The only thing that I know is this piece of life, absolutely. If you know this piece of life, absolutely, you know almost everything that is worth knowing.

• And how have you learnt about this piece of life?

Just by looking inward, nothing else.

• Tell us a little bit about your experiences. You started out as a regular guy.

Even now, I am pretty regular.

• Except maybe the beard.

The beard is a very regular thing. It grows on all men. It is very unfortunate that people think it is very irregular; people have cut it and shaped it in different ways, and that is irregular. This is the way nature made you. I don’t think nature made any part of your body that is not necessary.

• So would you rather that all men have long beards?

No, this is not a prescription. I am not trying to make a fashion statement or something. All I’m saying is that, when you make your system sensitive, when you make it work at its peak, then everything matters. The smallest disturbance to the system makes a lot of difference. You must try to explore the other dimensions of life.

• How? The implication is that you must have your mind and body on track. But a track of what, and what does it mean to be there?

You can use the system. Just like a biological entity, for eating, sleeping, reproducing and dying one day, you could use the system as a ladder to the divine. In the sense, use the system as a stepping-stone to go beyond. If you are using the system to explore dimensions that go beyond your experience, then you have to keep it in a certain way. How you eat, how you sit, how you stand and how you breathe — everything becomes relevant to you. The whole system of yoga is based on this. I’m not teaching people to sort out their life; I’m teaching them how not to mess it up.

... contd.