uh we're getting into history is the vastness of it and you've just realized how much you don't know about history yeah even though you've dedicated your life to archeology and history yeah uh so the deeper you go into history do you realize these kind of metaphysical uh things even more deeply and was that a part of the studies you had related to Tantra etc etc did you kind of look at all these things and almost think to yourself yeah Harry Potter could have happened yeah you know sometimes I do feel that um like important Scholars historic Scholars of India who chose austerity went into the forest you know meditated upon things for the longest time and then wrote these books the kind of books they have written I'm reading their words and mind you when they're writing this book it's not like I was just writing today I woke up and it it's in prose that means they're writing in Sanskrit right they're writing in Sanskrit in such a way and Sanskrit in prose


in such a way and Sanskrit in prose is written that everything has a meter right when you say Sanskrit verses it has a meter right and you have to restrict yourself in that media so imagine the vocabulary that they had to um dwell into to keep it to that meter so that you can chant it out the things that you chant are in a particular rhythmic fashion right that's what a meter is and when you do things in a rhythmic fashion it creates a kind of vibration around you which channels the ATM atmosphere around you a certain way from a more biological level like in in yoga we have something called Cosmic chance which is basically this exactly that and because you're chanting it out it sets your breathing pattern in a certain way the breathing pattern has an effect on your heartbeat your heartbeat heart and your heartbeat has an effect on your mind yeah and therefore once you've chanted a cosmic chant or a Bhajan or a sloke you feel calm you


Bhajan or a sloke you feel calm you feel calm because actually breathing better places if you've ever been to a yoga ashram or a place where people are in constant practice of respect of the environment you notice that there is a different energy right you notice that there is a lightness to the air you notice that there's a fragrance to uh that air why it's not because of the agarbatti it's because people have been working that environment in a certain way the whole time that the wheel has been set in Motion in that way you see so certainly the environment around you can be channelized as well yeah have you ever experienced Tai Chi by any chance yes in Japan I lived in Japan for two years and you know when I experienced it it's a funny story so I went to Japan whereas the peak of my youth my golden years when I was 25 right so I lived in Kyoto which is uh the Imperial City and just the most beautiful human civilization that I have seen


just the most beautiful human civilization that I have seen in current days uh who have absolute respect for people around them space nature and everything so Kyoto is a city that is a valley surrounded by Hills on three sides pierced right in the center by the kamagawa river which is a very shallow River so when we used to go out on weekends we used to sit by the kamagaba river and my home uh was on a slight Hillside just 10 minutes away from there I went to kyota University or Kyoto daigaku as they call it over there and my home was right next to it right above my home in Kyoto because it is also very religious City they have five kanji symbols or Chinese character is carved into the mountain so wherever you're standing in Kyoto when you look up at the hills you can see those characters and once a year they burn those characters which is like how we do shrad we we talk about we mourn our ancestors they also have a born


we mourn our ancestors they also have a born festival Where They Mourn their ancestors and then they set that on fire no not I mean yes it is a realm of uh but this is a this is a kind of a festival there okay you know so um I lived below one of these signs so one day on a regular Saturday we were having a drink and you know the night just went into the morning and I said I have the best idea let's climb this hill and on top of the hill the grandmas and the grandpas who take their morning walks they do this you know the Japanese radio comes on with aerobics right and Tai Chi sometimes so let's go and catch the grandmas and grandpas up there and do tai chi with them and that was my first experience with them yeah dragons huh [Applause] dude you gotta get me fired I'll give you the art historical perspective on it [Music] give it to us but also why is it bad for an


to us but also why is it bad for an archaeologist to talk about these things beyond the Realms of what we know is it because there's a lack of evidence yeah I feel if there's a lack of evidence definitely that conversation can go bad like you can go into any realm and then you then you don't even know where to stop this right dragons we haven't found them but we found drawings of them everywhere representations of them everywhere in China we all know it in India Indonesia uh southeast Asia Indonesia I'm saying southeast Asia and Indonesia are you know in the same region um we find drawings of these sea animals called Makara okay and what happens is when you enter a temple especially in Southeast Asia at the doll until you might see it in Bali you know you might have this face coming out and all of these kind of water like um designs around it and that animal is called the Makara which is the Sea Dragon it is a sea animal that


is the Sea Dragon it is a sea animal that you know again it is representative of Creation in a certain way of Destruction in a certain way alike but very similar to a dragon you know similarly when you go towards South America Etc again they have certain representations that connect a sea animal that has um unnatural capabilities like fire may come out from its mouth or wind a gust of wind may come out from his mouth or it can Wallop or eat anything or swallow anything so these mythologies that were created you see the first gods for humans were always the Natural Forces Surya uh the Sun the wind the fire right most religions across religions you will see the beginning part of something that you worship or something that you were scared of then that's something that you Worship You worship water then it began you worship see then you worship the demons that live within the Seas why do dragons and these sea monsters become popular because seafaring became very popular


monsters become popular because seafaring became very popular in society man had started building ships and boats and they were going over the waves do you think man understood what a typhoon was that time do you think they understood how a 10-foot wave can come up and Destroy entire civilizations no they gave it in certain names and those names are not tsunami and typhoon those names were dragons and sea monsters um okay but that also doesn't discount the possibility that they could have been Mega fauna which probably had some sort of capabilities yeah the sad part is yeah you know when there are um uh Maritime animals the evidence gets lost in um the ocean in the ocean so you what you don't have evidence for remains a mythology what you have evidence for becomes a fact um or parallely when you're talking about flying creatures dances are they had hollow bones and hollow bones erode very fast yeah do you study megafauna these big animals not at all so my area my period


big animals not at all so my area my period of study whenever you meet a historian or you meet an archaeologist uh they generally specialize in a very small time period because in that small time period only you will never finish your study in one lifetime you see so my time period actually begins from early 6th Century uh CE and goes to the late 12th century CE so a good six centuries uh that I primarily study other than that I love studying the origins of Buddhism and the expansion of Buddhism which started from like 500 BCE probably and goes on to why did you choose that time period that's 600 to 1200 ish because my what what fascinated me most about studying history was the idea of India and the rule all India played in the larger Asian identity in the ancient and early medieval period India at that particular point in time you see this time India had six universities [Music] one more these universities were so Grand they were Buddhist and Hindu


were so Grand they were Buddhist and Hindu universities alike right they were so Grand that people from right up to Japan from Cambodia from Thailand from China were coming to India Hyun sang I Ching all of these Chinese Scholars why did they come to India because India was a throbbing motherland of civilization of culture of intelligence with these universities India was what Oxford is to the world or what Harvard is to the world and in fact there is epigraphic epigraphy means inscriptions right translating of in the science of studying inscriptions there are inscriptions in Indonesia there are inscriptions in Cambodia that says that if you want to go to study in nalanda you must give a preliminary Sanskrit exam here once you pass then you will go to India to study you go in current day to sarnath you've been to Varanasi did you go to sarna yes so in sarnath is a very funny ASI metal board please do not put gold on the building when these people came from far


gold on the building when these people came from far away lands whether Indian or outside India to these universities their main form of devotion you see in the Indica we have Karma right in that you want to accumulate Merit you give donations when you give a donation when you give a bench why do you give a bench as opposed to just food because if I give you food as a donation once you eat the food my Merit is one point but if I give you a chair every time someone sits on that chair I get married my family gets married so thus it's a much more tangible gift so when people came to these universities their gift to the institution was taking gold foil and putting it on the building now if every Pilgrim Pilgrim or every scholar did that you can just imagine that these buildings were gilded in gold and Shining with wealth we all know that Buddhism cease to exist in India in the mid medieval period it was wiped out of India and raced out of


was wiped out of India and raced out of India in three waves and then it went to it went through two directions outside the country the northern route in the southern route he went towards Sri Lanka it went towards Tibet China southeast Asia eventually to Japan right how was it wiped out it was wiped out primarily because Buddhism was essentially attacked by rival religions these universities like nalanda vikramshila takshila was set on fire they were burning the libraries of nalanda were burning the texts were rapidly taken and taken to Nepal and stuff like that so my dissertation at Oxford when I studying classical Indian religion was translating a manuscript from 11th century vikramashila which is a highly transric sadhana manual sadhana is like meditation when you're within the realm of Tantra and you're following a particular culture for God then in your daily religious practice you're supposed to pray four times a day and where you're supposed to pray how


a day and where you're supposed to pray how are you supposed to pray and this is a manual that allows you to do Transcendental Meditation so I was translating and transcribing it translating it obviously from Sanskrit to English in Hindi transcribing is it was written in Sanskrit but in a very tedious language so most tantric literature is not straightforward it is called Gupta Vidya you have to be an initiate to understand the true meaning of the words that are used over there like poetry like is it it is poetry but poetry that is that has a concealed Vidya that has a concealed knowledge within it it could mean that you must pray to the Lotus daily but in tantric texts the Lotus is not essentially the flower the Lotus actually means the female vagina so you know so you have to know these things you have to be initiated you have to have years of study before you understand the true meaning of what is written in the text so that


meaning of what is written in the text so that you can meditate upon it properly and you can visualize the god properly we all know that in in the way we pray when we set up a regular prayer altar you have certain religion you have certain rituals that lead up to actually accessing the deity first you clean the area any religion choose any religion first you will clean the area you know you will make it inhabitable for the deity himself to come over there then you will feed you will clothe the date you obeyed the date you would feed the deity and then you would say goodbye to the deity and then you would apologize to the deity right so all of these things how they are done uh is very different from one God to the other and the purpose of why you're praying to that God earlier we had many rituals for rain making for example that was one of the main reasons that indic religions were adopted in Southeast Asia in places like Cambodia


were adopted in Southeast Asia in places like Cambodia Thailand Indonesia Japan even alike why did they build a big Vishnu Temple anchor what is the largest temple in the world it's a Vishnu temple why did they build it before a Vishnu Temple was built in Cambodia they worshiped Shiva for 200 years so why did they switch to Vishnu immediately and why did Vishnu not stick around because as soon as that particular King died they suddenly switched to Tantric Buddhism why the reasons is because religion provided that tool for State Building for for Royal patronage for beautifying the king into a God himself he becoming the theological head of the society what does it mean theological head of the society I myself am the god the god resides in me there are many rituals that have happened that the god resides in me now why Vishnu Vishnu was be and and why the biggest temple for Vishnu because Vishnu is a deity that


for Vishnu because Vishnu is a deity that is usually worshiped when you want to consolidate an already large empire you want to consolidate it and you want to give people like I am here to stay things are not about Warfare right now things are about State Building right now okay why Transit Buddhism because that time the state was under attack so that religion gave them the tools to defend their um enemies the Vietnamese were attacking cambodians the thighs were attacking cambodians at that time suddenly they switched to Tantric Buddhism ready I don't know if you've seen Lara Croft yeah in that there are these temples in Cambodia which have faces coming out yeah this was a temple that I wrote my first dissertation on right and these temples Buddhist temple and the largest building program occurred in this country in mid-12th Century Cambodia while they build these temples they also built the largest network of hospitals what does that evidence tell us a


of hospitals what does that evidence tell us a the king is expanding the realm of his kingdom B while he's expanding the realm of this King Kingdom there is a lot of warfare because he's building institutions to tackle the injured soldiers hospitals right see he built the largest network of libraries as well while he's expanding his troops are still being kept busy with books and being centered to that thing so you see religion serves several purposes but coming back to your original question I studied um India and that time period because I was interested in the role that India played towards the larger Asian identity towards building an Asian identity something that is very seldom explored in India I think last it was explored in the most deep way was when the tagoras were you know building Shanti niketan and they were inviting the Japanese and Chinese Scholars alike to Bengal and they were going into the Asian they were not about they're very much about the Indian identity but they were about the


much about the Indian identity but they were about the rule of India to the world and I think that is something that still I think I have a purpose there you know I have a mission in my mind to study history from that perspective to talk about the depths of intellectual um you know Brilliance of our country philosophical Brilliance uh one last question I have for this particular episode and I'm really stopping myself from asking you further about like what you just spoke about I just got warmed up right now good in here um does the word of archeology generally get very fascinated with Egypt ancient Egypt because I believe that the Egyptians that we know of consider themselves to be a modern civilization and they consider an even more ancient civilization to be the actual Egypt where they some people say that entities like raw Isis Osiris I believe was the name actually existed as Kings or Queens back then so what how does the modern world of archeology look at Egypt so my boss is


of archeology look at Egypt so my boss is actually an egyptologist she she first of all her name is Sarah barkak and she's alive she's alive um she actually is a dead price winner she won a million dollars to do her work in Egypt and this is the project that I actually brought to India I raise funds for it from Tara trust and I am deploying satellite remote sensing a lab and Archeology which is called space archeology for the archaeological Survey of India this was my first project which is still yet to be deployed and totally harnessed in ASI but we're working hard every day but she is an egyptologist and um she um she would better be able to answer the questions about Egypt I'm not an egyptologist I am my focus is on Asia and I just do not I I might not even know my facts about Egypt that well because I focus so much in Asia Cambodia Thailand Japan uh uh Korea and all of those areas and I still consider myself


and all of those areas and I still consider myself a student of History I don't ever and I've taught in a university I work for the ASI my hands are rough like an archaeologist's hands uh but I will still always consider myself a student of History so in terms of Egypt yes the storytelling of the Egyptian history has been done not only in textbooks that are school books in Egypt but also abroad and also in the movies so well right so so well in fact my boss Sarah when she started using satellite imagery for Egypt in a spanner for years she actually found thousand new pyramids several digging holes now the main work that we do why we use satellite remote sensing for archeology is because countries like Egypt Italy and India are one of the biggest victims of illegal trafficking of Antiquities what does that mean if there is an unsecured Temple you could go to that Temple and you could break a sculpture you could sell it in the black market which would find


could sell it in the black market which would find itself in a big Museum or a big auction house and would sell for millions of dollars it is at par the illegal trade of Antiquities is that at par uh with drugs and ammunitions the world over so much that there are laws against it right but that is what made Egypt a big victim of antiquity looting made Italy a big victim of antiquity looting currently you will hear a lot of stories that India is getting this sculpture back the British museum is full of Indian loot it is very true it is it is a true fact um and Egypt you know really suffered because it was the first country whose history became really popular I am again not an expert on Egyptian history but when you look at the gods that you did mention you know Rai says if you look at the origins of those Gods their Origins are in the forces of nature in the natural forces that are Beyond human capabilities that are Beyond human understanding at the


Beyond human capabilities that are Beyond human understanding at the time that they were you know not understood so um yes in terms of Egyptian history they've gone a very far way to capture popular imagination India is number one and being old has so many stories but they still exist at a meta level I think also in our country I hate to say this and I urge it's my plea and prayer to everyone I feel like we need to stop taking our history and our culture for granted and really get into it you know we take it for granted because in our daily homes as Indians we're very cultural beings in our daily homes we have things that make us uh cultural people not like in America in America it's a choice but we grew we grew up with culture or all around us so we tend to take it for granted but at the same time we also consider ourselves Experts of culture you know it happens like this in that house you're from that community so you might have these practices


from that community so you might have these practices you're from this community you might have these and you think you're an expert but it is a science culture is an invisible visceral deep science that has the deepest truths about human intelligence so we should never take it for granted why a temple is built a certain way or why is a burial done a certain way why are you being buried with pots and pans and jewelry alike you know every culture could have a different reason for doing that even though they may be doing it in the same way so yeah in in saying that I want to ask you one final question on the show maybe it's a yes or no answer uh do you believe or do you know if geopolitics plays a role in revealing or hiding certain aspects of History yeah it does okay because if everything is revealed it will change the way humans look at themselves I mean humans look at themselves in so many ways and geopolitics is so sort of


so many ways and geopolitics is so sort of uh deeply ingrained from early societies into the the nature of man you know my territory my land um my domestication my animals uh I want rain now I want to build a wall I want to you know all of this this is all geopolitics right it's like protecting your resources for Generations I don't know I'm not so sure of generations to come as much as protecting your resources for the course of your lifetime and the life that you have in Visage for your children yeah yeah uh this is this is what bothers me a little bit about where history and historical research stands today it's still dictated by Rich and powerful people in terms of what's available in the public domain and we don't know what we don't know I wish I wish the rich and powerful people I actually do want to make a call to action right now I wish we rich and powerful people of India invested into their history and their culture as much as they talk


their history and their culture as much as they talk about it let me tell you philanthropy in this country for archeology is so backward so bad besides one big uh business House of India I I challenge all cultural practitioners to find me one consistent other business house in this country that has continuously and in a sustained way done filler not Returns on investment not investment I don't want to hear the term Returns on investment when you invest in Indian culture and Indian history and Indian archeology I want to hear philanthropy right I don't want to hear your branding exercise when you talk about philanthropy I want to talk about how do you donate a give grants not even donate nobody wants a donation it's a grant right you check the progress of the grant but you don't look for what I am getting back if you I challenge the cultural practitioners to find me the business houses even from today or yesteryears apart from one consistent one and I'll say it out aloud it's the


one and I'll say it out aloud it's the tatas because you have museums that are full of Tata and you have the Tata trust which is 125 year old organization it is one that has run a magazine called the Marg magazine funded it solely throughout which is one of the most important cultural journals consistent and sustained cultural journals of this country but apart from that family I don't think anybody big business house in this country has done any large-scale tangible sustained work there's always a one-off here in there but it's not as if their mission is focused towards preserving India's culture it's never focused towards that they all and whenever they do that also they do it in their own name and that's not philanthropy philanthropy is true philanthropy is funding the existing structures of India fund excavations at the archaeological Survey of India fund building out archaeological sites so that we can understand the true extent of our human history but it does not exist so there is a


history but it does not exist so there is a big dichotomy in this country and I I I I would like to devote my entire life towards it where I want to explain to people you know if you love Indian culture you must give back to it and the way you give back to it is not taking control of it is give assistive care to the existing institutions in this country that are doing that work don't try and reinvent the wheel support the existing Carriage what's the deeper call to action can we have a link or like like how do you actually begin that process because there's a lot of people I mean the simplest way to do it uh the archaeological Survey of India has a national culture fund where a lot of people can give um financial aid to the archaeological Survey of India to conduct its main activities which is exploration excavation conservation so that I mean I mean I'm not here to put out that call to action it's not my call to action but in general I want


not my call to action but in general I want to say if you truly care about Indian culture you could practice it in your homes but you have to give back to society in a way where you know and I've worked in a bank by the way handling a cultural fund and I saw big business houses coming and they asked that question but what is our return on investment I and I was like I think I need to give you um you know a class about how philanthropy Works how CSR Works how investing Works how marketing works when you're investing and you're doing marketing ask that question but when you're doing CSR and when you're doing um philanthropy you know you do the deed and you follow up on the legitimacy of the person but you don't look for what you're getting back then you be on top of the People by all means that they should achieve what they have taken I mean read those utilization certificates to the T okay but you don't ask that what am I getting back


but you don't ask that what am I getting back is my name being flashed in some report that's not true philanthropy honey come on thank you for a blockbuster episode wow thanks for having me yeah my own personal concern with continuing this podcast in general is where will we find our next guests I obviously love run out of guests and then people like you come along so crazy you were built for the world of podcasting oh really yeah yeah oh thank you uh I feel there's a 100x larger amount of data to unpack with you which we'll do over the course we didn't even get into hardcore archeology and like exploration and what size have I been to we just talked about you know a large um you know things that are like really around us right now so maybe next time we can go deeper into it yeah yeah it gives me a lot of Joy knowing that you come to Bombay often so uh we will figure something we are friends now we will meet this was so much


are friends now we will meet this was so much fun now you understand why I was pumped about this particular episode like I read your name on a schedule and I was pumped maybe like a couple of months ago because I think it got scheduled a couple of months ago uh like it's been two months leading up to this and I'm so happy yeah thank you thank you so much this meant a lot cheers fantastic that was the episode for today the first ever episode that we did with Anika man I enjoyed every single minute of this conversation as you can tell if you're listening until this point I'd love recommendations from you guys the audience in terms of who else you'd want to see on the show are there more archaeologists that you'd like to see on the show are there more historians you'd like to see on the show please let us know in the comment section please let us know on our Instagram and remember we have a highlights Channel called PRS Clips where you'll find the best


Channel called PRS Clips where you'll find the best bits of every episode broken down etc etc etc so if you're someone who enjoys history but you don't know where to begin this race when it comes to accumulating Knowledge from podcasts the RS Clips is a fantastic way to begin we've actually curated playlist for you right there and until then make sure you follow us on Spotify every episode of TRS is available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world the rnv show another command will be back soon thank you for listening in [Music]


is as I said yoga is a school of philosophy which perceives reality so what he says is only when your mind is quiet will you be settled in your actual truth where you will see the real truth what will happen when the mind doesn't set up your emotions correct you will see your reality according to those withis with a biased lens what is getting control over your senses ideally I see something immediately my memory is triggered that oh I liked it but I forget that it had not done good for me because for that I need to use my thinking brain yeah that is only taste taste is like oh I want it now if I don't get it I will go into this mode of anger frustration so I need to tell my senses that oh if things you don't get what you want it's fine for the last two years of my life I've dedicated my research to the world of meditation yoga because I'm building a meditation and yoga app this episode is an attempt to


and yoga app this episode is an attempt to bring you the ABCs or the 101s of yoga not how the world knows yoga it's not just about the stretches the asanas the exercises it's about the philosophy it's about the reasons to do yoga and it's about the end goal of yoga if you're someone who wants to learn the truth about yoga through our shastras or the ancient scriptures of India this is the episode for you we've got one of our TRS All-Stars who's giving us some Blockbuster episodes in Hindi to explain yoga to you folks from a very basic perspective this is one of those episodes that's Evergreen it's going to be relevant even 50 years later so you're going to enjoy this episode you're going to learn from it remember to check out level supermind the app that I've been working on for the last two years lots of guided meditations lots of guided yoga workouts coming your way and of course make sure you follow us on Spotify every


of course make sure you follow us on Spotify every episode of TRS is available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world because TRS is a Spotify exclusive this yoga special has a lot to give you so just be in a state of absorbing fresh knowledge and perspective building opinions from Amiga nathra and yours truly [Music] because you've done a bunch of Blockbuster episodes on a Hindi Channel but this is our first English episode so welcome thank you so much and we're always a pleasure any Channel with you is fun any chat with you is fun you know how deep and crazy this one's going to go because this is our first ever yoga special on the show I wanted to do it with you because I've seen how deep we can go with our yoga conversations in Hindi uh we have a lot of international listeners and this one's for them mainly I think you need to clear the misconception about what yoga is to begin with because when Urban audiences plus


is to begin with because when Urban audiences plus International audiences you're the word yoga they automatically visualize someone doing something from a Surya namaskar right uh some kind of yoga Asana some yoga exercise what is Yoga according to the ancient definitions from Indian scriptures so the um foremost text on you is Anjali yoga yoga yeah who compiled the information on what yoga is Yoga has um yog is a darshan what we call darshan it's one of the six darshanik schools of India where we have one is we have yoga and yeah basically how do you see the reality how to perceive the reality what is a darshan darshan is what we very simply translate as philosophy okay darshan yeah darsha is to see see what reality that is how it basically breaks down to so how do you make sense of reality reality of Truth okay deeper question what have you learned about reality are we living in a simulation so if you go by um vedanta or advaitha


if you go by um vedanta or advaitha we say that this is all Maya what you'll have to also explain what vedant so vedanta very simply understood it is Veda end of the Ved what is at the end of the way end of the way are the upanishads yeah upanishad so Vedas are have two three parts but to be very simpler simple about this two main parts one is what is called karma Kanda and the second which is called karbakanda is about rituals because we have always been a I don't want to use Pagan civilization but a civilization that worships nature right our deities so to say were all related to Nature in some way so we have a civilization that worshiped nature and hence there were certain rituals around that the prominent being what we call yagna in English we called it the fire sacrifice right the sacrifices which are done but basically the yagna where you have the fire and you put ghee in the fire and you


fire and you put ghee in the fire and you know habish and all of that in the fire so there are uh there are certain invocations you do when you do the yagna there are certain uh material benefits that you seek out of doing a yagna the the larger thought is that by doing the yagna you are um propitiating the deities you are giving them something and expecting that they will take care of you yeah so it's like a you give them something I expect them to take care of you ask for their protection ask for help all of that so how to do those what were the rituals around it how to um you know when to do what yagna what are the rules who could do what should be chanted in those all that is called karma Kanda yeah so rituals around that that is one part thus last part usually I mean last because that's the second part sometimes it also comes in the middle of the weather is called so has to do with wisdom knowledge yeah knowledge


called so has to do with wisdom knowledge yeah knowledge of what so our rishis have always been um perplexed or let's say they have been trying to understand these questions of you know um existential questions what we call today who am I why am I here what is the purpose of this life what is this word how did creation happen yeah you'll also have to explain who are ishis are um the the word translates into one who achieved realization through knowledge that's what we say but rishis are people who basically could go deep into meditation who had a lot of wisdom to perceive things which were not easily available to Common People yeah so in one way these were like the realized scientists of past day okay let me now again break away into a little bit of modern history I don't want modern history I call it modern because this is what the world of history is talking about a lot lately which is the evolution of man so if the first Homo Sapien arrived on the earth three


first Homo Sapien arrived on the earth three lakh years ago 300 000 years ago that's a very long time if you actually think of the fact that Jesus Christ was only born about 2000 years ago three lack yours is a very long time they say that um humans are spent a lot of time in history which has been lost because archeology has its own limits how much we know about the past has its own limits and in India it's believed that Indian civilization has been around for a very long time it's been around at least for the last 15 000 years or so because one of the oldest texts the rigved has been dated back to them because it mentions the Saraswati river which is now submerged it's gone underground but it was a phase in history where the Saraswati was on land so even if we just take that 15 000 year bracket rishis or probably people who were meditators they were trying to go deeper into the world of yoga and they were trying to figure out


world of yoga and they were trying to figure out the truths about human life through meditation through contemplation through research uh that's all I understand about rishis I would also like to believe that the timeline is not as short as 15 000 years ago I feel it was at least a few thousand year thousand year decades more than that by which I mean maybe I would realistically like to believe it's about forty thousand fifty thousand BC what's the evidence for this I don't know in saying that um if you actually read the stories of our puranas uh we talk about years and times in lacks of years and that kind of a scale and it's probably taken lacks of years to figure out that much about the human mind and body now go on Amiga yeah no so um The indic View on time is not linear we look at indic view of time as circular yeah that civilizations happen they get lost again the civilization happened yeah so from that perspective we date ourselves like lacks


so from that perspective we date ourselves like lacks of years old yeah but let's talk about what we know right now and you are right the information we have right now is probably 15 000 years of you know some evidence of human life um some some index researchers have actually traced back say Mahabharata to five thousand to seven thousand years ramayan to you know seven thousand to nine thousand years so this period is already what we have then we know that there was when we read ramayan we know that they also talk about the past yeah so stretching it back so I think at least 15 000 years I would agree with you is you know let's take the rough time frame rishis have existed throughout and as you very rightly said these were the people who through deep meditations found the truth of Life found answers to some of the existential questions that we still ask but beyond that like we also have rishis who are in too deep into mathematics who were deep into astronomy who were deep into


who were deep into astronomy who were deep into uh uh ayurved Sciences right like Health Sciences these were all doing research they were all you know uh going deeper into any domain specific subjects they had to answer questions either in the philosophical domain or even in the material domain and as a civilization we have always valued knowledge so even in Gita they say that wisdom there is nothing better than wisdom right the wisdom itself will lead you to Salvation or Liberation that is how we we believe yeah one thing I just want to mention you especially for our International listeners is that if they've watched Game of Thrones have you watched Game of Thrones no so there is a concert of a maester in Game of Thrones which is a sort of Guru lives in a castle he's also a doctor he's also a teacher for like the princes Etc uh maesters are educated in this one particular place in Game of Thrones I can't remember the name right now I think it's called The Citadel and


right now I think it's called The Citadel and the citadel's concept was based on the ancient Indian universities wow the gurukuls uh yeah yeah um yes which for international listeners were basically massive universities where people from all over Asia would come and study so we had a podcast with an archaeologist called Anika man recently uh who's subjects of study are related to nalanda and these ancient universities which existed as recently as a thousand years yes you know 800 years ago even to be able to visit these universities if you were a scholar from another country like a Chinese culture or Japanese culture you had to give an entrance exam just to be able to go to these universities because this is a land that's been obsessed with the research and deeper knowledge about philosophy and I think the fruit of all that research is what we call yoga now I'll let you continue again so so just to add to what you're saying a lot of Chinese philosopher or philosophers of


a lot of Chinese philosopher or philosophers of yesteryears yeah they used to come to study in these universities and there are movies of Hyun Zhang fahin like the Chinese Travelers that you know there's a place called Shian in uh in China in Xi'an today also they have this place which is also a tourist destination now where they have carvings of how Yoon Zang he actually came to India the kinds of troubles he faced the university he came to how he collected manuscripts how he took them back here and they talk about them coming and visiting these different universities of India so yeah and this is 800 000 2000 years old however the concept of gurukul itself is much much older you'll have to explain what a gurukul is gurukul is like a university where students come live study and then they graduate let us take an example of type 3 upanishads so of course we have the gurukul example in Mahabharata where the corresponders they study in


in Mahabharata where the corresponders they study in dronacharya's gurukul right there they get trained in shastra Vidya in Weaponry Weaponry Warfare all of that but not just weaponry and warfare there they learn about Ved they learn about philosophy they learn about what we call Raj Dharma Administration polity yeah all that is required for Future Leaders future kings they learn all of that there in that also there is a mention of gurukul of shanak Rishi so it is basically in this Guru code of Shana krishi that the first time Mahabharata that we know yeah the Mahabharata that we know was narrated to janmajay like in King January who's one of the uh descendants of descendants of pandav so he is the son of parikshit yeah so Arjun Arjun Arjun son was so Mahabharata was rendered publicly first time by a student of vyaji in his yagna there there is a Rishi called he hears listens to the Mahabharata and then he's


listens to the Mahabharata and then he's traveling and he reaches nemesharana where there is another gurukul University of Rishi shanak where his students ask him that okay where are you from where are you coming from and he tells them that oh I just heard Mahabharata and they ask him to repeat or narrate it to them that is the Mahabharata that comes to us which was also narrated in the gurukul but even Beyond thatri upanishad which is the part of the vedasri upanishad basically starts with a guru with the guru the teacher giving a convocation speech yeah so he has a group of students who are graduating the people who graduated from gurukuls were called snatak today we called Bachelors as natak yeah Bachelor degrees those who so the same thing is used they're there also so you go through some 10 12 years of education and you become a snatak so there he is actually giving a convocation speech to his students who are going to


a convocation speech to his students who are going to graduate yeah and he's telling them how should they live their lives so even in opener shirts we get this concept of gurukul and the real and archaeologically we have evidence of nalanda Shield all of that so that's how long back it goes um how do you explain the origin of yoga as a concept and now I'm talking about the Western definition of yoga which is the actual exercises the meditation where do you think all that began because what I have been told is that meditation came first like prayer and meditation came first contemplation silence because I mean it's a very everyday human life uh observation that when you're quiet if you're alone sometimes you can feel a creative surge sometimes you get thoughts about these things that's how Twitter is even a concert that's how the best Tweets come out uh what I've been told is that there's a legend that says that there was a bunch of rishis meditating and then they


was a bunch of rishis meditating and then they kind of went so deep into the meditation that they allowed their bodies to take whatever form the body was going into and that's how the asanas were created and eventually because of the study of the asanas they figure that oh this exercise helps with this particular uh benefit or this exercise helps this organ but what's the origins of yoga so um I had started talking about patanjali Rishi right you'll have to explain who that is yes exactly I will do that so patanjali Rishi that's where the Rishi thing came from okay so patanjali he is a Rishi who compiled whatever information related to yoga was there into something which is called patanjali yoga Sutra yeah this is the book we refer even today where in a Sutra format so Sutra is something like think of it as mathematical formula of today okay yeah so there is no big explanation there are one one lines given to explain deeper Concepts so that you know in a


explain deeper Concepts so that you know in a very compact comprehensive way that could be passed on so he created that Sutra text patanjali yoga Sutra in that he gives the definition of yoga okay he says he says yoga is the cessation the settling down of the chitthavruti what is chitta very simplistically let us understand that is our mind okay and let's think of them as a different thoughts that keep coming to us so he's saying settling down of this continuous activity of your mind is achieving a state of yoga you mentioned the state of Silence the state of Silence not just like there is no voice coming from outside that Silence has to happen inward right because as long as so when we say our mind is Disturbed what is really happening the mind is not at rest right there's something or the other going on in the mind sometimes we'll think about oh what happened to me 15 years ago then be like oh but tomorrow I have an exam then that thought


oh but tomorrow I have an exam then that thought comes and oh but what do I eat oh my god I've become so fat the brain is never at rest something or the other something or the other keeps going on and that disturbs us now if that goes to a level where you can't even sleep at night you know the natural process of waking up and sleep is hindered that is basically we are mentally completely you know Disturbed leading to anxiety depression all of that yeah so that is because of this continuous activity of the brain now when that activity subsides that is when we actually experience that state of Silence right so what he says is Yoga is achieving that state of Silence which we now call samadhi I mean he talks about samadhi as well but that is that stage of samadhi that level of dhyan or meditation what what is meditation supposed to do quite in our mind yeah so that that activity stops we can either focus on any one thought that has come to


either focus on any one thought that has come to us or anything that we want to focus on but basically quiet in the mind that is yolk he has a he has a much more spiritual significance or the spiritual the reason why yoga has to happen is as I said yoga is a school of philosophy which perceives reality so what he says is only when your mind is quiet will you be settled in your actual truth where you will see the real truth what will happen when the mind doesn't you will see your reality according to those withis with a biased lens yeah you will not see what is your real form but you will continue you see it without whatever is going on on your mind right now so the association that you make of reality will not be right it will be with those you know ephemeral thoughts that are coming to you ephemeral memories that you have which might not be right like for example if I'm wearing goggles right uh red Brown whatever if I look at


goggles right uh red Brown whatever if I look at you I will see you as brown now if I forget that I am wearing goggles yeah I'm wearing Shades I will think you look like whatever color that is right red I might see you as red and I might think oh everything is red but actually the issue is not with you or with me the issue is with that obstruction that I have created only when I remove it will I see you for what it is so that is settling of the mind yeah this obstruction angle is the most relevant modern day context for sure it's probably relevant throughout times but in the modern day there's so many easy ways to spot obstructions around you there's overstimulation because of uh our phones and social media there's overstimulation because of the wrong kind of foods that's out there and food is a big part of yoga and probably generally people are not as physically active as their bodies are meant to be in the modern day which is why yoga is probably coming


the modern day which is why yoga is probably coming to the Forefront everywhere all over the world because people are understanding that we live in these Urban jungles we have Urban lives we're not going to be able to solve many of those situations but yoga at least begins to undo the effects of those situations initially and then after a point where when you don't when you realize you don't need those situations in your life then you can go deeper into yoga anyway but that process just balance out your mind and body it's a very good modern uh use case of the system absolutely so although your the ultimate you know outcome expected is to reach that stage of what we call cover layer where you become one with the paramatan so okay let's go back and understand what is the meaning of yoga okay okay the word yo is a Sanskrit word which comes again from a root word every Sanskrit word will have a dhatu a root word from which it comes okay the root word


root word from which it comes okay the root word for yoga is yuja now you know we say yolk in English yeah that is also a related word which comes from yuja yeah yuja is to achieve a State of Union is also to achieve full Focus that is also user Yoga Yoga samadha Yoga so both from both of these the word yoga comes so Union of what so as we look at it in two ways one is Union of Mind Body Atma okay the second is Union of the Atma with the paramatma when your soul combines with God yeah like whatever is that reality that we talk about right the LA the Brahman the concept that we have the all pervasive all pervasive reality we understand our reality and we understand that we are basically that like the way the vakyas that we have that so the larger we are basically that larger divine tatva and realizing that is also yoga which happens when you achieve that ultimate state of okay to kind of


you achieve that ultimate state of okay to kind of simplify it maybe for some of our Western audiences this is what the Buddha achieved moksh when he's becoming uh these things that's the ultimate goal of yoga which is why when people on the show especially entrepreneurs ask me on the show what the meaning of life is I wanna explain this to them but not everyone's ready for this definition you know I had a very big mentor of mine recently asked me what my purpose of life is I looked at him and said I actually just want to escape this cycle of murder and he looked at me like I'm crazy because not everyone's ready for that definition the thing is the more you stick to yoga the more you realize that that's the actual game and if you chase that game your material game will take care of itself of course you've got to put hard work there and all else you can't use yoga as an escapism if you learn to live in both worlds you've


if you learn to live in both worlds you've got to achieve your material purpose which is different for everyone and everyone has to achieve this purpose eventually in their souls Journey absolutely though I will say what your purpose is the realization of your purpose comes from like it is very different for every individual while that is the eventual goal for everybody not everybody will have the realization which you have then is Yoga not for them who don't have that realization no that is why I said there are two types of unions one is which you are seeking like you know merging with the ultimate but there is another which is very simple to achieve the union between your mind and body yeah I have a friend who's actually been on the shows named he's a cyber security expert who's also very very deeply read in yoga and yogic philosophy he said that um the one of the physical goals of yoga is just balance what is this logic and where in the yoga sutras is this written like


where in the yoga sutras is this written like where does this balance angle come in because I think that's what you're getting towards so again balance is posture balance and the other is mental balance and again both are linked right so even in bhagavad-gita Krishna says yes balanced but it is also Equanimity to good bad happiness sorrow this is a more mental one but within yoke we also talk about balance in the sense of homeostatus within the body balance in the sense of postural balance all of this is a part of you now how does that happen so for example um as I said right yolk is achieving the union of Mind and Body let's keep it to that level only let's forget the spiritual part of it completely because even then I think it is a lot it's basically for everyone to achieve the Mind Body Union and what is Mind Body Union so again you know that is Health being healthy we talk about holistic well-being mentally happy physically fit that is also the definition of


happy physically fit that is also the definition of Health in our sastras but anyway so what is that health physical fitness is about being physically strong muscle wise you know physically you are fine all that is good your muscles are strong enough they can stay in a state of sitting for example for longer achieving this happens through Asana so Asana is one of the parts of achieving you there are eight limbs eight parts yoga understand basically the practice of yoga has ashtang yeah we've all heard the word Ashtanga Yoga eight angas of yoga eight limbs of you okay of that eight limbs one is awesome so how do you achieve yolk through the practice of this is a very um you know we have we have a process flow given like okay you want to achieve this project this is the process flow so patanjali has actually simplified that for us and said okay these are the eight things you need to do to achieve that state of eventualia but forget that eventually even if


state of eventualia but forget that eventually even if we don't get there these eight things itself give us lot of benefit how because he says asan yeah when your friend said balance the definition of Asana itself says you know we tend to see Asana as all those we are jinchang poses yeah that is not you I mean that also is yogasan yes but the purpose is to achieve a state of stability stability can come only through balance that stable position where you get so cover your happy sitting there you don't have to fidget your legs are not it's not hurting exactly now only when you can sit quietly for say longer periods multiple hours together can you sit in meditation otherwise you will keep fidgeting was in a way to help us get into that state of meditation because that was the ultimate goal of you look think of it how it helps us in the current life right our bodily movements are are controlled by something called as cerebellum yeah now cerebellum is


called as cerebellum yeah now cerebellum is what is called The Reptilian Brain which is an all living organism this cerebellum is what controls our postures our movements our motor actions and stuff and this is under the influence of our cortex which is the thinking break now very simply put brain has three main parts very very simplistically put here one is The Reptilian Brain which helps the movement which is a part of medulla oblongata cerebellum then there is a emotional brain which we also call Mana so emotional brain which senses happiness sorrow threat you know relaxing all that what I like pain pleasure all that is in that emotional brain part which is also called the limbic brain then we have the thinking brain solving maths equations yeah doing analysis taking what we call objective decisions where you weigh Pros cons and then take a decision I think this is like the whole left hand side right hand side along with the reptilian side you're talking about yeah so the left hand right


you're talking about yeah so the left hand right hand is also a part of your cortex only which is a thinking brain part yeah now the difference between human being and other animals is that our cortex the thinking brain is a lot more developed for others they have the cerebellum it's largely The Reptilian Brain which is there they all need that some part of Limbic brain for us limbic brain and the thinking part is a lot more developed yeah so the cerebellum is controlled by both the limbic brain as well as our so for us to achieve that balance yeah you practice yoga right you have done it say you want to stand straight or do what we call rickshaws and the tree pose which is basically standing on you know bending one leg and standing with your hands up it's not that difficult but if your mind is Disturbed even that you can't do right holding that balance itself is difficult why because the cerebellum also get gets disturbed because our emotional brain is Disturbed


get gets disturbed because our emotional brain is Disturbed our cerebellum also gets Disturbed and we can't even hold that pose we can't keep that balance at all because the balance itself is driven by cerebellum but when our mind is quiet when it is not Disturbed usually at that time what happens is that our cortex is taking care of our cerebellum and we are able to keep that balance basically the there is no disturbance happening on the cerebellum it's doing its job as it is supposed to do and we are able to hold that post which is balance so this if a person is in continuous stress mode continuously mentally Disturbed then the balance itself will not happen and hence you will see that lot of people tend to slouch yeah or they are always fidgeting they don't even know that they're fidgeting but they are fidgeting all this happens because the cerebellum is not being controlled properly it is not doing what it needs to do properly and


is not doing what it needs to do properly and when we say that let's do yogasan that itself you know because of the impact it has on our nervous system and I'll maybe explain this nervous system uh if our emotional brain becomes stronger our emotional brain is properly controlled by our thinking brain and that's how even our cerebellum is controlled by our thinking brain yoga helps strengthen our thinking brain and manage our emotional brain very simply put that's what helps us achieve balance as well um we often talk about mind muscle Connections in the world of Fitness in terms of if you're doing a bicep curl you need to think of your bicep actually growing you need to feel each rep that's why they say don't listen to music or podcast when you're lifting weights uh I feel it's the same case with you even see Manan keeps stressing on this that ideally you should only be thinking about the body part that you're stretching or if you're doing your pranayama


stretching or if you're doing your pranayama only be within the bread to really get maximum benefits of it now I've been a fitness trainer and I try looking at anything related to the body with a scientific lens only I am understanding as I go forward my own yoga Journey that uh your mind can definitely control the way your body moves for example if I'm happy my mind is feeling happy but my body reacts by smiling because the muscles on my face get pulled etc etc now remember reading this report about how that's a nervous pathway but parallely Studies have shown that if you force a smile on your face it has a certain kind of Happiness related effect on your mind you actually feel happier in mind so you're using your body to manipulate your mind as in you're going reverse on that particular nervous pathway now this brings me to yoga in terms of I am sure at this point I've been stretching at least I've not been doing a high level of


at least I've not been doing a high level of yoga but I've just been opening up my body a crazy amount for the last one and a half years and I feel I've gotten much more relaxed as a person my mental health is in a much better place I'm a much more flexible person not just physically but also in my mind in terms of things that would bother me out of my own stiffness or my own aggression to get them done now don't bother me I'm more adaptable to life I've truly understood what Bruce Lee meant when he said that be water my friend now I've started to feel aspects of that apparently I have a friend who's also into yoga and she's also trained in Indian classical dance and Indian classical dance talks about this thing called conscious dancing where if you just allow your body to move in whatever way it wants and sync it up to some kind of Beats um you'll notice that in a few movements you end up feeling a


in a few movements you end up feeling a little too emotional so say you're doing something with your fingers and suddenly you're feeling a lot of emotion what they believe in both Indian classical dance as well as yoga is that emotions get stored in our bodies as well now again I don't understand the science of this maybe there's some linkage to the emotional side of your brain being linked to that particular body part there might be a nervous connection I don't know what the logic is but I will tell you this that there are particular yoga asanas which I've done which I'm like at the peak of my stretch and I'll start crying and I cry because of a certain thought that it's triggered when I told my friend about this instance in my life she said that yeah that's how conscious dancing works we end up stretching a part of our body and then suddenly the steers that come out because your body makes your mind go to a particular part of your past and


mind go to a particular part of your past and they say that often these niggles these small injuries that don't leave you always trying to teach you something that's a philosophical way of looking at things but I'd like to know this whole aspect and I think this is related to your nervous system angle and for me that's the highlight of yoga from a mental health perspective as well as in this episode correct this is what people really need to gain out of this episode I'll let you continue so um your observations are bang on yeah yeah when a person is stressed yeah what happens to the breathing very fast very fast yeah they're running all over the place not able to decide the brain doesn't work right usually when they are running when they are super stressed what is our immediate say I come to you and I'm in a super stressed state I'm like blabbering away not knowing what to do fidgeting away what will be the immediate think you tell me usually I'm a little


immediate think you tell me usually I'm a little scared to say chill or calm down this is what you will say relax breathe deep sit down take a few deep breaths then you tell me what happened let me understand now as soon as they sit down take a few deep breaths what happens there talking becomes clearer they start making more sense because now they are able to stitch their thoughts together yeah what is really happening in this your sympathetic nervous system is getting Switched Off when you're parasympathetic system is getting more turned on correct so we have one what is called a central nervous system which manages our you know bodily actions motor nerves and all that and second we have what is called as the autonomous nervous system basically it all starts from the brain yeah your our brain is like our CPU which processes information makes us act in a certain way it also is evolutionary right because it should help us detect threat and to save ourselves from


should help us detect threat and to save ourselves from threat we need to survive that's a survival Instinct also that also has to be taken care of by the brain so autonomous nervous system it has two parts to it one is what is called a sympathetic nervous system which is flight and fight system the other is parasympathetic nervous system which is called the rest and relax system now why do we need the sympathetic nervous system for survival for survival if today there's a lion or a tiger here we shouldn't be thinking array will that tiger eat me is that tiger hungry maybe not if by the time I'm thinking and analyzing and all that the tiger will kill me right so my body should reflexively make me run right as soon as I have there is a input from my eyes of the tiger immediately my emotional brain which has my Pleasure and Pain point this is also where I recognize threats that threat is recognized even without me not


threats that threat is recognized even without me not thinking about it right that threat is recognized and I need to run now if I need to run I need more oxygen I need you know more uh I need to breathe faster so that I need more oxygen I need blood flowing into my legs and my limbs so that I can just run yeah now for that to happen my arteries in my limbs need to expand my heartbeat needs to increase I need to breathe more right all that is happening now while this is happening if one side is activated there's something else that would have from where the blood flow would have to be directed where it is from my digestion the whole digestion process because it is going on anyways yeah but now that the threat has been identified my Digi the blood flow will go away from the digestion and all that which are not immediately required at that point also from my thinking and all that and be directed towards the activity that I need to do most so


towards the activity that I need to do most so that I can run yeah it's this whole case of react versus respond correct this is yeah I'm reacting and I need that at that point fantastic I need to run at that point I have run I have saved myself this was a real threat right now what happens if I'm continuously in this state of threat as I said when I sense threat there are some activities which the blood flow will happen in such a way that some actions will get more broad there will be more blood sugar there'll be adrenaline which will make me all hyper and running and all of that yeah a lot of energy release but the other activities like excretion digestion thinking repairing yeah immunity building creating all that will just go away if this happens at an extended period of time my digestive system metabolic system it is sure to break up it will break apart and I'm continuously in that state of activity where I'm not thinking or anything I'm just reacting reacting


not thinking or anything I'm just reacting reacting reacting to situations clearly this is going to lead to a lot of wear and tear within my body and in my mind that is what is stress and this is the reality of the times that we live in when we say mental health issues are spread all over the world this is actually what's happening this is exactly what is happening we are always in our sympathetic mode because we are continuously taking inputs and you know even the way we grow up we don't we are not used to hearing no we get everything on a platter right so the moment we hear a no or things don't go according to how we want we see that as a thread that is not a threat it shouldn't be a threat right but our mind perceives it as a threat as a pain and immediately our sympathetic nervous system Kicks On And We Are Forever in that mood now we but the body can't take it that way because you need to


body can't take it that way because you need to rejuvenate your immunity needs to be built the repairing relaxation all that needs to happen what takes care of that it is a parasympathetic nervous system but your parasympathetic nervous system can come and play only after your sympathetic nervous system is relaxed right now what happens in the parasympathetic nervous system when it is activated basically all the arteries which had you know expanded and constricted and all that they come back into its original usual form heart rate comes down so blood pressure decreases blood sugar level comes into its own yeah the normal level metabolic system my metabolic activity start happening and the body the Mind perceives that other is no threat anymore so I'm fine my breathing becomes deeper so all that happens in the parasympathetic mood now very easy right ideally I should always be in the next rest and relaxed mode unless and until there is a threat situation a real threat situation


there is a threat situation a real threat situation right then if I'm normally in my parasympathetic nervous parasympathetic mode my energy conservation will be the best all my activities will happen best my thinking brain will be more active because also there is blood flowing and everything happening right but that doesn't we don't allow it to happen because we are forever in the pleasure pain pleasure pain pleasure pain more the amygdala are the pleasure pain points are always active leading to stress now what does yoga do like you said when we smile we send a message to the brain saying that everything is in order so although the Sim although the person was stressed the moment we asked that person array relax breathe deep when that deep breathing happened immediately a message went to the brain to the emotional brain and the cortex that things are in control things are in control means parasympathetic such parasympathetic nervous system came into action the rest and relaxed system came into action


into action the rest and relaxed system came into action thoughts started becoming clearer blood flow started happening properly blood pressure decreased and the person became a lot more understandable yeah so this is what the parasympathetic nervous system does now if we do yoga so what we do we really do you know even when we when we do Asana so we are always bringing our thinking brain into play now in the stress system it is our emotional brain which is controlling our nervous system okay that is why when we perceive something as threat which is not actually a threat our actual brain is not thinking it is just the emotional brain kicking off the sympathetic nervous system by doing you you actually take away the control from the emotional braid and you give it back to the thinking brain how does it happen because you're doing everything slowly right when you are trying to hold an Asana that can only happen if your cortex your thinking brain controls your cell volume so the moment you try


brain controls your cell volume so the moment you try to balance you are shifting back the control to your thinking brain yeah that is why if your mind is very very disturbed and your cerebellum continues to be in control of your emotional brain you cannot balance but if you say okay no debrief I am going to hold this position now yeah then it will happen because now you're bringing awareness to it bringing awareness to anything is Shifting back gears to your thinking brain that is what happens in pranayama as well yeah the moment you sit and breathe deep it is your it becomes a conscious activity not involuntary now you're doing it consciously that invigorates your vagus nerve that invigorates your parasympathetic nervous system to come back into the rest and relax mode it has so when you do yog yeah if you do it one the impact stays for some time if you do it once for some hours you feel really nice and relaxed right immediately after doing the practice if you


relaxed right immediately after doing the practice if you do it continuously again we have memory it's a very our neurons are very elastic so that state of relaxation continues to keep increasing now when that state of relaxation continues to keep increasing on its own the firing of you know your mind when it is not required to fire comes down that is basically also what we say disciplining of the mind getting control over your senses what is getting control over your senses ideally I see something immediately my memory is triggered that oh I liked it but I forget that it had not done good for me because for that I need to use my thinking brain yeah that is only taste taste is like oh I want it now if I don't get it I will go into this mode of anger frustration that I my body reads I stress that translates into sympathetic nervous system kicking off and again you know my whole system goes for a toss so I need to tell my senses that oh


so I need to tell my senses that oh if things you don't get what you want it's fine that is controlling your senses right ideally they should not desire what is not good for them and even if they desire if you say no they should be able to not kick in your sympathetic nervous system that is the sense that is what achieving Indra Indra or control over your senses is all about that is where you eventually get to in yoga through it's basically exercises that help you become an adult it's adulting exercises absolutely unfortunately I don't think adults have actually achieved that kind of discipline you just grow up I think while you're growing up it's very important to keep your inner child alive but you should know what elements of your inner child you need to kill off as well and one of my regrets in life is not actually beginning yoga early on which means yoga just related to the asanas that's what yoga means right but even in the yeah yeah


what yoga means right but even in the yeah yeah it basically the purpose of yoga as I said is achieving that cessation that you know state of clarity about what reality is that is called Raj yoga yeah yoga is a way of achieving that Raju but how as I said there are eight limbs of yoga Ashtanga so what the first two are Yama niyama yamaniam are basically the value systems that we live with yeah maybe a kind person do good Etc correct so one is values which we live with the external World which are yum yeah so non-violence and non-violence not just actually even in mind yeah non-violence non-stealing non you know non-attachment all of that is one then are your value system with yourself which is about shelter so priority cleanliness yeah uh santosha being satisfied with what you get not just I need more I need more never not always being in the state of greed that state of Santosh where you're happy again when you're in a state of


you're happy again when you're in a state of Santosh you are in your parasympathetic nervous system and then the parts of kriya yoga which we have a state having some Faith shraddha because when things don't go your way what is it that you hold on to It's usually the shraddha that yeah things are fine I don't have a larger perspective but I will be taken care of Faith what else did you say uh swadhya is self-study okay study of philosophy reflection all of that tapa is your actual practice whatever anusthan that you've done that you've said I will uh study for one hour every day or I will do Asana for one hour disciplines disciplines so those are the first two yeah the third is Asana basically becoming physically fit because physical fitness is extremely important to achieve that state of Raj yog as well if you are ill yeah if there is some disease in your body you will be mentally Disturbed that is one of patanjali also


mentally Disturbed that is one of patanjali also says that Rishi patanjali also says that one of the reasons of not achieving or rather one of the obstacles in part of achieving that state of samadhi is fatigue illness yeah ignorance a delusion distraction all of this yeah so this uh so then asan is a way of achieving that physical fitness so at least a disease free your muscles are strong yeah then you have pranayama which is having control over your Prado which is your life force your breath again why breath because your breath is directly linked to your parasympathetic nervous system and basically your nervous system uh in in yoga there is a saying which is if you are breathing is Disturbed your mind will also be disturbed as we saw right and when your mind when your breathing is in control your mind will come back to control hence when we say breathe deeper the Mind comes back to control so then that is that is then we have


control so then that is that is then we have pratyahara where we start you know getting all our senses inwards so trying to take away food trying to take away from our senses from indulgences then you go to meditation and eventually yoga so the external practice yeah then as we discussed the eventual goal of yoga is to turn inwards yeah to turn inwards settle the mind that is through what we called dharana dhyan and samadhi dharana basically means to hold a thought the beginning of the meditation yeah where you try and focus on one aspect and then initially you will hold it for few seconds that thought then as you keep practicing the the span of how much you can focus will keep on increasing the more it increases then that becomes that is what they say yeah basically focusing on any one any any singular Point yeah singular thought it could be anything that is dharna when that becomes longer that Focus becomes longer that is dhyan which is meditation and then eventually


that is dhyan which is meditation and then eventually is the state of samadhi when actually that you are in a con you know extended uh state of no thoughts or minimal thoughts now this samadhi can be of multiple types one is where those there are some sanskras that stay then which is uh sabiha samadhi then anyways that goes to a more spiritual level but that stage of achieving Focus is start coming where we say have right concentration right so now what has happened again going back to our mental model this autonomic system when we are doing Asana our cerebellum is controlled we are saying thinking brain control my cerebellum yeah so you're taking the gears giving it to the thinking brain in the pranayama because it is related to the emotional brain that is where the autonomic system is initially autonomic nervous system the first it the you know the how do I say the cells related to the neurons related to it are around where the limbic brain is the parts of


are around where the limbic brain is the parts of the limbic brain are so it is immediately in control of the emotional brain you take the control back and say no thinking brain start managing my breathing as well so then I get back into my parasympathetic mood when we move to dhyan dharana dharana dhyan we are basically now strengthening our thinking brain itself yeah we are strengthening that itself to start focusing more longer deeper basically the whole exercise of yolk is to strengthen this Consciousness the awareness which comes from the thinking brain yeah and ensure that our mind comes in as required we need emotions emotions have their emotion evolutionary value and emotions are required to sustain relationships manage relationships nurture and all that right but they shouldn't come in the way of our objective decision making they shouldn't lead to our destruction right that is what yoga is to also manage your emotional system in a way that it is conducive to your growth yeah now there's a very


conducive to your growth yeah now there's a very beautiful image if you allow Alexis yeah explain it in bhagavad-gita you know the image that we see in any bhagavad-gita text it's basically a chariot there is Arjun standing then there is Krishna and he's holding the Reigns and there are horses yeah so in Qatar they talk about this whole controlling mind the the mental mind brain complex they say the horses are your senses they always want to run around right because they want okay I see something I like I wanted I smell something I wanted I like the taste I want it so the horses which are our senses they keep running around everywhere they need to be reigned in so that I can go to the destination that I want to go to right but if the sarathi which is the buddhi the chariator which is your brain the thinking brain is not holding the reins what is the range your emotional brain yeah if the emotions are not being controlled by the buddhi what


emotions are not being controlled by the buddhi what will happen the senses will take the Chariot anywhere it wants right and if one horse is running here the other horse is running there The Chariot will not go to wherever it needs to go to so to make the Chariot Run properly and achieve its destination the thinking brain the sarki the charioter has to hold the emotional brain tightly and stir it in a way that the senses also are in the control of the thinking brain right so this is the this is what even bhagavad-gita says that how do you achieve that state of yoke where your thinking brain is in control of your mental your mind as well as your senses yeah now this is the more physical part of it of course there is spiritual significance but yeah for most of us getting this much is enough yeah uh this is a great ABC of yoga kind of episode I think we've covered everything um you know probably for the end of this episode I want


know probably for the end of this episode I want to leave people with a bit of a CTA a call to action I feel that uh at this stage if you're just getting into yoga there are certain kind of ground rules you need to know if you actually want to get your body to do it the first of which is guidance I think that's the obvious one that yoga schools Etc have built a yoga app myself for the same reason because I feel like when you're Building Products you first and foremost build it for yourself um you need the right kind of guidance what are the second and the third steps could it be that you invest yourself completely in your yoga or meditation or pranayama sessions like what would you say so actually this this reminds me that I forgot the Hatha Yoga part yeah which we were discussing because this question also relates to it so I'll just come back to the two right you'll have to explain what yoga is exactly so we I started off


what yoga is exactly so we I started off saying that Raja yoga is getting to that state of you know Oneness Union in the mind body and Atma as well as Union with the Atma and paramatma but let's leave that aside and to get that yoga or that state of Raja yoga we had these eight limbs yeah now these eight limbs have asan pranayama as a part of it does not ex expand on what Asana to do or what pranayama to do yeah hence other rishis they picked up that concept and they said how do you practice that yeah in Sutra he told us he explained us getting to that state of balance and stability but what all do you do to get to that state of stability so there are text written that expound on that and then they tell us about which Asana to do what should be you know how do you prepare your body to get into our sins what should you eat what should you not eat what are the breathing exercise that you


you not eat what are the breathing exercise that you do to eventually get that state of extension of Prana which is pranayama that came to be known as Hatha Yoga text the foremost of that text is yeah which comes from the gorakshan anyways so that is Hatha Yoga where you actually start practicing the angas the limbs of Ashtanga Yoga eventual goal of yoga is also yoga position that is what they say that only to achieve rajio we talk about you but yoga is basically that practice which includes your cleansing techniques your various forms of Asana so now where they start explaining what all arsons to do what are the benefits of doing various assets yeah how do you do some of those asans how do you do the breathing exercises all that is now what we get into yoga so again we said yoga is about balance so her her is called the Surya Sun Tha is Moon Surya and moon basically hot and cold right you get into that state


basically hot and cold right you get into that state of balance of the various fires the agnis that you have in your body as well so achieve a state of balance which within your body which is also what we call homeostatus right how do you achieve that the practice of getting to that state which eventually leads to Raj yoga through physical practice is yeah now you spoke about different schools of yoga like you know we should we immerse ourselves into different schools of you there are lots people can go experiment some might work for them some not but essentially people also ask this question that okay this is Yoga then what is vinyas Yoga people hear about um yoga yoga so there are these different schools now what is that is Hatha Yoga different from all of that so no Hatha Yoga is the base it's like the overall umbrella yeah individual practitioners learned from that and they added their own styles to it they experimented with it yeah and started there and maybe you know like in


yeah and started there and maybe you know like in vinyas yolk what they do is it's a flow exercise so they found certain asanas which came very well with one another and it is a little more faster than normal practice similarly anahata yoga has its own style hot yoga Hot Yoga which people do which they do it in a certain temperature and all of that yeah so or the base the substratum of all this is still hate yoga then individual practitioners took it and experimented on it different styles work for different people depending on what our body type is and all of that but it's worth such as trying and if people have not done that before it's always best to get some guidance from any school of yoga eventually it is also something the the thing in Hatha Yoga is also we have to start observing our own body and see what works for it and what not because we are all different right we are all different different things might work for us we are all at different levels


might work for us we are all at different levels some of us are naturally more flexible than the others so how do we start becoming you know more leading ourselves on that path of flexibility yeah how do we you know some people are genuine are by their own self little more calm others are not so how do you start managing that what works for you it's something you know which you can go experiment and find out but it's always good to have some guidance for that no I think uh when we began this particular episode we spoke about how most of the world perceives yoga as yoga but this was an attempt to explain what yoga is and even specifically we just want to highlight heart yoga it has a lot of cosmetic benefits your skin hair anti-aging all sorts of things which I think people have started to realize all over the world and the world of science is starting to do more research into the world of yoga let me give you an example from Hatha Yoga itself


me give you an example from Hatha Yoga itself yeah like when we talk about science what do we say that we do we need to be able to measure progress so you need to have very measurable parameters then if science if you know something achieves those parameters then you say okay that thing works or not in yoga pradipika itself they have given parameters that they say that you should check this to see if your yoga practice is on the right lines what are those they say your body should start becoming leaner now it starts becoming leader not only because the fat burning is happening as we say calorie Burns no it is because your metabolic system is in order if your metabolic system gets into order you will eat the right quantity you will not overeat right your digestive system is in order so whatever you eat will be digested properly it will not just go and get stored as fat yeah so your body becomes leaner your skin there is a glow that comes on your face yeah your


is a glow that comes on your face yeah your drishti cleans up your vision improves so they have actually given parameters to say all this you will see if you practice yoga and actually even if somebody practices yolk for three months right some of these benefits already start coming yeah 100 uh again it's very modern mental health perspective but also modern sexiness perspective and let's end this particular conversation here thank you for another epic show uh we're looking forward to breaking down yoga from a much more advanced standpoint so any last message for our listeners before we let go of this one um everybody is passionately give it a go if nothing else it will help you as you mentioned right both physically as well as mentally and yoga is such that grows on you once you practice for three months it's very rare to not continue practicing so it becomes a part of life and you will make time for it 100 just get past the three month Mark which is why some people just kind of


month Mark which is why some people just kind of gym for six months and then leave it but I feel if you go past those thresholds in these physical activities in these exercise rituals you become addicted to it because you really see what it does for the 23 hours that you're not doing it absolutely at least you start feeling happier because that is eventual goal right you will you might be doing a physical exercise but you will just observe how it is benefiting you keeping you happier and then you want to do it why not if you're getting so many benefits out of it thank you for explaining the ABCs we're going to be back with a lot more advanced gun and yoga very soon thank you so much thank you how's the episode for today Ami and myself have already planned a sequel episode to this one where we kind of go deeper into the world of yoga go a little bit where we touch upon the advanced aspects of it everything from Yoga Nidra to Surya


of it everything from Yoga Nidra to Surya namaskar to actual Asana guidance what do you have to keep in mind when going about a yoga session but if you're someone wants to begin right now level super mind is the place to be it's the app that I've dedicated the last two years of my life too so please download it the link is given down below it's meant for audiences from all over the world if you want to begin your yoga and meditation Journey it begins on level and also request you to follow us on Spotify because we're a Spotify exclusive and every episode's available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world the runway show will be back soon with a lot more Health 101 for you [Music] thank you


when I was younger um it was really romanticized that you're going for it and just keep going and you know it's like you have to work 24 hours do four movies in one time you know five shifts don't sleep don't eat and the more a person does that the more successful you will be but as I have seen and lived more life I've realized having a work-life balance is really important so when you talk about a beach I was in Turks and Caicos just recently my phones were off me and my husband just by ourselves we spent time we walked on the beach we collected shells um and then I came back feeling rejuvenated feeling excited and really motivated to take my career forward I mean this generation of girls is fearless and there's so many girls that take charge of their own lives and they say you know I'm not going to fit into the cookie cutter mold that probably my mother did or my grandmother had to and it's so like I have


grandmother had to and it's so like I have Goosebumps right now just thinking about it I meet so many young women who have changed the trajectory of their families because of the choices that they've made our first episode of Priyanka Chopra was the 13th episode of TRS ever now we've crossed 250 episodes on our English podcast Priyanka Chopra was our lucky charm back then I think the entire trajectory the destiny of the podcast changed and this conversation is an extension a sequel of that conversation Priyanka Chopra has now begun her entrepreneurial Journey with her brand anomaly if you enjoyed the episode we did with her last time you're going to enjoy this one even more because it's even more Raw it's even more detailed and it's even more motivational remember if you're consuming this on YouTube now we have subtitles on every episode so hit that CC button and read along with us and also make sure to follow us on Spotify we're Spotify exclusive every episode's available on


Spotify we're Spotify exclusive every episode's available on Spotify 48 hours before it's available anywhere else in the world Priyanka Chopra Returns on the ranveer show in a new aftar a new flavor the new TRS is Hill [Music] today on DRS we have one of the most productive human beings that mankind has ever known Priyanka Chopra for an international audience welcome foreign thank you for having me back I have so much to say to you which I'll finally offload now please do I've been waiting for this anticipation has built to high levels uh you and your podcast with us was a turning point in the whole podcast journey and uh fortunately we had first movers Advantage for doing the podcast in India because podcasting wasn't a culture back that's true that was right at the precipit of it yeah and whenever someone asked me what my favorite podcast was or my favorite guest was I say you and being a favorite there's a reason for that thank you okay which which have not


reason for that thank you okay which which have not which I've not said online but I will say and I want to say this in front of you um when you're doing podcasts you really sense the energy of the guest okay and I've done all sorts of guess like Bollywood military you you name it um you were the only person who gave me a very like quiet calming energy you sad you understood I was like crazy nervous you calmed me down and you gave me the content that you knew would work for the show it was kind of like you were helping a younger version of yourself am I calling myself a younger version of you I don't know who would be maybe yeah for sure but I totally felt I felt so much help from you and you didn't have to but you were so nice and it kind of also gave me a reference point of how to just be as a media professional like you're so professional so thank you so much oh thank you that means so much


you so much oh thank you that means so much to me yeah it means a lot I mean even I was a newcomer right at one point I also started at something different and it's just so nice when someone understands what your goal is and instead of standing in your way helps you pushes you just a little bit and um and I I kind of maybe sense that feeling from you and um I always like to you know stand and be helpful rather than be a thorn on your side so I'm glad that it worked for you no you weren't a thorn at all should I make it heavy now or should I warm you up a little bit whenever you want buddy I'm good I'm really good with heavy lifting okay are you happy in life um yeah actually happier than I've been in a really long time okay why do you say that I think I reached a place where I stopped struggling with the things I did when I was younger maybe it's maturity maybe it's um being on


maybe it's maturity maybe it's um being on the other side of 35 I guess and um maybe it is just having uh my feet on the ground and a little bit more stable ground um but I think I'm not running as fast as I was I'm thinking about the steps I take I'm in a really comfortable content place when it comes to my life and the choices that I'm making are mine and are not defined by other people or the validation that I probably needed when I was younger so I think that's made me a little bit more happy and calm okay while you say all that I feel yours is one of the biggest success stories that India has ever seen like very few Indian actors or anyone from the media industry has reached where you've reached in your life aren't you like done like like uh why do you want more is that I meant see I have this vision for myself that I'm only gonna work till about 35 40 because then I just want to chill on a


40 because then I just want to chill on a beach I'm asking you from the beach scenario sure don't you don't you kind of want to go on a beach because every time you take up something new there is a trade-off of mental health in the long term but you're just going for it like you were going for it even during the last conversation and you're going for it now so I'm just trying to like explore what's happening and why I can help you understand it a little bit yeah when I was younger um it was really romanticized that you're going for it and just keep going and you know it's like you have to work 24 hours do four movies in one time you know five shifts don't sleep don't eat and the more a person does that the more successful you will be but as I have seen and lived more life I've realized having a work-life balance is really important so when you talk about a beach I was in Turks and Caicos just recently my


I was in Turks and Caicos just recently my phones were off me and my husband just by ourselves we spent time we walked on the beach we collected shells um and then I came back feeling rejuvenated feeling excited and really motivated to take my career forward so this romanticization of work has to be tough and work has to be rough and it's not work can be your companion work can be creative work can be something that gives you Joy and now I've reached a point where that work-life balance for me is most important I will work on the six verticals that I'm working on you know my business my production my book my acting whatever but when I switch off I'm with my family I'm at home I watch movies I do whatever I want to do so then when I come back to work the next day I have the focus to be able to do even more things so when you're talking about retiring at like 35 40 sure if you want to have a shack and


40 sure if you want to have a shack and Goa it used to be my dream when I work like that too where I want to have a shack and go and not wear shoes have fish fry all day you know that's what I wanted to do but as I realized that there's something I love my job and I love being able to create in very different ways I have the privilege to be in a position that not many have been in and I've created that by myself I don't want to give it up and I don't want anyone to take it away from me it's my legacy for my children and for the future generation that may not have even seen the potential of something like that for themselves why would I give it up again I feel you're helping a younger version of yourself sure somewhere in some other Universe deep sea diving let's go okay uh what you want to know about one of my favorite new hobbies yeah it's watching really old episodes of coffee with