language,

• 26:25Rick Rubin?

  Yes.

• 26:26Speaker 00

  you are making a blunder. Because you are disowning your own mother.

• 26:30Rick Rubin?

  Wow.

• 26:30Speaker 00

  The mother of English is Sanskrit.

• 26:33Rick Rubin?

  Tell me about physical practice and breath work.

• 26:37Speaker 00

  We have the three dimensions. The physical body and then the breath, the prana, and then the mind. So, breath work or prana is the link between the mind and the body. So, doing breathing exercise is a way to have a say over the mind and the body also. So, it's very useful and very helpful. The first act of our life is we took a deep breathing. Then we started crying. We couldn't cry without the breath in, right? The last act of life is we breathe out.

• 27:19Speaker 00

  So, throughout the life, we keep breathing, but we never pay attention to our breath. So, for every emotion, there is a particular rhythm in the breath. This is what I've been talking like the last half a century. How breath is so important to have a say over your mind. And it's a way for your spirit to, expression of our spirit. And the breathing exercise can enhance the vibrations in your body and in your mind. And that is what consciousness is all about. Consciousness is just the vibrations.

• 28:04Speaker 00

  And it doesn't take too much time to learn about it. Just a few hours, you can learn about different rhythms of the breath and what impact it has in what part of the body. See, when you are happy, you breathe different. When you are upset, you breathe different. So, if you are in a bad mood, you don't have to wait for time to turn around. Your breath can help you to get out of your bad mood in no time. So, it's one of the ignored dimension.

• 28:38Speaker 00

  That's what we are bringing up in our kapalini.

• 28:42Speaker 00

  We're giving prominence, making people aware how important it is.

• 28:47Rick Rubin?

  I imagine the speed of the breath, how fast, how deep, and where you place it in the body.

• 28:54Speaker 00

  Yeah, there is rhythm in the breath. When you're happy, your inhalation is deeper and exhalation is not so deep. When you're frustrated, your exhalation is prominent. And there are rhythms in the breath, if you observe. And the breath changes from the left nostril to right nostril. There is a lot about it. And even knowing a little bit about our breath can help us to be more independent. Independent of our own emotions, our, you know, physical comfort or discomfort. We'll be able to manage many things. Heat or cold and,

• 29:39Speaker 00

  you know, how to feel warm from inside, how to feel that. Yeah, there are many, many possibilities out there.

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• 31:25Rick Rubin?

  Have the Vedic teachings been continually practiced from thousands of years ago till today?

• 31:34Speaker 00

  Yes, yes. But it was kept as a guarded secret with very few people. They would only share it with, you know, people who are really ethical or whom they see that they are fit to be given knowledge. Maybe some royalties were given. But you know, I thought, you know, it's the other way around. We can make people fit and more moral and ethically strong by teaching them this.

• 32:06Rick Rubin?

  Yes.

• 32:06Speaker 00

  So I am a little bit of a rebel in that direction. I said, whatever traditional knowledge is there, it should be available for everyone on the planet. Every human being is a right over them.

• 32:21Speaker 00

  That's my view from the very beginning. So I wanted people to have that.

• 32:27Rick Rubin?

  So there was a time it was more like a secret knowledge?

• 32:31Speaker 00

  Yes, it was always guarded as a secret knowledge. Because there are chances for people misusing it.

• 32:37Rick Rubin?

  Because it's very powerful?

• 32:38Speaker 00

  Powerful knowledge.

• 32:40Rick Rubin?

  Over the course of your lifetime, how have you seen the acceptance of spiritual practices change?

• 32:49Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, big way. Forty-five years back, it was not the same. The mainstream people thought, oh, this practices meditation, this must be a little... Maybe some cuckoo or something.

• 33:05Rick Rubin?

  Yeah.

• 33:05Speaker 00

  They would not think that it is a mainstream narration. But today it's different. And you know, last year, hundred and ninety-two countries came together to declare World Meditation Day.

• 33:21Rick Rubin?

  Wow.

• 33:22Speaker 00

  This has never happened in United Nations. Of course, ten years back, they did World Yoga Day, twenty-first June. But last year, specifically meditation was taken as a very serious thing. And when I led the meditation in United Nations, the Secretary General, he said this, you know, Gurudev, we need this before every negotiation. When people meditate, they become calm and they're able to listen to others. Our perception, our observation, our expression, all improves through meditation. And that's why I feel it's very important today

• 34:04Speaker 00

  to bring a robust mental health in our society. This has been a very big issue. Perhaps you may also have never heard about bipolar schizophrenia when you were all young, right?

• 34:19Rick Rubin?

  No.

• 34:19Speaker 00

  I had never heard about these words.

• 34:20Rick Rubin?

  No.

• 34:22Speaker 00

  You know, when I went to school and college, we never heard about bipolar or schizophrenia. Today, people take pride in taking the antidepressants. That is so surprising. People think, oh, say I'm taking Prozac. I mean, that shows the mental health issue is a very big issue in the world.

• 34:47Speaker 00

  Now, these practices will help you to get out of those mental health challenges. And you don't need to take medications. Even to sleep well, you need today... Sleep has become an abnormal function. To make it normal, you have to consume sleeping pills. If you meditate, do the breathing techniques, our sky techniques, Sudha Shankriyan, you have very good sleep, you have very good alertness. And another thing, the modern day life is about the mindfulness. People talk a lot of mindfulness.

• 35:30Speaker 00

  The mindfulness is, I would say, is just the parkway to your home, it's just the portico of the house, it's not the house. Mindfulness is a product, a by-product of meditation. If you practice mindfulness too much, it causes more tension to you. It is doing something. Mindfulness is keeping your mind alert. And this is a lot of effort. This is strenuous on our mind and brain, actually. Meditation is just the opposite, it just relaxes you. It gives you deepest rest, so that when you come out of meditation,

• 36:14Speaker 00

  mindfulness is already there with you. Natural, it's not an imposed, practiced one. It is a natural outcome in your life. You are very mindful, you are very aware of everything. But that should be the by-product of meditation.

• 36:34Rick Rubin?

  Would you describe meditation as an active or passive process?

• 36:40Speaker 00

  It's an active-passive process. It's an activity in the sense you have to sit and do it. It is passive in the sense you let it happen, because you let go of doing anything or everything. When you let go, meditation happens to you.

• 37:00Rick Rubin?

  So is the active part really about letting go of everything else?

• 37:06Speaker 00

  The active part is wanting to do and sit for meditation.

• 37:12Speaker 00

  And let go.

• 37:13Rick Rubin?

  Yes. Tell me about the different kinds of meditation. There's guided meditation, body scans, mantra meditations, focusing on a candle, focusing on breath, focusing on sensations in the body. Do they do different things?

• 37:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, there are, there are as many as hundred and twelve different types of meditation techniques. What technique you do is not that important. You have to do the technique correctly. You know, many times people do the body scanning. It's good if it remains to body scanning. But then they take them on an imagination, imaginative drive.

• 37:56Speaker 00

  And they say, "Oh, imagine you are on the beach. You are holding the hand of someone very dear to you." No, suppose you have two persons who are very dear to you. You have two kids. Then your mind starts working, "Whose hand am I holding?"

• 38:10Rick Rubin?

  Yeah, it becomes work.

• 38:12Speaker 00

  It becomes a mental gymnastics. So the mental gymnastics, we should not do it. That becomes a strain on you. And then you say, "Oh, imagine there is a blue light coming." Well, that's an effort. But if you say, "Just take your attention to your right foot, a right thumb," that is easy.

• 38:36Rick Rubin?

  Simple.

• 38:37Speaker 00

  Simple. So, non-imaginative, gentle scanning is what we call yognitra. That is good, it's good to do. But then there are meditation with mantra meditations. You take an initiation from a teacher of your mantra. And then the teacher will tell you how to use the mantra, how to take it. That's, that's very good too. And guided meditations are very good also in the group. Many times, if you are not able to meditate on your own, guided meditation is very comforting and takes you deeper.

• 39:17Speaker 00

  So, any meditation is okay. But the thing is, you, you need to know that the goal of all meditation is to be nothing, to get into the space where you are simply energy and you are just love.

• 39:39Speaker 06

  There's a long tradition of reading sacred texts slowly, allowing each word to settle, echo, and reveal meaning over time. Rather than rushing to conclusions, this practice invites reflection, listening, and attention. For centuries, this repetition has been used to stay close to wisdom, not by studying words as information, but by receiving them as something lived and experienced over and over again. This tradition is known as lectio divina.

• 40:22Speaker 06

  Emerging in early monastic life, it engages Scripture through four gentle movements: reading, reflection, repetition, and rest. A short passage is read, a single phrase is held. Silence becomes part of the practice, creating space for insight to surface naturally. Lectio 365 brings that ancient rhythm into the present moment. Designed for modern life, it offers brief, guided scriptural reflections throughout the day,

• 41:02Speaker 06

  to begin with intention, pause at midday, and wind down at night. The readings are less about information gathering and more for returning to wisdom again and again, letting familiar words meet new moments. A modern way to keep biblical wisdom close, quietly present, steady, and alive within everyday life. Lectio 365 is a free resource. Find inspiration there, now and always. Learn more at lectio365.com.

• 41:54Rick Rubin?

  Would you say that the root of all conflicts is the same?

• 42:02Speaker 00

  No, there could be many causes for conflict. But there can be one answer, that is getting back to your true self and seeing the conflict as just a stepping stone for where you want to be.

• 42:21Rick Rubin?

  If both sides of a conflict meditate, the chances of them finding resolution are better, yes?

• 42:27Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, yeah. Even if one side meditates also, they get the skill how to manage and get over the conflict, yeah.

• 42:38Rick Rubin?

  Tell me about the meditation in prison. How does it come to be? And is there a resistance initially to doing it?

• 42:46Speaker 00

  Oh yeah, whether inside prison or outside, there has been resistance in people to do. But once they know it, when they do it, when they are guided through it, they love it. In conflicting zones like Iraq, when they're after war, or also in Colombia, in Sri Lanka, in many of these areas, we have done programs for the people. There you don't talk about peace, people are only looking for justice. As I say, you are fighting for justice, yeah, you must. But for fighting also, you need energy.

• 43:28Speaker 00

  If you are shaken from inside, you have no energy to fight, right? So the strength comes to you when you go deep inside. Once you go inside, your mind becomes much more clearer. Then your hatred disappears.

• 43:46Speaker 00

  Every child who has come into this planet have come as a bundle of joy. So, if you see through my eyes, there is no bad guys on earth.

• 43:57Speaker 00

  They are bad because of their environment, or their education, or lack of it, or the circumstances that they got into, or lack of opportunity to know how to manage their own emotions. All these causes them to be who they are. So, if we remove this veil of ignorance from them, you find them like what they were as a child, a bundle of joy with bubbling enthusiasm. So, inside every culprit, there is a victim crying for help. And we need to heal them.

• 44:39Speaker 00

  Once the victim is healed, culprit disappears. The people who are engaged in crimes are all these people who do antisocial with burglars, and those who, you know, walk around with a gun, and random shooting, and mindless killings. They all need help. They were not born into this world as such. They were all misled, misunderstood, mistreated, and misinformed, and miseducated, ill-educated.

• 45:18Rick Rubin?

  You said "remove the ignorance", you didn't say "educate", you said "remove the ignorance", which implies they already know, we all already know.

• 45:30Speaker 00

  Correct. The veil need to be removed.

• 45:32Rick Rubin?

  Yes.

• 45:33Speaker 00

  The curtain, the veil which is, you know, shrouding the light that you are, need to be removed, that's all.

• 45:42Rick Rubin?

  Yeah, and it sounds like the ignorance is the thing that was learned. And that's the thing that can be taken away to get back to the natural state.

• 45:51Speaker 00

  Correct.

• 45:53Rick Rubin?

  I saw a video where you spoke about not being nice. You recommended not to be nice. I think it was about pleasantries.

• 46:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah. Sometimes, you know, you get so stuck in being so pleasant and you're not so authentic then. So you don't have to be nice all the time. When you want to say the truth, you can say it.

• 46:18Speaker 00

  And you should see the reality as it is and express it as it is, without offending anybody. That's one thing. You don't have to be too nice, too goody-goody. At the same time, you don't need to be rude and offend others too. The truth can be unpleasant and still need not be bitter.

• 46:42Rick Rubin?

  How has your education in physics informed your spiritual understanding?

• 46:48Speaker 00

  Well, education in physics keeps you very curious. It keeps your scientific temper and very objective in nature. As I see, it's always helpful. You know, the ancient Oriental philosophy, they never separated science from spirituality. They said they always came together, were together actually. Even if you see the Gita and the Vedas, they start with the 36 elements, that the first element is earth. You need to know earth, then water, then fire, then air, then ether, and then mind, intellect, memory, and then it goes on.

• 47:33Speaker 00

  Then finally, it says the Shiva Tatvada, Shiva Principle, the pure consciousness. So it's just an extension of each other. Spirituality is an extension of material science. A material science is very much a part of the spirit. So they can't exist one without that. This division, I find, is very artificial. It just makes us in compartments. A holistic outlook towards life.

• 48:10Speaker 00

  Body, mind and spirit. And that's what the modern sciences are. Now, today, the scientists are speaking about the consciousness. And every object has a consciousness. And what you see is not real. In 2022, three scientists got the Nobel Prize for declaring, “This is not real. This world is not real.” And this is what has been said from ages.

• 48:40Rick Rubin?

  Yeah.

• 48:40Speaker 00

  That what you see is just permutation, combination of atoms. And it's not real. What is real is the wave function, the energy underneath it all. Because this is all changing. Everything will change. The non-changing aspect of existence is consciousness. That's what we are. Even in you, you know. Now, you have a white beard. Before, that was different. And as a young boy, you didn't even have beard. But there is something in you that's continuing. Though your body is undergoing changes, your thinking has changed, your emotions are changing.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  But something there is that has not changed over the years. And logging on to that something, I would call a spirituality. And that brings stability, strength, creativity and vibrance in life.

• 50:07Speaker 07

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