therefore all these spiritual texts help us cope with all of these external changes while trying to maintain our equanimity and equilibrium so you are perfectly right that you know over the last one one and a half years what the world has seen is extremely shocking extremely believing and you know it's a time for the whole world to introspect that nature is kind of giving a push back you know there is a limit to how much we can exploit nature and go against nature and there is a certain way in which the message has been conveyed and we need to really introspect and try to transform our own habits because ultimately discipline is the fusion between intention and action and we have to begin with self-discipline so in my view this is the message from mother nature loud and clear that hey wake up guys and you know try to reform yourself the way you are living life on this world in this earth yes so and i feel is all about excesses on humanities and excesses with materialism


excesses on humanities and excesses with materialism with maybe killing other beings with maybe hurting other human beings for that matter uh which was sort of the spiritual transformation i had at maybe age 25 again i'm going back and observing uh my own ages through the years at age 25 i really discovered i think spiritualism in a deeper way and i had interactions with monks like yourself and what i'd always see is a lot of peace in the eyes in the same way that i see so much peace in your eyes so um is there something about the monk lifestyle over the years that just kind of gives you that nectar of peace like i wish to know what that is is it is it wisdom is it the stuff you're reading the book is it the people around you um in this i've spoken to you now other than the podcast probably for like 15 minutes prior to the show as well and the only time i saw peace leaving your eyes was when you were describing the


leaving your eyes was when you were describing the suffering in the world so my my take on that is that a true monk always lives for the world and looks for the ones around them and if that is your purpose then you are supposed to emit peace emit positivity happiness uh but if you do see suffering out there that's where you go into slight action mode but please correct me if i'm wrong i think you're getting the distilled wisdom of all the spiritual literatures you know absolutely in the right direction wonderful to hear that ranbir and i think what you have mentioned is very true that there is a mysterious simultaneous existence of joy and sorrow within a spiritualist's heart by the strength of the personal practice of spirituality we experience joy but mysteriously the more we experience that joy the more we become aware of others distresses so this is the very mystical simultaneous existence of joy and sorrow within the heart of a compassionate soul and such a compassionate soul is


compassionate soul and such a compassionate soul is known as vaishnav technically means the distress of others causes him suffering the ki so therefore this is a very very important principle which you have brought out that across the world there is no shortage of resources but if each person is able to control himself or herself more and experience that transformation in joy and become full in terms of their own personal experience then they are more in a mood to give than to grab and take so coming back to your original question on what makes a monks feel more peaceful is that typically every person in this world the story of the world material world and story of our life can be encapsulated in terms of eight items which is there in the srimad-bhagavatam and all of us are struggling morning till night in this world for these eight only atma body jaya wife acceptance from society rajya is control over one's career and progress so this is the story so those who are monks


so this is the story so those who are monks they decide to live a life which is free from the influence of the seven out of eight so then they are left only with atma which is maintaining their body for the purpose of spiritual elevation wow so when you don't have the seven out of eight so yeah 88 load less so when you're walking with 88 percent less load naturally you can smile more so that's the only idea very stupid question for you sir as a follow-up when you're in a car and there's nothing happening no one's talking to you um you know you're just looking outside you're looking at the trees what's going on in your head i think of lord chaitanya's words which says let us become humbler than a blade of grass more tolerant like a tree ready to give all respect to others and expecting none in return so the tree is actually you have beautifully brought out this point is one of the most significant you know items glorified in the


the most significant you know items glorified in the bhagavatam when krishna looks at the trees in prandta and he says look at these trees they are an emblem of parupkar of doing good for others because they tolerate heat they tolerate rains they tolerate all kinds of things in recent cyclone you saw they tolerate but they try to protect others so then krishna says that this is my definition of what is the paradigm of success in life william this is the success in life with our wealth with our intelligence with our words we are trying to benefit others so the trees are a symbol of total dedication for compassionate service to others these are something that i've been very drawn to the more i meditate the more i'm drawn to trees my team knows that like they make fun of this also but i don't know it's something that's always happened so um i'm going to ask you something slightly deeper um there's a concept of maya i've been reading about in the


concept of maya i've been reading about in the western world we call it the concept of simulation that we're all living in one big virtual reality simulation uh what does the gita say about maya so and i'm also asking from the perspective of as a individual soul yeah what do you do with the maya because that's all those concepts of law of attraction maybe even prayer maybe even compassion towards other living beings all kinds of living beings not just human beings um all that kind of fits into my according to me and that's what i've been studying for the last two or three years right and i have seen situations where let's just say beings from the other side of maya come out and give you a helping hand or you know energies within maya kind of mold the maya in your favor basically you can kind of steer your own life through your actions and your thoughts but i'd love to know the actual spiritual perspectives it's a beautiful question and uh you know


perspectives it's a beautiful question and uh you know i think you have been studying a lot of spirituality recently based on you know the kind of questions you're asking i mean i mean i guess like it's it's it's the one um it's a one place i get to do my true hearts calling which is probably become a monk but uh i don't know just i feel god's put me in a position to be able to be a cool dude on screen so i've got to continue with this career but i'd probably i'd probably be a monk in another lifetime definitely i think you already have the the right mindset of thinking deeply and thinking compassionately in terms of how to benefit the world and i think that's more important and the world needs people with such consciousness more and more and coming back to maya i'll give just uh one example simple example to give you an idea so maya literally translates as illusion that which is not ma means not ya means that which is so maya


ma means not ya means that which is so maya the word means that which is not so imagine that you know i am sitting in a truck or there is a you know there is a truck which is parked there is no driver in the inside the truck and there is a rope i try around the back side of the truck and you know i tie that rope around my waist and then i am standing there you know trying to pull the truck at that time the driver comes in sits in the truck puts a reverse gear and then the truck comes towards me and then i'm still pulling it and as the truck starts coming towards me i start saying see i pulled the truck i pulled the truck so am i pulling the truck you know i am just placing my hands on the rope but actually there is another energy which is pulling so that is an illusion now then the driver puts first gear and starts taking the truck forward and i'm trying to hold the truck i don't have the


trying to hold the truck i don't have the power so the moving truck drags me along and then i start you know crying out i'm defeated i'm finished i'm lost i couldn't handle this so the idea was even when there was no driver in the truck i didn't have that power when the driver put the reverse gear and brought the truck near me i didn't have the power and then when the truck started moving i didn't have that power i had some power but not that power which i assume i have so that is the idea that in this world all of us have some limited capacity to do things right so bhagavad-gita speaks about five factors which make work happen first is the body second is your identity depending on your identity like someone has an identity of a doctor so that will give him a certain intention you know you have an identity as a podcaster as a social media influencer i have an identity as a monk so we all have our identities that modulates our intention then


all have our identities that modulates our intention then third is the instruments which is the senses and the various things which we can gather fourth is the effort the actual effort we put and the fifth bhagavad-gita says is something which is not usually you know factored which is diverment or destiny or the will of the supreme when all these four and the fifth come together then things happen so therefore gita speaks about the supreme lord the jiva soul and material energy that material energy krishna calls us maya wow okay so therefore jiva is the desire so he desires so we are the des we are the controllers in terms of desiring just like i desire let me you know type a page of word document so then based on that i type but i type it into the computer then that computer processes it and then i desire i want to print it so i print i press on the print button but the computer is connected to the printer so the supreme is the


is connected to the printer so the supreme is the paramatma as they say he processes our desire and at this moment he is processing my desire that i want to lift my hand so he's saying on this particular date at this time does he have the sufficient karma to fulfill that and if he says yes then based on the sanction then material energy in terms of nature is given that power and then i am able to lift my hand but maybe in future a time may come when i may desire but i am still not able to fulfill that desire what has changed is that so therefore if i look at the printer and say print print print and shout at the printer the printer is not going to print there is something in between me and the printer which is needed to connect so printer is the maya i am the jiva and the computer and the processor is the supreme lord paramatma and that's what the gita fascinatingly connects all of this so you also mentioned destiny here


all of this so you also mentioned destiny here uh can destiny be changed yes definitely through karmas so in bhagavad-gita krishna says that kim karma ki makaramati kavya mohita that what is karma and how to overcome this karma is something which can be bewildering so karma can be over what is karma is the acts which we perform under the influence of the time factor and there is someone who's following the rules of the you know government properly so he will get certain result someone gets into a criminal mentality he'll get another result so therefore if someone is having a certain kind of karma krishna says that if you become part of the government just like even in law when there is a bandit or a criminal you know who surrenders then a certain kind of pardon is given even in law it is seen and in the past there have been you know instances when i was growing up i would read about this chumble decoys and you know many of them


this chumble decoys and you know many of them surrendered and they got some reprieve so like that the same arrangement is made that if we decide to transform and change then the karmic results are kind of purified so that is all described in great detail in the bhagavad-gita so what i understand is the choice to transform along with compassion along with doing good work and i'd also love to add along with some form of practice like meditation uh maybe that's the core of changing your own karmas firstly and when your karma start becoming more and more positive when you do good work in the world when you treat people well when you practice your life with discipline uh that eventually along with the effort you put in your material career can change your destiny so someone's like why have things not worked out for me why have things not worked out for me rather than like blaming the world or blaming someone else just figure out how to tighten these screws and i've seen this with


tighten these screws and i've seen this with myself also repeatedly right um i think last year during the first lockdown by june or july a bunch of us had got cabin fever you know you're locked in one place and social media especially was had become very intense um i'd seen the last dance with michael jordan it's about michael jordan's life he's a legendary basketball player and i also studied a lot of other internationally renowned athletes uh tyson fury the boxer mike tyson for that matter um and i was inspired by them for sure for the amount of effort they put in um like i believe i'm like i have a warrior spirit in my heart so when you see another warrior doing things in the real world even you're inspired right and you try to imbibe those qualities um all of them were maybe 90 amazing people and maybe there were 10 flaws like there are with everybody but i feel when you're that kind of a warrior you're fighting


you're that kind of a warrior you're fighting so hard you're putting in so much of yourself blood sweat tears effort mental focus all that uh your flaws might get a little heightened and the one common common flaw i saw with all these super achievers was that they always believed that they are the only reason for their success where it was like no you know you did this i am the best i'm the i trained day and night i did this i did that and i started doing that myself because they were my idols i was so inspired by michael jordan i would wake up every morning thinking that i'm michael jordan and definitely got more focused on work went even harder and before the podcast i told you about all the good stuff that's happening in my career that is an outcome of that phase as well but i got motivated to go that extra mile in terms of effort right instead of working 20 hours a day i was working 22 hours you know just it


day i was working 22 hours you know just it went even further and then there was also this element of i am doing it me me it's being caused by me i know what i'm talking about and my close people came and told me that no something is going wrong finally i did one podcast with my mother actually she kind of said just one line would just burst my bubble she said that not all success is your own and not all failures your own either so that line of not all failures alone stayed with me because these same people when they are thanking themselves for their own success if they even see somewhat of a glitch or a blip then they again start blaming themselves completely and that's what actually leads to dark phases in the mind so so what do you have to say about this i mean and this isn't just american athletes or european athletes it happens in human culture yes that's what ego is that's what arrogance is that you think that everything that's


what arrogance is that you think that everything that's come your way the money the fame the love it's all you but you never know i think you you raised an excellent point with a very beautiful realization you know i must say and you know as you took the name of michael jordan i want to reflect on the exact same parallel in in the form of a warrior and successful warrior athlete arjun when he was growing up practicing in dronacharya's you know academy rachael had given a standing instruction never feed arjuna food in the dark so everyone was intrigued why is he saying like this one evening arjuna was eating his dinner there was a lamp and a gust of wind blew and the lamb blew out became dark arjuna continued eating arjuna thought oh there is no light around it's it's dark i'm still able to eat my hand is finding its way to the mouth if i can eat in the dark i can practice in the dark from that day onwards


i can practice in the dark from that day onwards arjuna stopped sleeping at night he would practice in the day have a dinner practice all through the night so one of arjuna's name is gudakesh so what level of diligence and focus so that arjuna who had a sterling record of hundred percent success in all his combats when on the battlefield of kurukshetra when he saw duryodhana he was ready to fight but when krishna brought his chariot in front of bhisma arjuna this is my grandfather drona oh this is my guru so arjuna got confused that a grandfather is supposed to be loved a teacher is supposed to be respected a warrior is supposed to kill his enemy an enemy is supposed to be killed so arjuna got confused between three identities am i a warrior a grandson or a student that conflict within paralyzed arjuna and he put his gandhiwa in front of krishna and said i cannot fight. so krishna


krishna and said i cannot fight. so krishna looked at arjuna and thought dronacharya has taught him weapons to fight with the world but you have to first conquer over the battle within then you can go for the battle without because inevitably you will come across circumstances outside you will not be able to negotiate and put things in perspective and so the gita was spoken by arjuna by krishna to arjuna for one hour so before a very intense serious battle was going to happen arjuna invested one hour of his time to hear the gita to understand that oh i am speaking non-violence krishna is saying what non-violence you are saying i will fight you are saying i will not fight but my fight is with that i krishna said and therefore krishna told any two people have a relationship the unspoken pattern within that relationship is i will control the other person and make them dance as per my will that is violence so krishna is saying


will that is violence so krishna is saying arjuna you are speaking about non-violence in every family in every relationship there is violence and that violence is caused by that feeling that i am the controller i am the proprietor i am the enjoyer real non-violence would be to abandon and purify that illusion that consciousness that maya so krishna spoke the gita to arjuna and arjuna fought now with a transformed consciousness the occupation remains same but the consciousness became totally different otherwise so many fighters were there but why is arjuna glorified because he spoke he fought with a certain consciousness which was he was in the world but not of the world because he had elevated and transformed perfect so can you explain this from a modern day perspective in terms of i understand you're going out and fighting in the world but how do you actually transform your own consciousness right as you know that any kind of transformation needs intervention if there is a tumor in the


needs intervention if there is a tumor in the body it needs intermittent surgical intervention if there is a virus in a software it needs a software intervention similarly if there is a virus in the hard hard disk of our mind in the form of this false ego that i am the proprietor and the enjoyer so you need an antivirus software for the mind that in our traditional vedic culture was known as mantra man means mind thra means that which has the power and potency to transform the mind so what is plaguing the mind currently i am the center of the universe i am the controller i am the enjoyer i can do it when you add mantra in your life those were the anti-virus softwares which would purify that mind of such illusory tendencies and conceptions and then a person looks at the world with a different perspective he sees that just like you feel very close to your brother and your sister and to your because of the common origin we are coming from the common


of the common origin we are coming from the common parents so when we help people see that we are all coming from common origin our perspective towards everyone changes and that's what in traditional india was known as that we look at the entire world as one family one positive aspect if we may look at it in the in terms of this current pandemic is that you know irrespective of nationalities you know across the world people have got an opportunity to express their humanity in these times of crisis and we could see that irrespective of political alignments and various things when people saw the suffering that innate compassion literally came out and people you know went out of their way to try to support and help in various ways so in today's context when you add a practice which involves some kind of a spiritual intervention and personally you know i have been practicing the spiritual intervention of mantra meditation there may be other forms of meditation so meditation is something which is growing a lot


so meditation is something which is growing a lot and i think you know as uh influencers like your good self and others should try to encourage and inspire the youth that as they spend quality time for their physical fitness one element of fitness is also the mind because who defines good health as a combination of body mind and spirit so that would be a very important element that's what a holistic health would look like i think more and more people are embracing meditation i am working on level with harsh our common friends um and we're trying to figure out ways to get more people to meditate the big challenge we're facing with gen z uh you know kids born after say 98 99 the big challenge there is um they think they don't need meditation because they can do other stuff in that much time so uh and we've been we've been taking feedback from a lot of people it's it's it's a challenge getting gen z to meditate but they're more open than i was at that age yeah which gives


open than i was at that age yeah which gives me hope that at least they opened the listening i used to be the kid in college to make fun of meditators and fun of people who did yoga and all this and i'm this person now so it's it's like you know when when you hit again that 22 23 age bracket you're hit with the realization of the nature of life and you you definitely need that little time period to switch off which probably in college you get through sometimes you know you're intoxicated sometimes your friends sometimes your fun time but in adulthood and the more adult i become the more i realize that my fun time is spent in complete isolation the more isolation the better family great alone amazing alone in my mind even better so uh that's that's a message i think that will be put out there so but when we are meditating or studying spiritual practices something that fascinates me a lot um just in the world of spiritual studies and this isn't spoken


world of spiritual studies and this isn't spoken about too much on the internet is um you know the slightly hearty side of spiritual stuff so by that i mean the sci-fi like things we read about you know these are questions we get a lot astral projections out of body experiences the soul's journey after death heaven and hell these concepts which are written about in stories but i'd actually like to know whatever your perspective is on any of these maybe i'll begin with a simple question which a lot of people wish to know uh what are ghosts so thank you for bringing forth uh many of these points and i loved your perspective on the gen z but i also agree that one of the most positive things about that generation is they are quite purpose driven more than you know what i can imagine you know i was when i was just you know in school and stuff like that so let's look at the positive and as you rightly said this is the best way to kind of integrate so as


is the best way to kind of integrate so as far as ghosts are concerned uh the bhagavad-gita speaks about three levels of existence one is the soul within then the second is the subtle body called mind intelligence and ego above that is the gross body consisting of earth water fire air ether so these eight elements five gross earth water fire ether gross elements gross body subtle body mind intelligence ego and the soul within so the soul is trapped within this so when the soul leaves the body the gross body is left behind but the subtle body carries the soul to the next body so sometimes when someone has misused their gross body or as per their karma they still have some time before a gross body can be allotted like accidental death or yeah there could be various reasons for that you know i i can only say one thing that if you have defaulted you know in a particular way in some job and then it's a red mark so then you are you spend time unemployed because


so then you are you spend time unemployed because wherever you go they see that record and you don't get employment so easily so like that if there has been a misuse of the body in certain way in terms of especially you know hurting oneself on one on one's own and things like that and their various causes are given in the garud especially if you want a detailed description especially the the journey post death is described in great detail in the guru quran so then that subtle body with that soul is traveling around and looking for a vehicle so then they enter into these different bodies and possess them and that's what the concept of ghost is all about when you say subtle bodies is it the same as saying astral bodies so uh subtle body in sanskrit is known as sukshma so right now what the modern scientists are referring to as astral bodies from other you know places universes and you know coming like that so there could be bodies made out of


like that so there could be bodies made out of fire and ether and things like that in other planes that is the astral body but here the subtle body is the body of mind intelligence in ego covering every soul so these are a lot of fascinating details described in the bhagavad-gita and as i said you know basically tourism industry is quite famous you know india is get the pre-covet got 11 million tourists and northern ireland got 5 million tourists with only 1 million population so people love traveling so the gita describes about all the planetary systems in which that travel is possible depending on your preference where you want to go how you want to go wow so the whole fundamental basis of bhagavad-gita is the only possession you and me possess is our desire and intention and that is referred to as swatantra the jewel of our free will and depending on how we decide to use that or abuse that we are rewarded and punished accordingly so all spiritual


are rewarded and punished accordingly so all spiritual practitioners are focused on intensifying their intention that's the bottom line of spirituality intensify your intention and that's the bottom line even for someone who wants to become you know materially successful as you quoted so many examples you have an intention the difference between success and not so successful is that the intention was not so intense so it did not result in practice it did not result in action so therefore when we intensify our intention to be a servant of the supreme and be self-disciplined and practice it and share our compassion with others then automatically we experience that transformation so various levels of subtlety are experienced depending on what level you want to access yes so you spoke about intensity with intention of course i've got to make this selfish about myself does intensity with intention also apply to love and relationships like if you want to attract something in your life which is where the law of attraction manifestation all that comes


where the law of attraction manifestation all that comes away and that's i think the most popular word when it comes to modern day spiritual conversation oh manifestation oh law of attraction that's what people keep talking about i'm guessing it does play a role and i know that manifestation involves a certain degree of you putting in work towards it as well for example for manifesting material success you put in your effort in your office or your business or whatever and for manifesting relationship success first work on yourself be that best partner to be able to attract someone uh the question for you is a little deeper you know i'm confused between two ideologies so one ideology is don't really want something the universe will bring it to you when the time is right and the second ideology is this that put your mind on something and it'll come to you now i am conflicted here sir please pull me out of my conflict so when it comes to a selflessly serving you should not wait and you should jump


serving you should not wait and you should jump into it so therefore all spiritual uh you know the the primary the first verse of vedanta-sutra is don't wait that someday knowledge will come start putting effort in that direction and mgajendra in the eighth canto srimad-bhagavatam says time can destroy everything big empires huge kingdoms powerful bodies relationships structures but time cannot destroy one thing ignorance and therefore all of our ancient tradition scriptures teachings they inspire us to be proactive in learning and getting that knowledge and developing our relationship with the supreme and in that context you will connect with many and then depending on how you progress different people will come and connect with you so you must be extremely focused and proactive in developing your relationship with the supreme in the human form and then you should be extremely focused and proactive while trying to serve other human beings in your perspective of seeing them as his parts not with the view to exploit them and enjoy them and


the view to exploit them and enjoy them and demonstrate proprietorship over them and then in that mode when you do then you should not at all be obsessed about the adulation and the adoration and the profit and even if no one comes to know about what you're doing the very fact that you have done your bit to serve that is the supreme satisfaction and that's what krishna says there you go you're also a gita scholar no no no no no so i've just i've just seen a lot of br chopra no no i'm kidding it's a very crucial part of my transformation uh another mentor my two mentors of mine actually i don't know if you know mr kiran khan up sir he's also been on the podcast you do i've heard about him okay and uh dr radhakrishnan they both kind of hammered this thought into my head because i think i don't remember why i believe it was the person i was with at that time i did become materially


was with at that time i did become materially driven um which is when i realized this that uh you know it's it's not about associating yourself with oh i want to come in the newspapers and i want to be famous and i want to be rich it's not about that it's about doing the universe's work in the world being a good person even even if you're not rich and famous it's about giving positivity to those three four people around you and that matters more than you know earning a million dollars just for yourself um i mean again so like i have to bring you back to the questions about love because i know that there's a lot of people watching this uh is there a concept like soul mates at all in the gita or like what what is said about a union of a of of two souls yeah it's a beautiful question and uh i would since i spoken a lot about gita i want to also speak a little bit about rama and shaw and there's


a little bit about rama and shaw and there's a lot of excitement about the ram temple and ayodhya and everything so you know i want to speak about three things one is principles second is people and third is purpose so there are four principles which are described in ramayana first is integrity represented by lord rama honesty means to speak what you have done but integrity is to do what you have spoken so ram represented that he could have avoided going to the forest but he said no obedience integrity lakshman sohi ram represents dharma lakshman represents artha so what is the meaning of the word lakshman [Music] lakshmana lakshmi sampano bahir prana evapora lakshman word literally means one for whom the real lakshmi or wealth is seva service to ram so lakshman would be inseparable from ram when you are speaking of soul mates they were the original you know master and servant relationship where lakshman just felt that this is


relationship where lakshman just felt that this is my bahir prana he is my external life force because you cannot separate your life breath so he looked at ram as bahir prana evapora is the external you know walking breath of mind but what was the relationship based on selfless service so lakshman represents seva and that seva rupi lakshmi is why we call him lakshman that he considered as a greater opulence than the opportunity to enjoy the opulence of ayodhya the forest appeared to be more attractive to him than the comfort of the palace because he felt the real opulence in life is the opportunity to serve then we have bharat who represents moksha and bharat basically means raja bharanath one of the most difficult experiences all of us face is being misunderstood when our intentions are misrepresented so bharath had nothing to do with rams going to the forest he was not a part of kaikei's conspiracy but the circumstances were such that


conspiracy but the circumstances were such that ayodhya vasis kausalya bharadwaj rishi and guha they all thought his party to this so bharat maharaj had to spend practically his whole life in the midst of people thinking that he is responsible for ram going to the forest in fact vasishta would not allow him to put fire onto the funeral pyre of the sharat maharaja saying that while dying the sharath maharaja said parath is a villain he has conspired with kaikei to send ram to the force do not allow him to touch my dead body so bharat maharaj could not even perform the funeral rights and satra had to do it imagine the weight of pain he had to carry thinking that my father left his body with that misunderstanding about me i had nothing to do genuinely in this entire episode but so bharata represents two things one who has unlimited ability to tolerate pain and number two rama still made him the king of


and number two rama still made him the king of ayodhya and made himself so he did not want that responsibility but for the pleasure of rama he did it so many times we find it difficult to tolerate insulinations accusations misunderstandings and we just feel let me walk out of this but bharath showed that real love means to be able to express your service whether you are in a popular situation or in a condemned situation and he would get up one o'clock in the morning and take bath in the sarayu because if after two o'clock the citizens of ayodhya would come near the surya when they see bharat they would pick up stones and hit at him that was his quality tolerance fourth satrana one who had conquered the shattru of ego because of which he could serve bharath the whole of ayodhya was condemning bharat but satra continued serving bharath many times we are afraid of serving someone who becomes unpopular and is on the wrong


someone who becomes unpopular and is on the wrong side of law because we just start thinking that oh how will it reflect upon me but satra was totally loyal and committed because yet he didn't consider about myself he considered how i can serve so therefore he represents humility so these four principles ram representing integrity lakshman representing service attitude bharat maharaja representing tolerance and satra representing humility these are four integral elements required for a sustainable relationship and that sustainable relationship is what makes people remain bonded for long periods of time so principles lead to personal relationships amongst people when you manage to sustain your relationship with people for long periods of time then you can attain your purpose otherwise it's going to be a very lonely journey and confusing journey so ramayana basically brings these three things forward that your foundation should be on principles then you have personal relationships which are deep and sustainable then you are able to actually sustain the journey of life and attain your


actually sustain the journey of life and attain your purpose so you know that's the raman's perspective on relationships and it should not be seen in terms of just some temporary you know selfish titillation which i get but it is based on being able to negotiate the ups and downs in life going through various kinds of misunderstandings and complex circumstances and that's why although ayodhya literally means that city which could not be conquered by any army the major theme of ramayana is not describing about the super excellent administration of ayodhya but it is completely centered around the tapestry of relationships amongst the family members and the people and so ramayana is giving a message it's more difficult to manage our relationships in family and in formal settings than it is to manage formally structured administration [Laughter] you know in one sense the most important player in this entire episode because she is the one as the great vaishnava vedanta desicca represents shows that sita mata on one hand


represents shows that sita mata on one hand is the goddess of fortune you know she represents lord's eternal energy and at the same time in another sense vedanta desicca says that sita mata is giving a message to the souls like all of us that till the time she was absorbed in serving rama you know she was perfectly safe but the moment her attention got distracted by the golden deer you know as soon as kind of she went in the golden deer attraction at that moment when the soul becomes distracted from his service maya or material energy who comes in the form of the five karmendryas and phi gyanindriyas the ten headed ravana represented by mind kidnaps the soul and shelters the soul imprisons the soul in the body of lanka in the midst of ocean of material existence and at that time when ram comes and see sita is not there relationship of love are based on voluntary exchanges so rama is not sure whether sita has abandoned


so rama is not sure whether sita has abandoned him or someone has taken her whether she wants to come back and reunite what exactly is the story so when you are not sure about your relationship with someone then you need an intermediary you need a third party who will bridge the communication so hanumanji plays that role and that is the role of a guru who carries the message of the lord as ram dude and presents to sita devi that lord rama is looking for you and sitha devi gives her message back i am also wanting to come back and when hanumanji comes back and gives that message so lord rama is very eager along with the army so va nara basically means nara means human wa means one who looks human but is actually divine one one meaning is looks like animal is an animal but looks human but another meaning is wa nara also means one who's a divine personality but he looks human that is a guru they are spiritual beings they are in you


guru they are spiritual beings they are in you know human form they are the ones who carry the message of the lord and share that message with the people and then see whoever is interested voluntarily then only a relationship of love can be established so therefore the lord has authorized the people in this world to become his agents and then they come and spread the message so they have a great responsibility of representing him or through the misbehavior misrepresenting and breaking people's faith in him so therefore it's a major responsibility and that's kind of the essence of the ramayana in you know short so you spoke about people being agents of god of the universe one of the agents of the universe is our common friend jai shetty yes i'd love for you to describe jai uh my brother yes to the audiences before he became the jaisiti that we know of yes because i i feel he's a great representation of someone who brings true wisdom yes and gives it out to the modern world


yes and gives it out to the modern world on such a big stage yes so um you know what went right for him what transformed within him things that he wouldn't say because he's too humble a guy he doesn't even talk about these things but i just want people to know what's gone on in the life of jai before he became jai shetty so jay has been a very very sincere student of spirituality and he has mentioned about our meeting in the book i think like a monk and actually i met him first in 2006 around that time and uh you know he was so sincere in wanting to understand what are the principles of spirituality that he would you know attend so many of my discourses and we would have long conversations and even sometimes he would be driving me around and asking questions and i must uh you know one thing which many of you may not know that he has one of the best handwriting amongst anyone i have seen the way he would take notes you


i have seen the way he would take notes you know it was so systematic so organized which really made me very impressed that you know he has a very clear thought process the clarity which he had in his understanding was amazing and because of his genuine sincerity and humility he was very young and at that time he was all he was already an influencer even when he was you know not in his current social media influencer profile but you know so many youth were connected to him and he was like a leader in terms of his uh thought process and so many of the things which he saw which we were doing at mumbai you know he tried to do similar things in you know wherever he was doing in london and other places and uh one of the things which really i did not expect was uh he would actually come and become a monk so i really asked him a few times are you sure you know because you're so young so good looking and you have your whole career in front


good looking and you have your whole career in front of you why do you want to do this but he was really wanting to go deeper into the spiritual aspects and practice and understand and get a complete perspective of things inside out so you know when he was in the monastery you know we don't treat anyone as a rock star so he had to do everything which you know people are expected to do in a monastery including you know cleaning the trash you know helping and cooking and whatever other things so this is all part of the training because in the bhagavad-gita krishna says krishna mentions 20 points of knowledge in the 13th chapter of gita from verse 9 to 13. it begins with amanith from means humility adam means pridelessness these are the first two items of knowledge so when a person is in that mood of hum being humble and prideless then he can soak in the spiritual knowledge so i have been serving with his holiness swami maharaj from 1993 onwards


his holiness swami maharaj from 1993 onwards you know and you know i got the opportunity to introduce chair to rather not swami at that time and you know he really got connected very wonderfully and in general his humility and service attitude could be seen through those days and that is that is something which has touched me the most because that reveals a person's character and in 2012 we spent you know at least 15 to 20 days traveling in america where he was traveling with me in different places it was almost same time may june of it was may of 2012 and he would one of the characteristic features which i noticed in him is he would ask very deep genuine questions with the desire to understand how he can apply it in his own life and transform and that's what he's doing for the world as well exactly so after you know he spent his time in the monastery he felt he could use his wisdom in various ways and that time none of us had any idea about


and that time none of us had any idea about social media and anything so then he worked for some time in the corporate after he left the monastery and then he learned a lot of things about social media and then he combined the ancient wisdom with the modern technology uh to share compassion with you know your generation and the generation next to yours to give that knowledge so i would say that you know if i if someone starts speaking russian i can't understand you know if someone starts speaking chinese i can't understand if someone starts speaking japanese i won't be able to understand even the best things they may be saying for my benefit so both of us would need a translator so that translator helps us understand the translator acts as a bridge so there is knowledge embedded in the wisdom it was all in sanskrit and then srila prabhupada was the founder of iskcon translated it into english and the bhaktivedanta book trust which is the publishing house of iskcon translated published and has distributed


publishing house of iskcon translated published and has distributed 500 million pieces of heavy philosophy literature across the world never before strong direct philosophy has become so mainstream [Music] in terms of distribution and therefore that was the first level of translation from sanskrit at least we were able to read in english and get some access but then even that english to this generation is like russian or japanese so you need someone you know like jay and others who would help another level of translation yeah so i would say that that is a very important role which is playing acting as a bridge between a certain generation and the timeless knowledge which is awaiting them so that's my take you know specifically with jai and this happens to everyone on social media but uh have you heard this dialogue it's from a batman movie you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself becoming a villain anyone who just grows in mainstream media and means media in the world in general if you grow to a


in the world in general if you grow to a certain degree just people think you're a villain you know people people will find fault it's how i think the human mind is built it's how human society is built uh we're not meant to see someone with that kind of a following or that kind of clout and even when there is no fault if someone's got good intent people point fingers and try pulling you down um early on we spoke about how um your karma who you are as a person how you've lived your life to a certain point plays a huge role even in your material success and you might be working very hard you may not get material success because maybe your karmas aren't aligned with that level of material success and similarly you might just do a few things and get a huge amount of material success repeat truck yeah reverse gear the truck example and people will say that no how could he have such a meteoric rise you know uh jai has written all those videos which went viral


jai has written all those videos which went viral he's written them himself even those ideas were gifts from the universe that you've done a certain level of work you've achieved something on a karmic level therefore take these ideas and these ideas then will therefore bring you material success that's what i've always felt about i've never told him this myself also but i feel he had a lot of karmas which led him up to his career and i remember he had this one year i think it was 2016 to 17 when he blew up on facebook just out of the no one knew he was and then he exploded and that's what i always thought in my head that this person would have done a lot of good stuff before his social media right that was part one of the extremely heavy conversation we had with god gauranga dash prabhu part 2 is as heavy part 2 is about even more mystical topics if you enjoyed this one do not miss out on part two it includes the


do not miss out on part two it includes the twitterverse questions that were directed his way midway through this conversation i almost thought that hold on let's just stop the conversation right here and maybe call so for the next conversation at some other point because the whole experience of talking to him was just too heavy that's why we split this conversation into two parts do share this conversation with your friends do share it with anyone who needs any kind of healing any kind of guidance the runway show has been created for that exact reason that people get free of course online mentoring free of cost online guidance free of cost online healing make sure you follow the runway show on spotify every episode is available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world look out for part two and do spread the word about this beautiful conversation this is one of the episodes of the year for me for sure [Music]


hello guys i sincerely hope you have checked out part one of this special conversation with gaur gaurangadas prabhu before you've clicked on this particular episode if you have checked out part one i am very sure that you're still heavy with all the knowledge that he shared in that part of the conversation this one is as heavy if not heavier remember the randy show is all about bringing you thick knowledgeable heavy conversations just like this so make sure you follow us on spotify we're a spotify exclusive now every episode's available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world i promise you from here on the conversations are just gonna keep getting better this was a groundbreaking podcast for me enjoy part two of one of the most impactful conversations that i've had in recent times [Music] so coming to talking about jealousy in general as a concept uh it's something i've been thinking about a lot because i feel the last two years ever since the lockdown began we've had sort of a


since the lockdown began we've had sort of a sudden rise with podcasts with just everything and i've seen how uh there is there have been two big changes in the outside world and one big change in me so the two big changes in the outside world were one i feel it used to be cool to follow me and now it's considered a little lame to follow me because it's it's too positive and all that and secondly people have a problem with how happy i am so i'm also realizing that that's how the modern world works they think i'm forcing positivity down the throats but that's not what i'm doing at least i believe that i'm trying to turn people towards their own inner selves see what's broken and try healing those things and maybe people are processing that as positivity and everyone just wants someone to hate also when you've reached a certain degree of mainstream success it's not cool to support you anymore you know it's cool to say oh no i hope this guy


cool to say oh no i hope this guy this guy falls it's everyone loves seeing a hero fail or a hero fall um this used to i think affect me initially for maybe like a few days it affect me and um the one big realization was something you said earlier on this podcast which is um that even the people who are throwing stones at you even the people who are throwing venom at you they are also pieces of the universe and pieces of god and all you have in your own hand is your free will both in terms of action and thought nor will i throw those stones back at you or that venom back at you nor will i think venomous thoughts at you so i've just come to that realization i hope that that's the e that's the right way to go and people call this a very gandhian philosophy that you're not supposed to you know that's that's too soft but i've seen that it works for me because uh it's also the source of the


for me because uh it's also the source of the happiness whatever you do in the outside world is actually a reflection of what's happening inside if i actually start throwing venom on the outside i'm going to start doing venom on the inside as well right but is there anything else you would like to add to this lesson of how to deal with jealousy towards you there is a verse in srimad-bhagavatam so it mentions a list of divine qualities which manifest within us these cannot be artificially plucked before time they are given tolerance to be the well-wisher genuine well-wisher of all ajatashatra not to feel i am enemy of anybody as you said you know to overcome that tendency for revenge that's my theme of my life right now and shantha means to be in peace whatever may happen so he says so he calls these as sadhu means a soldier has the power to fight the battle but he cannot say give me param chakra the government will decide similarly as we


param chakra the government will decide similarly as we are doing our duties and serving the supreme into the right consciousness and refraining from succumbing to these tendencies towards revenge and spite and things like that someone is seeing that from within right so the social media you know gives a lot of importance to what's coming from without but you have to also see the views from within so he's seeing everything based on that when he's pleased he starts releasing the scope of your divinity all of these qualities are like medals of victory given by the supreme so therefore you know all of us need to work in a way that we are actually trying to exercise self-control and that will do good for ourselves and also good for the world and that's what india has been traditionally famous for that it it consists of a population in traditional times where everybody was considering everyone else as part of a larger family and that's why people get totally bewildered with india with you know 1600 different


bewildered with india with you know 1600 different languages and so many such diverse cultures coexisting simultaneously so that unity in diversity is something which will be lost if we do not develop these divine qualities the more i get into learning about hindu dharma the more i realize how much of a religion of love it is as is the case with every single religion in the world it always begins as a religion of love that's what's written in all the holy books uh why do we see like a hindu brothers and sisters sometimes nowadays being aggressive towards other faiths it's a religion which teaches us to live and let live people often reference the past and they say that no no we were wrong in the past therefore now we are going to wrong i mean are you going to blame someone's ancestors even if they are the nicest people in the world today are you going to say that you know how dare your ancestors have troubled my ancestors why are you


have troubled my ancestors why are you going to say that okay this is the world that we live in you are as much my brother and sister as my hindu brothers and sisters are my brother and sister or are we gonna say that no just because you're not on my face i'm gonna reject you i'm gonna reject your beliefs how do we as social media influences bridge that because it's so dangerous to even talk about these topics honestly that's one goal i've grown up with people of all faiths um we've made content about all faiths um i've just never understood how to put that message out there to fellow hindus because i've seen that there are definitely lots of people who still believe in messaging love and who believe in celebrating every single faith and spreading peace but then there are definitely people who want to uh you know who have destruction in their hearts as an emotion that's not a hindu belief that's not what hanumanji was that's not what


that's not what hanumanji was that's not what krishna bhagavan was you're being a duryodhana while looking down on duryodhan so that's the question do you yeah see i think let's look at things from the perspective of a good health and diseased condition you know so when we look at health industry or a health scenario we don't see a hindu cancer or a christian cancer or a muslim cancer cancer is cancer so in bhagavad-gita krishna says jesus these are the three cancers lust greed anger so therefore irrespective of whoever one may be one must try to eradicate and overcome these so therefore comparison complaining and competition to compete to complain to compare to criticize these are like the cancers of the mind yes so and we have to try to overcome these cancers and you know runway honestly speaking the world is such a complex place to run it's very difficult to understand the details of how different people manage to operate at different different levels


how different people manage to operate at different different levels in different professions different uh you know scenarios so you know as a monk i have my area as an influencer you have your area like that there are you know social leaders who have who are working in a certain space for decades there are spiritual leaders there are political leaders there are diplomats so each one of them have a whole tapestry of very complex interviewing of various issues which they are grappling with you know i understood this more when i started attending conferences of united nations where for the first time i saw how much nature is being affected and you know when i saw that analysis so i could see that a whole group of people are dedicated to understand that cause and deal with it so you know i would say that at my level uh i look at responses at three levels first is an emotional response second is a political response and third is a devotional response so emotional response means if someone misbehaves with me i


emotional response means if someone misbehaves with me i become totally morose and i go into depression and i become hopeless political response means i want to do something about it seek justice and then there may be a million ways in which i try to seek that justice which which can be subjective then the devotional response is how do i see in that particular situation what is the message for me to learn and grow through that situation and therefore that devotional response is something which i have been personally trying to practice and sharing with people in our capacity as practicing monks so our field is limited to the scope of helping people you know deal with a devotional response positively just like vasudev had six sons he lost all the six sons then only krishna came as the eighth son so therefore vasudeva had every reason to be hopeless but still he had hope so we are focused in that paradigm and there are many who are focused on a political paradigm on another emotional paradigm and


a political paradigm on another emotional paradigm and therefore they would have their perspectives on many of these things you know so it's at the same time whatever i speak would only be based on hearsay and based on interactions which i've had but i have not spent quality time in that particular space to be able to give a substantial answer because my focus area has been personal practice of spirituality and sharing spirituality with others preparing them for a devotional response but many are preparing just like mahabharata you know so krishna when he spoke the bhagavad-gita he was preparing arjuna for a devotional response and at the same time the entire mahabharata is also about the political response whereas if you see the bhagavata quran it is all stories which invoke and inspire devotional response so therefore even within scriptures there are different categories and even among spiritualists there are many who have dedicated their lives for using spirituality to transform society and influence politically and socially but i


society and influence politically and socially but i have not spent substantial time in that space to be able to comment so but i feel you've spent time in the most important space of them all which is the space of happiness you're my 150th episode probably roughly uh in total both you and gorgo baldas you were so happy as people and i personally feel like that is the while while we all have different purposes i feel like happiness is the purpose of life for so many of us which human being doesn't want to feel joy and peace and i feel like if you have joy and peace as the core of yourself it overpowers everything else even if you have joy and peace and you you are a big political leader or you're a big say i don't know if you're heading a rebellion right if joy and peace is your core you will first try to come to a joyous peaceful conclusion right and you won't want to cause physical emotional mental harm on any other soul irrespective of


mental harm on any other soul irrespective of who they are so i my outlook on it is that i understand what you're saying and i hear you about it not being your response but i mean i just i just hope people pick up the happiness and peace from from the work you are doing from the work that we are trying and the entire kurukshetra battle was orchestrated by krishna in response to the adharma which he saw yes and you know in that sense krishna was right there and at the same time krishna was the one who stopped when he saw that you know things were going beyond control also so the important thing is not violence or non-violence the important thing is not surgery or no surgery the important thing is not how many liters of blood you lose in a surgery but the important thing is depending on the tumor what does the surgeon decide to do so i would say that you know harmony and purpose is most important i have a burning question


and purpose is most important i have a burning question which has been beating my heart since quite early on in this podcast you mentioned the garudpur answer when you were talking about you were explaining ghosts to us what else is in that book the guru purana contains descriptions about how from the time of death how many days it takes for the soul to reach the next destination and especially there is a detailed description about the hellish planets there is also description about what you know we the family members who are left behind can do in terms of various uh rituals in order to uh create a better facility for those who have departed so the garuda purana basically focuses on under helping us understand that we have a responsibility towards our lives and we also have a responsibility towards those who we are we were connected with in our family not just in the immediate generation but also several generations so nowadays there is a whole lot of discussion on systems thinking you know design thinking so


of discussion on systems thinking you know design thinking so basically the if you look at the vedic literatures and the puranas they bring forth a complete systems thinking approach to life and death it's not just one person living and one person dying we are connected to everyone else when we see our connection with the supreme so that's how this paradigm brings in um so you spoke about hellish planets we also had an astrophysicist on the show recently so just got me on thought tangents about the universe and how it's expanding right so again from the philosophies that you've read sir uh what is said about the universe its expansion multiple planes i know these are very deep very complex topics but even if you could just introduce us a little bit to it sure thank you for asking this question in fact in 2023 iscon is going to be inaugurating one of the largest temples in the world it's in mayapur which is around 150 kilometers north of kolkata and it's going to


150 kilometers north of kolkata and it's going to be known as the temple of vedic planetarium okay it's going to be a very unique temple where within the temple hall on the dome you will get an answer to the exact question which you ask all the different planes and the planetary systems will be represented and it will be in motion and it will give everybody an idea when they have darshan of radha mother that you know we have been going through these cycles the 14 planetary systems in the world so from brahmaloka down to the pata loka the fourteen planetary systems have been described so bhuba maha janata satya like that so 14 total so within these 14 planetary system different levels of enjoyment and suffering have been embedded just like even in a city like mumbai you could be you know staying in ultamount road or malabar hill or you could be staying in a place like dharavi or you know depending on the kind of place you stay there will be a certain


kind of place you stay there will be a certain experience so that is basically what the 14 planetary systems within a particular universe is described as and how to go beyond that is basically the topic of the bhagavad gita so it gives you a complete you know tourist guide view of where you can possibly tour and options beyond there also so where are we right now so we are currently in what is known as bhuloka okay which is right in the middle okay it's between heaven and hell yeah so the lower planets till the pathal is the 14th planetary system after pathal there is a description in the bhagavatam of around 30 hellish planets 30 hellish planets so that is a separate division below patha loka so again when i say above below that is also not like something geographical up and down but fascinating description of the this is there in fifth canto of the bhagavata purana if you go into the last five to seven chapters it is known as the


last five to seven chapters it is known as the cosmology of the universe and in order to highlight that the entire temple of vedic planetarium is being built the temple hall itself will be able to hold 10 000 people you know and it's going to be one of the most fascinating temples which will be educating people about what is the universe what is beyond the universe and where are you right now make my trip also the journey of the soul those 30 hellish planets you spoke about so what is their purpose because i've read so many articles on these kind of concepts some of the articles i read were that they hold beings from other dimensions darker beings which is what when we say that oh there was a demon in someone's house someone's escaped from one of those realms and it's entered bhulok rm but i again it's a very raw amount of data i have in my head right so what is the purpose of those hellish planets the purpose of those hellish


of those hellish planets the purpose of those hellish planets is just like you know certain criminals are held in uh arthur jail certain people are held in yaravadajil some people are held in solitary confinement you know there are different degrees to which punishment is given the purpose is reformation the purpose of any imprisonment or punishment even say when a parent punishes a child the intention behind that is reformation so that the person feels i must change so therefore that's the ultimate purpose for that and they are different degrees of suffering in those planets so depending on your karmas you are sent to like one of those planets after correct like that and i'm sure that if you have good karmas are you sent to 30 heavenly families as as i said that uh in the uh bhagavatam fifth canto the residents of the heavenly planets they are praying to lord vishnu kalpa usha's that my dear lord we see a very incredible dichotomy in the


lord we see a very incredible dichotomy in the lower planets in the hellish planets the pain is too much for us to be able to focus on you in the upper planets it is every moment there is incredible sense gratification available too much of bhoga too much of enjoyment so then also we cannot think of you i think the best ecosystem where we can think of you and contemplate on you is the middle planetary system buloka even within that bharathvarsh has the best kind of ambience the culture to be able to think about you you mean in india is the best place exactly for spiritual growth so that's what the the prayer is in the fifth candle wow even one krishna for us is you know and we see that it is a fact that if we have traveled all over the world the way india is is totally different you know so many holy places holy people within two hours you will reach either a holy place or a temple or this or that so


place or a temple or this or that so therefore that's basically the three things which i always focus on the goal if you want to be a boxer or a weight lifter you have to follow a process you know of doing workout and everything but with the process there is the attendant environment you need you need the dress you need the diet you need other you know bodybuilders or boxers so if your goal is spiritual advancement you have to follow certain process of spiritual advancement to follow that process you need the favorable environment that favorable environment is most favorable in india that's why india is the place which is the most favorable for spiritual advancement naturally just like you say you know america is a great you know ecosystem for business or higher education because it's it depends on the ambience the environment which you create so india automatically has that it's a it sounds like a silly question but i hope it's not a silly question um what do i ancient philosophy say about


question um what do i ancient philosophy say about inter-dimensional beings or alien life you know which come and visit the earth or we will hear stories yeah um even in in like the mahabharata ramayana where there are beings that are beyond uh the human realms so what are these beings like what is spoken about them yeah so the idea is 8.4 million species of life have been described in the puranas okay and within human beings itself there are almost 400 000 different varieties described in terms of characteristics yeah characteristics mixture of the moods goodness passion ignorance combination so therefore you know all of these scriptures speak about various beings in all these different planetary systems and depending on the kind of karma you do you can visit there in previous ages they would be free there was free interplanetary travel in satyuga in trita yuga india as per the vedic chronological understanding but in kali yuga that is not happening so openly but still a lot of such interactions


so openly but still a lot of such interactions may be happening but it requires someone very highly qualified and given access to be able to experience that and see that so absolutely such things do happen that's one of the i won't say purposes of spiritual advancement but that's one of the outcomes of spiritual there's only one purpose which is connecting with the divine but is one of the outcomes that you're given access through out-of-body experiences some some people some people are may not you you can actually maybe you'll you'll reach complete spiritual advancement without even experiencing these things possibly got it so we have to head into a q a round but i still have some burning questions in this kind of zone um in christianity we hear a lot about angels even in islam all the abrahamic religions judaism we hear a lot about angels what is the equivalent of angels in indian culture uh farish they or all that is it is it is it are those considered as angels


is it is it are those considered as angels or is that different well uh we have 330 million gods who are basically kind of [Music] they are like the people who are taking care of the universal governance just like the municipality has water department electricity department mscb is there like that surya chandra they are all the divine governors of this universe then at a spiritual level there are the spiritual preceptors the gurus they are also angels because they are carrying the message of another world in that sense anyone who has an otherworldly connection is typically referred to as an angel so one who is connected within these 14 planetary systems to other gods those gods are also like angels and those who are divine beings spiritual beings connected with the supreme so they are also considered to be angels devata karma so comparison is given in the 11th canto between both these types of angels devata karma sachiwa the devatas are considered to be secretaries of karma hisab


are considered to be secretaries of karma hisab they keep record they cannot change it but sad about salah so otherwise they are like directly connected so they can actually change also so therefore both these kinds of angelic descriptions up there i appreciate you opening up over these concepts on this show sir this is not something you know we see often on this particular show but it's something i've been dying to do for a while thank you so much for asking these questions and uh you know it's a pleasure for me sharing all of this knowledge with a lot of your audience many of whom are extremely intelligent very purposeful in life and i encourage and inspire all of them to go deeper into the wealth of our own ancient vedic and traditional indian wisdom and ultimately the bulb was made by edison in america but it's lighting up the whole world so like that we have our tradition which has been a part of india's india's tradition and it has the capacity to


india's tradition and it has the capacity to light up the whole world so why not you know get access to that are you um i mean do you ever even give a thought to people who will criticize you for putting this kind of knowledge out just because the world of modern science doesn't back it yet uh see when you're dealing with health if you have a health conference you may have an allopathy doctor speaking about how he plans to cure you will have an ayurvedic doctor you know speaking how he plans to cure you'll have a natural path so all of them are trying to provide some solution so ultimately they have one common aim to solve the problem of pain of the body so i would say that everyone with different professions in this world whether they are scientists engineers doctors spiritualists we are all trying to provide different solutions so those who are of this world try to provide solution to problems of life till death and we as spiritualists are trying to provide solutions of problems which


spiritualists are trying to provide solutions of problems which we may face within this life and beyond so in that sense you know we are all in the game together trying to make a difference but if anyone throws venom at you what is your response as a person uh i would say that at least they are showing some attention to me that attention is better than ignoring and saying that irrelevant forget it okay so so this is our twitter verse round where we take questions from the audience and uh because it's your first appearance on the show i don't think people really know every all the knowledge that you hold uh so i would also urge people to be very very active on the twitterverse round and the next time source on the show send in even more intense questions but either way so here's some intense questions sure uh manish pandey bhai asks what does peace mean how do we know if we are with peace in the bhagavad-gita krishna defines peace as bhoktharam yagitapasam to number one


peace as bhoktharam yagitapasam to number one understand that the supreme lord is the enjoyer number two sarva-loka maheshwaram to know that he is the controller number three surdam sarah bhutan and he is the supreme well wisher to know these things three things that he's the controller he's the enjoyer he's the well-wisher that is peace yes i'd like to highlight one lesson that i learned from the autobiography for yogi which said that when you're choosing between god and money always choose god for money is only a toy in the hands of god wow but that applies to everything else that applies to love that applies to whatever happens in your life and what is the way of choosing god just be a good person do honest work meditate pray whatever your relationship with god is allow that to flourish um manishby asks what does death mean to him how should i think and accept death death means change change in terms of identity so the change of identity is basically death so


identity so the change of identity is basically death so we go through many such experiences of death in our life where our identity goes on changing but when the identity changes permanently to another long-term identity in the next life so that change is referred to as death yeah um cut me short if you feel i'm revealing too much here sir but i've been reading a lot about death in my own spiritual studies and while i'm not going to highlight everything i'll highlight this one fact that scared me and stayed with me so uh the spiritual stuff i'm reading describe the process of death like what what happens to the human body and what does the body really feel so there's sort of a switch off of senses but just before actual death happens where you die three or four seconds before that you do feel some level of pain and that pain is more elevated if you have not spent your life spiritually if you're not aware of this pain now that pain sometimes can be not intense but it


now that pain sometimes can be not intense but it can be overwhelming because you realize you are dying and some way of spirit carries that memory of that pain subconsciously that's why in the human experience we are afraid of death uh but is there any mention of okay in the garud which you mentioned there is a description that the the pain at the moment of death is equivalent to the pain of the bite of 65 000 scorpions oh okay at the moment of death when the soul is being taken out of the body because it is the change in the ultimate identity imagine i have visited hospital beds and i've met people who have had heart attacks and when i asked them how it happened and they say one of my colleagues was five years junior to me was promoted superseded so what so then i said what happened so i couldn't handle it and that sudden change in identity in life in episodes we go through every single day affects us so much it gives pain people in


affects us so much it gives pain people in relationship when it breaks it changes their identity when someone in family dies you know if a son daughter dies for the mother and father their identity as a mother and father changes so that change in identity gives pain so imagine extrapolate at the moment of death where everything you have identified within life is going to be snatched away at that moment how much that pain will be so that is the intense pain at the time of death and is there any way to reduce it or prepare your mind or body for it that's the main business we are into so the idea is death is an examination the meditation is the preparation so therefore we are all spiritual sincere serious spiritual practitioners have one common agenda how they can practice meditating on two main questions through their life to be able to focus on those same two questions at that moment in the midst of that pain what is that how can i serve god how can i please god and those who are


god how can i please god and those who are able to continue to meditate at that moment in the midst of that chaos krishna says in bhagavad-gita they attain to me without fail yum yum so whatever is your thought at the moment of death you will attain that after this life so therefore krishna says that one who thinks of me attains me but it's not so easy because you know when you're preparing for an exam only when the subject is fully internalized you will be ident able to identify any question which happen to manifest in any form otherwise if you just studied one week before and memorized and not gone deep the same question comes in another format you won't be able to deal with it so therefore death is an examination life is a preparation that's basically the idea of bhagavad-gita it prepares us for that moment wow beautiful heavy but beautiful um okay nachiket nissan asks what is the meaning of god for you god means service without selfish consideration all attractive


you god means service without selfish consideration all attractive krishna so we serve him who's all attractive with a sense of selfless service and maybe do his work in the world we just try to share whatever he expects from us lovely okay shreya asks what changes can be brought about in the education system as a spiritual leader would you suggest that children know about the true nature of life from a young age definitely i would suggest through bhaktivedanta research center we are which is an academic part of iskcon we are trying to encourage and inspire study of religion academically religious studies so i would propose there should be a rethink and revisit to the understanding of secularism which should rather mean that all religious traditions and students and children and parents interested to teach their children any kind of religious tradition as per their choice should have a forum within the education system where they could study it systematically right from a very young age you know if one two three four you know and atoms and molecules are


two three four you know and atoms and molecules are being taught from a young age these are the basic axioms so the axioms of spiritual life should be taught when the child is growing what kind of engineering were you i was metallurgical in material science in fact 8993 i did b-tech from iit bombay sundar which i did from iit kharagpur metallurgy okay crazy um do you think about engineering college even now well uh i am part of the a whole consortium called iit dash iit which basically means iitns for influencing india's transformation wow and also part of the global iit alumnus and uh you know i have my role to play helping people cope with life and you know deal with stress and understand purpose and many of my other colleagues have done very well in terms of business and technology so i have focused more on spiritual technology when you were studying for your ge your entrance exam uh what was in your head your very single yeah see i i grew


your head your very single yeah see i i grew up in a place called bilay it's in chhattisgarh it has a steel plant and you know people in vilai are kind of very closely connected to each other socially it's a very you know small town everyone knows everyone else so that was the time when uh you know cracking je and entering iit became like the thing there and we are all so socially affected you know so we didn't have to think too much okay three batches before me they started he has gone to iit okay my all my friends with whom i would play cricket they all went to iit so what choice i had so i also thought let me go to iit beautiful um okay sir aadhaar asks what is the purpose of creation and i think the follow-up question is why was the universe created in the first place by the divine the purpose of creation is to help us transform and purify our desires to be able to come in sync with the lord's


to be able to come in sync with the lord's desire to give an example a father takes the child to the park first of all the child is cranky and keeps shouting i have to go to the park to play the father takes the child to the park the father facilitates the child to play in the park and then the child is refusing to come back so then the father has to inspire the child baba mommy is waiting please come let's go back but he just refuses so at some point of time [Music] when the child while you know sliding down falls and breaks his ankle and starts crying and the father picks him up and says i told you there is a limit to how much you should be here you should come back so ultimately that's the purpose of the creation to help and facilitate the souls to come back home back to the spiritual world lippy sharma asks during times of turmoil or when people purposely try to trouble you or pull you down how


try to trouble you or pull you down how to cling onto god's hand how to protect your mind from the disturbances others try to create for you as i described before that especially now in kobe times you and me have you know some responsibilities when we are in you know outside in terms of social distancing wearing masks and other things and vaccination and various others but beyond that the major responsibility we have is to immunize ourselves with high immunity that is very much within our responsibility within our control so i believe that we have to really work within our circle of influence and we should have an eye on the circle of concern but within the circle of influence is what i eat what i think how much sleep i get how i decide to respond to situations all of that has an effect on us so i would say that you know as part of our spiritual tradition we need to learn those things just like a gymnast learns how to be flexible when it falls on


learns how to be flexible when it falls on the ground immediately he can summer salt and jump up so like that our spiritual traditions are teaching us that to fall is inevitable but what the gita is teaching is how to jump back up when you slip and fall and that's what i am sharing in my book the art of resilience you know 40 stories to help people bounce back and come back on their feet so you may consider loss of health to be a loss loss of health loss of wealth loss of property loss of reputation loss of relationship these are not considered major losses in bhagavad-gita but the most important powerful loss is the loss of hope and therefore the gita the bhagavata and our vedic principles and the temples which have been created they all exist to make sure that you never lose hope that's the main idea um sarthak vijay asks according to you what should be the one goal that all of humanity should be chasing as radhanas swamy always


humanity should be chasing as radhanas swamy always says the purpose of life is to seek love and to give love so we are all seeking love and all of us have four choices to be motivated by fear which is in tamogun mode of ignorance higher than that is to be motivated by desire which is in mode of passion higher than that and minimum level of motivation which gita recommends is to be motivated by duty sense of duty which is in mode of goodness higher than that is to act motivated by love where there may be scarcity impediment discomfort unhappiness in a relationship in a situation in an activity but we still continue serving that may be painful externally but the most satisfying and blissful internally the nanogram asks why is meditation the only way to clear our thoughts are there any other practices we can do for the same there are various types of meditations which are recommended and basically yoga is defined in bhagavad-gita second chapter yogasta


is defined in bhagavad-gita second chapter yogasta yo the the four elements of yoga krishna describes this first is action second is knowledge third is meditation fourth is renunciation and fifth is devotion so depending on how each one of these is prominent then the particular name of that yoga comes so when action is prominent we call it karma yoga when you are trying to attain your goal by increasing your knowledge that is known as yoga when meditation is prominent and when devotion is prominent it is known as bhaktiva so these are different forms of how you perform an activity but your main intention and your faith is tagged into one of these and spiritual advancement can happen by pursuing even one of them yes so spiritual advancement so just like variety you know just like youtube has so many podcasters different people plug in and connect with different different people as per their you know inspiration so like that in spiritual life also as i said that variety is the mother of enjoyment


i said that variety is the mother of enjoyment and the entire process of love is based on free will so therefore depending on the various desires there are various practices of yoga available i have this one story again i read in the autobiography of yogi that stayed with me i think uh so there's a line i'll tell you before the story the line is never hold your spiritual evolution as a source of your ego right like if you're spiritually evolved it shouldn't become an egoistic man oh look at me i'm so spiritually rewarded that's also wrong and it happens to a lot of people even good people right but they're like no i am a spiritual being uh the story is basically um it's it's i think a european story it's about a village where they heard of an island near the village the village was on the banks of like a river and the middle of the river there was a small island right so the people in the village had heard


right so the people in the village had heard of three uh hermits like who were there who were very advanced but who lived like hermits who lived very simply so the main village priest um he thought that you know how can they be so advanced because i am i'm dedicating my whole life to god so of course i should be more advanced so he takes a boat and goes there and he meets them he sees that they're living very simply and you know they're easy going and all that and they're very friendly they welcome him it's a good energy on that island but he tells them that you know no no i don't think what you're doing right now is good enough because all they do is they say oh we love god we love god that's the meditation and he tells him no that's not what he's supposed to i'll tell you what's written in these books and why don't you do these things so they get very fascinated and they're very grateful to him because


fascinated and they're very grateful to him because he teaches them like a detailed meditation so then after he's done teaching them he says okay now you'll keep practicing this and one day even you'll be you know even more spiritual around like how i am also very spiritually done you'll be like me so they say okay cool thank you so he gets back on his boat and he's going back to the village and then he can hear voices so then he turns around and he sees that those three hermits are walking on water and saying hey wait up wait up we forgot that second last thing you said and they were walking on water and they came to ask him about uh the second last thing he said in his whole meditation so the point of the story is he realized that his way isn't the only way of spiritual advancement and even simple emotions love can actually get people way more advanced than you are living a simple life living a clean life and that always stayed with me so


a clean life and that always stayed with me so every time i feel guilty because of my entrepreneurial career when i can't meditate as much as i wish to and i wish to meditate so much more right um somewhere i got a voice in my head thinking it's okay just do your good work be a good person think about god and that's also advancement uh just sharing that story arihant asks what is the greatest quality that humans possess we have the ability to transform and change ourselves ourselves and we can be inspired by various positive thoughts yes sir uh same person asks what is our greatest distraction currently social media is there any competition well yeah no that's true but social media has changed how we look at the world it's become so much more validation based our existence like now when you're in a good location it's much more but let me put this in my phone rather than let me put this in my eyes and then and then you you'll relive it through your phone when it


you you'll relive it through your phone when it was actually meant to be relived in that moment again arihant good questions bravo aryan asks so what gets you excited about life the opportunity to serve continuously in the midst of like-minded people and what is your one wish for the world we become more compassionate and considerate towards each other okay i think we lost one final question which kind of encapsulates this entire podcast tanvi bhagwat 99 asks in the end we know we are going to die and we know we are going to take nothing with us then why is it so difficult to drop the materialistic lifestyle and materialistic goals and simply follow a spiritual life well that's exactly the argument arjuna gave to krishna that let me give up everything and go to the forest krishna said you are akshatriya you are a fighter you are saying i will become bigger when you sit in the forest and start begging and you go peop you know different places to beg and


you go peop you know different places to beg and when someone refuses to give you food or insults you when you are in the beggar your kshatriya within will not go away you are not used to insult when someone insults you you will take that begging part and hit him because you are ultimately a fighter so don't do anything artificially the idea is not to abandon but it is to acknowledge the presence of lord and transform your attitudes you know just as we reached the end of this podcast it started raining outside i'm enjoying the sound of the rain i'm enjoying having this conversation there were so many moments in this conversation where i'm looking at you i'm looking at you know this love and peace in your eyes i'm just feeling blessed that you're in my office so it's like it's so such a dear moment for me it's very close to my heart i thank you from the bottom thank you thank you thank you so much ranbir for having me and it


thank you so much ranbir for having me and it has been a fascinating experience hearing these questions from you because bhagavatam says three types of people are glorious one who asks the right questions then those who actually share and those who are hearing just like the gain just purifies people in all the three planetary systems so i think you know these are the absolutely necessary questions for people in this world to contemplate on and apply in their lives and get transformed so thank you very much i'm just blessed to be a medium i'm blessed to be a conversationalist with you never my wildest dreams did i think that i'd get to speak about these things on the internet and just like even if i thank you a thousand more times it won't be enough so i'll just end the podcast and thank you again thank you thank you so much hare krishna this was healing this was heavy this was a conversation i'd never forget there's some people you meet in your life where you know


some people you meet in your life where you know that there's some thing divine about them if you've reached this part of this episode you've probably consumed part one as well you guys know exactly what i'm talking about what was this mind where is this mind been why isn't there more of this mind on the internet i feel like god gaurangandas prabhu has a lot more to share a lot more is coming up i needed this particular conversation there were two experiences that happened after this conversation the first experience was that right after the conversation i told gaura garangadashi that i hadn't prepared for this conversation i just went into it for personal mentorship perspectives i just asked him the questions i've been thinking about from a spiritual perspective from a personal perspective and he answered so many things beautifully in many of his answers he actually answered questions which i hadn't even asked him but i needed the answers for and i'm sure you felt the same way that's the power of wisdom


felt the same way that's the power of wisdom with dedication attached to that wisdom that's how i described this divine soul the second experience was when i was sitting next to him for the sake of posing for a photograph and right after the photo was taken he put his hand on my knee and i can't explain it but i genuinely felt like he blessed me just through his touch i know it sounds crazy but that's what i felt intuitively i felt like he gifted me something and i've been told that with spiritual experiences like this even the conversation was spiritual you're not supposed to analyze it much but i can't help but think about this conversation repeatedly because it was a very important conversation for my life just like all these other spiritual conversations that we've already had on the runway show we've been blessed enough to bring some of the world's most spiritually evolved souls on this show and this is just the beginning we're gonna keep bringing many more


just the beginning we're gonna keep bringing many more souls like this i hope you enjoyed this particular podcast please make sure you hit that like button make sure you share it with all your friends all your relatives will find value in these conversations a lot more spiritual conversations just like this have already been created on the runway show and of course we intend on creating so many more of these with divine souls just like gorgon gada's prabhuji remember to follow trs on spotify every episode is available on spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world i'd love to know from you guys on our social media in our comment sections what you thought of this particular episode how it's impacted you who else you'd like to see on the runway show and if god gauranga dash prabhuji is back on the ranvir show what would you like me to ask him think of this episode as just an introduction of the legend on the show and he's going to be back


legend on the show and he's going to be back for a lot more episodes this recording session was extremely special for me and i hope that the experience of listening to it was special for you as well god bless you keep growing [Music] you